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America's “White” Cultural and Sexual Dissensus: The Fictions of Edmund White

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2008

TONY PURVIS
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Abstract

This essay examines the representation of sexuality and identity in the fictions of American novelist Edmund White. Gay sexuality and identity politics are discussed in relation to “coming out,” the discourse of American identity, and whiteness. White's output is shaped and informed by the cultural, historical and political circumstances which have conditioned how gay male sexuality has been discursively shaped over the last forty years. Yet his work has been inflected by theorizations of sexuality which have called into question the very specificity of a homosexual and/or gay identity. Who is White's audience today, and who wants to read a “white” boy's story anyway?

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , August 2008 , pp. 293 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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