Knowledge Tree
Ula Lukszo Klein
Facts (20)
Sources
Issues | Digital Defoe digitaldefoe.org 20 facts
claimUla Lukszo Klein argues that the prevalence of cross-dressed women in eighteenth-century literature provided readers with a framework to access or emulate lesbian desire and relationships.
claimUla Lukszo Klein argues that the hyper-visibility of the cross-dresser in eighteenth-century literature challenges understandings of gender and its relationships to desire and the body.
claimKlein posits that when a cross-dressed woman attracts a feminine woman, the feminine partner acts as a 'metaphorical beard' that distracts from and replaces the need for a literal beard.
claimThe book 'Sapphic Crossings' (also referred to as 'Sapphic Structures') by Klein examines how writers construct visions of same-sex desire and the social gendering of the body.
quoteKlein states in the introduction of 'Sapphic Crossings' that the book's lesbian focus 'does not intend to, nor should it be read to, negate the possibility of reading a trans man loving ciswomen and ciswomen attracted to a trans man'.
claimUla Lukszo Klein argues that the cross-dressed woman in eighteenth-century literature serves as a central figure for defining and negotiating gendered and sexual categories across diverse texts.
claimThe book 'Sapphic Crossings' by Klein primarily focuses on lesbian readings of historical figures, while trans readings are alluded to but infrequently performed.
claimKlein asserts that the beard is more socially gendered than the breast or the penis, while the leg is characterized by its androgyny.
claim'Sapphic Crossings' is a work of lesbian scholarship that offers insights into same-sex dynamics and attraction in the eighteenth century.
claimUla Lukszo Klein argues that a cross-genre study of eighteenth-century literature reveals a lesbian-themed canon that constructed lesbian desire as existing between women and for the pleasure of women.
referenceUla Lukszo Klein’s book Sapphic Crossings: Cross-Dressing Women in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (2021) examines the eighteenth-century fascination with and anxiety regarding the figure of the cross-dresser.
claimIn 'Sapphic Crossings', Klein argues that in the eighteenth century, the ability to grow a beard was a popular conception of maleness, making the lack of a beard a significant obstacle for cross-dressed women.
quoteKlein writes in 'Sapphic Crossings': "when we [place] trans and lesbian in binary opposition, we fall into the same trap that trans studies and queer studies themselves have long sought to evade" (11).
quoteKlein suggests in 'Sapphic Crossings' that the representations discussed in the book "contain moments for reading gender fluidity and transness in the past" (15).
referenceThe book 'Sapphic Crossings' by Klein is structured into four chapters, each analyzing the historical, socio-cultural, and literary significance of a specific body part: the beard, the breast, the penis, and the legs.
referenceIn Chapter Three of 'Sapphic Crossings', titled 'Penetrating Discourse and Sapphic Dildos', Klein compares editor or author notes in later editions to formal dildos, describing them as a 'strapped-on textual appendage' intended to satisfy skeptical readers.
referenceIn her discussion of John Cleland’s 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure' (1748), Klein identifies the 'dildoization of the…penis', suggesting gender trouble in the characters' suspiciously indefatigable stamina.
referenceKlein organizes the chapters of 'Sapphic Crossings' around the body rather than chronology or genre to highlight consistencies in cross-dressing narratives.
perspectiveUla Lukszo Klein uses the term 'lesbian' to provide modern legibility to same-sex relationships and desires in the eighteenth century, while avoiding a rigid or identitarian conception of lesbian desire.
claimThe book 'Sapphic Crossings' by Klein argues that authors' persistent feminization of cross-dressers betrays the men's discomfort with women seducing other women, rather than with women dressing as men.