Lesbian Images

Essays

Jane Rule

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781480429499
• Subtopic: Literary Essays
• Index: Literature

Jane Rule's fourth book explores lesbianism as portrayed by authors from Gertrude Stein to Colette, from Vita Sackville-West to May Sarton and Willa Cather


Lesbian Images opens with a disclaimer from the author: "This book is not intended to be a comprehensive literary or cultural history of lesbians." Rather, as Jane Rule goes on to tell us, her goal is to present her own attitudes and measure them against the images of lesbianism as depicted by other female authors. Thus, chapters titled "Gertrude Stein 1874–1946," "Willa Cather 1876–1947," and "Ivy Compton-Burnett 1892–1969," among many others, reveal how the concept of love between women can be filtered through one's personal experiences and perceptions.

 

There are also chapters about lesbian myths and morality; the effect of the women's movement on lesbianism; the inherent conflicts between lesbianism and feminism; how Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness changed fifteen-year-old Rule's life; and what it means to be labeled a lesbian writer.

 

At once astute and nonjudgmental, Lesbian Images is a deeply engaging work that sounds a powerful note of hope for the future.  

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Myth and Morality, Sources of Law and Prejudice
• From Sin to Sickness
• Radclyffe Hall 1886–1943
• Gertrude Stein 1874–1946
• Willa Cather 1876–1947
• Vita Sackville-West 1892–1962
• Ivy Compton-Burnett 1892–1969
• Elizabeth Bowen 1899–1973
• Colette 1873–1954
• Violette Leduc 1907–1972
• Margaret Anderson 1893–1973
• Dorothy Baker 1907–1968
• May Sarton 1912-
• Maureen Duffy 1933–
• Four Decades of Fiction
• Recent Nonfiction
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• A Biography of Jane Rule
• Copyright