Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature

Skin: Talking About Sex, Class & Literature is a collection of essays written by award-winning author Dorothy Allison. Published in 1994, the book contains original essays as well as updated versions of essays that appeared in anthologies and magazines like New York Native, The Village Voice, and Forum. As the title suggests, Allison gives the reader her take on her difficult childhood, race- and class-based schisms within the lesbian community, feminism, pornography, sadomasochism, and the transcending effect that literature can have on children.

List of essays

Context

A Question of Class

Never Expected To Live Forever

Gun Crazy

Shotgun Strategies

What Do We See? What Do We Not See?

Neighbors

Not As a Stranger

Sex Writing, the Importance and the Difficulty

Puritans, Perverts, and Feminists

Public Silence, Private Terror

Her Body, Mine, and His

The Theory and the Practice of the Strap-on Dildo

Conceptual Lesbianism

Talking To Straight People

Femme

Sex Talk

Believing in Literature

A Personal History of Lesbian Porn

Myths and Images

Bertha Harris, a Memoir

Survival Is the Least of My Desires

Skin, Where She Touches Me

Promises

Reviews

Sobriquet Magazine wrote: “In all, Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature serves as a revealing and important work for scholars of working-class studies, feminism and gender politics, and queer theory…Allison’s collection is an interesting and personal look at the complexities of her identity formation, and the levels on which she engages each category of self is both honest and sometimes painful. What shapes Allison’s writing is not only her recognition of Self and need for Truth, but admittance to all facets of her identity.” Publishers Weekly noted that the book was “impassioned, personal and highly intelligent, Allison’s collection of published writings and addresses examines issues of class and sexuality through the intricate lenses of autobiography and the literary experience.”

Editions

Allison, Dorothy. Skin: Talking About Sex, Class, and Literature, Firebrand Books, 1994.

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