The mythology of transgression : homosexuality as metaphor / Jamake Highwater.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [241]-246) and index.

1 Outside the walls. -- 2 Inside the walls. -- 3 Beyond the walled city. -- 4 Transgression as abomination. -- 5 Transgression as deformity. -- 6 Transgression as science. -- 7 Transgression as sensibility. -- 8 Transgression as culture. -- 9 Transgression as revelation

'...a personal and extraordinarily far-ranging examination of how people who stand outside of society--by dint of their sexual orientation, physical appearance, ideas, artistic inclinations, or ethnic heritage--often achieve lasting, even profound influence upon the culture at large. Drawing from a stunningly rich variety of sources ranging from the arts and literature to biology, physics, psychology, and anthropology, Highwater looks at his own outsider status--as a gay man, an artist, and an orphaned Native American--in an attempt to explore how mythologies from ancient times to the present have shaped the ways we think about social "abnormality" and alienation. Throughout, he points to a paradox at the center of Western values--the competing notions that the outsider is at once sinful and wise, that in everyday life the transgressor is ostracized, while in our most durable folklore and religious legends, heroes must break the rules to achieve greatness.'

Hardcover