Writing the voice of pleasure

the long version

"Writing the Voice of Pleasure makes a persuasive argument that the romantic couple of Western representation is not heterosexual, nor is it homosexual. With insightful new readings of renowned classical and popular works of Western culture from Tristan and Iseut to Seinfeld, Anne Callahan demonstrates that the heterosexual couple in this tradition is an illusion created by a male artist's assumption of a feminine voice to express desire. Named the "troubadour effect" for the first time here, this narrative tradition of male femininity - in which both masculinity and femininity are contained within masculinity - results in a culture of desire best described as "heterosexuality without women.""--BOOK JACKET.