Inside/out : Lesbian theories, gay theories /

A wonderfully diverse collection of original papers dealing with issues and questions relating to lesbians, gays, and sexuality in late 20th-century Western society. Editor Fuss teaches English at Princeton; if the volume can be said to have a perspective it is one informed by postmodern literary criticism. This means that the uninitiated will have to wade through a fair amount of jargon, but the effort is worth making. The collection is divided into five sections and contains papers on gender identity, the arts, the body, AIDS, and education. Virtually all of the papers question conventional wisdom and many offer acute, irreverent, and, occasionally, angry points of view. It is difficult to single out particular contributions, but Carole-Anne Tyler on ^D["The Politics of Gay Drag,^D]" Judith Mayne on lesbian authorship, Ellis Hanson on gays viewed as modern vampires, and Cindy Patton on pornography and safe sex should serve as a good sample. This collection will be required reading for those in gay and lesbian studies and for anyone else interested in nontraditional perspectives on sexuality.