Elizabeth English - Böcker

The first book-length study to explore the importance of genre fiction for the body of literature we call lesbian modernismElizabeth English explores the aesthetic dilemma prompted by the censorship of Radclyffe Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness in 1928. Faced with legal and financial reprisals, women writers were forced to question how they might represent lesbian identity and desire. Modernist experimentation has often been seen as a response to this problem, but English breaks new ground by arguing that popular genre fictions offered a creative strategy against the threat of detection and punishment. Her study examines a range of responses to this dilemma by offering illuminating close readings of fantasy, crime, and historical fictions written by both mainstream and modernist authors. English introduces hitherto neglected women writers from diverse backgrounds and draws on archival material examined here for the first time to remap the topography of 1920s-1940s lesbian literature and to reevaluate the definition of lesbian modernism.Key Features:Rethinks the lesbian modernist project to demonstrate that genre fiction not only influenced modernist writers such as Woolf and Stein but also found its way into their ostensibly highbrow workBrings to light hitherto neglected mainstream writers working in popular genres who contributed to the lesbian modernist aestheticSituates Katharine Burdekin within the context of lesbian modernism for the first time, employing hitherto unseen archive material (including letters and manuscripts)Divided into three broad multi-author genres (fantasy, historical and detective fictions), the study covers popular fictions such as utopian writing, the supernatural, historical biography, historical romance, and the classic country-house crime novel

A timely and original examination of lesbian modernismReflects critically upon 30 years of lesbian modernist studies to expand existing meanings and uses of lesbian modernism Outlines novel ways in which lesbian modernism can continue to inform and enrich modernist studies Critically investigates the boundaries of lesbian modernism in relation to queer and feminist modernism Offers new readings of familiar and lesser-known lesbian modernist authors Makiko Minow coined the phrase 'lesbian modernism' in 1989. Since then, scholars of lesbian modernism have produced crucial work to critique and expand the modernist canon. At the same time, there has been ongoing critical debate about what constitutes a lesbian modernist text, who counts as a lesbian modernist author, and how lesbian modernism relates to queer and trans modernism. This edited volume presents twelve newly commissioned chapters that reassess and interrogate the meanings, uses and limitations of lesbian modernism by exploring a broad range of authors, genres and histories. Individual chapters investigate what work the concept of 'lesbian modernism' has done in the past, how its boundaries have been defined and contested, and what voices have been included and excluded. As a whole, the book demonstrates how the concept of lesbian modernism can be mobilised in new and meaningful ways to continue to inform and enrich modernist studies.

Makiko Minow coined the phrase 'lesbian modernism' in 1989. Since then, scholars of lesbian modernism have produced crucial work to critique and expand the modernist canon. At the same time, there has been ongoing critical debate about what constitutes a lesbian modernist text, who counts as a lesbian modernist author, and how lesbian modernism relates to queer and trans modernism. This edited volume presents twelve newly commissioned chapters that reassess and interrogate the meanings, uses and limitations of lesbian modernism by exploring a broad range of authors, genres and histories. Individual chapters investigate what work the concept of 'lesbian modernism' has done in the past, how its boundaries have been defined and contested, and what voices have been included and excluded. As a whole, the book demonstrates how the concept of lesbian modernism can be mobilised in new and meaningful ways to continue to inform and enrich modernist studies.