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America's "White" cultural and sexual dissensus: The fictions of Edmund White

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Tony Purvis

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Abstract

This essay examines the representation of sexuality and identity in the fictions of American novelist Edmund White. Gay sexuality and identity politics are discussed in relation to "coming out, " the discourse of American identity, and whiteness. White's output is shaped and informed by the cultural, historical and political circumstances which have conditioned how gay male sexuality has been discursively shaped over the last forty years. Yet his work has been inflected by theorizations of sexuality which have called into question the very specificity of a homosexual and/or gay identity. Who is White's audience today, and who wants to read a "white " boy's story anyway? © 2008 Cambridge University Press.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Purvis T

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of American Studies

Year: 2008

Volume: 42

Issue: 2

Pages: 293-316

Date deposited: 10/08/2011

ISSN (print): 0021-8758

ISSN (electronic): 1469-5154

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021875808004696

DOI: 10.1017/S0021875808004696

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