| Synopsis: |
Explore modern lesbian writing and the critical response it engenders! Central to current debates in lesbian and gender studies have been the role of the postmodern, the relation between sexual and other identities, the issues of marginalization at the intersections of race, class and sexuality, and definitions of lesbian identities. In this volume these concerns are analyzed in relation to contemporary lesbian texts like Sarah Schulman's Empathy as well as the classic The Well of Loneliness. 'Romancing the Margins'?: Lesbian Writing in the 1990s explores a range of critical responses to lesbian writing on issues of gender, sexuality, and lesbian identities, in particular those lesbian identities which are often situated on the margins of lesbian communities, in the final decade of the 20th century.Discussing Jeanette Winterson's recent novel Gut Symmetries, Native American lesbian writing, the film Entre Nous (which raises questions about the relationship between constructions of lesbian identity and holocaustic narratives), biographies and autobiographies, critical theory and other texts by and about lesbians, this volume stresses the diversity of gender and sexual identity in the 1990s and raises questions about the politics of those positions. 'Romancing the Margins'?: Lesbian Writing in the 1990s discusses and explores: * the position of lesbians of color--at the intersection of gender, queer, and ethnic identity issues--and the specific, inherent difficulties of that situation. * the poetry of June Jordon--poetry which has left typical gender, sexual, and ethnic categories by the wayside--by questioning the contemporary definitions of bisexual and lesbian writing. * the language of high queer theory to engage with the ways in which lesbians of color deal with their sense of self in Ellen M. Gil-Gomez's Performing "La Mestiza": American Lesbians of Color Negotiating Identities ...and more!The major movements in current gender studies have attempted to expand the simple notion of one lesbian identity, but even so, there remain blind spots that perpetuate exactly what they seek to disrupt. These blind spots are sometimes heterosexist, sometimes racist, and sometimes both. 'Romancing the Margins'? reveals many poignant lesbian issues as well as the array of critical thinking in relation to lesbian writing today. In its pages you will explore recent movements in gender studies that seek to rid literature and films of racist and anti-gay themes. 'Romancing the Margins'? provides a unique look at the dynamics of lesbian writing throughout the 1990s. |