Are Girls Necessary?

Lesbian Writing and Modern Histories

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by Julie Abraham

Routledge

Due/Published January 1996, 272 pages, paper

ISBN 0415914574

``Are girls necessary?'' asks Julie Abraham in this provocative study of 20th-century lesbian writing.

Examining the development of lesbian writing in English across the 20th Century, Abraham identifies a shift from this ``romance'' model to a more complicated ``history'' model. The great modernists, Woolf and Stein, as well as the popular writers of succeeding generations, like Mary

Renault, looked to historical narratives, creating an important change in the way the ``lesbian story'' is built.

The possibilities in lesbian writing, from the early romance plots through to the post-1960s liberation movement experiments, are Abraham's geography. Within it, she offers detailed readings of major writers in several genres, from high modern to pulp, both British and American.