The highly publicized obscenity trial of Radclyffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" (1928) is generally recognized as the crystallizing moment in the construction of a visible modern English lesbian culture, marking a great divide between innocence and deviance, private and public, New Woman and Modern Lesbian. Yet despite unreserved agreement on the importance of this cultural moment, previous studies often reductively distort our reading of the formation of early twentieth-century lesbian identity, either by neglecting to examine in detail the developments leading up to the ban or by framing events in too broad a context against other cultural phenomena.

"Fashioning Sapphism" locates the novelist Radclyffe Hall and other prominent lesbians -- including the pioneer in women's policing, Mary Allen, the artist Gluck, and the writer Bryher -- within English modernity through the multiple sites of law, sexology, fashion, and literary and visual representation, thus tracing the emergence of a modern English lesbian subculture in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive new archival research, the book interrogates anew a range of myths long accepted without question (and still in circulation) concerning, to cite only a few, the extent of homophobia in the 1920s, the strategic deployment of sexology against sexual minorities, and the rigidity of certain cultural codes to denote lesbianism in public culture.

For decades, the history of sexuality has been a multidisciplinary project serving competing agendas. Lesbian, gay, and queer scholars have produced powerful narratives by tracing the continuity of homosexual or queer subject as continuous or discontinuous. Yet organizing historical work around categories of identity as normal or abnormal often obscures how sexual matters were known or talked about in the past. Set against the backdrop of women's work experiences, friendships, and communities during World War I, "Disturbing Practices" draws on a substantial body of new archival material to expose the roadblocks still present in current practices and imagine new alternatives. In this landmark book, Laura Doan clarifies the ethical value and political purpose of identity history - and indeed its very capacity to give rise to innovative practices borne of sustained exchange between queer studies and critical history. "Disturbing Practices" insists on taking seriously the imperative to step outside the logic of identity to address questions as yet unasked about the modern sexual past.

"The Well of Loneliness" -- the Radclyffe Hall novel at times referred to as "the bible of lesbianism" -- was released in Britain in 1928 and was immediately controversial. Pronounced obscene following a sensational trial, the book has become a cultural icon as well as a source of considerable debate, especially among feminists, lesbians, and transgendered persons.

"Palatable Poison" gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book -- beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews -- as well as pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as race, the nation at war, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of "The Well of Loneliness" and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.

"Palatable Poison" gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book -- beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews -- as well as new pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as fetishism, inversion, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of "The Well of Loneliness" and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.

All original to this volume, these evocative essays by such scholars as Robyn Wiegman, Elizabeth Grosz, and Judith Roof examine a realm as yet untouched in literary and cultural criticism and gender theory, a specifically lesbian postmodern.

The essays trace, on the one hand, how some lesbian cultural theory and production foreground a politics of difference and marginality and thereby critique patriarchal and heterosexual hegemony. On the other hand, some essays note how a postmodern aesthetic, with its valorization of difference, sexual plurality, and gender blurring, assists lesbian cultural production.

Among the topics discussed are the shifting definitions of "lesbian" and "postmodern"; the potential "and" danger of this new conceptual territory in theory, literary and visual representation, and popular culture; the lesbian in Hollywood film; actors Jodie Foster and Sandra Bernhard; and works by Jeanette Winterson, Michelle Cliff, and Gloria Anzaldua.

Throughout, contributors address the interrelated questions and issues of class, race, ethnicity, postcolonialism, and commodification.

"The Well of Loneliness" -- the Radclyffe Hall novel at times referred to as "the bible of lesbianism" -- was released in Britain in 1928 and was immediately controversial. Pronounced obscene following a sensational trial, the book has become a cultural icon as well as a source of considerable debate, especially among feminists, lesbians, and transgendered persons.

"Palatable Poison" gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book -- beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews -- as well as pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as race, the nation at war, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of "The Well of Loneliness" and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.

"Palatable Poison" gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book -- beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews -- as well as new pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as fetishism, inversion, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of "The Well of Loneliness" and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.