Word's out: Gay Men's English
Search in google:
ExamplesAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Studying Gay Men's English1Can There Be Gay Discourse without Gay Language?12Gay English as Cooperative Discourse123Ensuring Cooperative Discourse: Exaggeration, Turn Taking, Pauses, and Terminals244The Risk Outside: Gay English, "Suspect Gays," and Heterosexuals495Claiming Gay Space: Bathroom Graffiti, Songs about Cities, and "Queer" Reference746Language, Risk, and Space in a Health Club Locker Room1097Gay English in a "Desert of Nothing": Language and Gay Socialization1258Gay English and the Language of AIDS140Conclusion: Gay English, Authenticity, and Performative Effect159Notes165Bibliography173Index179
\ Library JournalFinding that existing studies of gay language have focused on explication of vocabulary and discussion of folklore, Leap (anthropology, American Univ.) sets out to describe gay men's English in practice. He presents a rich selection of oral and written "texts" taken from life-story narratives, field observations, interviews, gay magazines, newspapers, graffiti, songs, books, and performances to demonstrate the unique features of gay English used in daily life. Examining in detail how these texts are constructed, Leap shows the linguistic practices of cooperation, negotiation, and risk taking that underlie gay men's use of language in conversation, storytelling, and verbal sparring. Along the way, the texts reveal how gay language is used in identifying "suspect gays" in erotic negotiations, dealing with the AIDS pandemic, and negotiating the processes of "coming out." While Leap includes much personal experience in this book, he writes in an academic style using the methodology and jargon of anthropology and sociolinguistics and refers at length to the literature of gender studies. For academic and gay studies collections.-Paul A. D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., Maine\ \
