Product Description

In "Foundlings" Christopher Nealon analyses texts produced by American gay men and lesbians in the first half of the twentieth century - poems by Hart Crane, novels by Willa Cather, gay male physique magazines, and lesbian pulp fiction - to argue that, during this period, queer writers and artists were working their way toward a notion of homosexuality defined by a particular foundling relationship to the idea of history. Drawing a vivid picture of the longing for connection found in these texts, Nealon points to the particularly unfinished nature of lesbian and gay history. Nealon locates in these diverse works a coming-of-age narrative driven by the figure of the foundling - a representative of queer disaffiliation from family, nation, and history itself.The young runaways in Cather's novels, the way critics conflated Crane's homosexual body with his verse, the suggestive poses and utopic captions of muscle magazines, and the ageing butch heroine from Bannon's pulp novels all embody for Nealon the uncertain space between two poles of homosexual self-consciousness. The 'inversion' model that was dominant in the first half of the century, he explains, held that homosexuals are souls of one gender trapped in the body of another, while the more contemporary 'ethnic' model refers to the existence of a distinct and collective culture among gays and lesbians. Nealon's unique readings, however, reveal a locked tension between these two philosophical poles, and not, as is widely theorised, a linear progress from one to the other. This startlingly original study will interest those working on gay and lesbian studies, American literature and culture, and twentieth century history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1572682 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"Foundlings is a first-rate, innovative, and unprecedented work that will take the literary world by storm. Christopher Nealon proves himself here to be the very best of a new generation of queer theorists." - Judith Butler "Foundlings provides a new paradigm for thinking historically and theoretically about the longing for history within gay and lesbian texts. This is not just a stunning addition to gay historiography but also a challenge to the historicist turn in literary and cultural criticism." - Bill Brown, author of The Material Unconscious: American Amusement, Stephen Crane, and the Economies of Play " ... passionate, precise and creative readings ..." - ENGLISH, Vol 52, Number 204, Autumn 2003