Community, Race, Identity, and Sexual Practices in the Lesbian Mystery Novels of Katherine V. Forrest, Barbara Wilson, and Mabel Maney
Community, Race, Identity, and Sexual Practices in the Lesbian Mystery Novels of Katherine V. Forrest, Barbara Wilson, and Mabel Maney
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2014-01-15
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Matsumoto, Lee-Ann
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English
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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Mystery novel: when one hears those words one conjures up images of some lone P.I. in a sleazy office, or a hard core veteran cop or ex-cop, or perhaps Charlie Chan offering up his unique snippets of Confucian philosophy that pertains to crime solving. One conceivably sees a genius such as Sherlock Holmes, or Miss Jane Marple, maybe even Hercule Poirot. Those of us who got turned on to mysteries as children may think about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and perhaps Encyclopedia Brown. With these types of detectives in mind, I intend to investigate a new type of detective, the lesbian detective--tough, streetwise, and happily homosexual. Lesbian mystery novelists or crime writers integrate into their stories issues that affect the lesbian community: namely, race; community; and identity--especially as it relates to sexual practices. Specifically, I will focus on Murder at the Nightwood Bar (1987), and The Beverly Malibu (1991), by Katherine V. Forrest; Murder in the Collective (1984), The Dog Collar Murders (1989), and Gaudi Afternoon (1990), by Barbara Wilson; and The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse (1993), The Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend (1994), and The Ghost in the Closet (1995), by Mabel Maney. This thesis will use these works to first explore how lesbian mystery novels are important in the lesbian literary canon because they address issues of community, race and sexual identity. These authors listed above all explore the sense of a collective lesbian community, ideas that challenge hetero-patriarchal norms. They also illustrate the diversity of lesbian communities.
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72 pages
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