Making Something out of Nothing': Lesbianism As Liberating Fantasy in the Children's Hour (Report‪)‬

Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour was notoriously successful in its premiere in 1934, and its revival in 1952, because of its inclusion of a lesbian theme. Paradoxically, the play's reception has largely focused on its symbolic depiction of the effects of slander, instead of on its depiction of female homosexuality. In recent years, the representation of same-sex desire in Hellman's play has begun to be broached, being critically read as blatantly homophobic. In this article, we would like to revise the play's agenda by proposing that its articulation of lesbianism is an indictment of the patriarchal containment of women's political and sexual desire. Keywords: American drama, Lillian Hellman, literary historiography, feminism, homophobia, lesbian desire