Sapphic Slashers

"What Duggan does in this original and moving book is take a murder case from 1890's Memphis and make of it a prism through which to illuminate American modernity. Her method depends less on an account of the murder or of the judicial procedure that followed it than on an analysis of the many narratives--of lesbian love and sex and madness--that the case occasioned. Juxtaposing these narratives to narratives of lynching, Duggan produces a "tour-de-force" of historical understanding."--Henry Abelove, Wesleyan University

Lisa Duggan is Associate Professor of American Studies and History at New York University.