Lovers and beloveds : sexual otherness in Southern fiction, 1936-1961
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A challenge to traditional criticism, this engaging study demonstrates that issues of sexualityand samesex desire in particularwere of central importance in the literary production of the Southern Renaissance. Especially during the end of that periodapproximately the 1940s and 1950sthe national literary establishment tacitly designated the South as an allowable
setting for fictionalized deviancy, thus permitting southern writers tremendous freedom to explore sexual otherness. In Lovers and Beloveds, Gary Richards draws on contemporary theories of sexuality in reading the fiction of six writers of the era who accepted that potentially pejorative characterization as an opportunity: Truman Capote, William Goyen, Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, Lillian Smith, and Richard Wright. Richards skillfully juxtaposes forgotten texts by those writers with canonical works to identify the complex narratives of samesex desire. In their novels and stories, the authors consistently reimagine gender roles, centralize homoeroticism, and probe its relationship with class, race, biological sex, and southern identity. This is the first book to assess the significance of samesex desire in a broad range of southern texts, making a crucial contribution to the study of both literature and sexuality. AUTHOR BIO: Gary Richards is an associate professor of English at the University of New Orleans and also teaches in the Africana studies and women's studies programs.
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Bibliographic Details
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Main Author
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Gary Richards, 1969-
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Document Type
- Books
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Physical Description
- x, 243 s. ; 23 cm
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Published
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Baton Rouge :
Louisiana State University Press,
c2005
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Series
- Southern literary studies
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Subjects
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Bibliography
- Obsahuje bibliografii a rejstřík
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ISBN
- 978-0-8071-3246-3
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