E-Book Overview
This important book is the first full-scale account of male gay literature across cultures, languages, and centuries. A work of reference as well as the definitive history of a tradition, it traces writing by and about homosexual men from ancient Greece and Rome to the twentieth-century gay literary explosion. “Woods’ own artistry is evident throughout this elegant and startling book. . . . These finely honed gay readings of selected Western (and some Eastern) literary texts richly reward the careful attention they demand. . . . Though grounded in the particulars of gay male identity, this masterpiece of literary (and social) criticism calls across the divides of sex and sexual orientation.”—Kirkus Reviews(a starred review) “An encyclopedic mapping of the intersection between male homosexuality and belles lettres . . . [that is] good reading, in part because Woods has foregone strict chronology to link writers across eras and cultures.”—Louis Bayard,WashingtonPost Book World “Encyclopedic and critical, evenhanded and interpretive, Woods has produced a study that stands as a monument to the progress of gay literary criticism. No one to date has attempted such a grand world-wide history. . . . It cannot be recommended highly enough.”—Library Journal(a starred review) “A bold, intelligent and gorgeously encyclopedic study.”—Philip Gambone,Lambda Book Report “An exemplary piece of work.”—Jonathan Bate,The Sunday Telegraph
E-Book Content
A History of Gay Literature
Within the remains of an ancient tradition, the gay artist takes inspiration from the living flesh. (Paul Cadmus, The Tower, 1960)
A History of Gay Literature The Male Tradition
Gregory Woods
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Copyright © 1998 by Gregory Woods All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. Set in Garamond by MATS, Southend-on-Sea, Essex Printed in Hong Kong through World Print Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Woods, Gregory, 1953A history of gay literature: the male tradition/Gregory Woods. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-300-07201-5 . Homosexuality and literature. 2. Homosexuality in literature. 3. Gays’ writings—History and criticism. 4. Literature—History and criticism. I. Title. PN56.H57W66 1997 809'.89206642—dc21 97-28159 CIP A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 1 3 5 7 9
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Acknowledgements are due to the following for permission to quote copyright material: Curtis Brown for Theophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin, trans. Joanna Richardson (Copyright © 1981 Joanna Richardson) David Storey, Jonathan Cape Ltd. and A. M. Heath & Co. Ltd. for David Storey, Radclijfe (Copyright © 1963 David Storey)
Contents
Acknowledgements
vii 1
1
The Making of the Gay Tradition
2
The Greek Classics
17
3
The Roman Classics
32
4
The Christian Middle Ages
41
5
The Orient
53
6
The European Renaissance
68
7
Christopher Marlowe
84
8
William Shakespeare
93
The Pastoral Elegists
108
10
From Libertinism to the Gothic
124
11
New Bearings in the Novel
136
12
The American Renaissance
151
13
Muscular Aestheticism
167
14
Spirit Versus Physique
181