Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives / / Marilyn Farwell.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Farwell, Marilyn,
• MitwirkendeR: Jay, Karla,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2020]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: The Cutting Edge ; 1
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

What is lesbian literature? Must it contain overtly lesbian characters, and portray them in a positive light? Must the author be overtly (or covertly) lesbian? Does there have to be a lesbian theme and must it be politically acceptable? Marilyn Farwell here examines the work of such writers as Adrienne Rich, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jeanette Winterson, Gloria Naylor, and Marilyn Hacker to address these questions. Dividing their writings into two genres--the romantic story and the heroic, or quest, story, Farwell addresses some of the most problematic issues at the intersection of literature, sex, gender, and postmodernism. Illustrating how the generational conflict between the lesbian- feminists of twenty years ago and the queer theorists of today stokes the critical fires of contemporary lesbian and literary theory, Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives concludes by arguing for a broad and generous definition of lesbian writing.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- ONE. When Is a Lesbian Narrative a Lesbian Narrative? -- TWO. Narrative: The Elastic Project -- THREE. The Lesbian Subject: A War of Images -- FOUR. The Romantic Lesbian Narrative: Adrienne Rich's "Twenty-One Love Poems" and Marilyn Hacker's -- FIVE. The Heroic Lesbian Narrative: Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon and Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place -- SIX. The Postmodern Lesbian Text: Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry and Written on the Body -- SEVEN. Conclusion -- Works Cited -- Index