Are Girls Necessary?

Are Girls Necessary?

Lesbian Writing and Modern Histories

Julie Abraham

$22.50 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-5676-9

A forceful study of the complex relationship between sexuality and literature.

In this analysis of twentieth-century lesbian writing, Julie Abraham offers new readings of pulp novelists alongside high modernist—authors as various as Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Mary Renault, and Virginia Woolf—to examine how these writers created new lesbian narratives.

“Anyone with a poignant interest in lesbian writing—its history and ramifications in the literary world—will welcome the challenge presented in Abraham's studies.” —Lambda Book Report

“Valuable both for the perspicacity of the brilliant nuggets that turn up in Abraham’s excavation of her subject and for the clear, liberating distinction she makes between ‘lesbian novels’ and ‘lesbian writing.’” —Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review

“Contributes significantly to our understandings not only of the particular writers discussed but of literary modernism and lesbian writing more generally. Abraham’s book breaks new ground in its teasing out of the meanings and functions of ‘history’ in lesbian writing. It’s a must-read for scholars in the field—and not just because it has such a great title.” —Lesbian Review of Books

“The discussions of individual writers in Are Girls Necessary? are uniformly astute and provocative in company with one another.” —Women’s Review of Books

“Abraham’s book enters an ongoing debate about what constitutes a lesbian text or lesbian writing and offers a fascinating solution, with important insights into the uses of history by modernist lesbian writers. These insights warrant close attention.” —Modern Language Quarterly

“Carefully argued, intelligently written.” —Modern Language Review

“Forceful and original. An important contribution to lesbian studies.” —Modern Fiction Studies

Julie Abraham is professor of LGBT Studies at Sarah Lawrence College and the author of Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities (Minnesota, 2008).

240 pages | 6 x 9 | December 2008



Are Girls Necessary? *Lesbian Writing and Modern Histories* Julie Abraham		$22.50 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-5676-9
A forceful study of the complex relationship between sexuality and literature. In this analysis of twentieth-century lesbian writing, Julie Abraham offers new readings of pulp novelists alongside high modernist—authors as various as Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, Mary Renault, and Virginia Woolf—to examine how these writers created new lesbian narratives. “Anyone with a poignant interest in lesbian writing—its history and ramifications in the literary world—will welcome the challenge presented in Abraham's studies.” —Lambda Book Report “Valuable both for the perspicacity of the brilliant nuggets that turn up in Abraham’s excavation of her subject and for the clear, liberating distinction she makes between ‘lesbian novels’ and ‘lesbian writing.’” —Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review “Contributes significantly to our understandings not only of the particular writers discussed but of literary modernism and lesbian writing more generally. Abraham’s book breaks new ground in its teasing out of the meanings and functions of ‘history’ in lesbian writing. It’s a must-read for scholars in the field—and not just because it has such a great title.” —Lesbian Review of Books “The discussions of individual writers in Are Girls Necessary? are uniformly astute and provocative in company with one another.” —Women’s Review of Books “Abraham’s book enters an ongoing debate about what constitutes a lesbian text or lesbian writing and offers a fascinating solution, with important insights into the uses of history by modernist lesbian writers. These insights warrant close attention.” —Modern Language Quarterly “Carefully argued, intelligently written.” —Modern Language Review “Forceful and original. An important contribution to lesbian studies.” —Modern Fiction Studies Julie Abraham is professor of LGBT Studies at Sarah Lawrence College and the author of Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities (Minnesota, 2008). 240 pages \| 6 x 9 \| December 2008