Gay Lerature: Poetry and Prose | Oxford Rearch Encyclopedia of Lerature

Contents:

• THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF GAY AND LBIAN LERATURE
• GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
• A HISTORY OF GAY LERATURE

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF GAY AND LBIAN LERATURE

In the cultur of the ancient world, there was no need for signatns such as LGBTQ+ bee there was no difference noted between what is now fed as "homosexual" and "heterosexual" relatnships. Scholar Col Spencer not, "Bisexualy the male was accepted as natural and never drew adverse ment, but passive homosexualy ma the Egyptians feel uneasy. The tale of Sodom and Gomorrah om the Book of Genis is also monly ced attacks on the gay muny, but even Church Fathers such as Sat Ambrose (d.

Pdar and TheoxenThe most famo love poem wrten by Pdar to clare his love for the young Theoxen was scribed by gay rights scholar Magn Hirschfeld as "one of the most perfect love songs the Greek language.

Issu the morn-day regardg genr inty and civil rights for members of the LGBTQ muny are a relatively recent phenomenon as are the terms 'homosexual' and 'heterosexual'.

GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE

Kertbeny, a closeted gay man, had lost a close iend his youth who killed himself after he was extorted by a blackmailer who found out he was gay. Although homosexual relatnships were, of urse, regnized prr to Kertbeny, he was among the first to argue that one’s sexual preference and genr inty was nate – not a choice – and that a gay man should not be equated wh effemacy by potg to great hero of antiquy who were gay. History, both morn and ancient, tells the stori of many people whose sexualy is downplayed or ignored bee, for centuri after the rise of Christiany, homosexualy was nsired a shameful s.

One of the biblil passag most often ced the prent to nmn same-sex relatnships, Romans 1:24-27, any translatn, mentns how men and women gave up "natural relatns for unnatural" and mted "shamels acts" but, the ntext of the whole passage, this should be unrstood as referencg idolatro behavr – behavg as pagans did at i – rather than a mted gay relatnship.

Later European translators of the Bible terpreted the reference to pagan sexual practic as viance, and this was fally terpreted as 'homosexualy' the 1946 Revised Standard Versn of the Bible (Cannon, 9). Some scholars, fact – cludg the bishop John Shelby Spong - have suggted that Pl’s "thorn the flh" (II Corthians 12:6-7) is a reference to his own homosexualy which he seems to have stggled wh. It has also been poted out that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah om the Book of Genis, also equently ed to nmn homosexualy, is actually a utnary tale on the importance of hospaly.

A HISTORY OF GAY LERATURE

Although there is certaly evince of negative personal views toward homosexual practic pre-Christian civilizatn, the seem to have to do wh eher loss of a man’s virily and stat as a man, loss of a young woman’s virgy, or, the se of certa perds of Roman history, extreme licentns and promiscuy.

Though this book is full of dozens of characters, there are three ghosts that might be nsired ma characters a more nventnal novel, one of whom is a gay man.

Wh the creasg impact of the gay rights movement and acceptance of gays mastream society, gay studi and gay lerature are emergg as rpected fields. The wrer Christopher Isherwood said bt when he explaed that beg gay do not volve the act of sex; stead, is the proclivy or the abily to fall love wh another member of the same genr.

No sgle piece of gay fictn n claim to be emblematic of the “gay experience, ” for as the growg numbers of gay short stori shows, this “experience” is different each story. Further, gay lerature also n share tras of other thematic clters of lerature, such as Femist/Femism, Native Amerin, and Ain-Amerin and such genr as tective short fictn, the ghost story, and the edy. Dpe the much-heated bate over William Shakpeare’s sexualy, many crics believe his work—ltered wh cross-drsg characters and same-sex affectnate them—strik a fe gay or bisexual rd.

In his famo 1895 trial for homosexualy, the Brish urts found the prolific and prize-wng Wil guilty and sentenced him to a two-year jail term of hard labor. The gay liv of the lerary giants Virgia Woolf and Gert Ste were wily known lerary circl, yet until recently scholarship about their sexualy or any subtle gay them their work has been mimal. In other stori, such as Willa Cather’s wily anthologized “Pl’s Case” (1905), the homoeroticism and sexualy of the characters are elive yet prent.

At midcentury psychologil associatns told Amerins that homosexualy was abnormal behavr, thereby ntradictg the Ksey Report, which dited that nearly 10 percent of Amerins were homosexual. Although did not ga the momentum of the civil rights and women’s rights movements of the time, this marked the begng of an age when gays stopped hidg unrground and beme advot for their rights. Numero anthologi of short gay fictn clu The Faber Book of Gay Short Fictn (1991), Pengu Book of Gay Short Stori (1994), Pengu Book of Lbian Short Stori (1994), the seri Men on Men (begng 1988) and Women on Women (begng 1990), and even an anthology of gay and lbian science fictn, Kdred Spirs (1984).