The Fiction of Identity: Drag, Affect, Genres, Facticity

Authors

  • Anna Poletti Utrecht University

Abstract

This article considers drag as an artform that queers identity through its use of techniques of fictionality that explore and problematize the body as the material ground for truth claims for identity. It examines a recent controversy regarding the position of trans performers within the global media phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race in order to consider how the aesthetics and politics of embodied identity as a site for truth claims are productively disrupted by drag performance.

Author Biography

  • Anna Poletti, Utrecht University

    Anna Poletti is associate professor of English at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia. Her research focus is contemporary forms of life narrative, with a particular interest in youth cultures, ephemera (both digital and analogue) and the role of mediation and materiality in autobiography. Her recently published research examines the use of audiences’ bodies in the work of Marina Abramović, drag as automedia, and the materiality of genre.

Downloads

Published

2026-05-04

Issue

Vol. 31 No. 2 (2018): Fact and Fiction

Section

Main Section

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Poletti, A. (2026). The Fiction of Identity: Drag, Affect, Genres, Facticity. FRAME, Journal of Literary Studies, 31(2), 35-52. https://platform.openjournals.nl/FRAME/article/view/27548