Proust´s Lesbianism
Elisabeth Ladenson
For decades, Elisabeth Ladenson says, critics have misread or ignored a crucial element in Marcel Proust's fiction—his representation of lesbians. Her challenging new book definitively establishes the centrality of lesbianism as sexual obsession and aesthetic model in Proust's vast novel A la recherche du temps perdu.
Traditional readings of the Recherche have dismissed Proust's "Gomorrah"—his term for women who love other women—as a veiled portrayal of the novelist's own homosexuality. More recently, "queer-positive" rereadings have viewed the novel's treatment of female sexuality as ancillary to its accounts of Sodom and its meditations on time and memory. Ladenson instead demonstrates ... Read more
A vital contribution to the fields of queer theory and of French literature and culture, Ladenson's book marks a new stage in Proust studies and provides a fascinating chapter in the history of a literary masterpiece's reception.
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About Elisabeth Ladenson
Reviews for Proust´s Lesbianism
Virginia Quarterly Review
Carefully orchestrated.... Ladenson scours Proust's early work... and converts the scattered evidence of ... Read more