Twentieth Century Literature, June 22nd, 1996
Mary Renault was a lesbian novelist who wrote nonhistorical and historical novels between 1939 and 1983. She was once thought to be a man as she exercised a predilection for writing primarily about male characters even while using seemingly male narrators in many of them. Some believe that Renault's choice of writing historical fiction in a setting where only the male experience dominates was actually her way of putting on a male mask as she invaded 'male' turf. Meanwhile, her novels' sexual ambiguity were evident in the phallocentric predisposition of their characters.
Mary Renault, born Mar...
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