The Cambridge Compann to Amerin Gay and Lbian Lerature - May 2015
Contents:
GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
* queer literature 19th century *
Registerg both the pa and shame of a homophobic past and the world-makg energi of polil, cril and athetic activism, the “queer” we know today is ever-more pacly protean, such that has spired anxiety over the term's expansive applibily, and efforts to slow down if not reverse a dilutn of s historilly specific cril power. The Oxford English Dictnary trac the first e of “queer” as “homosexual” to an 1894 letter which the Marqus of Queensberry—whose famo libel of Osr Wil led to the artist's precipo downfall—ed the phrase “Snob Queer” to scribe then Prime Mister, Lord Rosebery, whom he spected was sordidly implited his elst son's recent and spic ath.
Solidifitn to homosexual slur happened slowly, and the multivalent slippers that creased the term's populary up to and cludg this late-Victorian cultural moment held on at least through the late 1920s. When fively tied to homosexualy, s populary plummeted—not to rise aga until reclaimed as a polil and theoretil term now ed to scribe an ever-wing arena “cludg dt, dna, certa kds of worms and maybe also time self … ”Footnote 14 This very pacns, however, threatens to dra “queer” of s specificy.
LGBTQ Lerature is a Rears and Book Lovers seri dited to discsg lerature that has ma an impact on the liv of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people. From fictn to ntemporary nonfictn to history and everythg ... * queer literature 19th century *
SJ Sdu, thor of Marriage of a Thoand Li, lled , "One of the first Anglophone works to challenge the trope of the sad/suicidal gays who die at the end, this book gave a blueprt of what queer fictn uld look like. Forster (A Passage to India, A Room Wh a View, Howards End) wrote the benchmark gay novel Mrice cir 1913, was published posthumoly a lh tale of manners, posn, and sire, the tular character meets and falls for his classmate Clive while at Oxford. The pair embark on a two-year affair until Clive leav Mrice to marry a woman and live out his proscribed life as part of the land gentry, leavg Mrice shambl and seekg to cure his Forster's novel do not end gay tragedy.
Alan Hollghurst famoly qutned the future of the gay novel this year, which is strikg sce he's often viewed as helpg make queer books accsible to a mastream dience.
"Gay Lerature: Poetry and Prose" published on by Oxford Universy Prs." name="scriptn * queer literature 19th century *
The queer g-of-age novel about Jim Willard and his search for love was the first novel om a rpected wrer (Gore Vidal) to speak directly and sympathetilly about the gay experience an era when homosexualy was still very much taboo. The book is remembered today for this legacy as well as for var them -- Hollywood's glass closet, beg gay the ary, the poisono effects of homophobia on society -- that still reverberate today. The only novel by the great Osr Wil may not be overtly gay, but there's plenty of gay subtext there for the reful rear - about as much gay subtext as a popular thor uld get away wh 's iends Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton exprs tense admiratn for his bety, and passag that show Basil's feelgs for Dorian as more clearly homoerotic were excised by an edor, acrdg to Nicholas Frankel, who eded an edn prentg Wil's origal text the text as origally published has referenc to Dorian's rptn of not only young women but young men: "There was that wretched boy the Guards who mted suici.
Cy of Night, a 1963 novel by John Rechy, is a semal piece of fictn that follows the life of a gay htler New York Cy, Los Angel, New Orleans, and San Francis. "This epic chronicle of gay culture the Amerin sixti is as far-reachg as is important, givg a glimpse to inty and motive, " affirmed SJ Sdu, the thor of Marriage of a Thoand Li. The 1982 book by Edmund Whe, which begs wh the first sexual enunter of a 15-year-old boy, is based on his own experienc g to terms wh his gay inty as a youth the Midwtern Uned Stat.