Weak Histories: A Critical Spatial Fabulation for the Queer and Non-Normative Heritage of Zurich

Abstract

This article investigates the overlooked queer and non-normative heritage of Zurich through the framework of “critical spatial fabulation,” inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s method of addressing archival gaps with imaginative narration. It aims to expand established preservation practices that privilege dominant, White, cis-heteronormative narratives and marginalise dissenting or underrepresented histories. Through three case studies — Barfüsser Bar, Pudding Palace, and clit care —the authors trace alternative spatial practices shaped by resistance, care, and intimate community- building. These sites, often absent from or under represented in canonical archives, offer insight into how racialised, queer, and migrant indi¬viduals negotiate visibility and belong¬ing in Zurich. The text engages with what we term as “weak histories”1 through critical spatial fabulation to foreground lived experience over formal recognition, embracing fragmentation and ambiguity as legitimate historical modes. It experi¬ments with a spatial storytelling based on transversal readings of community-based and institutional archives, challenging normative definitions of history and architecture. In doing so, the text offers a new vocabulary for engaging with unvoiced pasts, positioning queer and feminist memory as integral to understanding the city’s less visible heritage.