Backward Glances
Cruising Queer Streets in New York and London
Mark TurnerFocusing upon gay street life in London and New York, Mark Turner presents an urban history of male street cruising.
Backward Glances is an exploration of the history of male street cruising. Too often in discussions of urban space and interpretations of urban culture, streetwalking implies a rigid model for the way we inhabit the streets. Beginning with the simple premise that we all walk the streets differently, Mark Turner suggests that male cruising operates through encounter and connection rather than alienation, and that it is the defining experience of what it means to be modern.
Backward Glances is the first gay urban history of its kind, examining these issues across a range of cultural material, including novels, poems, pornography, journalism, gay guides, paintings, the internet, and fragments of writing about the city such as Whitman’s notebooks and David Hockney’s grafitti. It provides a new way of understanding what it means for a man to walk the streets of the modern Western city.
Backward Glances is aimed at all those interested in the culture of the city, queer cultural history and the appropriation of public space.
Focusing upon gay street life in London and New York, Mark Turner presents an urban history of male street cruising.
Backward Glances is an exploration of the history of male street cruising. Too often in discussions of urban space and interpretations of urban culture, streetwalking implies a rigid model for the way we inhabit the streets. Beginning with the simple premise that we all walk the streets differently, Mark Turner suggests that male cruising operates through encounter and connection rather than alienation, and that it is the defining experience of what it means to be modern.
Backward Glances is the first gay urban history of its kind, examining these issues across a range of cultural material, including novels, poems, pornography, journalism, gay guides, paintings, the internet, and fragments of writing about the city such as Whitman’s notebooks and David Hockney’s grafitti. It provides a new way of understanding what it means for a man to walk the streets of the modern Western city.
Backward Glances is aimed at all those interested in the culture of the city, queer cultural history and the appropriation of public space.
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. . . Backward Glances is worthy of our attention, providing considerable insight into a largely invisible – and certainly very lively – feature of the urban landscape.
'The Gay and Lesbian Review
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an intelligent take on cruising . . . Turner suggests that male cruising operates through encounter and connection rather than alienation, and that this is the defining experience of modern life. It is the first gay urban history of its kind and examines issue across a range of cultural material, including poems, pornography, journalism, gay guides, paintings and the internet . . . provides a new way of understanding what it means for a man to walk the streets of the modern western city.
'Refresh
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Backward Glances gives us a glimpse of cruising in the good old, bad old days before screwing, for good or ill, became sanitised.
'The List, Glasgow
Preface
1. Ambiguous Cities
2. Cruising Modernity
3. London: Mysteries of the Passers-by
4. New York: City of Orgies, Walks and Joys
5. Backward Glances at Whitman
Epilogue: Cruisingforsex
References
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Mark Turner is Lecturer in English at King's College, University of London.