Transgender and the Literary Imagination - Changing Gender in Twentieth-Century Writing Book

Transgender and the Literary Imagination is the first full length study to revisit twentieth century narratives and their afterlives, examining the extent to which they have reflected, shaped or transformed changing understandings of gender.

 'This incisive, carefully researched and lucid book makes a significant and original contribution to transgender studies, placing thought-provoking new readings of five culturally influential twentieth-century texts and their afterlives on stage and screen in the context of second-wave and contemporary debates in feminist, queer, intersex and transgender theory. The particular strength of the study is its close attention to the complex relationship between explorations of gender/sex border crossing and discourses of race and migration.'
Ann Heilmann, Cardiff University

Explores the depiction of transgender identity in twentieth-century Transgender and the Literary Imagination is the first full length study to revisit twentieth-century narratives and their afterlives, examining the extent to which they have reflected, shaped or transformed changing understandings of gender. Grounded in feminist scholarship, informed by queer theory and indebted to transgender studies, this book investigates the ways in which transgender identities and histories have been 'authored by others', with a focus on literary fiction by British, Irish and American authors, life writing and adaptation for stage and screen.