Jeanette H. Foster (1895–1981)

Sex Variant Women in Literature is without a doubt a fantastic project. As the title suggests, it traces the appearance of sex variant women (and a few authors) within literature from Sappho's poetry to Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt. This book is, however, a very tedious treatment of an otherwise interesting subject. The summaries of many works are dully formulaic, and discussions of some authors are completely unnecessary (e.g. why spend two pages in saying that George Eliot was butch but probably not a lesbian? Need "variance" cover every single woman who might also be called "mannish"?). Still other of Foster's literary interpretations are highly suspect and you may end by wondering if you were reading the same book as she.

Don't get me wrong, though. Studies like this are tremendously valuable in guiding one towards other interesting works worth reading; this just isn't the most interesting approach. For a more engaging survey of lesbian literature and trends therein, I highly recommend Lillian Faderman's anthology, Chloe plus Olivia.… (altro)