How Long to Read Invisible Relations

How Long Does it Take to Read Invisible Relations?

It takes the average reader 6 hours and 25 minutes to read Invisible Relations by Elizabeth S. Wahl

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

This book explores the ambivalent and often contradictory ways in which English and French writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries represented relations of intimacy between women. These representations included both a sexualized model of the "lesbian" tribade and an "idealized" model that portrayed female friendship as devoid of sexual expression. Although these two perceptions of female intimacy may seem mutually exclusive, the author argues that both operate as defining parameters, not only for literary representations of relations between women but also for cultural responses to those institutions in which women could gather--salon, convent, theater, or brothel. Despite increasing evidence of female homosocial and homosexual bonds during this period, representations of female intimacy have remained largely invisible within critical discourse. They are overshadowed either by a dominant heterosexual understanding of such institutions as marriage or prostitution or by historical patterns of male homosexual behavior, to which they often do not correspond. By broadening the concept of intimacy to include relations between women that may evade or subvert the boundaries of "compulsory" heterosexuality, the author argues, one can locate a duality of "polite" and eroticized models of female intimacy in the cultural discourses of both France and England. Analyzing a variety of legal, medical, and historical materials, as well as literary texts--by Aphra Behn, Katherine Philips, Madeleine de Scudéry, Catherine Descartes, Delarivier Manley, and John Cleland--the author outlines a combination of cultural and historical circumstances that contributed to or were symptomatic of increasing consciousness and concern about female homosexuality in England and France. Relating this sexualized model of female intimacy to idealized images of female friendship in mainstream literary texts allows the author to recover an incipient discourse of female homosexuality. She also delineates cultural fantasies about the outcome of unregulated contact between women, as well as underlying fears that such intimacy could foster aberrant social and political behavior in addition to unauthorized sexual relations between women.

How long is Invisible Relations?

Invisible Relations by Elizabeth S. Wahl is 376 pages long, and a total of 96,256 words.

This makes it 127% the length of the average book. It also has 118% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read Invisible Relations Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 8 hours and 45 minutes to read Invisible Relations aloud.

What Reading Level is Invisible Relations?

Invisible Relations is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy Invisible Relations?

Invisible Relations by Elizabeth S. Wahl is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

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