Queer Vulnerability and Russian Poetry after the “Gay Propaganda” Law

Since the passing of the so‐called “gay propaganda” law in 2013, queer life in Russia has been mediated primarily through narratives of violence and suffering. Yet this focus on violence, while undoubtedly important, highlights the strength of oppressive political structures and emphasizes Russian queer subjects' vulnerability and victimhood in ways that overlook strategies of queer resistance to the homophobic and heterosexist state. This article turns to contemporary Russian poetry and proposes a different framework for analyzing queer representation that draws on Judith Butler's recent theory of vulnerability as resistance and what I call queer vulnerability. Theoretically‐informed close readings of contemporary Russian poetry suggest that in the current environment of openly homophobic hostility in Russia, queer vulnerability is a discernable aesthetic sensibility that shapes poetic texts. These texts, in turn, challenge queer silencing, discursive powerlessness, and political pessimism. The study analyzes coming‐out poems, makes a case for queer civic poetry, and examines methods of constructing subjectivity in recent feminist poetry to show that the 2013 legislation prompted the development of a new sort of writing: one that embraces vulnerability in defiance of victimhood.