Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of antigay bias and transgender discrimination.

Tyson opens the chapter by noting that many students are unaware of the LGBTQ+ background of authors in the Western canon, such as Langston Hughes or Walt Whitman, because their teachers do not educate them about it. She connects the subject’s neglect by the academy to its neglect by literary critics. Lesbian, gay, and queer criticism is a mode of Literary Analysis as a Form of Social Justice because it addresses the marginalization and representation of LGBTQ+ people in literature specifically and society more generally.

The Marginalization of LGBTQ People

Tyson begins with a discussion of Lillian Faderman’s analysis of critic responses to the “Boston marriage,” or a relationship between two women, as depicted in The Bostonians (1885) by Henry James. Faderman argues that critics’ interpretations of the novel as depicting a woman (Verena) being “saved” from a same-sex relationship by a man (Basil) are not reflected in the text but are rather an expression of their own antigay bias.

Tyson then gives a brief history of antigay prejudice and LGBTQ+ rights in the United States, with an emphasis on the ongoing discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ people despite the legalization of gay marriage in 2015.