Reading Roses in Constellation

Reading Roses in Constellation is a reading group and publication project that took place in summer 2024 at Hopscotch Reading Room.

Jaqueline Rose is a feminist psychoanalytic scholar known for her sharp explorations of topics ranging from motherhood, modernism, Zionism, and haunting. She is the sister of Gillian Rose, sociologist and philosopher known for her writings on Hegel, mourning, law, and love (1947–1995). The reading group focused on the intertwined output and constellatory implications of the two prolific Rose sisters, asking how their work addresses desire in its underexplored appearance as a horizontal projection. Traditionally, desire is represented as a vertical exchange based on the authority of the parent to child, analyst to patient, or unrequited crush to admirer. RRIC was interested in exploring desire as flowing across and flooding such boundaries. In readings focusing on mothers, sisters, lovers, partners, limerence crushes, and friendships, we unpacked how the de-hierarchization of particular understandings of desire can critique power structures that make them seem fixed and natural. This is reflected in the Reading Roses in Constellation publication, which features poetry, fiction, essays, and more engaging with these topics and beyond.

Featuring contributions by:
Mimi Howard, Rachel Pafe, Seda Mimaroğlu, Wassan Ali, Myriam Sauer, Mihu Chiriac, Melissa Canbaz, Julie Reich, Yanara Friedland, Carmen Schmöl, and Sam Dolbear.