Women Together/Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris

Tirza True Latimer

Published by Rutgers University Press 2005

Women Together/Women Apart

Portraits of Lesbian Paris

Tirza True Latimer

https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813541198

Overview
Contents

About this book

What does it mean to look like a lesbian? Though it remains impossible to conjure a definitive image that captures the breadth of this highly nuanced term, today at least we are able to consider an array of visual representations that have been put into circulation by lesbians themselves over the last six or seven decades. In the early twentieth century, though, no notion of lesbianism as a coherent social or cultural identity yet existed.

In Women Together/Women Apart, Tirza True Latimer explores the revolutionary period between World War I and World War II when lesbian artists working in Paris began to shape the first visual models that gave lesbians a collective sense of identity and allowed them to recognize each other. Flocking to Paris from around the world, artists and performers such as Romaine Brooks, Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore, and Suzy Solidor used portraiture to theorize and visualize a "new breed" of feminine subject. The book focuses on problems of feminine and lesbian self-representation at a time and place where the rights of women to political, professional, economic, domestic, and sexual autonomy had yet to be acknowledged by the law. Under such circumstances, same-sex solidarity and relative independence from men held important political implications.

Combining gender theory with visual, cultural, and historical analysis, Latimer draws a vivid picture of the impact of sexual politics on the cultural life of Paris during this key period. The book also illuminates the far-reaching consequences of lesbian portraiture on contemporary constructions of lesbian identity.

Author / Editor information

Tirza True Latimer recently earned her Ph.D. in art history at Stanford University. Her research and curatorial interests include visual studies and gender studies.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
One. Lesbian Paris Between the Wars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Two. Romaine Brooks: Portraits That Look Back Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Three. “Narcissus and Narcissus”: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
Four: Suzy Solidor and Her Likes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Selected Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213

Language: English
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 232

eBook

Published: August 24, 2005
ISBN: 9780813541198