The first book-length study to explore the importance of genre for the body of literature we call lesbian modernism
Popular fiction is seen as a staple of late-twentieth-century and contemporary lesbian cultural production, but this has largely been perceived as a recent development. Elizabeth English breaks new ground by providing a kind of pre-history to lesbian cultural identity, where popular genre fictions presented an alternative creative strategy against censorship. The Well of Loneliness trial and consequent ban forced writers to question how they could and should...

Elizabeth English explores the aesthetic dilemma prompted by the censorship of Radclyffe Hall's novel The Well of Loneliness in 1928. Faced with legal and financial reprisals, women writers were forced to question how they might represent lesbian identity and desire.