Lesbian Voyage Over Time by Skyler Yi

Inspired by the lesbian pulp novels included in the Ruth Dworin Collection from the Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections, this project features a juxtaposition of lesbian pulps and some more recent lesbian writings along with a few quotes from the works. I hope to highlight the evolving perception of lesbian works over time as they somehow reflect the life situations of lesbians in varying periods.

As McKinney and Mitchell (2019) argue in “Lesbian Rule”, the existence and needs of the audience of lesbian works are often overlooked. In the mid-20th century, lesbian pulp novels were largely written by white cisgender men for male readers. Lesbian life was usually portrayed as tragic and depressing, featuring unhappy endings to avoid being banned. However, there were still a number of works written by and for women, such as Diana: A Strange Autobiography and The Well of Loneliness. When reading the novels, I realized how my own experience as a lesbian differed from the stories. Therefore, I started to think about the transition of the life of lesbians over the decades, how this transition has been reflected by literature, and the possible impacts of these novels on lesbians at that time. In fact, the lesbian pulps written for women were greatly treasured by many lesbians back then who were socially isolated and mired in self-hatred after realizing their sexuality, as those books allowed them to recognize the existence of other lesbian women in the world and their need for proper representation in print. Just as Radclyffe Hall wrote in The Well of Loneliness (1928), “For the sake of all the others who are like you, but less strong and less gifted perhaps, many of them, it’s up to you to have the courage to make good.”

References
Hall, R. (1928). The Well of Loneliness. Blue Ribbon Books.

McKinney, C., & Mitchell, A. (2019). Lesbian Rule: Welcome to the Hell House. In Inside killjoy's Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, feminist monsters, and other lesbian hauntings (pp. 3–18). essay, UBC Press.

Sources for Materials
Blake, A. H. (2022). Delilah Green Doesn't Care. Penguin Publishing Group.

Frederics, D. (1939). Diana: A Strange Autobiography. Dial Press.

Hall, R. (1928). The Well of Loneliness. Blue Ribbon Books.

Walker, A. (1982). The Color Purple. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Wilhelm, G. (1940). We Too Are Drifting. Triangle Books.

Wilsner, M. (2022). Mistakes Were Made. St. Martin's Publishing Group.