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Lesbian Rule

Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire

Amy Villarejo author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Duke University Press

Published:5th Nov '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Lesbian Rule cover

A critical synthesis of elements of Marxism, deconstruction, and queer theory that attempts to explain the relative visibility and invisibility of lesbians in American popular culture since the fifties.

With hair slicked back and shirt collar framing her young patrician face, Katharine Hepburn's image in the 1935 film Sylvia Scarlett was seen by many as a "lesbian" representation. Investigating what allows viewers to make an image or narrative work as "lesbian," this title presents a theoretical exploration of lesbian visibility.With hair slicked back and shirt collar framing her young patrician face, Katherine Hepburn's image in the 1935 film Sylvia Scarlett was seen by many as a lesbian representation. Yet, Amy Villarejo argues, there is no final ground upon which to explain why that image of Hepburn signifies lesbian or why such a cross-dressing Hollywood fantasy edges into collective consciousness as a lesbian narrative. Investigating what allows viewers to perceive an image or narrative as "lesbian," Villarejo presents a theoretical exploration of lesbian visibility. Focusing on images of lesbians in film, she analyzes what these representations contain and their limits. She combines Marxist theories of value with poststructuralist insights to argue that lesbian visibility operates simultaneously as an achievement and a ruse, a possibility for building a new visual politics and away of rendering static and contained what lesbian might mean.
Integrating cinema studies, queer and feminist theory, and cultural studies, Villarejo illuminates the contexts within which the lesbian is rendered visible. Toward that end, she analyzes key portrayals of lesbians in public culture, particularly in documentary film. She considers a range of films—from documentaries about Cuba and lesbian pulp fiction to Exile Shanghai and The Brandon Teena Story—and, in doing so, brings to light a nuanced economy of value and desire.

Lesbian Rule is a challenging yet rewarding book. Its insights are original, provocative, and far-reaching."—Steven Cohan, author of Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties
“Once you read Amy Villarejo’s ingenious recontextualizations of the lesbian presence in documentary film, lesbian visibility will never look the same again. Studded with brilliant theoretical insights about fetishism, archives, diaspora, and more, Lesbian Rule’s surprising juxtapositions make even the most obscure cultural object ‘shimmer with history.’ Best of all is the dreamy prose—witty, elegant, and full of delight.”—Ann Cvetkovich, author of An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures

ISBN: 9780822331551

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 458g

248 pages