Title: Ideas: 10, close readings: 2
Review: Once again Sedgwick provides a brilliant theoretical framework for thinking about contemporary queer identity issues, then trilalizes it by providing reductive and just-plain-unconvincing readings of a series of Western novels and novellas. Her reading of James's "The Beast in the Jungle" is a classic case in point--the idea of preterition as a point of slippage is brilliant, but her reading of the James novella is embarrassing.And she is one of the worst stylists in academia today.
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