The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture

by Terry Castle

Book Overview

In essays on literary images of lesbianism from Defoe and Diderot to Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes, on the homosexual reputation of Marie Antoinette, on the lesbian writings of Anne Lister, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Janet Flanner, and on Henry James's The Bostonians, Castle shows how a lesbian presence can be identified in the literature, history, and culture of the past three centuries.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231076525
• ISBN13: 9780231076524
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

the ghosts of lesbians past...

This is a fabulous book full of sharp observations, mordant wit, and a crisp, almost epigramatic style of writing.Terry Castle is a Virgil in the shadowy world of the ' now you see her now you dont' lesbian who flits like a revenant in and out of the world of art and fiction. I loved Castle's evocative story 'First Ed' of her own almost amphibious entry into the realm of her lesbian awareness. It was touching and edgy at the same time. I could almost see the action unfolding and almost feel the echo of the world she lightly but strongly evoked of the atmosphere of California in the 'sixties... The torchy tribute to Brigitte Fassbaender was fantastic. I immediately went to 'Youtube' to catch a glimpse of the fascinating 'Prince' Orlofsky. I also bought Fassbaender's CD 'Winterreiser' 'and her DVD 'Hansel and Gretel' Needless to say I was delighted with the results of this, and many other tangential forays. Thank you Ms Castle! I can't adequately express the sense of mental stimulation and sheer joy I felt when I read this book. I felt as if I was being shown a previously dusty old world in a new and brilliant light - with the benefit of an insider's information to point out the significant details that are often missed by an unfocused awareness. One often feels the lesbian presence in a book or movie in the way one sees a moving shadow out of the corner of an eye, but other than Ms Castle, I have never before watched with fascination as the shadowy ectoplasm of a fictional lesbian came out so to speak, and stood framed in the light. Though these are not mentioned in the book, I am thinking now of Marian Halcomb in Wilkie Collin's 'Woman in White' and the clear ventriloquistic lesbian sensitivity evinced by Phillip in Daphne du Maurier's ' My Cousin Rachael'. I would compare my experience of reading this book to hearing music at a great distance and suddenly recognizing the song being sung. When I got to the end of this book I didn't want the delightfully polemical essays to stop. Thank goodness for 'Youtube', which made it possible to hold the thread and continue the journey in a different place. I read two books by Maureen Duffy, one of the writers mentioned by Castle :'The Microcosm' and 'Alchemy'. I also began a fruitful search for Janet Flanner's articles in the 'New-Yorker'. What I am trying to say here is that this book makes one want to continue the exploration into the almost inexhaustible subject of lesbians hidden in the shadows of art and literature. There are very few writers, (though Camille Paglia as a fellow polemicist springs immediately to mind), who can write as well as Terry Castle. She is brilliant,literate,scholarly, original, and as a lesbian she is writing about her own world: What more could one want! - and it follows that the opportunity of reading her work is not to be missed. If you want to read more of her writing, - and see her art, you can also check out her blog.

Ghost Lesbians

Terry Castle writes with irreverence, responsibility, and respect for the role of lesbians in the arts. I should say the neglected role, because many of us had not ever heard of these writers and characters before. Read this, and then buy the books by the discussed authors in this text as I did, and you will be presently surprised.We need more research and writing like this in the world.