Impossible Women: Lesbian Figures and American Literature

Valerie Rohy

Published by Cornell University Press 2000

Impossible Women

Lesbian Figures and American Literature

Valerie Rohy

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501718755

Overview
Contents

About this book

Impossible Women fills a critical gap in queer theory by spotlighting representations of lesbian sexuality in nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature. Reading through the lens of feminist and psychoanalytic theory, Valerie Rohy considers...

Author / Editor information

Valerie Rohy is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Vermont. She is coeditor, with Elizabeth Ammons, of American Local Color Writing, 1880–1920: An Anthology.

Reviews

Diana Fuss, Princeton University, author of Identification Papers:

Impossible Women is the first book I know that brings lesbian theory to bear on the canonical works of American literature. Finding lesbian sexuality in places we may not have thought to look for it, Rohy's wickedly clever book shows how figures of female perversity haunt our national literature. A thoughtful, articulate, and convincing book.

Frann Michel, Willamette University:

Impossible Women is ideal for Americanists looking to integrate queer studies into their teaching and study of canonical works.

Linda Wagner-Martin, Hanes Professor of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill:

Impossible Women is brilliantly written and clear, a narrative intent on driving its reader to the core of arguments and to the end of the book, sure to become one of the seminal critical texts of the field.

Nicole Tonkovich, University of California, San Diego:

Impossible Women brings into productive conversation two fields of scholarly inquiry often kept separate from each other: literary history (and canonicity) and feminist/lesbian criticism and politics. Impressively written and researched, it deserves the attention—and appreciation—of both fields. An engaging and important book.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Reading Impossibility Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter one. The Romance of the Real. The Blithedale Romance and The Bostonians Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter two. The Reproduction of Meaning. Language, Oedipality, and The Awakening Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Chapter three. Modernist Perversity. The Repetition of Desire in The Sun Also Rises Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Chapter four. Oral Narratives. “Race” and Sexuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Chapter five. Love’s Substitutions. Elizabeth Bishop and the Lie of Language Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 208
Keywords: Literary Studies; Gender Studies

eBook

Published: October 18, 2018
ISBN: 9781501718755