Mikko Tuhkanen

Examines the importance of Leo Bersanis work for queer theory, psychoanalysis, literary criticism and theory, cultural studies, and film studies. For more than fifty years, Leo Bersanis writing has inspired and challenged scholars in the fields of literary criticism and theory, cultural studies, queer theory, psychoanalysis, and film and visual studies. This is the first book-length collection on this important author. The books extensive introduction outlines in detail Bersanis oeuvre, particularly its place in queer thought and his complicated relationships with the fields of queer theory and psychoanalysis. The subsequent contributions by notable scholars in various fields demonstrate the richness and open-endedness of his work. The book concludes with a new interview with Bersani. Leo Bersani is filled with erudite, beautifully written, provocative essays that make abundantly clear not only the trajectory and importance of Bersanis work, but the many ideas that work enables.  Elizabeth Freeman, author of Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories These stellar essays offer up important and unsettling insights into one of our most fearless thinkers. Thanks to this collections extensive engagements with his body of knowledge, scholars are now able to approach Leo Bersanis prosein all of its shattering beautyin a dazzling new light.  Scott Herring, author of Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism

Queer Theory and Beyond

Leo Bersani

E. L. McCallum

The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature presents a global history of the field and is an unprecedented summation of critical knowledge on gay and lesbian literature that also addresses the impact of gay and lesbian literature on cognate fields such as comparative literature and postcolonial studies. Covering subjects from Sappho and the Greeks to queer modernism, diasporic literatures, and responses to the AIDS crisis, this volume is grounded in current scholarship. It presents new critical approaches to gay and lesbian literature that will serve the needs of students and specialists alike. Written by leading scholars in the field, The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature will not only engage readers in contemporary debates but also serve as a definitive reference for gay and lesbian literature for years to come.

The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature

For the past 60 years, Leo Bersani has inspired, resisted, guided, and challenged scholarly work in the fields of literary criticism, queer theory, cultural studies, psychoanalytic theory, and film and visual studies. Moving across an impressive range of sources, Mikko Tuhkanen seeks out the “fundamental notes”-the questions that we find and refind-in Bersani's extensive oeuvre across the decades. The chapters explore Bersani's engagement with psychoanalytic theory (Freud, Laplanche, Klein, Lacan), French and American modernist fiction (Proust, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, James, Beckett), poststructuralist theory (Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, Blanchot), queer theory (Butler, Edelman), and the visual arts (Caravaggio, Almodóvar, Pasolini, Malick, Dumont). This first introduction to Bersani's work provides a chronological overview of his thought and details his contributions to literary studies and critical theory.

A Speculative Introduction

Examines the importance of Leo Bersani’s work for queer theory, psychoanalysis, literary criticism and theory, cultural studies, and film studies. For more than fifty years, Leo Bersani’s writing has inspired and challenged scholars in the fields of literary criticism and theory, cultural studies, queer theory, psychoanalysis, and film and visual studies. This is the first book-length collection on this important author. The book’s extensive introduction outlines in detail Bersani’s oeuvre, particularly its place in queer thought and his complicated relationships with the fields of queer theory and psychoanalysis. The subsequent contributions by notable scholars in various fields demonstrate the richness and open-endedness of his work. The book concludes with a new interview with Bersani. “Leo Bersani is filled with erudite, beautifully written, provocative essays that make abundantly clear not only the trajectory and importance of Bersani’s work, but the many ideas that work enables.” — Elizabeth Freeman, author of Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories “These stellar essays offer up important and unsettling insights into one of our most fearless thinkers. Thanks to this collection’s extensive engagements with his body of knowledge, scholars are now able to approach Leo Bersani’s prose—in all of its shattering beauty—in a dazzling new light.” — Scott Herring, author of Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism

Mikko Tuhkanen

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