Djuna Barnes

"In this study, Deborah Parsons examines the range of Barnes's oeuvre: her early journalism, short stories and one act dramas, poetry, the family chronicle Ryder, the Ladies Almanack, and her late play The Antiphon, as well as her modernist classic Nightwood. She explores the psychological and stylistic aspects of Barnes's work through close analysis of the texts within their social, cultural and aesthetic context, and provides an indispensable and enriching guide to Barnes's artistic identity and poetic vision. Barnes's determined inversion, throughout her work, of social and sexual identities; her unusual childhood; her professional friendships with T. S. Eliot and James Joyce; and her controversial lesbianism are all highlighted and discussed in this introduction to a bold and enigmatic writer." --Book Jacket.