The Literature of Lesbianism
Since the Renaissance, countless writers have been magnetized by the notion of love between women. From Renaissance love poems to twentieth-century novels, plays, and short stories, The Literature of Lesbianism brings together hundreds of literary works on the subject of female homosexuality. This is not an anthology of "lesbian writers." Nor is it simply a one-sided compendium of "positive" or "negative" images of lesbian experience. Terry Castle explores the emergence and transformation of...
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In assembling this anthology, Castle (humanities, Stanford U.) assumed that the category of lesbianism itself was in need of historical examination. So, rather than gather representative writings by women presumed in some sense to be lesbians, she has included works by Western men and women in which the theme of erotic desire between women plays some significant part. The selections span five centuries of writing and include poems, stories, and dramas from famous and anonymous writers alike. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, ORLibrary JournalEditor Castle (humanities, Stanford Univ.) brings her characteristic good humor and wide-ranging intelligence to bear on a theme she first discussed in The Apparitional Lesbian, namely, what she sees as the ubiquity of "the lesbian idea" in Western literature-"the collective apprehension that women might intimately conjoin for their own sexual pleasure." Her self-described comically diverse assortment of writings-over 1000 pages and by deceased writers only-includes excerpts from the usual suspects, including Emily Dickinson, D.H. Lawrence, and the Marquis de Sade, as well as, surprisingly, Ernest Hemingway, the Book of Ruth in the Bible, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Arranged chronologically, these excerpts-preceded by biographical sketches of their authors, a summary of their attitudes toward lesbianism, and a bibliography-range from a satire on intrigues at the court of Queen Anne of England, to a 17th-century diatribe against masturbation, to the overwrought effusions of the French decadent writers, to journal entries detailing the exhilaration, ambivalence, and exasperation with which several women writers chronicle their lived and fictionalized experiences. Recommended for women's studies, sexuality, and comparative literature collections.-Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L., NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
\ Library JournalEditor Castle (humanities, Stanford Univ.) brings her characteristic good humor and wide-ranging intelligence to bear on a theme she first discussed in The Apparitional Lesbian, namely, what she sees as the ubiquity of "the lesbian idea" in Western literature-"the collective apprehension that women might intimately conjoin for their own sexual pleasure." Her self-described comically diverse assortment of writings-over 1000 pages and by deceased writers only-includes excerpts from the usual suspects, including Emily Dickinson, D.H. Lawrence, and the Marquis de Sade, as well as, surprisingly, Ernest Hemingway, the Book of Ruth in the Bible, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Arranged chronologically, these excerpts-preceded by biographical sketches of their authors, a summary of their attitudes toward lesbianism, and a bibliography-range from a satire on intrigues at the court of Queen Anne of England, to a 17th-century diatribe against masturbation, to the overwrought effusions of the French decadent writers, to journal entries detailing the exhilaration, ambivalence, and exasperation with which several women writers chronicle their lived and fictionalized experiences. Recommended for women's studies, sexuality, and comparative literature collections.-Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L., NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \
