[Kindle] which, the publisher says, "explores the seldom-discussed history of same-sex intimacy and gender nonconformity in rural America during a period when the now familiar concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality were only just beginning to take shape... Johnson argues instead for a queer historicist approach. In so doing, he uncovers a startlingly unruly rural past in which small-town eccentrics, "mannish" farm women, and cross-dressing Civilian Conservation Corps enrolees were often just queer folks so far as their neighbours were concerned. Written with wit and verve, Just Queer Folks upsets a whole host of contemporary commonplaces."
PW says he "doggedly decodes" passages of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
For a contemporary take, get Mary L. Gray's excellent, triple-award-winning Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America
I offered a queer reading of Steinbeck's East of Eden on my Dare I Read blog: http://dareiread.blogspot.com/2008/08/gay-marriage-in-john-steinbecks-east-of.html
Posted by: Glenn I | August 24, 2013 at 11:32 AM