Lesbian Death

"Mairead Sullivan’s refreshing book delves deeply into the decades-long dynamic in which the lesbian—as figure, identity, and political project—is somehow always already dying even as younger and older generations infuse the lesbian with new and vital promise. Analyzing fears of lesbian death registered in narratives of loss, aggression, murderousness, bed death, and so many wars (sex wars, theory wars, butch-fem border wars, intersectionality wars, and TERF wars), this engaging work trenchantly illuminates the disruptive potential and undeniable persistence of the lesbian at the heart of the often-tense relations among feminist, queer, and trans articulations of community."—Finn Enke, author of Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism"Lesbian Death is a thoroughgoing analysis of the work of ‘the lesbian’—especially tales of her imminent demise—in discourse and culture. Neither romanticized nor maligned, here, the figure of the lesbian is vital to queer/trans/feminist world-making. A generous and generative contribution to queer and lesbian studies, Mairead Sullivan’s treatment is timely and inspired."—Angela Willey, author of Undoing Monogamy: The Politics of Science and the Possibilities of Biology