ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Desert Hearts employs several interesting and innovative narrative and representational strategies aimed at depathologizing lesbianism. In asserting the necessity of risk, Desert Hearts transforms its Nevada setting from an interesting locale, suitable because of its contrast with New York, into its central metaphor for living out one’s desire. The metaphoric claim for the necessity of gambling can be extended self-reflexively to Desert Hearts itself. Desert Hearts had to develop narrative and representational strategies that would deflect, insofar as possible, homophobic responses to its depictions of queer couples. Desert Hearts’s revelation that Frances’s homophobic reaction to the Cay-Vivian couple has its unacknowledged origin in her thwarted desire for Cay is meant to preempt a similar reaction by its audience members. The focus of Desert Hearts’s narrative is Cay’s bold yet cautiously implemented seduction/transformation of Vivian, aimed at getting her to publicly acknowledge her lesbianism. Desert Hearts has taken a calculated gamble in its representation of lesbian sexuality.
