Lesbian Migrant Writing: From Lesbian Nation to Queer Diaspora

Abstract

The paper examines selected texts of Anna Livia and Shani Mootoo, whose diasporic experiences allowed them to discuss lesbian desire from a non-stigmatised point of view. It also portrays how writing from white, western countries towards the end of the twentieth century, privileged the Irish lesbian narrative to represent a more globalised approach towards lesbian desire. Firstly, the paper will illustrate how distance from Ireland allowed authors to discuss issues affecting and disturbing Lesbian Nation and lesbian community of the 1980s, and secondly, it will discuss how queer diaspora and hybridity shaped lesbian diasporic writing in non-western societies at the turn of the century.