LEADER 04331nam 2200625Ia 450 001 9910778449003321 005 20221108093117.0 010 $a0-674-02087-1 024 7 $a10.4159/9780674020870 035 $a(CKB)1000000000805641 035 $a(StDuBDS)AH24023335 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000172898 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11161858 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000172898 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10163130 035 $a(PQKB)10856116 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3300727 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10331313 035 $a(OCoLC)923117080 035 $a(DE-B1597)571762 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674020870 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3300727 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000805641 100 $a19961206d1996 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aHomos$b[electronic resource] /$fLeo Bersani 205 $a1st Harvard University Press pbk ed. 210 $aCambridge, MA $cHarvard University Press$d[1996] 215 $a1 online resource (208 p.) 300 $aOriginally published: 1995. 311 $a0-674-40619-2 311 $a0-674-40620-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [185]-201) and index. 327 $aPrologue: "We" 1. The Gay Presence 2. The Gay Absence 3. The Gay Daddy 4. The Gay Outlaw Notes Index 330 $aAddresses homosexuality in modern culture. This text discusses queer theory, Foucault and psychoanalysis, the politics of sadomasochism, and the image of "the gay outlaw" in works by Gide, Proust and Genet. 330 $bAcclaimed for his intricate, incisive, and often controversial explorations of art, literature, and society, Leo Bersani now addresses homosexuality in America. Hardly a day goes by without the media focusing an often sympathetic beam on gay life--and, with AIDS, on gay death. Gay plays on Broadway, big book awards to authors writing on gay subjects, Hollywood movies with gay themes, gay and lesbian studies at dozens of universities, openly gay columnists and even editors at national mainstream publications, political leaders speaking in favor of gay rights: it seems that straight America has finally begun to listen to homosexual America. Still, Bersani notes, not only has homophobia grown more virulent, but many gay men and lesbians themselves are reluctant to be identified as homosexuals. In Homos , he studies the historical, political, and philosophical grounds for the current distrust, within the gay community, of self-identifying moves, for the paradoxical desire to be invisibly visible. While acknowledging the dangers of any kind of group identification (if you can be singled out, you can be disciplined), Bersani argues for a bolder presentation of what it means to be gay. In their justifiable suspicion of labels, gay men and lesbians have nearly disappeared into their own sophisticated awareness of how they have been socially constructed. By downplaying their sexuality, gays risk self-immolation--they will melt into the stifling culture they had wanted to contest. In his chapters on contemporary queer theory, on Foucault and psychoanalysis, on the politics of sadomasochism, and on the image of "the gay outlaw" in works by Gide, Proust, and Genet, Bersani raises the exciting possibility that same-sex desire by its very nature can disrupt oppressive social orders. His spectacular theory of "homo-ness" will be of interest to straights as well as gays, for it designates a mode of connecting to the world embodied in, but not reducible to, a sexual preference. The gay identity Bersani advocates is more of a force--as such, rather cool to the modest goal of social tolerance for diverse lifestyles--which can lead to a massive redefining of sociality itself, and of what we might expect from human communities. 606 $aHomosexuality$xPhilosophy 606 $aGay men$xPsychology 606 $aHomosexuality in literature 615 0$aHomosexuality$xPhilosophy. 615 0$aGay men$xPsychology. 615 0$aHomosexuality in literature. 676 $a305.906642 700 $aBersani$b Leo$0457659 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910778449003321 996 $aHomos$9881214 997 $aUNINA