Ugly Differences (Paperback)

Yetta Howard

ISBN 10: 0252083547 / ISBN 13: 9780252083549

Published by University of Illinois Press, Baltimore, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. What would it mean to turn to ugliness rather than turn away from it? Indeed, the idea of ugly often becomes synonymous with non-white, non-male, and non-heterosexual physicality and experience. That same pejorative migrates to become a label for practices within underground culture. In Ugly Differences, Yetta Howard uses underground contexts to theorize queer difference by locating ugliness at the intersection of the physical, experiential, and textual. From that nexus, Howard contends that uglinessas a mode of pejorative identificationis fundamental to the cultural formations of queer female sexuality. Slava Tsukerman's postpunk film Liquid Sky, Sapphire's poetry, Roberta Gregory's Bitchy Butch comix, New Queer Cinema such as High Artthese and other non-canonical works contribute to an audacious critique. Howard reveals how the things we see, read as, or experience as ugly productively account for non-dominant sexual identities and creative practices. Ugly Differences offers eye-opening ways to approach queerness and its myriad underground representations. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780252083549

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ugly Differences (Paperback)
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, Baltimore
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0252083547
• ISBN 13: 9780252083549
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

What would it mean to turn to ugliness rather than turn away from it? Indeed, the idea of ugly often becomes synonymous with non-white, non-male, and non-heterosexual physicality and experience. That same pejorative migrates to become a label for practices within underground culture. In Ugly Differences, Yetta Howard uses underground contexts to theorize queer difference by locating ugliness at the intersection of the physical, experiential, and textual. From that nexus, Howard contends that ugliness―as a mode of pejorative identification―is fundamental to the cultural formations of queer female sexuality. Slava Tsukerman's postpunk film Liquid Sky, Sapphire's poetry, Roberta Gregory's Bitchy Butch comix, New Queer Cinema such as High Art―these and other non-canonical works contribute to an audacious critique. Howard reveals how the things we see, read as, or experience as ugly productively account for non-dominant sexual identities and creative practices. Ugly Differences offers eye-opening ways to approach queerness and its myriad underground representations.

About the Author

Yetta Howard is an associate professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University.