The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader - by Henry Abelove & Michele Aina Barale & David M Halperin (Paperback)

About the Book

The biggest and most comprehensive multi-disciplinary anthology of critical work in lesbian/gay studies brings together 42 groundbreaking essays which extensively illustrate the range, scope, diversity, appeal, and power of the work currently being done in the field. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of sexuality, sexual politics, and gender studies.

Book Synopsis

Bringing together forty-two groundbreaking essays--many of them already classics--The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader provides a much-needed introduction to the contemporary state of lesbian/gay studies, extensively illustrating the range, scope, diversity, appeal, and power of the work currently being done in the field. Featuring essays by such prominent scholars as Judith Butler, John D'Emilio, Kobena Mercer, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader explores a multitude of sexual, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic experiences.

Ranging across disciplines including history, literature, critical theory, cultural studies, African American studies, ethnic studies, sociology, anthropology, psychology, classics, and philosophy, this anthology traces the inscription of sexual meanings in all forms of cultural expression. Representing the best and most significant English language work in the field, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader addresses topics such as butch-fem roles, the cultural construction of gender, lesbian separatism, feminist theory, AIDS, safe-sex education, colonialism, S/M, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, children's books, black nationalism, popular films, Susan Sontag, the closet, homophobia, Freud, Sappho, the media, the hijras of India, Robert Mapplethorpe, and the politics of representation. It also contains an extensive bibliographical essay which will provide readers with an invaluable guide to further reading.

Contributors: Henry Abelove, Tomas Almaguer, Ana Maria Alonso, Michele Barale, Judith Butler, Sue-Ellen Case, Danae Clark, Douglas Crimp, Teresa de Lauretis, John D'Emilio, Jonathan Dollimore, Lee Edelman, Marilyn Frye, Charlotte Furth, Marjorie Garber, Stuart Hall, David Halperin, Phillip Brian Harper, Gloria T. Hull, Maria Teresa Koreck, Audre Lorde, Biddy Martin, Deborah E. McDowell, Kobena Mercer, Richard Meyer, D. A. Miller, Serena Nanda, Esther Newton, Cindy Patton, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Joan W. Scott, Daniel L. Selden, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Barbara Smith, Catharine R. Stimpson, Sasha Torres, Martha Vicinus, Simon Watney, Harriet Whitehead, John J. Winkler, Monique Wittig, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano

Review Quotes

"At a moment when homosexual rights are at issue in school curricula, political party conventions, state and city referendums, religious institutions, the military, and even St. Patrick's Day parades, this book offers a broad, diverse, challenging, serious introduction to a wide range of scholarship in the emerging field of gay and lesbian studies." -- Barbara Johnson, Harvard University

"Just a couple of decades ago the idea of a positive and creative lesbian and gay studies seemed a fantastical dream. Today it is an ever-expanding and exhilarating reality: a rivulet has become a mighty river, fertilizing all the traditional disciplines. This collection provides a valuable map of this new terrain, highlighting some of its most significant features, and pointing to exciting developments. Like all good guidebooks, it encourages us to explore further, to seek out the unknown, to see the old in fresh ways, and to cherish the new and innovative." -- Jeffrey Weeks, Professor of Social Relations, University of West of England, Bristol, author of Sexuality and Its Discontents

"It would be difficult to summarize the eclectic contents of The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, almost as difficult as it would be to summarize the subjects of study it seeks to document. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader isn't an encyclopedia, nor does it pretend to be. It is however an excellent compendium of an emergin field whose full scope escapes us all." -- The Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter

About the Author

Henry Abelove is Professor of English at Wesleyan University. He is the author of The Evangelist of Desire: John Wesley and the Methodists.

Michèle Aina Barale is Assistant Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College. Her book Below the Belt: Essays in Queer Reading is forthcoming from Routledge.

David M. Halperin is Professor of Literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love.