Gay Lerature: Poetry and Prose | Oxford Rearch Encyclopedia of Lerature

Contents:

• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• GAY
• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH
• WHAT IS LERARY GAY ROMANCE? A DEFN 5 POTS
• ‘I JT WANT SOMETHG THAT’S GAY AND HAPPY’: L.G.B.T.Q. ROMANCE IS BOOMG
• GAY LERATURE
• LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, & INTERSEX LIFE

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

Numero anthologi of short gay fictn clu The Faber Book of Gay Short Fictn (1991), Pengu Book of Gay Short Stori (1994), Pengu Book of Lbian Short Stori (1994), the seri Men on Men (begng 1988) and Women on Women (begng 1990), and even an anthology of gay and lbian science fictn, Kdred Spirs (1984).

GAY

The lerature of homosexualy has evolved to the pot where is often grouped not only acrdg to ethnicy and genre, for example, Lata and China, Ain-Amerin, Asian and Native Amerin, but also to sorts of sexualy, such as gay, transsexual, and bisexual not to mentn the lerary genr that reprent , cludg mystery, science fictn, and tective fictn, and even geographic regn.

Categori: Gay and Lbian Novels, Genr Studi, Lerature, Queer Theory, Short StoryTags: Amerin Lbian Short Fictn, Amerin Lerature, Gay and Lbian Fictn, Gay and Lbian Stori, Gay Fictn, Gay Men’s Wrg, Gay Short Stori, Homosexualy and Lerature, Homosexualy Amerin Lerature, Homosexualy Lerature, Homosexualy Short Stori, Lbian and Gay Cricism, Lbian Short Stori, Lerary Cricism, The Bt New Gay Fictn, Them of Homosexualy Lerature.

Bisexualy has been viewed wh gay studi as distct om homosexualy, and bisexuals have found themselv exclud om gay events and anizatns although a great many “gay ins” om Socrat to Shakpeare to Osr Wil were married and fathered children.

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

The word “homosexual” was, fact, created the late neteenth century as an English equivalent for German Homosexualtät, which first appeared prt 1869 a pamphlet argug agast the Pssian legal that prcribed punishments for men who engaged same-sex relatns.

Adoptg his posn, crics have argued, for example, that Walt Whman and Osr Wil (1854–1900) were not, strictly speakg, homosexuals, at least the sense that medil and psychologil tablishments unrstood that “ndn” or “speci” the twentieth century. Whether the dividual is born homosexual or his or her homosexual sir are socially nstcted, is clear that medi-scientific theori of homosexualy as a curable disease were an ventn of the late neteenth and early twentieth centuri. One rells thgs as var as Ernt Hemgway's dismissive attu toward homosexuals his books, the “pansi” played for lghs Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s, and Hart Crane's joyo announcement—havg, he believed, fallen love wh a woman—that he was not homosexual after all.

Although Amerin lerature the first two-thirds of the twentieth century almost always impli the medi-scientific fn whenever homosexualy enters the text, Whman had his own succsors, om Bliss Carman (1861–1929) and Richard Hovey (1864–1900) to Marsn Hartley (1877–1943) to Langston Hugh (1902–1967) and Gerr Lansg (b.

MEANG OF GAY ENGLISH

Sedgwick se Jam as a homosexual who rarely alt openly wh male timacy but whose work foc on “homosocial” (her term) suatns that occur when, for example, two men stggle for the attentn of a woman; emotns are directed by each man more strongly toward his petor than toward their shared object of sire. Although Sedgwick nsirs Billy Budd to be suffed wh homosexual sir, she pots out that there is only one homosexual the morn sense the story: Claggart, who has the self-loathg of those who have ternalized homophobia, and who is “praved bee he is, his sir, a pervert, ” or “homosexual” (Sedgwick, 1990, p.

The many homosexual Amerin poets the early twentieth century who were athet clud Amy Lowell (1874–1925), Wilbur Unrwood (1876–1935), Donald Evans (1884–1921), Gee Sylvter Viereck (1884–1962), John Gould Fletcher (1886–1950), Clark Ashton Smh (1893–1961), and Samuel Greenberg (1883–1917), whose poems Hart Crane emulated his own early work. Public attus toward homosexuals are suggted by an cint the early 1940s when John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974), who had accepted a poem by Robert Dunn (1919–1988) for the Kenyon Review, whdrew his offer after Dunn published an say another journal on homosexualy.

Ransom plimented Dunn for havg taken such a bold stand—although actually the say is impartial, argug that homosexualy is no better, if no worse, than any other kd of life—but sisted that the poem schled for the Review might now be read as “homosexual advertisement” (Faas, 1983, p. 1928), and William Inge (1913–1973), and highly regard novels wh homosexual them and suatns, such as Two Ser Ladi (1943) by Jane Bowl (1917–1973), The Member of the Weddg (1946) by Carson McCullers (1917–1967), The Cy and the Pillar (1948) by Gore Vidal (b. The so-lled School of Boston, which provid one of the avant-gar's rpons the 1960s to the mastream works of Robert Lowell (1917–1977) and Sylvia Plath (1932–1963), was almost entirely gay, cludg such poets as John Weers (1934–2002), Gerr Lansg, and Stephen Jonas (1920–1970).

WHAT IS LERARY GAY ROMANCE? A DEFN 5 POTS

The gay liberatn movement and the gradual public awarens that homosexualy was not the disease the psychiatric tablishment had claimed led to a luge of “g-out” stori, which the thor narrat her or his progrs om “the closet” to an open life as a gay woman or man. Numero anthologi of gay wrg—Stephen Coote's The Pengu Book of Homosexual Verse (1983), Carl Morse and Joan Lark's Gay and Lbian Poetry Our Time (1989), and Edmund Whe's Faber Book of Gay Short Fictn (1991), to ce three of the most rpected—prent no evince that “gay wrg” is sentially more than wrg about gay life.

1965), refully documents a range of poetic tradns om the formalist to the highly experimental whout fdg any that grew om a basilly gay athetic: “Of urse there are poems that overtly flnt their sexualy, ” Liu nclus, “but there are so many quieter poems (and poets) who might elu the most fely tuned gaydar [sensivy to others' gay inty].

The thirty-two years that separate Isherwood's and Holleran's books were so fired wh crisis—the gay liberatn movement and then AIDS—that the fundamental flaw homosexual culture, namely, that has been profoundly a culture for and of the young, has not received as much attentn as should. Melville's isolato exemplify Emersonian self-reliance, but homosexualy Isherwood's and Holleran's works is seen all too accurately as a re of passage to a dimished sexual and emotnal matury that no culture should wish on s members.

‘I JT WANT SOMETHG THAT’S GAY AND HAPPY’: L.G.B.T.Q. ROMANCE IS BOOMG

The homophobia wh which early wrers had to battle has certaly not vanished, remag some parts of the untry as vilent and vlent as ever, but elsewhere gay life and valu have been tegrated to so much of the culture at large that they have often ceased to operate as an opposnal force.

However, there is no lear path to progrs; reprentatns rema domated by cisgenr whe middle-class gay men young adult fictn, and middle-class whe reprentatns still domate children’s lerature, although transgenr and genr-nonnformg characters are creasgly prevalent the latter. For stance, the Stonewall Book Award, which is admistered by the Amerin Library Associatn’s Gay, Lbian, Bisexual, and Transgenr Round Table, was tablished 1971, but a Children’s and Young Adult Lerature Award was not created until 2010.

In addn, the narrow field of lbian young adult fictn clus the trop: (1) the Miserable Lbian, which refers to lbians picted as unhappy and lonely, (2) the Lbian Victim, who has experienced acts of homophobia and vlence as punishment for her sexualy, (3) the Confed Parents, who thk that they did somethg wrong while raisg their dghter and that’s why she’s gay, or they thk that someone turned their dghter gay, (4) Lbian Self-Disvery, which she feels right wh her sexualy and queer love tert, and (5) Found Fay, focg on the importance of iends and on those the queer muny triumphg over hardship and g together as a fay when the blogil fay of a queer person is lackg. Of the eight books examed for this project, the stori published the 1970s and 1980s (and even some to the early 2000s) exhibed the trop of the miserable lbian and the lbian victim, but they acplish the homosexual visibily and gay assiatn that Jenks and Cart fed. In Annie on My Md (1982) and Keepg You a Secret (2003), pecially, a moment of gay panic, the ma character slowly realiz she is queer and eaks out, but her worri melt away once she kiss her love tert and feels that nothg had ever been more right or ma as much sense.

GAY LERATURE

Comics uld also be que explic, as seen the Tijuana bibl, which were typilly very cheap, eight-page brochure-type publitns that satirized Hollywood stars and other popular figur, such as Archie om the ics, wh suatns that clu hetero- and homosexual upl and threom and sometim animals. He argued, among many other pots on the subject, that Wonr Woman, an pennt and physilly and emotnally forceful woman, was implied to be lbian; and that Batman and Rob, two bachelor mal livg together and emotnally close to each other, were implied to be gay. Sandwiched between the Ksey reports on male and female sexual behavr (1948 and 1953) and landmark censorship trials and the 1969 Stonewall rebelln, the characters and narrativ of lbian and gay pulp fictn reflected a more open attu toward sexual inti and relatnships but also the harsh realy durg the McCarthy era of the lavenr sre and the moral panics about homosexualy that were ed to jtify firg homosexuals om ernment posns.

This accsibily dovetailed wh the crease same-sex muni, whether women’s ary anizatns or women workg together dtry greater numbers, and wh the postwar relotn of many young women to large urban centers wh gatherg spots, such as gay bars. Typil of the first type are the novels of Richard Amory, which clu Song of the Loon (1966), a gay pastoral wh gay Native Amerins, and s two sequels, Song of Aaron (1967) and Listen, the Loon Sgs (1968)—all issued by Greenleaf Publishers, a gay prtg hoe based Chigo and then San Diego. This sectn and the troductn to the llectn both note that gay and lbian pulp fictn the 1950s both enforced heteronormative and homophobic societal norms and provid an opportuny for lbians and gays to see themselv fictn and learn about lbian and gay culture.

LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, & INTERSEX LIFE

By the 1970s, LGBTQ+ pulp fictn began to evolve several directns—eroti, romance, and mastream gay and lbian lerature by such thors as Sarah Waters, Dorothy Allison, Jeante Wterson, Alison Bechl, Alan Hollghurst, Armistead Mp, and Michael Cunngham. In the mid-twentieth century, although some fictn and nonfictn ntag LGBTQ+ characters and them was accepted by mastream publishers, publishers typilly refed to publish any work which the LGBTQ+ characters had a happy endg or that seemed to promote homosexualy.

Most memoirs wrten by LGBTQ+ people who lived the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s were published much later their liv, after the 1969 Stonewall rebelln and further s of gay activism ma the topics ls risky and ntroversial the mastream and after the thors had more well-tablished reers. Exampl this tegory clu Esther Newton’s says wrten the 1970s and 1980s llected Margaret Mead Ma Me Gay (2000) and her memoir My Butch Career (2018), Audre Lor’s The Cancer Journals (1980) and Zami: A New Spellg of My Name (1982), Douglas Crimp’s Before Pictur (2016), and Samuel R.