[DOWNLOAD] "Cotton's Queer Relations" by Michael P. Bibler ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Cotton's Queer Relations
Author : Michael P. Bibler
Release Date : January 05, 2009
Genre: Literary Criticism,Books,Fiction & Literature,
Pages : * pages
Size : 909 KB

Description

Finally breaking through heterosexual clichés of flirtatious belles and
cavaliers, sinister black rapists and lusty "Jezebels," Cotton’s Queer Relations
exposes the queer dynamics embedded in myths of the southern plantation. Focusing on works by
Ernest J. Gaines, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Lillian Hellman, Katherine Anne Porter,
Margaret Walker, William Styron, and Arna Bontemps, Michael P. Bibler shows how each one uses
figures of same-sex intimacy to suggest a more progressive alternative to the pervasive
inequalities tied historically and symbolically to the South’s most iconic
institution.

Bibler looks specifically at relationships between white men of the
planter class, between plantation mistresses and black maids, and between black men, arguing
that while the texts portray the plantation as a rigid hierarchy of differences, these queer
relations privilege a notion of sexual sameness that joins the individuals as equals in a system
where equality is rare indeed. Bibler reveals how these models of queer egalitarianism attempt
to reconcile the plantation’s regional legacies with national debates about equality and
democracy, particularly during the eras of the New Deal, World War II, and the civil rights
movement. Cotton’s Queer Relations charts bold new territory in southern studies and queer
studies alike, bringing together history and cultural theory to offer innovative readings of
classic southern texts.

A book in the American Literatures Initiative
(ALI), a collaborative publishing project supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more
information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.