Gay Men's Literature in the Twentieth Century de Mark Lilly

Gay Men's Literature in the Twentieth Century

Mark Lilly

John Mills

Mainstream academic criticism has usually failed to engage gay work without distorting or ignoring its most central features. In gay men's writing, tenderness lies side by side with rage, and existential rejection of convention rubs shoulders with sexual hedonism. This groundbreaking work takes us on an unprecedented tour--in clear, lively, and non-technical language--of classic and little-known texts from the perspective of gay experience, sensibility, and desire.

Beginning with Wilde's and Byron's existentialist outlaw, the theme of social rebellion and the fight against conformity forms a common link among the literary works of the twentieth century. "Gay Men's Literature in the Twentieth Century" presents us with a unified analysis of these, and other, shared themes in the works of James Baldwin, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster, Jean Genet, Joe Orton, Andrew Holleran, David Leavitt, and Constantine Cavafy, and in the love poetry of the first world war.
This is the most unified treatment of gay men's writing to date, written to appeal to the general reader, but based on scholarship so original that it is vital reading for anyone interested in gay studies and gender studies.

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While "the male condition" is increasingly the focus of critical inquiry, the first images to come to most minds are those associated, ironically enough, with the resoundingly heterosexual men's movement - sweat lodges, primal screams, etc. As these images quickly become cliched, a more progressive and less primitivist movement continues to gather strength, namely one that examines the experiences and writings of homosexual men. In this groundbreaking work, Mark Lilly takes us on an unprecedented tour, reintroducing us, in clear, lively and non-technical language, to famous texts and familiarizing us for the first time with less well-known writings, from the standpoint of gay experience, sensibility and sexual desire. In gay men's writing, tenderness lies side by side with rage; existential rejection of convention rubs shoulders with sexual hedonism. Beginning with Wilde's and Byron's existentialist outlaw, the theme of social rebellion, and the fight against conformity, form a common link among the literary works of the twentieth century. But mainstream academic criticism has shown itself for the most part incapable of engaging gay work without distorting or ignoring its most central features. Gay Men's Literature in the Twentieth Century presents us with a unified analysis of certain central authors and texts in order to investigate shared themes and patterns. James Baldwin, Christopher Isherwood, Tennessee Williams, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster, Jean Genet, Joe Orton, Andrew Holleran, David Leavitt: all figure central in the book, as do such subjects as the love poetry of the First World War and the poems of Constantine Cavafy. One of those rare titles that is written toappeal to non-specialists but also contains scholarship so original it is must reading for anyone interested in gay writing, Lilly's work is, to date, the most unified treatment of gay men's writing.