Inscribing a lesbian reader, projecting a lesbian subject: a Jane Rule diptych

This diptych represents two takes on the short fiction of Jane Rule, the Canadian lesbian novelist whose 1964 novel, Desert of the Heart, was markedly different from other lesbian fiction available at that time. Traveling through time, theory, and texts, I approach Rule's fiction from two directions. First, using feminist maps for (re)reading, I show how "Dulce" inscribes a lesbian reader. Second, tracing the steps of lesbian and queer theorists, I show how "Home Movie" projects a lesbian subject. Taken together, these readings seek to shed light on lesbian creative practice in the homophobic climate of postwar North America.