Uninvited

Book excerpt: Lesbian characters, stories, and images were barred from onscreen depiction in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s together with all forms of "sex perversion." Through close readings of gothics, ghost films, and maternal melodramas addressed to female audiences, Uninvited argues that viewers are "invited" to make lesbian "inferences." Looking at the lure of some of the great female star personae (in films such as Rebecca, Pinky, The Old Maid, Queen Christina, and The Haunting) and at the visual coding of supporting actresses, it identifies lesbian spectatorial strategies. White's archival research, textual analyses, and novel theoretical insights make an important contribution to film, lesbian, and feminist studies. Book jacket.