Girl meets girl: sexual sitings in lesbian romantic comedies

Hollywood romantic comedies are, by and large, an ideologically conservative genre. Based around gender stereotypes and the idealised pursuit, however disguised, of heteropatriarchal monogamy, Hollywood romantic comedies offer countless variations of heteronormative ‘intimacy’. How, then, does the shift from ‘boy meets girl’ to ‘girl meets girl’ in lesbian romantic comedies—a genre that emerged in 1994 with the release of films like Bar Girls and Go Fish—effect the representation of intimacy? This chapter focuses on Better than Chocolate to investigate how lesbian intimacies, and lesbian sex in particular, occupy space. Where are lesbian intimacies sited and what, if any, negotiations of space are triggered through the embodiment of those intimacies? Ultimately, this chapter argues that through an unusually explicit emphasis on sex, Better than Chocolate draws attention to the limited public mobility of lesbian intimacies through a consistent siting of lesbian sex as a site of spatial negotiation

Re-Placing Africa in The Snows of Kilimanjaro : The Intersecting Economies of Capitalist-Imperialism and Hemingway Biography

Concerned with the critical arguments surrounding Harry’s artistic redemption. Moddelmog contends that in both “Snows” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” the white characters share imperialistic attitudes towards Africa and its inhabitants, thus subjecting them to domination. Concludes that their colonial relationship with the Africans is “made possible by national ideologies in which the subjugation of a foreign land and its people is seen as just and ethical.” Warns that as we examine the works for ourselves, we too must be aware of our limitations in constructing the ethical stance of the author

Telling Stories from Hemingway’s FBI File: Conspiracy, Paranoia, and Masculinity

Discusses the many stories and novels appearing since Hemingway’s suicide aiming to reveal the truth of his association with the FBI and recover his heroic stature, including Simmons’s The Crook Factory (1999) and Padura Fuentes’s Adiós Hemingway (2005). Assessing the author’s difficult association with Hoover, Moddelmog writes: “Hoover and Hemingway, both overly sensitive and anxious about their masculinity, would develop an antipathy toward each other.

Reading Desire: In Pursuit of Ernest Hemingway

Postructuralist exploration of how socially constructed concepts of sexuality and power shape readers’ images of Hemingway’s sexual identity and influence interpretations of his texts. Moddelmog discusses castration, cross-dressing, and homosexuality in The Sun Also Rises and the excision of lesbian and homosexual passages in The Garden of Eden manuscripts aimed at preserving Hemingway’s public image and protecting Scribner’s interests. Also examines the imperialistic attitudes toward Africa and its inhabitants by white characters in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Contends that even Look’s pictorial-article (1954) reveals the superiority of white expertise

Queer Families in Hemingway’s Fiction

Argues that the “queer” families found in Hemingway’s texts often stand in opposition to tradition, highlighting the dysfunction and perversions of conventional heterosexual relationships and families. Makes use of “The Battler,” The Garden of Eden, and “The Last Good Country” in her analysis, noting the importance of choice in sustaining relationships and ethical considerations, including incest

Protecting the Hemingway Myth: Casting Out Forbidden Desires from \u3cem\u3eGarden of Eden\u3c/em\u3e

Manuscript study lamenting Tom Jenks’s editing of the manuscript perpetuating Hemingway’s public image to protect Scribner’s interest. Fills in missing material on lesbian and homosexual themes central to the novel’s conflicts to “show that Hemingway’s manuscript is obsessed with desires that transgress cultural laws.

Corrupt Reading in/of Hemingway’s A Simple Enquiry

Contextualizes the story within the prevailing theories of sexologists and psychiatrists of Hemingway’s time identifying homosexuality as a mental disorder or perversion that can be read through one’s body, behavior, and demeanor. Moddelmog details her approach for engaging students in a rereading of the story that examines the ethical implications of these reading practices that resulted in the creation of the “corrupt” homosexual, reading practices that continue to influence contemporary criticism. Argues that a close reading of the text’s numerous ambiguities opens up a range of plausible interpretations and point to Hemingway’s opposition to oversimplified judgments regarding sexuality. Appendix includes assignments and resources for student research

Hemingway and Queer Studies

Recounts the near simultaneous appearance of scholarly queer studies and new ideas on Hemingway\u27s life and work engendered by the publication of The Garden of Eden in 1986, resulting eventually in the idea of queer Hemingway, though not always a Hemingway grounded by queer theorizing. Moddelmog surveys the two major strains of critical attention to sexuality and gender in Hemingway-the psychoanalytic and sociohistorical-which emerged and expanded in the last two decades. Current and recent studies have only begun to consider variations on queer studies that deal with race and nationalism, for example, and to approach Hemingway through the lens of trans studies. Argues that further work should dig deeper into Hemingway\u27s oeuvre, beyond the usual sources in these fields-The Garden of Eden, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, Mr. and Mrs. Elliot, and The Sea Change ; into the biographical record and correspondence; and to locate him in the emergent ideas of queer modernity

Reading between the Lions

Decries True at First Light’s slow pace, thin plot, underdeveloped relationships, and lack of self-reflection. Moddelmog muses on whether the full manuscript might overcome some of these limitations and provide, for example, greater insight into Hemingway’s adoption of black African racial identity and unceasing rejection of homosexual desire

State of the Field: Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Hemingway

Overview of important traditions and trends in Hemingway scholarship regarding the intertwined subjects of gender and sexuality. Moddelmog traces the evolution of the field, particularly the sea change occurring with the rise of gender and queer theories, the 1975 opening of Hemingway’s papers, and the posthumous publications, most notably The Garden of Eden