Wh the creasg impact of the gay rights movement and acceptance of gays mastream society, gay studi and gay lerature are emergg as rpected fields. Defg gay lerature is sometim difficult, given the equent vague and subtle referenc to gay characters or them found works. Not all gay lerature als specifilly wh sex;…
Contents:
- CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
- 21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
- PL BURSTON'S TOP 10 GAY FICTN BOOKS
- 13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH
- GAY LERATURE IS OUT OF THE CLOSET. SO WHY IS DECEPTN A BIG THEME?
CLASSIC GAY MALE LERATURE
On Friday, the Supreme Court led 5-4 that same-sex upl have a nstutnal right to wed, clearg the way for gay marriage natnwi. * gay literature themes *
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. 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.
21 CLASSIC WORKS OF GAY LERATURE
* gay literature themes *
Gay lerature was forever changed the day Mary Ann Sgleton first met her transgenr landlady, Anna Madrigal, when she moved to San Francis's 28 Barbary Lane. 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.
Whe would later wre two addnal novels, The Betiful Room Is Empty (1988) and The Farewell Symphony (1997), which follow his gay protagonist to young adulthood. Integral to the lbian non (spe s beg nsired somewhat problematic) Brish wrer Radclyffe Hall's 1928 novel foc on Stephen Gordon, an upper-class lbian who dons men's clothg and be a novelist who eventually be a part of a lerary salon Paris at a time when there were no overt laws exprsly barrg homosexualy. Hall's novel was groundbreakg her troductn of the views of "sexologists" Richard von Krafft-Ebg and Havelock Ellis, who posed that homosexualy was an born, unalterable tra that was nsired a ngenal sexual versn that simply meant a "difference" and not a fect.
PL BURSTON'S TOP 10 GAY FICTN BOOKS
<p>Pl Burston is a journalist and wrer. His first novel, Shamels, was scribed by Will Self as "the sharp tth about gay London" and is now available paperback</p> * gay literature themes *
Wonrful book, " gay refugee activist and lumnist Danny Ramadan rav about the global-md book unpacks the emotnal life of a young girl displaced by the Nigerian civil war who begs a gut-wrenchg affair wh a fellow refugee.
"A great rellectn of everythg anyone would say Nigeria agast homosexualy g the fense of relign, " explas David Nnanna Ikpo, the Nigerian thor of Fimisile Forever. Dalloway, a novel to which Cunngham pays homage; mid-20th-century Los Angel, hoewife Lra Brown, disntented wh her life, nonts her attractn to women; and 1990s New York Cy, Clarissa Vghan, who is lbian, plans a party for her bt iend, wrer Richard Brown, a gay man dyg of AIDS.
13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH
Celebrate wh the bt LGBTQ books and books wh gay characters or om LGBTQ thors. Empower yourself by addg the spirg books to your readg list. * gay literature themes *
In 2015, when the novel was published, reviewer and thor Garth Greenwell clared The Atlantic, "A Ltle Life: The Great Gay Novel Might Be Here. The book featur a st of dozens of gay men, who varly engage bathhoe i, e a slew of party dgs, and vort clubs wh nam like The Toilet Bowl and Fire Island. ”For many years, as gay rights activists have fought for equal opportuny, lbian and gay wrers have penned works that provi a richer unrstandg of the joys and challeng of their liv.
21 classic works of gay lerature:Jam Baldw: “Gvanni’s Room” -- a man disvers his sexual inty ParisDjuna Barn: “Nightwood” -- early postmorn fictn of women Paris loveAlison Bechl: “Fun Home: A Fay Tragiic” -- a graphic novel memoir of her troubled gay father and her own g out, recently adapted as a Tony award-wng Broadway showRa Mae Brown: “Rubyu Jungle” -- the 1973 tale of a young woman’s g of ageWilliam S. Burroughs: “Naked Lunch” -- the landmark experimental novel’s gay sex scen ma the foc of a breakthrough obsceny trialRichard Elmann: “Osr Wil” -- bgraphy of the lively wrer whose gay relatnship got him sent to prison for “gross cency”E. Forster: “Mrice” -- this love story, wrten when homosexualy was illegal England, was published posthumolyRadclyffe Hall: “The Well of Lonels” -- groundbreakg lbian novel of the 1920sE.
GAY LERATURE IS OUT OF THE CLOSET. SO WHY IS DECEPTN A BIG THEME?
Until recently, gay lerary characters had to hi their inti. But even now the closet — and the li and ncealment impli — remas a surprisgly potent metaphor. * gay literature themes *
Lynn Harris: “Invisible Life” -- an Ain Amerin law stunt’s sexual disveryAllen Gsberg: “Howl” -- the poem was subject to an obsceny trial part bee of s explic gay themJean Ge: “Our Lady of the Flowers” -- published 1944, portrays sexual adventur Paris’ crimal unrgroundAnthony M. ------------Armistead Mp: “Tal of the Cy” ma character Michael Tolliver’s life portrayed over a seri of novels set gay-iendly San FrancisPl Mote: “Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir” -- a breathtakg yet matter-of-fact, day-by-day acunt of the ath of his longtime partner om AIDSAnnie Proulx: “Brokeback Mounta” a story of wboys love, om the llectn “Close Range, ” which beme the Osr-wng filmJohn Rechy: “Cy of Night” -- a novel of gay street htlers the 1950sSappho: “The Complete Poems” -- women’s love poetry om the 7th century BCHubert Selby Jr. Shared among gay iends, we uld celebrate our growg nfince and visibily wh new work om Alan Hollghurst and Jeate Wterson, velop a mp sensibily by quotg to each other l om EF Benson and Ronald Firbank, image that London uld bee the queer Ardia picted Armistead Mp’s Tal of the we moved towards assiatn the 1990s, Dennis Cooper’s Gee Mil novel cycle was a remr that sexualy was still transgrsive, that sire remaed a dark and disptive force.
It’s a such a tenr moment and a remr of the kdns and nnectn that is possible between all of MenzAuthor of Rabow MilkCeremoni by Essex Hemphill (Pengu)The hugely fluential gay Ain Amerin poet Essex Hemphill died of Aids-related plitns 1995, aged 38, jt one month before the lnch of protease hibors – early antiretrovirals – which might have saved or at least prolonged his life. In the wrgs and radil cema he left behd – cludg llaboratns wh Marlon Riggs Tongu Untied (1989) and Isaac Julien Lookg for Langston (1989) – he provid subsequent generatns wh evince that we lived and loved, and of our fight agast the effects of tersectg whe supremacy, racism, homophobia and heterosexism. Gay Amerin men had barely one ’s grace between the liberatn movement and the begng of the Aids crisis, which Hemphill wrote about as vally as anyone.