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Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies book cover

1st Edition

Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies

Edited By Katherine O'Donnell, Noreen Giffney Copyright 2008
    374 Pages
    by Routledge

    374 Pages
    by Routledge

    374 Pages
    by Routledge
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    An enlightening, entertaining look at what the term “lesbian” really means—and what it means to be a lesbian

    Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies focuses on the field’s institutionalization into the humanities and social sciences, examining how the term “lesbian” is used in activist, community, and cultural contexts, and how its use impacts the lives of women who have chosen it as an identity. The book’s contributors include many of the world’s foremost experts in lesbian studies, as well as scholars whose primary research is in bisexuality, transsexuality and transgender, intersex, and queer theory. The innovative essays touch on five individual themes—“Genealogies,” “Readings,” “Theories,” “Identities,” and “Locations”—as they explore the past, present, and future of lesbian studies.

    Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies places the term “lesbian” at the center of analysis, whether as a concept, a category, an identity, a political position, or an object choice. The book’s cutting-edge essays examine the various meanings of “lesbian;” the risks taken by women who live and/or act, write, and speak as lesbians; current genealogical myths; and the lives, studies, and activism of lesbians who represent a range of geographical and historical contexts. The book presents research produced outside the United States/United Kingdom, two places which tend to dominate the field, and essays that focus on areas, such as medieval studies, that are often ignored in theoretical discussions.

    Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies considers these questions:

    • does the term “lesbian” still have relevance as an identity descriptor or political position?
    • who does “lesbian” include and/or exclude?
    • how does intersectional thinking impact the way we formulate lesbian identities?
    • are we now “post-lesbian?”
    • what, if anything, defines the field of lesbian studies?
    • what is the current state of the field?
    • what is the possible future of the field?
    • what current topics should be most important to practitioners?
    • how is work that falls under the “lesbian studies” umbrella connected to efforts in the areas of feminism, LGBT, intersex, and queer straight studies?
    • and many more
    Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies is an enlightening, entertaining, and essential read for academics and students working in all disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, and for the lesbian/queer population, in general.

    • Introduction (Noreen Giffney and Katherine O’Donnell)
    • SECTION I
    • GENEALOGIES: CONTEXTUALIZING THE FIELD
    • Lesbian Studies After The Lesbian Postmodern: Toward a New Genealogy (Laura Doan)
    • A Lesbian-Feminist Journey Through Queer Nation (Bonnie Zimmerman)
    • A Seat at the Table: Some Unpalatable Thoughts on Shame, Envy and Hate in Institutional Cultures (Sally R. Munt)
    • SECTION II
    • READINGS: DESIRING FICTIONS
    • Queer Paradox/Paradoxical Queer: Anne Garréta’s Pas un jour (2002) (Lucille Cairns)
    • Being Faithful: The Ethics of Homoaffection in Antonia Forest’s Marlow Novels (Caroline Gonda)
    • Fragmented Identities, Frustrated Politics: Transsexuals, Lesbians and ’Queer’ (Katherine Johnson)
    • SECTION III
    • THEORIES: DISCIPLINARY CHALLENGES
    • Of Hyacinths (Michèle Aina Barale)
    • Feminist Theorizing as ’Transposed Autobiography’ (renée c. hoogland)
    • Post-Lesbian? Not Yet (Toni A. H. McNaron)
    • Through the Looking Glass: A ’70s Lesbian Feminist Considers Queer Theory (Margaret Cruikshank)
    • Rescuing Lesbian Camp (Clare Hemmings)
    • Refusing to Make Sense: Mapping the In-Coherences of ’Trans’ (J. Bobby Noble)
    • SECTION IV
    • IDENTITIES: THINKING INTERSECTIONALLY
    • Sister Outsider: An Enduring Vision Embracing Myself, My Sister and the ’Other’ (Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes)
    • Contesting ’Straights’: ’Lesbians’, ’Queer Heterosexuals’ and the Critique of Heteronormativity (Annette Schlichter)
    • The Lesbian Community and FTMs: Détente in the Butch/FTM Borderlands (Jillian T. Weiss)
    • Intersections of Lesbian Studies and Postcolonial Studies: One Possible Future for Class (Donna McCormack)
    • Cal/liope in Love: The ’Prescientific’ Desires of an Apolitical ’Hermaphrodite’ (Morgan Holmes)
    • Carved in Flesh? Inscribing Body, Identity and Desire (Kay Inckle)
    • SECTION V
    • LOCATIONS: TRANSLATING ’LESBIAN’
    • Lesbian Studies and Activism in India (Ruth Vanita)
    • Lesbian Studies in Thailand (Jillana Enteen)
    • Loud and Lusty Lesbian Queers: Lesbian Theory, Research and Debate in the German-Speaking Context (Antke Engel)
    • Quare Éire (Noreen Giffney)
    • The Un/State of Lesbian Studies: An Introduction to Lesbian Communities and Contemporary Legislation in Japan (Claire Maree)
    • Peripheral Perspectives: Locating Lesbian Studies in Australasia (Sara MacBride-Stewart)
    • ’Russian Love’, or, What of Lesbian Studies in Russia? (Nadya Nartova)
    • Queerying Borders: An Afrikan Activist Perspective (Bernedette Muthien)
    • “Where Are the Lesbians in Chaucer?” Lack, Opportunity and Female Homoeroticism in Medieval Studies Today (Michelle M. Sauer)
    • Index
    • Reference Notes Included

    Biography

    Katherine O'Donnell, Noreen Giffney

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