Sibling bonds, both literal and figurative, have had a crucial role in American writings of queer desire and identity. In nuanced and original readings, Denis Flannery demonstrates the centrality of fraternal and sororal love to queer strands of nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts from the elemental wildnesses of Moby-Dick to David Fincher's postmodern cinema; from the brutal and comic decorum of Henry James's major fiction to the elegiac memoir-writing of Jamaica Kincaid. Questions driving Flannery's exploration of sibling relations: How do we characterize the relationship between sibling love, queer possibility and the formal intensities of American writing? Why do so many American texts rely on the presence of sibling love to articulate queer desire? Why is brotherhood invoked as a positive value in announcements of United States national aspirations but used repeatedly and ominously in that nation's texts to herald a fall? Written with lyrical clarity and verve, On Sibling Love, Queer Attachment and American Writing is an important contribution to queer theory; to American studies; and to the study of culture, writing and affect.

The success of a work of art, to my mind, may be measured by the degree to which it produces a certain illusion; that makes it appear to us that we have lived another life, that we have had a miraculous enlargement of experience. Henry James A concept of 'illusion' was fundamental to the theory and practice of literary representation in Henry James. This book offers readings of James' fictional and critical texts that are informed by the certainty of illusion, and links James' mode of illusion with a number of concerns that have marked novel criticism in both the recent and not-so-recent past: gender, publicity, realism, aesthetics and passion, cults of authorial personality, the narrative construction of the future, and absorption. Flannery addresses each of these concerns through close engagement with particular texts: The Portrait of a Lady, The Tragic Muse, The Wings of the Dove, and some other less familiar texts. Although cognizant of debates that have raged around James as he is read both by 'radical' and 'traditional' critics, this book's primary focus is on the specific nuances of James' texts and the interpretive challenges and pleasures they offer.

This groundbreaking, cross-generic collection is the first to consider the entire breadth of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning writing. Focused through the concept of influence, the volume addresses critical issues surrounding the work of Britain's most important contemporary novelist. It encompasses provocative and timely subjects ranging from gay visual cultures and representations, to Victorian, modernist and contemporary literature, as well as race and empire, theatre and cinema, eros and economics. The book reveals the fascinating intellectual and affective matter that lies beneath the polished control and dazzling style of Hollinghurst's work. Alongside contributions by distinguished British and American critics, the book includes an unpublished interview with Hollinghurst. Alan Hollinghurst: Writing under the influence uses a creative range of critical approaches to provide the most authoritative and innovative account available of Hollinghurst's works. -- .

Sibling bonds, both literal and figurative, have had a crucial role in American writings of queer desire and identity. In nuanced and original readings, Denis Flannery demonstrates the centrality of fraternal and sororal love to queer strands of nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts from the elemental wildnesses of Moby-Dick to David Fincher's postmodern cinema; from the brutal and comic decorum of Henry James's major fiction to the elegiac memoir-writing of Jamaica Kincaid. Questions driving Flannery's exploration of sibling relations: How do we characterize the relationship between sibling love, queer possibility and the formal intensities of American writing? Why do so many American texts rely on the presence of sibling love to articulate queer desire? Why is brotherhood invoked as a positive value in announcements of United States national aspirations but used repeatedly and ominously in that nation's texts to herald a fall? Written with lyrical clarity and verve, On Sibling Love, Queer Attachment and American Writing is an important contribution to queer theory; to American studies; and to the study of culture, writing and affect.