Are girls necessary?
Subtitle: lesbian writing and modern histories
By: Julie Abraham.
Edition: 1st University of Minnesota Press ed.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 213
ISBN-13: 9780816656769
Subjects: Lesbians' writings, American -- History and criticism; Lesbians' writings, English -- History and criticism; Lesbians -- English-speaking countries -- Intellectual life; Lesbians in literature; Homosexuality and literature -- English-speaking countries; Women and literature -- English-speaking countries -- History -- 20th century; American fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism; English fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism; American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Description: Are Girls Necessary? was an astoundingly great idea, exploring the lesbian in nineteenth and twentieth century lesbian-authored literature, even that which is not as explicit as the lesbian novels that make up the heart of the lesbian literary canon. The subjects of Abraham's examinations are a veritable pantheon of lesbian, bisexual and feminist literary icons: Willa Cather, Mary Renault, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Djuna Barnes, Alice B. Toklas, et al. Granted certain literary and real-life freedoms due to their race and class, these women were able to forge the vocabulary and themes that would permeate lesbian and feminist literature well past their own lifetimes. Although the lesbian often had to be coded within heterosexual acceptability, it takes only a creative and open mind to find the subversive glimpses these authors coded into their work or left lying in the open for anyone who cared enough to look. An exploration of the means in which these women forged a path for themselves (and those who followed them) within the restraints of their time had great potential.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.   ) and index.