From: Jonathan Ned Katz Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 18:49:10 -0400 Subject: Katz's "Invention of Heterosexuality" Please Distribute Jonathan Ned Katz, an independent scholar and author, seeks speaking engagements with college and university groups on "The Invention of Heterosexuality." This talk traces the changing history of the "heterosexual" idea, analyzing it as a specifically modern construction. It demonstrates that "heterosexual" signified perversion in one long-lasting tradition. Only gradually did "heterosexuality" become the powerful norm we know today. The first version of this talk is designed for general audiences who have not necessarily read my book "The Invention of Heterosexuality" (NY: Dutton, March 1995). Even for those who've read the book, the verbal presentation has worked independently in many college and university presentations as an entertaining and intellectually provocative performance piece. A second version of the talk is more technical and is meant specifically for those who have read the book, or who have read lots of historical work on sexuality. This talk discusses what I think is new and most important in the book, and addresses an issue I've thought about since the book was published, the issue of the different intellectual and political ploys that keep the social institution of heterosexuality from being publicly discussed in any explicit, extended, systematic way. The discussion always comes back quickly (too quickly) to homosexuality. How and why does this happen? Please contact me individually for availability and fees. jnkatz@pipeline.com The Dutton/Penguin hardback of "The Invention of Heterosexuality" is available from book stores. A trade paperback edition will be published in March 1996. Copies of the pb should be available about a month earlier. For an examination copy contact Maria Barbieri at Penguin: mbarbieri@penguin.com For your information, I am the author of the following books: "The Invention of Heterosexuality;" "Gay/Lesbian Almanac;" and "Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.," and other books and essays. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reviewers Comment on The Invention of Heterosexuality (Dutton, 1995) "Superb and iconoclastic critique of the history of heterosexuality" ---Richard Horton, M.D. (Editor, The Lancet), The New York Review of Books "Engaging -- important -- Katz's analysis of Freud's idea of heterosexuality...is brilliant --Among the best books I have read on sexual identity -- can change the way you think about sex and gender, about yourself and about whom you might become" -- Louise DeSalvo, Los Angeles Times "A swell sense of humor -- lively and provocative -- a good introduction, especially to the ideas of Michel Foucault" -- Carol Tavris, New York Times Book Review "Pulls the rug out from under the prevailing assumption that heterosexuality is an...unchanging part of an individual's personality --suggestive and insightful" -- Daniel Harris, The Boston Globe "This handy little book turns the tables on a century of theorizing about 'the nature of homosexuality' -- a wonderful weapon against self-contempt" -- Gary Indiana, The Village Voice Literary Supplement "One of the most important -- if not outright subversive -- works to emerge from gay and lesbian studies in years" -- Mark Thompson, The Advocate "The good news for us general readers is that Katz has kept us in mind -- a concise, well-focused book -- Katz has contributed to the denaturalizing of heterosexuality. He has forced it to speak, thereby breaking the silence that enables it to retain its normative hold" -- Michael Schwartz, Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review "Provocatively original research, recalling similar problematizations of race, gender, and other seemingly immutable, ahistorical constructs" -- James E. Van Buskirk, Library Journal "A courageous challenge to reconsider heterosexuality's privileged position in society" -- Kirkus Reviews "Challenges rigid notions of gender identity" -- Publishers Weekly * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Additional Comment on "The Invention of Heterosexuality" "Shocking news! Heterosexuality has a history! This original and path-breaking work wrenches male-female sexual relations from myth and biology, charting the birth and development of an idea and institution most of us take totally for granted. Lively, witty, and thought-provoking" -- Carole S. Vance, Columbia University "Pioneering audacity and shrewd analysis.... destabilizes the familiar, challenges universalist assumptions, and the most far-sighted way, advances the debate on previously sacrosanct notions of what is 'natural'" -- Martin B. Duberman, City University of NY "Like all ground-breaking work, turns conventional perception on its head. I enjoyed it hugely; lucid historical thinking, perceptive social thinking" -- Kate Millett "A necessary work, a brilliant work" -- Samuel R. Delany "Impressive, scholarly, witty, and enjoyable -- I see Jonathan Ned Katz as one of the great pioneering explorers of the oceans of sexuality -- Katz again challenges the myths, scours the rocky terrain for clues, and gloriously reveals the shifting sands on which this massive edifice is built. Nature, we discover again, had nothing to do with it. I wish that all pioneers could be as sane and readable as Jonathan Ned Katz -- Jeffrey Weeks, University of the West of England "A pioneer in gay history now breaks fresh ground in uncovering the origins of heterosexuality. Not for the faint-hearted, this book is funny, compassionate, and seemingly all-knowing" -- Edmund White "By analyzing the stages by which these sloppy words [heterosexual and homosexual] became concepts that then became 'facts,' Katz nicely undermines the whole false division" -- from the Foreword by Gore Vidal "Katz's arguments are not as outrageous and unprecedented as they may at first seem.... In putting the arguments of historians of sexuality...into public discourse, Katz has done us a very significant service" -- from Lisa Duggan's Afterword