Abstract
Sylvia Townsend Warner has been exiled from the pages of literary history, marginalized as either a radical communist or a lesbian writer. Her contribution to women's political development as well as her expressions of lesbian subjectivity cannot be denied. In this article, I will discuss lesbian identity in her biographical and fictional forms. The following has four sections. Firstly, Warner's relationship with her father and with Valentine Ackland will be examined. Then the second section examines the issues of women's politics as located in Warner's biographical experiences and in her literary works. I shall then define a lesbian novel, and explore the oppressions that women and lesbians encounter in Warner's lesbian novels, Lolly Willowes and Summer Will Show. Finally, I will position such popular categories as the celibate and witchcraft within Warner's political categories, and examine the relation between her socialism, her claims for women's private property and her lesbian subjectivity.
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