Novel Approaches to Lesbian History

Abstract

“People require a past in order to live in the present and imagine a future” (166). Although Linda Garber’s study ends with this assertion, the statement represents the core thesis developed in her study of lesbian historical fiction. Garber’s analysis is grounded in thorough and detailed scholarship, using a wide range of theoretical, historical, literary, and primary critical sources to ground her reading of the literary works. In addition to referencing the scholarship, Garber illustrates the text’s key topics with both literary and popular fictional texts. This inclusion of popular fiction stands out as an important aspect of Garber’s discussion; integrating popular genres, since they are read more widely, gives Garber the ability to raise and examine her key questions of how history is used to provide lesbian readers a sense of a connection to the past. Such novels, by providing stories that actively place lesbians into specific historical periods, allow such readers to feel a sense of “validation,” that their lives have always been part of the world (3). Using fiction highlights one of Garber’s main questions about the historical record of lesbian lives: how can the accuracy of historical records be judged when lesbians have often been left out of such material, either deliberately or not?