Tabitha Mclntosh-Byrd is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. In the following essay, she maintains that Rubyfruit Jungle resists easy classification.
Rubyfruit Jungle is a difficult novel to classify in regard to its subject and its genre—as well as its wider cultural reception. Although commentators often label the book as a lesbian, feminist, or Southern novel, Brown's text does not fit in these three simple classifications and is as resistant to stable categorization as feminism, gender difference, or sexuality are to final definitions.
Most often called a "lesbian picaresque," the novel is perhaps best read as a reaction to the gender politics and theories of the 1970s—an exploration of both the benefits and intellectual constraints offered by its feminist and lesbian contemporaries. By sketching the history of lesbian feminist criticism and contextualizing Rubyfruit Jungle.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 1,830 words. This
study guide contains 22,128 words (approx. 74 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our Rubyfruit Jungle Access Pass.
