Random Notes

■ Gay Nineties: Women’s Studies, Afro- American Studies, Hispanic Studies—to the current array of academic ghetto disciplines get ready to add the latest. Columbia University Press announces it will begin publishing a series of books, “Between Men, Between Women,” which Executive Editor Louise Waller says will help “legitimate Gay and Lesbian Studies as a course of study—just as Women’s Studies came up a few years ago.” Already, she says, departments and centers have popped up on several American campuses, including Yale, San Francisco City College, and the City University of New York.

At left-leaning Routledge, Editorial Director William Germano, with a similar series of his own, says he’s looking forward to the “Gay Nineties.” Of the dozen or so titles Germano has planned for the near future, the most instructive looks to be Lesbian and Gay Theories, a collection of essays edited by Diana Fuss of Princeton. According to Professor Fuss, her book will attempt to map out the field as it’s developed so far. Some sample entries: Sue-Ellen Case (University of Washington) on “Excavating the Psyche-Ecology of Lesbian Vampires.” An essay by Cindy Patton (UMass Amherst) on safe sex—in which, according to Professor Fuss, Professor Patton “deploys psychoanalytic lesbian- feminist film theory to pose the question of what makes sex ‘safe’ in safe-sex videos.” An essay by Michele Barale (Amherst College) on “(Un)Dressing the Lesbian Text,” in which Professor Barale addresses “the semiotics of lesbian book covers.” And don’t forget Wayne Koestenbaum (Yale University), who’ll be writing on the “poetics of gay porn” and the “evolution of gay discourse in the physique magazines of the 1950s.” Where can we sign up?

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.

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■ Gay Nineties: Women’s Studies, Afro- American Studies, Hispanic Studies—to the current array of academic ghetto disciplines get ready to add the latest. Columbia University Press announces it will begin publishing a series of books, “Between Men, Between Women,” which Executive Editor Louise Waller says will help “legitimate Gay and Lesbian Studies as a course of study—just as Women’s Studies came up a few years ago.” Already, she says, departments and centers have popped up on several American campuses, including Yale, San Francisco City College, and the City University of New York.

At left-leaning Routledge, Editorial Director William Germano, with a similar series of his own, says he’s looking forward to the “Gay Nineties.” Of the dozen or so titles Germano has planned for the near future, the most instructive looks to be Lesbian and Gay Theories, a collection of essays edited by Diana Fuss of Princeton. According to Professor Fuss, her book will attempt to map out the field as it’s developed so far. Some sample entries: Sue-Ellen Case (University of Washington) on “Excavating the Psyche-Ecology of Lesbian Vampires.” An essay by Cindy Patton (UMass Amherst) on safe sex—in which, according to Professor Fuss, Professor Patton “deploys psychoanalytic lesbian- feminist film theory to pose the question of what makes sex ‘safe’ in safe-sex videos.” An essay by Michele Barale (Amherst College) on “(Un)Dressing the Lesbian Text,” in which Professor Barale addresses “the semiotics of lesbian book covers.” And don’t forget Wayne Koestenbaum (Yale University), who’ll be writing on the “poetics of gay porn” and the “evolution of gay discourse in the physique magazines of the 1950s.” Where can we sign up?

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.