Strategies of Deviance: Studies in Gay Male Representation (Theories of Representation and Difference) [Paperback]

Earl Jackson Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 1995 | Series: Theories of Representation and Difference

"Juxtaposing the narrative strategies of Freud, Wilde and Jarman; film pornography and Almodovar; and Dennis Cooper, Robert Glück and Kevin Killian, Jackson offers a delightfully intelligent and inventive reappraisal of key issues in gay representation." —Gay Times

"A major event in gay cultural theory.... the feat of critical imagination is absolutely stunning in its scope and power. [This book] will be definitive in laying out the issues for subsequent writers in gay theory." —David M. Halperin

Earl Jackson examines visual and narrative texts from a variety of genres, including case histories, pornography, science fiction, and experimental prose.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

EARL M. JACKSON, JR. is an Associate Professor and teaches in the literature program and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (June 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253209501
• ISBN-13: 978-0253209504
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,057,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relates steamy fiction and film to heady theory, September 21, 2000

By 

Doug Steward (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strategies of Deviance: Studies in Gay Male Representation (Theories of Representation and Difference) (Paperback)

Rating a difficult book such as this 5 stars obviously implies that I am comparing the book to its peers: works of scholarship in gay and lesbian studies that seek to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and to say something synthetic and theoretical about the very possibility of "representing" gay men (in this case) and lesbians.

Jackson knows contemporary gay fiction and the critical language about narrative, he knows gay cinema and the critical language about cinema, and he knows psychoanalytic and poststructuralist theory like the back of his hand. His book is a tour de force that relates steamy fiction and film to heady theory in useful, clever, and illuminating ways.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a difficult and obtuse read, for the scholar only., May 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, MA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strategies of Deviance: Studies in Gay Male Representation (Theories of Representation and Difference) (Paperback)

Although this book has plenty of information, the vast majority of it is presented in such a lenghty and wordy manner that it is very difficult to follow, much less to understand. Any reader will be sure to find something useful and interesting in the various topics covered, but be prepared to be completely lost on a regular basis.