Lesbian books are no longer just for lesbians: legacies of lesbian print culture

Abstract

Since 1996, two significant film adaptations of lesbian novels remediated the work of lesbian-feminism for broader audiences. Anjelica Huston directed the adaptation of Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina for Showtime, a cable station, in 1996; Lee Daniels directed Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire as a feature film in 2009. Lesbian print culture nurtured and supported Allison’s and Sapphire’s early careers; both published work in lesbian-feminist journals, and lesbian-feminist presses published their early books. The movement of these author’s work, first to commercial publishers and then to film, represents wider distribution of lesbian-feminism and its attendant ideas and ideologies to both lesbian and non-lesbian audiences. Examining these two books and their film counterparts reshapes thinking about the history of feminism in the 1980s and its on-going effects. These books and the film adaptations demonstrate how audiences adopted empathy for and shared solidarity with lesbian-feminist sensibilities through lesbian texts creating meaning and value for these stories outside of their original coterie communities. Films offer possibilities and perils for lesbian-feminist ideas to reach beyond their original audiences.