There is no denying that lesbian poets have garnered the same respect and recognition as heterosexual women poets. Adrienne Rich is one of the most acknowledged contemporary woman poets, especially regarding feminist women poets. The Black Arts Movement is incomplete without discussing Audre Lorde’s protest poetry. Gertrude Stein is viewed as the inspiration for the school of Language Poetry. Yet, the explicitly gay poems written by even the greatest lesbian poets is not as widely read or considered as their less explicitly lesbian material. Perhaps, this is because people like to read and talk about poems that are more relatable. Maybe Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” is more popular than her Twenty-One Love Poems because its more universal and, therefore, more teachable. Even further, perhaps the sexual nature of lesbian poetry makes people feel uncomfortable. Maybe it’s too taboo. Too erotic. Regardless of the reasoning or intentions, the subgenre of lesbian poetry often finds itself being disregarded in both scholarly discourses as well as more public discussions of literature.
In an attempt to incorporate lesbianism into feminist conversation, lesbianism started to be discussed under the broader scope of the female experience. In 1980, Adrienne Rich published her essay “Compulsive Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” and introduced the ideology of the Lesbian Continuum. The continuum encompasses a wide range of womanly experiences, and its theoretical framework is largely accredited with breaking the binary of lesbian/gay versus straight. While the Lesbian Continuum did not exist make the term “lesbian” synonymous with “woman,” it did manifest into an overgeneralization of what it means for an experience to be lesbian. But the reality of lesbianism is that queer women move through the world differently. Two women love each other differently. A queer woman walking down the street has and is still viewed by strangers differently. The lesbian experience is not an “every woman” experience and applying an overgeneralized idea of lesbianism to poetry contributes to the overlooking of poetry that is explicitly written for and about queer women.
Throughout my paper, I plan to explore the side of lesbian poetry that is very physical and obviously queer. I was largely inspired by Elly Bulkin’s “’Kissing/Against the Light’: A Look at Lesbian Poetry” and Erica Rand’s “Women and Other Women: One Feminist Focus for Art History,” which both argue that lesbian poetics are distinct from the genre of woman poetics and should be regarded and taught as such. I am intrigued by the idea of exploring both the blissful and intimate moments of lesbian relationships and the harsh, painful reality that homophobia is alive and well and affects queer women’s daily lives. I do not intend to contrast the pleasure and pain represented in lesbian poetry. Instead, I intend to compare these intense emotional aspects of lesbian poetry to create a distinct telling of what it means to be a lesbian – a woman who loves other women intimately.
My fear is that my paper will limit lesbianism and lesbian poetry to be overly sexual. While the poems I picked are very intimate and sexual, lesbian poetry does not have to be. Lesbians are not any more sexual than any other group of humans, and I do not want to reduce the lesbian community to being overly sexual as we have been reduced to this many of times in the past. I chose intensely intimate and painful poems because I want to dismantle the barrier that stops people from discussing the subgenre of lesbian poetry in its full form. Lesbian poetry evokes an intense sense of liberation and is representative of sexuality. I want this to be represented throughout my paper as a very radical, human experience that should not be shied away from. Instead, all aspects of lesbian poetry, even those viewed as taboo, should be embraced and viewed as worthy of criticism.
“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.” – Audre Lorde
I don’t know why my comment didn’t post last week. 🙁
I am super excited about your project. This sounds like a very thoughtful way to examine writing that is broadly feminist and specifically queer. I am so curious about these intersections and what they say about both groups of people.
I really like the way that you are explicit about your fear of reducing lesbian poetry to the physicality of action. I think that the fact that you are so concerned about it will be enough to keep it from happening. You are always so thorough when you approach a topic, and I can’t imagine this will be any different.