Queer Pulp in Jonathan Cutbill's Collection: Gordon Merrick's Body Politics
Date and Time
Overview
In this session, Andrea Carboni (Durham, SHL, UCL) converses with Professor Michael Bronski (Harvard University) about representations of gay and bisexual male desire in the works of Gordon Merrick.
This online event draws from material in Jonathan Cutbill's Haud Nominandum Collection, acquired by Senate House Library, and the Seized Books! exhibition.
Gordon Merrick
Gordon Merrick was an American actor, OSS field officer, and author, one of the first writers to publish mass-marketed queer novels. His voyeuristic pulp fiction often represents queer veterans coming to terms with their gay and bisexual sexualities, expatriate life in Europe and South-East Asia, and class tensions.
If his unapologetic erotic depictions of male bodies and relationships seems somewhat problematic today, his radical intervention nonetheless raises questions about politics of desire, publishing and target audience.