Summary Series: Peter Barry - Lesbian /Gay Criticism (Chapter 7)
LESBIAN/GAY THEORY Critical discussion of lesbian and gay issues started twenty years before it was established as a part of an MA course, "Sexual Dissidence and Cultural Change", at the University of Sussex. The 1993 publication of The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader marked the beginning of lesbian/queer criticism. This theory proposes sex and sexuality are social constructs and subject to change. So, sexual orientation is a concept that lesbian/gay critics seek to understand and examine. LESBIAN FEMINISM Beginning as a sort of feminism's annexe in the 1980s, lesbian studies developed into a distinct critical literary field of study in the 1990s. THE ACCUSATIONS Non-White feminists against Mainstream feminism Feminism generalises the differences (racial, cultural, sexual) and universalises the experiences of white women (middle-class and heterosexual) Example: Bell Hooks, African American critique Ain't I a woman: black women and feminism (Pluto Press 1986) Lesbian cr...