Romancing The Generation Gap: Dawn Of The Dance; Silver Threads

• Published in: Journal of lesbian studies Vol. 4; no. 3; p. 140
• Main Author: Breen, Margaret Soenser
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis LLC 30.09.2000
• Subjects: Gays & lesbians; Life; Lifetime; Literature
• ISSN: 1089-4160; 1540-3548

I have just been rereading Marilyn Hacker's Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons (1986). Like so many other important works of lesbian literature -- The Well of Loneliness (1928), The Price of Salt (1952), Desert of the Heart (1964), and Loving Her (1974 -- Hacker's poetry collection foregrounds a love relationship in which there is a significant age difference. In Hacker's case the women are 42 and 25. In one poem, "Le Manuscrit," the speaker records her daughter Iva's astonishment upon realizing the age difference between more and lover Ray(chel): "'More, Ray is seventeen/years younger than you are?'" Iva is surprised; she is not judgmental: the age difference is unexpected, nothing more. Her reaction provides an important emotional buffer and cultural counterpoint to the speaker's awareness of lesbians' derisive historical and literary dismissal. The poem ends, "Two thousand years of Western literature:/potions and swords, the quests, the songs, the trysts,/call us what Iva, if she knew, would not." In effect, Iva's surprise at the lovers' age difference accords them a respect that patriarchal plots have traditionally denied. For a complete reprint of this article contact Haworth Press by telephone (1-800-HAWORTH) or EMAIL (getinfo@haworthpressinc.com). Copies are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Center, The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. Article copyright The Haworth Press, Inc.