Masculinity in Lesbian "Pulp" Fiction - (Routledge Research in Gender and Society) by Paul Thompson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book looks specifically and in depth, for the first time, at masculinity in cheap, lesbian-themed paperbacks of the two decades after WW2. It challenges established critical assumptions about the readership, and sets the masculinity imagined in these novels against the "masculinity crisis" of the era in which they were written.

Book Synopsis

This book looks specifically and in depth, for the first time, at masculinity in cheap, lesbian-themed paperbacks of the two decades after WW2. It challenges established critical assumptions about the readership, and sets the masculinity imagined in these novels against the "masculinity crisis" of the era in which they were written.

Review Quotes

"Using his gift for informed and inventive prose, and applying it to an unexplored topic, Paul Thompson has given us a unique view of masculinity in the lesbian-themed paperback fiction of the mid-20th Century."

Ann Bannon, author of the Laura Landon / Beebo Brinker novels

"Opening a critically neglected and often maligned archive of popular lesbian paperbacks from the mid-20th century, Thompson's clear and accessible study fundamentally reshapes our understanding of American masculinity and sexuality."

Benjamin Bateman, author of Queer Disappearance in Modern and Contemporary Fiction

"Thompson has superbly derived an interdisciplinary approach from queer theory, masculinities studies, feminist scholarship, and literary analysis to present a rich, insightful reading of the texts in demonstrating how masculinity in these novels is not an exclusive property of men but something performed, challenged, and failed at by characters of diverse genders. ... [T]he book renders a crucial intervention in the study of gender and sexuality in popular fiction."

Book Review by Sandip Paul, Men and Masculinities (2025), DOI: 10.1177/1097184X251330896

About the Author

Paul Thompson, PhD from University of St Andrew's, Scotland, is a former career civil servant who, on retirement, decided to become a scholar. Paul's research continues in lesbian-themed paperbacks, not only looking at the erasure of diversity and the overlap of trans narratives but also setting up an archive of the paperbacks in Special Collections at the Library of the University of St Andrews. Paul's most recent publication is a chapter outlining the philosophical influences on Sebald in W.G. Sebald in Context.