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A Chronological Look at Gay Literature

A Chronological Look at Gay Literature. Alan Semrow. Defining Gay Lit. Gay lit : socially important works featuring homosexual themes, homoerotic undertones, and/or gay or bisexual male protagonists (or supporting characters )

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A Chronological Look at Gay Literature

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  1. A Chronological Look at Gay Literature Alan Semrow

  2. Defining Gay Lit • Gay lit: socially important works featuring homosexual themes, homoerotic undertones, and/or gay or bisexual male protagonists (or supporting characters) • Queer lit: broader in scope than “gay lit” label; encapsulates all works with LGBT themes • Different history than lesbian lit or transgender writings • “I've always been proud of the fact that I've been openly gay longer than just about anybody writing today [...] but I never intended for that declaration to mean that I was narrowing my focus in any way, or joining a niche [...] now publishing has decided there's money in this, or at least a market [...] now a formalised thing has sprung up which I think is extremely detrimental to anybody beginning to write today. [...] It's possible to write a novel now which has gay themes, which has any truth you want to speak, that can be sold to a mainstream publisher and sold in a mainstream bookstore, so the notion of people who've narrowed their focus to only write books for a gay audience for gay people about gay people is stifling to me; in some ways, it's another form of the closet, as far as I'm concerned” –Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City

  3. Roots of Gay Lit • Greek myth • Plato’s Symposium (385-380 BCE) • Said to be first text written about homosexuality • Book of Samuel • Jonathan & David

  4. Shakespeare/Marlowe • Sodomy laws/church rulings result in inconspicuous homosexual undertones • Christopher Marlowe • Edward II (1593) • Shakespeare • Love Sonnets • Merchant of Venice (1596-1598)

  5. Whitman & the Wilde Trials • Walt Whitman • Leaves of Grass (1855) • Themes of comradeship and the embrace of men in “Calamus” • Oscar Wilde (Irish) • On trial for “gross indecency” • Activism results • The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) • “De Profundis”(1897) • Epistolary work written to Lord Alfred Douglas

  6. WWI Gay Lit • Thomas Mann (German) • Death in Venice (1912) • Largely considered first overt homosexual text • Marcel Proust (French) • In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927)

  7. Gay Lit: Post-WWI • Homoerotic undertones become more prominent during Modernist movement • EM Forster (English) • Writes, but does not publish the influential Maurice (written in 1913-14; published posthumously 1971) • DH Lawrence (English) • Women In Love (1920) • Virginia Woolf (English) • Mrs. Dalloway (1925) • Nella Larsen • Passing (1929) • Significant to Harlem Renaissance era • Djuna Barnes • Nightwood(1936) • Jean Genet (French) • Our Lady of the Flowers (1943) • Highly anthologized homosexual text

  8. Gay Lit Post-WWIIPost Depression-Era • Homosexual texts become more prominent, but barriers remain • Gore Vidal • The City & the Pillar (1948) • One of the first gay texts to depict explicit homosexual sex • James Baldwin • Giovanni’s Room (1956) • Allen Ginsberg • Howl (1956) • Landmark censorship trial • Truman Capote • Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) • Homosexuality concealed in novel for commercial reasons • William Burroughs • Naked Lunch (1959) • Obscenity trial • John Rechy • City of Night (1963) • Story of a gay hustler • Very explicit and controversial • Christopher Isherwood (English) • A Single Man (1964)

  9. Post-Stonewall Riots (1969) • Gay sexual, social, and political revolution • Gay lit gets commercial treatment (non-anthologized works) • Gordon Merrick • The Lord Won’t Mind (1970) • One of the first gay novels with happy ending (literally) • Patricia Nell Warren • The Front Runner (1974) • Armistead Maupin • Tales of the City first installment published (1976) • From literary standpoint • James Purdy • Narrow Rooms (1973) • Very transgressive for time • Manuel Puig (Argentinian) • Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) • Andrew Holleran • Dancer from the Dance (1978) • Larry Kramer • Faggots (1978) • Highly criticized by gay community at time of publication • Edmund White • A Boy’s of Story (1982) • David Leavitt • Family Dancing (1984)

  10. The Effects of AIDS Crisis(~1983) • Huge panic • Negative connotation attached to gay community • Writers focus attention to political writings • Larry Kramer’s A Normal Heart (1985)

  11. Contemporary Gay Lit • Recent outpour in celebrated gay literature • Advancements in AIDS medicine • Many successes in gay rights • Alan Hollinghurst (English) • The Swimming Pool Library (1988) • Michael Chabon • The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) • Dennis Cooper • Closer (1989), The Sluts (2005) • Michael Cunningham • A Home at the End of the World (1990), The Hours (1998) • Tony Kushner • Angels in America (1993) • Breathes new life into gay lit tradition • Annie Proulx • “Brokeback Mountain” (1997) • David Sedaris • Naked (1997) • Moises Kaufman • The Laramie Project (2000) • Augusten Burroughs • Sellevision(2000) • Jamie O’Neill (Irish) • At Swim, Two Boys (2001) • Instant gay classic • Andre Aciman • Call Me By Your Name (2007) • Alison Bechdel • Fun Home (2006) • Stephen McCauley • Insignificant Others (2010)

  12. Gay Young Adult Fiction • Stephen Chbosky • The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) • Brian Malloy • The Year of Ice (2002) • David Levithan • Boy Meets Boy (2003) • Perry Moore • Hero (2007)

  13. Current State of Gay Lit • More prominence, but remains difficult to get published • Much like movie business (Brokeback Mountain, A Single Man, Kinsey, Far from Heaven) • All indie • Behind the Candelabra (2013) • Meant for big screen • Reduced to HBO movie • Many gay lit authors go to independent presses with the hopes of crossing over • Many successes to come with further success in human rights

  14. Other (Surprising) Texts Cited as Queer Lit • Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde (1886) • Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) • Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) • John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937) • Carsen McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding (1946) • JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951) • Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) • John Knowles’ A Separate Peace (1959) • Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) • JG Ballard’s Crash (1973) • Bret Easten Ellis’s Less Than Zero (1985) & American Psycho (1991) • Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) & Invisible Monsters (1999) • John O’Brien’s Better (2009)

  15. Works Consulted • Blasius, Mark and Shane Phelan. We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics. New York: Routledge P, 1997. Print. • Bram, Christopher. Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America. New York: Hatchette Book Group, 2012. Print. • Fone, Byrne R.S, ed. The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. Print. • Stevens, Hugh, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Gay and Lesbian Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.

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