Play School, melancholia, and the politics of recognition

This paper draws on Judith Butler’s notion of ‘gender melancholia’ as conceived in The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection, and Emmanuel Levinas’ notion of the face of the Other mobilized in Butler’s more recent work. In particular, I will focus on gender melancholia in order to consider why non‐heteronormative identities might cause such consternation when they appear in a specific pedagogical context. I also consider how the notion of gender melancholia may be useful in gaining a more in‐depth understanding of the prohibitions placed on the production and dissemination of texts that introduce young children to non‐normative representations of sexual and gender identity. In addition, the Levinasian notion of the face, as mobilized by Butler, prompts a consideration of the ethical implications of having certain faces that appear to be unrepresentable in particular pedagogical domains.