Narrative Inversion: The Biblical Heritage of The Well of Loneliness and Desert of the Heart

• Published in: Reclaiming the Sacred pp. 187 - 208
• Main Author: Breen, Margaret Soenser
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2003
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Lesbian Realism; Radclyffe Hall; Overarching Plot; Narrative Inversion; Female Pilgrim; Barren Womb; Lesbian Desire; Desert Of The Heart; Biblical Righteousness; Christian Propriety; Face To Face; Accademia Degli Incogniti; Psychopathia Sexualis; Jane Rule; Barren; Vanity Fair; Human Faith; Perverse Reader; Book III; Inverted Narrative; Stephen's Desire; Pilgrim's Progress; Brimstone; Lesbian Fiction; Biblical Paradigms
• ISBN: 1560233540; 9781560233541; 9781560233558; 1560233559
• DOI: 10.4324/9780203057186-9

Lesbian realism is a particularly vexing genre, for its narrative paradigms so often belie the stories being told. (One might also say that the stories belie the paradigms.) At issue in this chapter is lesbian realism's perhaps most perplexing aspect, its adherence to the conventions of biblical and, more generally speaking, Christian narratives. By focusing on the realist narrative of pilgrimage rooted in the Bible and codified by John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress -a narrative that includes a cluster of figures such as the exile, the martyr, the outcast, and the wanderer-I hope to show that precisely this biblical inheritance provides a key strategy for articulating desire within the conundrum that is lesbian realism.