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Novel Approaches to Lesbian History tells a tale about history and community in our allegedly post-identity era, examining contemporary novels that depict lesbian characters in recognizable historical situations. These imaginative stories provide a politically vital, speculative past in the face of a sketchy, problematic archive. Among the memorable characters in some 200 novels are pirates, cowgirls, and famous artists, ghosts and time travellers, immigrants and lovers. The best lesbian historical novels are conscientious and buoyant as they engage critical historiographical questions, but Novel Approaches also discusses the class and race biases that weigh on the genre. Some lesbian historical novels are based on archival evidence, others on conjecture or fantasy, but all convey the true fact that identity is elusive without a past, without which its future is nearly impossible.
List of contents
Chapter One. Who Knows, Who Cares, and Why Bother.- Chapter Two. H(a)unting the Archives.- Chapter Three. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lesbian Sex* *But Only in Historical Fiction.- Chapter Four. Tomboys and Indians.- Chapter Five. Unsafe Seas for Women.- Chapter Six. The Usual Suspects.- Epilogue: Failing That, Invent.
About the author
Linda Garber is the author of
Identity Poetics: Race, Class, and the Lesbian-Feminist Roots of Queer Theory and
Lesbian Sources: A Bibliography of Periodical Articles, and the editor of
Tilting the Tower: Lesbians / Teaching / Queer Subjects. She is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Santa Clara University, USA.
Report
"Garber presents a volume that serves the lesbian reader and writer with an extensive map of the popular genre of lesbian historical fiction. ... this cutting-edge volume contributes a fundamental tool for present and future lesbian researchers and readers, proving Garber's status as an unquestionable figure in the genealogy of lesbian writers and critics." (Sandra Baena-Velázquez, Journal of Lesbian Studies, February 13, 2023)
