Lovers and Beloveds Sexual Otherness in Southern Fiction, 1936-1961

Summary: In this analysis of Southern literature, Gary Richards argues that issues of sexuality--and same-sex desire in particular--were of central importance in the literary production of the Southern Renaissance. He argues that the limiting of fictionalized deviancy to the twentieth century American south by the mainstream literary establishment was not a detriment to the canon. On the contrary, it produced brilliant writer...s such as Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, William Goyen, Harper Lee, Lillian Smith, and Richard Wright. These writers, in fact, used this designation of the literary establishment to create great narratives of same-sex desire and its relation to class, gender, sex, and race. [read more]