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hrjMy timing has worked out perfectly. I have one more queued-up post from Castle after this one, and I've just come to a breathing space in working on Mother of Souls (which is just about to go out to the beta-readers). I definitely think it's time to do a flurry of journal articles after this.
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This is a massive (over 1000 pages) collection of works and excerpts of literature relevant to lesbian history. Unsurprisingly, it’s skewed toward the modern: 600 pages of 20th century material (which I have not covered), another 250 from the 19th century. And particularly among the earlier material, the lesbian aspect may be subtextual rather than overt. (For example, it includes an excerpt from the Book of Ruth from the King James translation of the Bible.)
What makes this collection valuable--even to the casual reader--is how much it includes of the 15-18th century material commonly referenced in other publications covered under this project. So if you want to read through some of the original materials (often in translation) that keep coming up in these entries, this is a useful one-stop shop. Shorter works are included in full, and even longer works have extensive excerpts that provide much more context for the lesbian motifs than can be included in analytic articles.
I’ve broken my coverage up in fractions of centuries that product very roughly similar numbers of items, rather than according to the organization in the book itself.
* * *
(I explain the LHMP here and provide a cumulative index.)
* * *
Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0
8. 19th Century (third quarter)
In this set of works, women seem to have discovered the usefulness of fantastic and unusual imagery to disguise some rather intense eroticism in poetry. Subtle misdirection is also used in a novel to enable homoerotic scenarios. We also have a conventional work of romantic partnership. The male authors are largely sticking to sensational and decadent eroticism and misogynistic satire, with one set of poems lapsing to a more neutral, if voyeuristic, depiction.
Charlotte Brontë from Villette (1853) -- An excerpt depicting the characters engaged in cross-dressed theatricals that create a homoerotic implication.
Charles Baudelaire “Lesbos”, “Damned Women 1 (Delphine and Hippolyta)”, “Damned Women 2” (1857) -- More poems in the genre of decadent sensationalism with a male gaze.
Christina Rossetti Goblin Market (1862) -- A long poem that is strongly homoerotic, disguised in fantastic imagery.
Algernon Charles Swinburne “Anactoria” (1866), “from Lesbia Brandon (1864-67) -- Yet more decadent sapphic erotic poetry written by a man. The second piece is from a novel in which a cross-dressing man is romanced by a lesbian.
Paul Verlaine Scenes of Sapphic Love (1867) -- (Translation) A set of poems depicting love between women, quite overtly though somewhat voyeuristically.
Emily Dickinson “Her Breast is Fit for Pearls”, “Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night”, “Going--to--Her!”, “Ourselves were wed one summer--dear--“, “Precious to Me--She still shal be--“, “The Stars are old, that stood for me--“, “Frigid and sweet Her parting Face--“, “To see her is a Picture--“ (1851-86) -- A selection of Dickinson’s more strongly homoerotic verses, addressed to an unnamed “she” who is generally taken to be Dickinson’s sister-in-law Sue Gilbert Dickinson. The emotions are expressed in poetic imagery, and open to interpretation.
George Augustus Sala translation of Martial’s Epigram VII.67 “Abhorrent of All Natural Joys” (1868) -- Yet another translation of the rather misogynistic classical Roman poetic satires on lesbian topics.
Thomas Hardy from Desperate Remedies (1871) -- A homoerotic episode from a rather convoluted novel, involving the somewhat predatory relationship of the protagonist and her employer. The lesbian aspect is somewhat diluted by the revelation that the predatory employer was previously in love with the protagonist’s father and has transferred her fixation.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps “Since I Died” (1873) -- A fantasy in which a recently deceased woman addresses her mourning companion, with the implication that they had been lovers.
* * *
This is a massive (over 1000 pages) collection of works and excerpts of literature relevant to lesbian history. Unsurprisingly, it’s skewed toward the modern: 600 pages of 20th century material (which I have not covered), another 250 from the 19th century. And particularly among the earlier material, the lesbian aspect may be subtextual rather than overt. (For example, it includes an excerpt from the Book of Ruth from the King James translation of the Bible.)
What makes this collection valuable--even to the casual reader--is how much it includes of the 15-18th century material commonly referenced in other publications covered under this project. So if you want to read through some of the original materials (often in translation) that keep coming up in these entries, this is a useful one-stop shop. Shorter works are included in full, and even longer works have extensive excerpts that provide much more context for the lesbian motifs than can be included in analytic articles.
I’ve broken my coverage up in fractions of centuries that product very roughly similar numbers of items, rather than according to the organization in the book itself.
* * *
(I explain the LHMP here and provide a cumulative index.)
* * *
Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0
8. 19th Century (third quarter)
In this set of works, women seem to have discovered the usefulness of fantastic and unusual imagery to disguise some rather intense eroticism in poetry. Subtle misdirection is also used in a novel to enable homoerotic scenarios. We also have a conventional work of romantic partnership. The male authors are largely sticking to sensational and decadent eroticism and misogynistic satire, with one set of poems lapsing to a more neutral, if voyeuristic, depiction.
Charlotte Brontë from Villette (1853) -- An excerpt depicting the characters engaged in cross-dressed theatricals that create a homoerotic implication.
Charles Baudelaire “Lesbos”, “Damned Women 1 (Delphine and Hippolyta)”, “Damned Women 2” (1857) -- More poems in the genre of decadent sensationalism with a male gaze.
Christina Rossetti Goblin Market (1862) -- A long poem that is strongly homoerotic, disguised in fantastic imagery.
Algernon Charles Swinburne “Anactoria” (1866), “from Lesbia Brandon (1864-67) -- Yet more decadent sapphic erotic poetry written by a man. The second piece is from a novel in which a cross-dressing man is romanced by a lesbian.
Paul Verlaine Scenes of Sapphic Love (1867) -- (Translation) A set of poems depicting love between women, quite overtly though somewhat voyeuristically.
Emily Dickinson “Her Breast is Fit for Pearls”, “Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night”, “Going--to--Her!”, “Ourselves were wed one summer--dear--“, “Precious to Me--She still shal be--“, “The Stars are old, that stood for me--“, “Frigid and sweet Her parting Face--“, “To see her is a Picture--“ (1851-86) -- A selection of Dickinson’s more strongly homoerotic verses, addressed to an unnamed “she” who is generally taken to be Dickinson’s sister-in-law Sue Gilbert Dickinson. The emotions are expressed in poetic imagery, and open to interpretation.
George Augustus Sala translation of Martial’s Epigram VII.67 “Abhorrent of All Natural Joys” (1868) -- Yet another translation of the rather misogynistic classical Roman poetic satires on lesbian topics.
Thomas Hardy from Desperate Remedies (1871) -- A homoerotic episode from a rather convoluted novel, involving the somewhat predatory relationship of the protagonist and her employer. The lesbian aspect is somewhat diluted by the revelation that the predatory employer was previously in love with the protagonist’s father and has transferred her fixation.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps “Since I Died” (1873) -- A fantasy in which a recently deceased woman addresses her mourning companion, with the implication that they had been lovers.
