Bertha Harris
Encyclopedia
Bertha Harris was an American lesbian
novelist. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina
, she moved to New York City in the 1960s. She is highly regarded by critics and admirers, but her novel
s are less familiar to the broader public.
, published in 1976. She published two other novels, Catching Saradove (1969), and Confessions of Cherubino (1972). Lover
and Confessions of Cherubino were brought out by the independent house Daughters, Inc., a small publisher of women's fiction. In all three novels, Harris engaged the aesthetics
of late twentieth-century literature
; they may be considered examples of literary postmodernism
. Her novels are stylistically akin to the work of modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf
, Gertrude Stein
, and Djuna Barnes
(whom she greatly admired), and she has acknowledged as inspiration the work of Jill Johnston
and the dancer Yvonne Ranier. She once proclaimed that Djuna Barnes's work was "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Much of Harris's work, most notably Lover
, is written with the Women's Movement of the 1970s as its primary inspiration and its audience. Indeed, Lover might be viewed as a literary mother of Queer Theory
; her novel resonates almost as strongly with third-wave feminism
as it does with the second-wave feminism
of its origins.
Harris co-authored The Joy of Lesbian Sex in 1977 with Emily L. Sisley, and in 1995 she published Gertrude Stein, a biography for young adults. Lover was reissued in 1993 by the New York University Press with a new introduction by the author, mainly recounting her involvement with Daughters Press and its two owners.
At the time of her death she was completing her fourth novel, a comedy, Mi Contra Fa.
She died in New York City.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
novelist. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....
, she moved to New York City in the 1960s. She is highly regarded by critics and admirers, but her novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s are less familiar to the broader public.
Career and published works
She is best known for her stylistically bold novel LoverLover (novel)
Lover is a lesbian feminist novel by Bertha Harris, published in 1976 by Daughters, Inc., a small press dedicated to women's fiction. It is considered Harris's most ambitious work, and has been compared to Djuna Barnes's Nightwood and the stories of Jane Bowles...
, published in 1976. She published two other novels, Catching Saradove (1969), and Confessions of Cherubino (1972). Lover
Lover (novel)
Lover is a lesbian feminist novel by Bertha Harris, published in 1976 by Daughters, Inc., a small press dedicated to women's fiction. It is considered Harris's most ambitious work, and has been compared to Djuna Barnes's Nightwood and the stories of Jane Bowles...
and Confessions of Cherubino were brought out by the independent house Daughters, Inc., a small publisher of women's fiction. In all three novels, Harris engaged the aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
of late twentieth-century literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
; they may be considered examples of literary postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
. Her novels are stylistically akin to the work of modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, and Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens...
(whom she greatly admired), and she has acknowledged as inspiration the work of Jill Johnston
Jill Johnston
Jill Johnston was an American feminist author and cultural critic who wrote Lesbian Nation in 1973 and was a longtime writer for The Village Voice. She was also a leader of the lesbian separatist movement of the 1970s. Johnston also wrote under the pen name F. J...
and the dancer Yvonne Ranier. She once proclaimed that Djuna Barnes's work was "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Much of Harris's work, most notably Lover
Lover (novel)
Lover is a lesbian feminist novel by Bertha Harris, published in 1976 by Daughters, Inc., a small press dedicated to women's fiction. It is considered Harris's most ambitious work, and has been compared to Djuna Barnes's Nightwood and the stories of Jane Bowles...
, is written with the Women's Movement of the 1970s as its primary inspiration and its audience. Indeed, Lover might be viewed as a literary mother of Queer Theory
Queer theory
Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...
; her novel resonates almost as strongly with third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...
as it does with the second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism
The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s....
of its origins.
Harris co-authored The Joy of Lesbian Sex in 1977 with Emily L. Sisley, and in 1995 she published Gertrude Stein, a biography for young adults. Lover was reissued in 1993 by the New York University Press with a new introduction by the author, mainly recounting her involvement with Daughters Press and its two owners.
At the time of her death she was completing her fourth novel, a comedy, Mi Contra Fa.
She died in New York City.
External links
- Bertha Harris on glbtq.comGlbtq.comglbtq.com is an online encyclopedia that presents detailed biographies of notable gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It was named one of the "Best Free Reference Web Sites" in 2005 by the American Library Association....
- Death notice in the New York Times