I hold a PhD in English literature and am currently Associate Professor and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. My research interests focus on gender and sexuality in eighteenth-century Britain, and I am fascinated with how lesbian sexuality, in particular, was represented textually in the past. Sapphic Crossings is my first book.
From the UVA Press Website: "Across the eighteenth century in Britain, readers, writers, and theater-goers were fascinated by women who dressed in men’s clothing—from actresses on stage who showed their shapely legs to advantage in men’s breeches to stories of valiant female soldiers and ruthless female pirates. Spanning genres from plays, novels, and poetry to pamphlets and broadsides, the cross-dressing woman came to signal more than female independence or unconventional behaviors; she also came to signal an investment in female same-sex intimacies and sapphic desires. Sapphic Crossings reveals how various British texts from the period associate female cross-dressing with the exciting possibility of intimate, embodied same-sex relationships. Ula Lukszo Klein reconsiders the role of lesbian desires and their structuring through cross-gender embodiments as crucial not only to the history of sexuality but to the rise of modern concepts of gender, sexuality, and desire. She prompts readers to rethink the roots of lesbianism and transgender identities today and introduces new ways of thinking about embodied sexuality in the past." The book is available in hardback, paperback, and ebook format. For all buying options, see the UVA Press website or Amazon.com. |