Derek Jarman, Dancing Ledge

John Mepham (Kingston University)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Derek Jarman wrote a series of autobiographical texts, scripts and journals, in which he again and again revisited his past and continually reinvented the forms of self-writing. The sequence includes

Dancing Ledge

(1984),

The Last of England

(1987) (republished as

Kicking the Pricks

(1996)),

Modern Nature

(1991),

At Your Own Risk

(1992),

Smiling in Slow Motion

(2000),

Blue

(1993), and

Chroma

(1994).

The series begins with Dancing Ledge (1984), written when money for his film projects had dried up and he felt excluded and vulnerable to the gathering strength of homophobia in Thatcher's Britain. This is a book conceived in anger and isolation, and the self presented in it is that of the avant-garde film maker and defiant celebrant of promiscuous homoerotic sexuality, both his own and that

778 words

Citation: Mepham, John. "Dancing Ledge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5764, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5764 Dancing Ledge 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.