Queering the Underworld - 9780226327907

The University of Chicago Press

Queering the UnderworldSlumming, Literature, and the Undoing of Lesbian and Gay History\nAuthor(s): Scott Herring\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: The University of Chicago Press, United States\nImprint: University of Chicago Press\nISBN-13: 9780226327907, 978-0226327907\nSynopsis\nAt the start of the twentieth century, tales of \""how the other half lives\"" experienced a surge in popularity. People looking to go slumming without leaving home turned to these narratives for spectacular revelations of the underworld and sordid details about the deviants who populated it. In this major rethinking of American literature and culture, Scott Herring explores how a key group of authors manipulated this genre to paradoxically evade the confines of sexual identification. \""Queering the Underworld\"" examines a range of writers, from Jane Addams and Willa Cather to Carl Van Vechten and Djuna Barnes, revealing how they fulfilled the conventions of slumming literature but undermined its goals and in t.