Heroic Desire: Lesbian Identity and Cultural Space

by Sally R. Munt

Heroic Desire performs its title--bold, challenging, seductive, and compelling--a vital and exciting addition to the discourse on lesbian identities, their dissolves and perpetual becomings. Sure to incite and inspire."
—Lynda Hart, Author of Fatal Lesbian Sexuality and the Mark of Aggression
"Right on the edge of exciting and daring new writing on lesbian representation. Moving beyond post- modernism's rejection of identity politics, Munt draws on a wealth of scholarship and personal reflection to refigure the heroic narrative in the service of lesbian liberation strategies. A thoughtful and thought- provoking book."
—Esther Newton , State University of New York, Purchase
"In Heroic Desire Sally Munt revisits identity politics through the figure of the lesbian hero. The result is one of the most exciting works of lesbian theory to appear in years. Written in a strong and engaging personal voice, Heroic Desire will excite, provoke, enlighten, and entertain the reader with this original insights into questions of lesbian identity, culture, and community."
—Bonnie Zimmerman, San Diego State University

Genres: LGBT, Lesbian

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Sally Rowena Munt, DPhil. is Professor and Director of the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies. She has published widely on cultures of otherness and social justice, and is the author of Queer Attachments: The Cultural Politics of Shame (Ashgate 2007).

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why am I such a big fan of this book? It's probably one of the only ones that does not focus on "shame" "violence" "death" and "suicide." It was an uplifting read, for once. It provides a space to think about something uplifting in a critically engaged way. I tend to think it's much harder to write on "positive" topics for fear that there's not enough drama to pull us through, but Munt reminds us that to be a "hero," means surviving major trials and tribulations! HAHA

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

又要说我已经重复了好多次的评价：和我之前看的关于主体与空间的女性文本很接近。前面关于hero/flâneur/butch的比较老生常谈，还是聚焦在边缘与他者之上。不过关于flâneur，倒让我第一次认真回忆起曾经看过的女同小说，重新认识了这种在城市中游荡、注视，进行主体实践，抵抗主流文化中les缺席的反抗。没想到最后一章临近结尾又让我看到了符合当下时代的话题：queer或lesbian nation这种建立在共同体上的概念，以身份认知为基础，让人们组建起群体获得空间，但也一定会制造排除……落点最终回到love，接受并承认差异与失落，在没有归属的世界里，人们该如何与彼此建立联系，也许是个恒久的话题