The Story of Sexual Identity: Narrative Perspectives on the Gay and Lesbian Life Course

by Phillip L. Hammack, Bertram J. Cohler

Overview

This book assembles a diverse group of scholars working within a new, pathbreaking paradigm of sexual science, fusing perspectives from history, sociology, and psychology. The contributors are united in their commitment to the idea of "narrative" as central to the study of sexual identity, offering an analytic approach to social science inquiry on sexual identity that restores the voices of sexual subjects. The result is a rich examination of lives in context, with an eye toward multiplicity and meaning across the life course. Central to the chapters in this volume is the significance of history, generation, and narrative in the provision of a workable and meaningful configuration of identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199716777
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2009
Series:	Sexuality, Identity, and Society
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	497
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

PART 1. Time, Place, Story: Introductory Perspectives on Narrative and the Life Course1. Narrative Engagement and Sexual Identity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Sexual Lives. iPhillip L. Hammack & Bertram J. Cohler/i2. History, Narrative, and Sexual Identity: Gay Liberation and Post-War Movements for Sexual Freedom in the United States. iBenjamin Shepard/iCulture, Identity, Narrative: Context and Multiplicity in Sexual Lives3. Stories from the Second World: Narratives of Sexual Identity in the Czech Republic across Three Generations of Men who have Sex with Men. iTimothy McCajor Hall/i4. Unity and Purpose at the Intersections of Racial/ethnic and Sexual Identities. i Ilan H. Meyer & Suzanne C. Ouellette/i5. Bisexuality in a House of Mirrors: Multiple Reflections, Multiple Identities. i Paula C. Rodríguez Rust/i6. Narrative Identity Construction of Black Youth for Social Change. iMollie V. Blackburn/iPART 3. Identities in Process: Stories of Risk and Relationships7. Between Kansas and Oz: Drugs, Sex, and the Search for Gay Identity in the Fast Lane. iSteven P. Kurtz/i8. (My) Stories of Lesbian Friendship. iJacqueline S. Weinstock/i9. Emergence of a Poz Sexual Culture: Accounting for "Barebacking" among Gay Men. iBarry D. Adam/i10. Connectedness, Communication, and Reciprocity in Lesbian Relationships: Implications for Women's Construction and Experience of PMS. iJanette Perz & Jane M. Ussher/i11. Postcards from the Edge: Narratives of Sex and Relationship Breakdown among Gay Men. i Damien Ridge & Rebecca Wright/iMaking Gay and Lesbian Identities: Development, Generativity, and the Life Course12. In the Beginning: American Boyhood and the Life Stories of Gay Men. iBertram J. Cohler/i13. The Role of the Internet in the Sexual Identity Development of Gay and Bisexual Male Adolescents. iGary W. Harper, Douglas Bruce, Pedro Serrano, & Omar B. Jamil/i14. Focus on the Family: The Psychosocial Context of Gay Men Choosing Fatherhood. iDavid deBoer/i15. Midlife Lesbian Lifeworlds: Narrative Theory and Sexual Identity. iMary Read/i16. The Good (Gay) Life: The Search for Signs of Maturity in the Narratives of Gay Adults. iLaura A. King, Chad M. Burton, & Aaron C. Geise/i17. Generativity and Time in Gay Men's Life Stories. iAndrew J. Hostetler/i18. From Same-Sex Desire to Homosexual Identity: History, Biography, and the Production of the Sexual Self in Lesbian and Gay Elders' Narratives. iDana Rosenfeld/iConcluding Perspective19. Lives,Times, and Narrative Engagement. iBertram J. Cohler & Phillip L. Hammack/i

Editorial Reviews

"Hammack and Cohler's The Story of Sexual Identity brings together an unparalleled collection of innovative interdisciplinary narrative research projects on lesbian and gay lives. The result is a volume that pushes the study of sexual identity in many new and promising directions....It has far-reaching appeal for established students and clinicians, as well as for new investigators and graduate students. No doubt it will be useful tool and much-referenced resource for those conducting narrative research on sexuality and sexual identity."—Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health

"This fine anthology will make a stimulating addition to graduate or undergraduate level courses in any of the disciplines mentioned above, especially those with a substantive focus on sexualities, gay and lesbian/queer studies, or social science methodology. More generally, it will be of interest to anyone who cares to learn more about the promise of narrative methodology and its bountiful implications for the future of social science research." —Sexualities

"This is the book the field of sexual science needs-narratives from a variety of disciplines on the meanings that real people, living in real contexts, make of their same-sex sexuality. Sexual development and its implications are illustrated by stories from around the world, across time and cohort, and among a variety of ethnicities and subcultures. Inevitably, the reader's preexisting notions about same-sex desires will be altered after reading these engaging 19 chapters. Some recount the story of a single individual (a black lesbian youth) and others of a population (three generations of Czech Republic men who have sex with men). In all cases, same-sex desires are shown to generate complex lives characterized more by strength and resilience than pathology. Editors Hammack and Cohler want these narratives to inspire a new generation of social science scholars- and they certainly will.
— Ritch C. Savin-Williams, Department of Human Development, Cornell University

"This book offers new ways to think about sexual identity. For too long we have observed and analyzed identity and desire from the outside. Hammack and Cohler point out that we can shift the lens, and position narratives as central to human development. This book shows us that through stories of desire and identity we not only make meaning of our lives – we become engaged in our own development and in social change." — Stephen T. Russell, Professor and Fitch Nesbitt Endowed Chair and Director, University of Arizona

"Phillip Hammack and Bertram Cohler have assembled an extraordinary collection of scholarly essays, empirical reports, and first-person accounts regarding the varieties of lesbian and gay sexual experience across the life course. At the center of this powerful contribution to developmental science and human understanding are stories that will pull at your heart and enliven your mind – stories of desire and joy, commitment and fulfillment, but also terror and risk, as they portray how human agency comes to terms with the inscrutable forces that run through each of us, and through our social worlds, to shape our lives as sexual beings." — Dan P. McAdams, author of The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By and George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream

"The volume offers several chapters that examine how context informs the ways in which gays and lesbians have and are creating, shaping, and reshaping the stories of their sexual identities, illuminating the meaning behind them in an eloquent and in many instances emotionally intimate way….The works contained within this volume have potential to stimulate new insights and research about the sexual identity development of gays and lesbians for years to come-a mark of any good work." — Journal of Marriage and Family

From the Publisher