Research Guides: Literature: LGBTQ

Book Choices

ISHERWOOD: Single Man
Call Number: On the shelf under PR6017 .S5 S5x 1978 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780374533878
George is a gay middle-aged English professor, adjusting to solitude after the tragic death of his young partner.
WARREN: Front Runner
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3573 .A776 F7x / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780964109964
A gifted gay athelete is threatened with outing on his way to the Olympic games.
BALDWIN: Another Country
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3552 .A45 A9x 1962 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780679744719
Novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.
BROWN: Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Call Number: SKYCTC Book Stacks PS3552.R698 R8 1988
ISBN: 9781101965122
Publication Date: 1988, c1973
In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America.
CUNNINGHAM: Hours
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3553 .U484 H68 1998 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780312243029
Draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.
HIGHSMITH: Price of Salt, or Carol
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3558.I366 P7 2004 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780393325997
Drama of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose routine is forever shattered by a gorgeous epiphany--the appearance of Carol Aird, a customer who comes in to buy her daughter a Christmas toy.
HOLLERAN: Dancer from the Dance by Holleran
Call Number: On the Shelf under PS3558.O3496 D3 2001 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780060937065
Depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene.
BANNON: Beebo Brinker
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3552.A495 B44 2003 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9781573441254
A classic 1960s coming out story, Beebo Brinker introduces the title character: a butch 17 year old farm girl named Beebo, newly arrived in Beat-era Greenwich Village after she is kicked out of her Wisconsin home town for wearing her brother's clothes to the State Fair.
STEIN: Three Lives
Call Number: Online from Open Source
ISBN: 9780140181845
Portraits of Anna and Lena are examples of realistic depictions of immigrant women who had no occupational choice but to become domestic workers.
MILLER: Patience and Sarah
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3563.I39 P53 2005x / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9781551521916
Traces the relationship between Patience White - an educated painter - and Sarah Dowling, a cross-dressing farmer.
SHCULMAN: After Delores
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3569 .C5393 .A69 1989 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9781551525150
No-nonsense coffee shop waitress in New York's bohemian Lower East Side nursing a broken heart after her girlfriend Dolores leaves her for another woman.
WHITE: Our Young Man
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3573.H463 O97 2016 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9781408858967
Follows the life of a gorgeous Frenchman, Guy, as he goes from the industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand to the top of the modeling profession in New York City's fashion world, becoming the darling of Fire Island's gay community. L
MONETTE: Afterlife
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3563 .O523 A69 1990 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780380711970
Novel of three AIDS widowers, all of whom lost their lovers in the same week.
FEINBERG: Stone Butch Blues
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3556.E427 S76 2003 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9781555838539
Complexities of a transgendered existence. Woman or man? That's the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity.
ALLISON: Bastard Out of Carolina
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3551 .L453 B37 1993x / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780452297753
Story of Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective.
RUSSELL: Sea of Tranquility
Call Number: On the shelf under PS3568 .U7684 S4 1994 / WKU Libraries (Cravens)
ISBN: 9780312303723
Traces a disintegrating nuclear family across two tumultuous decades of American life - from the early '60s to the '80s - and is told in a quartet of voices: astronaut Allen Cloud, his wife, their gay son, Jonathan, and his friend/lover.
JENNINGS: I Am Jazz by (Herthel, Jennings)
Call Number: SKYCTC Main Book Stacks HQ77.7 .H467 2014
ISBN: 9780803741072
Publication Date: 2014-09-04
The picture book story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids.
Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin (Photographer)
Call Number: Southcentral Ky Main - Book Stacks HQ77.9 .K85 2015
ISBN: 9780763673680
Publication Date: 2015-03-10
Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender identity.

Recommended Databases

Gender Studies
This collection of journals aims to provide balanced coverage of this significant aspect of our culture, covering such topics as gender studies, family and marital issues, health aspects, and many more.
Watch this short video on how to use this database:
Ebook Central
SKYCTC's ebooks from ProQuest. Includes thousands of ebooks from leading publishers like Wiley, 130 university presses, and more. Collections cover subjects such as: biology, business management, computer science/IT, education, engineering & manufacturing, history, literature, nursing and other health-related fields, physical sciences, psychology, religious studies and sociology.
eBooks from Master Academic eBook Collection (Infobase)
With more than 2,500 core reference works from the Facts On File, Ferguson’s, and Bloom’s imprints. Coverage includes a wide range of academic subject areas—from literature and language reference, to world history, religion, and philosophy. Also includes Literary Classics eBook collection and Sacred Text eBook collection.
Academic Video Online
Academic Video Online (AVON) spans a wide range of subject areas. Includes content like documentaries, films, and demonstrations from publishers like the BBC, PBS, and Sony.

General Resources for Critical Analysis

GENERAL: Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Popular Culture by Prono
Call Number: Online from SKYCTC Library with Username and Password
ISBN: 9780313335990
During the 20th century through today, gay and lesbian artists, writers, political activists, and sports figures contributed their talents to all areas of popular culture.
WARREN: Fair Play by Zeigler
Call Number: Online from SKYCTC Library with Username and Password
ISBN: 9781617754470
How sport has been radically transformed for LGBT athletes in the past four years.
STEIN: Two Lives by Malcolm
Call Number: Online from SKYCTC Library with Username and Password
ISBN: 9780300125511
Pursues the truth of the couple's charmed life in a village in Vichy France. Portrait of the legendary couple that emerges from this work is unexpectedly charged.
STEIN: Gertrude Stein and the Essence of What Happens by Watson
Call Number: Online from SKYCTC Library with Username and Password
ISBN: 9780826514622
Traces Gertrude Stein's growing fascination with the cognitive and political ramifications of conversation and how that interest influenced her writing over the course of her career.
SCHULMAN: The Gentrification of the Mind
Call Number: Online from SKYCTC Library with Username and Password
ISBN: 9780520264779
Takes us back to Lower East Side and brings it to life, filling these pages with vivid memories of her avant-garde queer friends and dramatically recreating the early years of the AIDS crisis as experienced by a political insider.

Articles and Websites

ISHERWOOD: Article from Journal of Modern Literature
A Single Man functions as an elegy for a literary tradition that has been supplanted by a germophobic post-war American culture.
ISHERWOOD: Article from Lambda Book Report
Profiles gay author Christopher Isherwood. Activities held as part of the celebration of Isherwood's 100th birthday in August 2004.
WARREN: Interview on NPR
Author talks about gay athletes in pro sports and throughout history.
BALDWIN: Article from Journal of Modern Literature
James Baldwin’s Another Country (1962) reflects his engagement in the turmoil of the American present and the uncertainty of its future.
BALDWIN: Article from African American Review
Universal problems of sexuality; Arguments of the literary work; Issues tackled; Criticisms from other literary writers.
CUNNINGHAM: Article from Hecate
Examines the representation of the relationship of author Virginia Woolf to everyday life in the motion picture "The Hours."
CUNNINGHAM: Article from Narrative
Focuses on the theory of exquisite moments and the temporality of the kiss referring to "Mrs. Dalloway" and "The Hours". It looks into perspectives of several queer theorists, such as Kathryn Bond Stockton, Annamarie Jagose and Judith Halberstam, interpreting the theory of the moment of kiss.
HIGHSMITH: Article from New Yorker
Emphasis is given to the romantic relationship between the women characters, the role of obsession in Highsmith's work, and the author's own lesbian relationships.
HOLLERAN: Article from Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television
Discusses the portrayal of male masculinity in television. Information on the television program 'Dancing: A Man's Game'; Comparison of beauty of movement with effeminacy of movement; Nature of masculine beauty.
BANNON: Interview from Lambda Book Report
Interviews Ann Bannon, a writer of lesbian fiction, about her written works. Role model as a lesbian writer; Relations with her contemporaries; Origins of the characters of her lesbian fiction.
BANNON: Article from Feminist Studies
Contends that the novel `Beebo Brinker,' by Ann Bannon, appears to substantiate an understanding of gender as monadic, as singly and solely male.
BANNON: Article from Signs
Looks at lesbian novels to think about how pulps in particular have helped to create a lesbian print culture.
STEIN: Article from Journal of Modern Literature
This article is organized around two central claims. Publishing Steins difficult writings, as well as her more accessible texts. New media to position Stein as an atypical literary star.
MILLER: Article from Gay Community News
Novelist Isabel Miller died in Oct 1996 at the age of 72. She is known for her lesbian romance novels.
SCHULMAN: Article from Shofar
Examines the formal and thematic connections Schulman draws between Jewish American characters' cultural inheritance of a history of genocide, and their contemporary experiences as witnesses to the AIDS crisis.
SCHULMAN: Article from Herizens
An interview with author Sarah Schulman is presented. She talks about reprinting of her book "After Delores," lesbian writing and why she did not publish a book for ten years.
WHITE: Article from The New York Times
Adaptation of 19th-century French novel with updated characters and ideas for New York's gay scene of the 1980s.
MONETTE: Article from Biography
Explores the gay identity of Paul Monette. Shift from isolation to liberation; Monette's battle with AIDS; Books written by Monette.
MONETTE: Article from Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Focuses on the creation of sacred space in the autobiographical writings of AIDS victim Paul Monette and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in the United States.
FEINBERG: Article from Radical Teacher
Answers questions of gender studies on people of all genders. Asserts that Feinberg addresses how gender identity and gender expression are determined by external forces.
FEINBERG: Article from Journal of Gender Studies
Seeks to engage Rosi Braidotti's work on memory and Elspeth Probyn's on shame to analyse the novel Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. Asserts that shame is a site of desire for connection and not solely humiliation.
ALLISON: Article from Mississippi Quarterly
A literary critique is presented of the novel "Bastard Out of Carolina," by Dorothy Allison, particularly focusing on how the novel is a revision of the Southern Gothic literary genre.
WHITE: Article from College Literature
The coming out novel has repeatedly come under fire for complying with heterodominance through its supposed focus on visibility and its believed teleology. The article counters these criticisms by means of three classic coming out stories.
RUSSELL: Blog post from author
Author's explanation for erotic elements in his novels.