Black Sites: Restraining and Sustaining the Queer Subject

Through reading the Hollywood film Boys of Abu Ghraib and the published diary of (now former) Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi Guantanamo Diary, Clark explores how the extranational sites of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib extend US reach beyond its physical borders, blurring their conceptualization. Focusing on the violent and extreme repercussions experienced by the queer body, Clark reveals empathetic routes to socio-cultural processes that establish state and citizenship, and how these are violently removed from queer subjects to express US supremacy. Clark examines these spaces as sites of queer memory, analyzing the varying levels of success cultural representations have in critiquing detainment and the depictions of detainment and torture.