Re-encoding dominance: queer approaches to TEI markup

This paper considers the potential alignment between a rigidly structured and constraining editorial format, the TEI, and a strategically nebulous collection of identities and politics expressed by the designation of queer. It proposes how editorial practices with the TEI might draw from Queer of Color Critique and Black Feminist Studies to engage modes of resistance against dominance structures. Here, the critique of Queer Studies’ capitulation to majoritarian and neoliberal politics inspires methods for reworking the structuring forces within both the TEI markup language and textual editing practices more broadly. By narrating between the gaps and silences in the record, these methods emphasize marginalized identities and positions within dominance structures. This examination closes by highlighting examples of current projects that deploy collaborative and minimalist practices to challenge the structuring modes of textual editing and the TEI.