In the last two decades, lesbian and gay studies have transformed literary studies and developed into a vital and influential area for students and scholars. This Companion introduces readers to the range of debates that inform studies of works by lesbian and gay writers and of literary representations of same-sex desire and queer identities. Each chapter introduces key concepts in the field in an accessible way and uses several important literary texts to illustrate how these concepts can illuminate our readings of them. Authors discussed range from Henry James, E. M. Forster and Gertrude Stein to Sarah Waters and Carol Ann Duffy. The contributors showcase the wide variety of approaches and theoretical frameworks that characterise this field, drawing on related themes of gender and sexuality. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this volume offers a stimulating introduction to the diversity of approaches to lesbian and gay literature.

Contents
Chronology
Homosexuality and literature: an introduction Hugh Stevens
1. Homosexual writing on trial: from Fanny Hill to Gay News Joseph Bristow
2. Psychoanalysis, homosexuality and modernism Andrew Webber
3. Lesbian modernism: writing in and beyond the closet Joanne Winning
4. The erotics of transgression Tim Dean
5. Normality and queerness in gay fiction Hugh Stevens
6. The homoerotics of travel: people, ideas, genres Ruth Vanita
7. The queerness of race and same-sex desire Kathryn Bond Stockton
8. The literature of AIDS Richard Canning
9. Transgender fiction and politics Heather Love
10. Encountering the past in recent lesbian and gay fiction Jodie Medd
11. Queer cross-gender collaboration Jane Garrity and Tirza True Latimer
12. Naming the unnameable: lesbian and gay love poetry Richard R. Bozorth
13. The queer writer in New York David Bergman
Further reading
Index.