Lesbian scandal and the culture of modernism / Jodie Medd, Carleton University, Ottawa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Medd, Jodie, 1971- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Homosexuality and literature--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

Lesbianism in literature.

English literature--20th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Lesbianism--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Lesbianism.

Lesbian culture--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Lesbian culture.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Literature and society.

Modernism (Literature).

Great Britain--Intellectual life--20th century.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 254 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Lesbian Scandal & the Culture of Modernism

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Before lesbianism became a specific identity category in the West, its mere suggestion functioned as a powerful source of scandal in early twentieth-century British and Anglo-American culture. Reconsidering notions of the 'invisible' or 'apparitional' lesbian, Jodie Medd argues that lesbianism's representational instability, and the scandals it generated, rendered it an influential force within modern politics, law, art and the literature of modernist writers like James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Virginia Woolf. Medd's analysis draws on legal proceedings and parliamentary debates as well as crises within modern literary production - patronage relations, literary obscenity and cultural authority - to reveal how lesbian suggestion forced modern political, cultural and literary institutions to negotiate their own identities, ideals and limits. Medd's text will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students in gender and women's studies, modernist literary studies and English literature.

Contents:

Introduction: Extraordinary Allegations: Scandalous Lesbian Suggestion and the Culture of Modernism

Part I. The Suggestion of Lesbianism and British National Culture: 1. The Suggestion of Lesbianism and the Great War: 'The Cult of the Clitoris' Scandal; 2. Lesbian Ghost Stories and Postwar Culture

Part II. The Suggestion of Lesbianism and Modernist Communities: 3. Modernist Patronage, Literary Obscenity, and 'Doing the Lesbian Business'; 4. Bloomsbury and the Scandal of The Well of Loneliness

Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-88761-0

1-139-56455-2

1-139-55597-9

1-139-54976-6

1-139-12882-5

1-139-55472-7

1-139-55226-0

1-283-63833-9

1-139-55101-9

OCLC:

812174067