Synopses & Reviews
This pioneering collection of previously unpublished articles on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender language combines queer theory and feminist theory with the latest thinking on language and gender. The book expands the field well beyond the study of "gay slang" to consider gay dialects (such as Polari in England), early modern discourse on gay practices, and late twentieth-century descriptions of homosexuality. These essays examine the conversational patterns of queer speakers in a wide variety of settings, from women's friendship groups to university rap groups and electronic mail postings.
Taking a global--rather than regional--approach, the contributors herein study the language usage of sexually liminal communities in a variety of linguistic and cultural contexts, such as lesbian speakers of American Sign Language, Japanese gay male couples, Hindi-speaking hijras (eunuchs) in North India, Hausa-speaking 'yan daudu (feminine men) in Nigeria, and French and Yiddish gay groups. The most accessible and diverse collection of its kind, Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality sets a new standard in the study of language's impact on the construction of sexuality.
Review
"This work is a wonderfully readable anthology of recent research in the relatively new field of queer linguistics....an excellent survey...a good introduction to the field for graduate students and professional anthropologists and linguists."--Anthropological Linguistics
"Breaks new ground....Recommended for academic collections and large comprehensive gay and lesbian public library collections."--Library Journal
"The editors are to be thanked for having assembled such a rich feast."--The Women's Review of Books
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Anna Livia and Kira Hall, EditorsPart 1: LAVENDER LEXICALITY
Two Lavender Issues for Linguists, Arnold Zwicky, Stanford University and Ohio State University
The Elusive Bisexual: Social Categorization and Lexico-Semantic Change, M. Lynne Murphy
Les Molles et les chausses: Mapping the Isle of Hermaphrodites in Pre-Modern France, Randy P. Conner, University of Texas
The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Ian Lucas
Pots and Pans: Identification of Queer Japanese in Terms of Discrimination, James Valentine
Talking about Feygelekh: A Queer Male Representation in Jewish American Speech, Michael J. Sweet
Read My Lips: Clypping and Kyssing in the 16th Century, Diane Watt, University of Aberystwyth, Wales
Sappho, or the Importance of Culture in the Language of Love, Marie-Jo Bonnet, Paris France
Lexical Variation in the Deaf Community Relating to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Signs, Mala Kleinfeld and Noni Warner
The Elusive "Bisexual", Lynne Murphy, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Part 2: QUEERSPEAK
The Homo-Genius Community, Rusty Barrett, University of Texas at Austin
"Falling Short of God's Ideal": Public Discourse about Lesbians and Gays, Elizabeth Morrish, Nottingham Trent University
Que(e)rying Friendship: Discourses of Resistance and the Construction of Gendered Subjectivity, Jennifer Coates and Mary Ellen Jordan, Roehampton Institute and Melbourne University
"I Don't Speak Spritch": Locating Lesbian Language, Robin M. Queen
Narrative Iconicity in Electronic-Mail, Lesbian Coming- Out Stories, Kathleen M. Wood
The Creation of Coherence in Coming-Out Stories, A. C. Liang
Performative Effect in Three Gay English Texts, William Leap, American University
Homophobic Slang as Coercive Discourse Among College Students, James Armstrong, State University of New York, Plattsburgh
Deaf Identity, Lesbian Identity: Intersections in a Life Narrative, Tina Neumann, Gallaudet University
Toward the Study of Lesbian Speech, Birch Moonwomon-Baird, Ohio State University
Part 3: LINGUISTIC GENDER-BENDING
Disloyal to Masculinity: Linguistic Gender and Liminal Identity in French, Anna Livia
Surrogate Phonology and Transsexual Faggotry, Bruce Bagemihl, University of British Colombia, Canada
Linguistic Gender Play amoung French Gays and Lesbians, Genevieve Pastre, Publisher, les Octaviennes, France
The Gendering of the Gay Male Sex Class in Japan, Janet Shibamoto Smith, University of California at Davis
Not Talking Straight in Hausa, Rudolf Gaudio, Stanford University
Go Suck Your Husband's Sugarcane: Hijras and the Use of Sexual Insult, Kira Hall, University of California at Berkeley