Book Excerpt! Between Men, by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (foreword and preface)

“One of the most influential texts in gender studies, men’s studies and gay studies.”

~ New York Times Book Review

First published in 1985, Between Men:English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Thirtieth anniversary edition was a decisive intervention in gender studies— a book that all but singlehandedly dislodged a tradition of literary critique that suppressed queer subjects and subjectivities. With stunning foresight and conceptual power, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s work opened not only literature but also politics, society, and culture to broader investigations of power, sex, and desire, and to new possibilities of critical agency. Illuminating with uncanny prescience Western society’s evolving debates on gender and sexuality, Between Men still has much to teach us. In celebration of Pride Month, today we present you with the foreword to the thirtieth anniversary edition of the book, and the preface to the original edition.