Lesbian Subjects

About this book

The growth in cultural studies has brought homosexuality to the center of work on gender and sexuality. The lesbian is now an accepted subject for scrutiny - she exists, but how do we define her history, when did it begin, and whom do we include? Lesbian Subjects gathers essays - primarily from feminist studies between 1980 and 1993 - and traces lesbian studies from its beginnings, examining the difficulties of defining a lesbian perspective and a lesbian past - a culture, social milieux, and states of mind. Essays range from studies of such well-known figures as the Harlem renaissance poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson, to studies of specific historical moments, such as the regulation of sexuality in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. Other essays treat well-known authors such as Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein, lesser-known writers from the early nineteenth century to the present, postmodern definitions of the lesbian, "Queer Theory," and lesbian invisibility.