Abstract
Queer characters became increasingly visible in literary fiction, taking starring roles in novels by a range of writers, including Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Angus Wilson, James Baldwin, Christopher Isherwood, Jane Rule, and Maureen Duffy. From the 1950s, a range of fiction and nonfiction books on queer subjects were available as cheap paperbacks. After 1970, gay and lesbian fiction has been constituted as a genre. Queer fiction since Stonewall, in its heterogeneity, has reflected the heterogeneity of queer identities, culture, and politics. The most challenging of 1970s lesbian novels, Bertha Harris's Lover, assembles a fantastical cast of magical women. Over the next two decades American gay male fiction transformed itself from a field of isolated figures to a crowded scene. Queer identities are accommodated in a world more tolerant than that portrayed in radical fiction of the post-Stonewall period.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature |
Editors | E. L. McCallum, Mikko Tuhkanen |
Place of Publication | Cambridge |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 712-732 |
Number of pages | 21 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781139547376 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781107035218 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- lesbian fiction
- post-Stonewall period
- American gay male fiction
- queer radicalism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities