Transgender and The Literary Imagination: Changing Gender in Twentieth-Century Writing

Book info: Transgender and The Literary Imagination: Changing Gender in Twentieth-Century Writing (Hardcover, 256 pages) – Edinburgh University Press, 2018. Language: English.

Explores the depiction of transgender identity in twentieth-century and contemporary literary fictionTransgender and the Literary Imagination is the first full length study to revisit twentieth century narratives and their afterlives, examining the extent to which they have reflected, shaped or transformed changing understandings of gender. Grounded in feminist scholarship, informed by queer theory and indebted to transgender studies, this book investigates the ways in which transgender identities and histories have been ‘authored by others’, with a focus on literary fiction by British, Irish and American authors, life writing and adaptation for stage and screen.Key Features:First full length study of the representation of transgender characters in twentieth century literary fictionEssential overview of key critical issues for the analysis of transgender representation in literary fiction, informed by contemporary cultural debates Original readings of a selection of fiction by British, Irish and American authors, including Angela Carter, Patricia Duncker, David Ebershoff, Jackie Kay and George MooreOriginal readings of award-winning film adaptations, Albert Nobbs (2011) and The Danish Girl (2016)

From the Inside Flap This incisive, carefully researched and lucid book makes a significant and original contribution to transgender studies, placing thought-provoking new readings of five culturally influential twentieth-century texts and their afterlives on stage and screen in the context of second-wave and contemporary debates in feminist, queer, intersex and transgender theory. The particular strength of the study is its close attention to the complex relationship between explorations of gender/sex border crossing and discourses of race and migration. Ann Heilmann, Cardiff UniversityExplores the depiction of transgender identity in twentieth-centuryTransgender and the Literary Imagination is the first full length study to revisit twentieth-century narratives and their afterlives, examining the extent to which they have reflected, shaped or transformed changing understandings of gender. Grounded in feminist scholarship, informed by queer theory and indebted to transgender studies, this book investigates the ways in which transgender identities and histories have been authored by others , with a focus on literary fiction by British, Irish and American authors, life writing and adaptation for stage and screen.Rachel Carroll is Reader in English at Teesside University, UK.Cover image: Cassils, Becoming An Image Performance Still No. 2 (National Theater Studio, SPILL Festival, London), 2013. Photo: Cassils with Manuel Vason. Courtesy the artist and Ronald Feldman Gallery, New YorkCover design:[EUP logo]edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN 978-1-4744-1466-1Barcode From the Back Cover ‘This incisive, carefully researched and lucid book makes a significant and original contribution to transgender studies, placing thought-provoking new readings of five culturally influential twentieth-century texts and their afterlives on stage and screen in the context of second-wave and contemporary debates in feminist, queer, intersex and transgender theory. The particular strength of the study is its close attention to the complex relationship between explorations of gender/sex border crossing and discourses of race and migration.’Ann Heilmann, Cardiff UniversityExplores the depiction of transgender identity in twentieth-centuryTransgender and the Literary Imagination is the first full length study to revisit twentieth-century narratives and their afterlives, examining the extent to which they have reflected, shaped or transformed changing understandings of gender. Grounded in feminist scholarship, informed by queer theory and indebted to transgender studies, this book investigates the ways in which transgender identities and histories have been ‘authored by others’, with a focus on literary fiction by British, Irish and American authors, life writing and adaptation for stage and screen.Rachel Carroll is Reader in English at Teesside University, UK.Cover image: Cassils, Becoming An Image Performance Still No. 2 (National Theater Studio, SPILL Festival, London), 2013. Photo: Cassils with Manuel Vason. Courtesy the artist and Ronald Feldman Gallery, New YorkCover design:[EUP logo]edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN 978-1-4744-1466-1Barcode About the Author Rachel Carroll is Reader in English at Teesside University, UK. She is author of Rereading Heterosexuality: Feminism, Queer Theory and Contemporary Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2012) and editor of Adaptation in Contemporary Culture: Textual Infidelities (Continuum, 2009) and Litpop: Writing and Popular Music (with Adam Hansen, Ashgate, 2014). Her research has been published in journals including Adaptation, Contemporary Women’s Writing, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Textual Practice and Women: a cultural review.