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The Kiss

Toni Bentley

in Sisters of Salome

This chapter describes the pantomime entitled Le Rêve d'Egypte (Egyptian dream), which starred Colette Willy and the mysteriously named “Yssim,” and which outraged audiences because it featured a ... More

This chapter describes the pantomime entitled Le Rêve d'Egypte (Egyptian dream), which starred Colette Willy and the mysteriously named “Yssim,” and which outraged audiences because it featured a kiss between two women. Colette's appearance in Le Rêve d'Egypte in 1907 was the first time Salome had appeared overtly as both a femme fatale and a lesbian. Unlike Maud Allan, Mata Hari, and Ida Rubinstein, Colette appropriated Salome not as her identity but as her personal accomplice, her transforming device, in searching out her own true identity as a woman with a powerful male sensibility.Less

The Barrier of Light

Toni Bentley

in Sisters of Salome

This chapter describes Colette Willy's relationship with Sophie-Mathilde-Adèle de Morny, or Missy, one of the Belle Epoque's notable cross-dressing lesbians; the launching of Colette's stage career; ... More

This chapter describes Colette Willy's relationship with Sophie-Mathilde-Adèle de Morny, or Missy, one of the Belle Epoque's notable cross-dressing lesbians; the launching of Colette's stage career; her performance in the pantomime entitled La Chair (The Flesh); and the publication of her widely acclaimed book, The Vagabond.Less

Respecting Same-Sex Relations

Robert A. Burt

Frank Iacobucci (ed.)

in Justice and Empathy: Toward a Constitutional Ideal

This chapter deals with gays and lesbians as another group that was subjected to serious degradation akin to the terrible mistreatment of blacks. It provides a description of the tension between the ... More

This chapter deals with gays and lesbians as another group that was subjected to serious degradation akin to the terrible mistreatment of blacks. It provides a description of the tension between the judiciary and legislatures in the evolution of the relationship up to the recognition of a fundamental right to marital status for same-sex couples. The chapter characterizes the changes that took place in California, through events that involve the legislature, courts, and the public, as reflecting an egalitarian mode of deliberative authority. The most intriguing similarities between the situations of homosexuals and blacks are in the process by which the judiciary has worked its way toward the remedial attempt. When the Court resolved to change the status of both groups, a similar path was taken.Less

Backing Barnes

Nick Salvato

in Uncloseting Drama: Modernism's Queer Theatres

This chapter examines the work of Djuna Barnes. It argues that honoring the complexity of her literary output means not to speculate without great care about what personal experiences might be at the ... More

This chapter examines the work of Djuna Barnes. It argues that honoring the complexity of her literary output means not to speculate without great care about what personal experiences might be at the back of her writing, but to back that writing in all of its disturbing dimensions. It proposes a move away from Barnes'closet trauma—the purported abuse that leaves her capable of only quasi-coherent expression—and toward her closet drama, a deliberately nonnormative and possibly unperformable theatrical idiom that reflects the nonnormative nature of her subject matter, taboo sexuality. It is in Barnes' dramatic writing—her short play The Dove, her long verse play The Antiphon, and her unpublished play Biography of Julie von Bartmann—that she explores most acutely and provocatively her failed utopic visions of lesbian incest.Less