Presents new perspectives on representations of female heterosexuality in selected contemporary British and American novels. Drawing on feminist and queer theories of sex, gender and sexuality, this study focuses on female identities at odds with heterosexual norms. In particular, it explores narratives in which the conventional equation between heterosexuality, reproductive sexuality and female identity is questioned. Key Features: * A timely exploration of the dynamic relationship between feminist and queer theory * Offers close analysis of influential novels by leading contemporary authors, including Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex (2002), Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal (2003), Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (2005), Alan Warner's Morvern Callar (1995), A.M Homes's The End of Alice (1996), and Sarah Waters's Affinity (1999) * Topics range from spinsterhood and intergenerational sexuality to transgender and human cloning
Introduction: Feminism, Queer Theory and Heterosexuality; Part One: Revisiting the spinster; 1. 'Becoming my own ghost': spinsterhood and the 'invisibility' of heterosexuality in Sarah Waters's Affinity; 2. Telling tales out of school: spinsters, scandals and intergenerational heterosexuality in Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal; Part Two: Transgressive female heterosexuality; 3. Queering Alice, killing Lolita: feminism, queer theory and the politics of child sexuality in A.M Homes's The End of Alice; 4. Unauthorised reproduction: class, pregnancy and transgressive female heterosexuality in Alan Warner's Morvern Callar; Part Three: Reproducing heterosexuality; 5. 'First one thing and then the other': rewriting the intersexed body in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex; 6. Imitations of life: cloning, heterosexuality and the human in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go
