Dispossession and the 1970s Trans-Genre

A Reading of Judy Grahn’s “The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke”

Bibliographic Data

ID12920528
AuthorsCatherine Irwin (University of La Verne, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume13
Issue1
Pages70-88
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueContemporary Women s Writing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1754-1476 • E-ISSN: 1754-1484
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/cww/vpz010
OpenAlexW2979262054
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

While Judy Grahn’s 1978 prose poem “The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke” has been examined through a cisgendered lesbian feminist lens, this essay argues that Grahn’s poem is more productively interpreted as a satirical trans-genre that critiques not just the clinical treatment of lesbians, but the clinical treatment of trans persons as well. Through a close reading, this essay analyzes the various social and medical encounters in “Edward the Dyke” to address how transphobic and homophobic discourses of this historical period are parodied and used as satirical elements to critique the clinical establishment. A reading of Grahn’s work as trans-genre contributes to a body of work that illustrates the dispossession of both gender variant lesbians and trans subjectivities and the historical intersections of non-normative genders and sexualities in literature

Aesthetics · Art · Feminism · Human sexuality · Lesbian · Literature · Normative · Period (music · Poetry · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Sociology · American and British Literature Analysis · Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research · Poetry Analysis and Criticism · Psychology · Gender Studies · Philosophy

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