Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence, and American Modernity

Lisa Duggan

Published by Duke University Press 2000

Sapphic Slashers

Sex, Violence, and American Modernity

Lisa Duggan

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822381013

Overview
Contents

About this book

Retells and analyzes lesbian love murder stories from the 1890s to the 1930s to show how narratives of sex and violence were used to privatize populations and cultures, substituting a rhetoric of moral pedagogy for democratic debate.

Author / Editor information

Lisa Duggan is Associate Professor of American Studies and History at New York University. She is coauthor of Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture and coeditor of Our Monica, Ourselves: The Clinton Affair and National Interest.

Reviews

“A book to die for! Theoretically sophisticated, yet written with clarity and elegance, Sapphic Slashers opens whole new worlds of understanding about sexuality, gender norms, racial injustice, violence, and the complex ways they are connected. Full of passion and intelligence, it made me think in fresh new ways about issues of great importance. Duggan’s is an amazing intellect.”—John D’Emilio, coauthor of Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America

“Duggan seamlessly combines cultural theory with analyses of material conditions and demonstrates a breathtaking command of American cultural institutions—the mass press, the judicial systems, the medical literature. The book is not only smart about the interconnections between gender, sex, race, class, and nation, but is also lucid, making a good read.”—Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, author of Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community

“In this stunningly coherent and compelling account of the development of ‘American modernity,’ Duggan captures our interest with the sensational tale of lesbian love murder but then insists that we read this tale through turn-of-the-century debates over racial violence and against the backdrop of the medicalization of homosexuality. Sapphic Slashers has ‘classic’ written all over it.”—Judith Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity

“What Duggan does in this original and moving book is take a murder case from 1890’s Memphis and make of it a prism through which to illuminate American modernity. Her method depends less on an account of the murder or of the judicial procedure that followed it than on an analysis of the many narratives—of lesbian love and sex and madness—that the case occasioned. Juxtaposing these narratives to narratives of lynching, Duggan produces a tour-de-force of historical understanding.”—Henry Abelove, Wesleyan University

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
Part I. Murder in Memphis
1. Girl Slays Girl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. A Feast of Sensation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
3. Habeas Corpus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4. Inquisition of Lunacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Part II. MakingMea nings
5. Violent Passions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
6. Doctors of Des Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
7. A Thousand Stor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
More Than Love: An Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Appendix A: Hypothetical Case Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Appendix B: Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	281
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 324
Illustrations
- Other: 6 b&w photographs

eBook

Published: January 10, 2001
ISBN: 9780822381013