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. Defg gay lerature is sometim difficult, given the equent vague and subtle referenc to gay characters or them found works. Not all gay lerature als specifilly wh sex;…
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GAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSEGAY LERATURE: POETRY AND PROSE
"Gay Lerature: Poetry and Prose" published on by Oxford Universy Prs." name="scriptn * gay history and literature *
Advot of queer theory claim that both heterosexualy and homosexualy are socially nstcted and that there is nothg “natural” about any sexual inty. The dividual and his or her wrgs are no longer nsired to be “sentially” gay or straight but stead are ponents a broad polil disurse.
The same nclns, however, n be ed to margalize gay wrgs by makg them seem merely one of many lser disurs the plexi of human sexual exprsn. Bisexualy has been viewed wh gay studi as distct om homosexualy, and bisexuals have found themselv exclud om gay events and anizatns although a great many “gay ins” om Socrat to Shakpeare to Osr Wil were married and fathered children. Another divisive issue has volved the qutn of whether lbians and gay men should be tegorized as part of the same social and polil realy.
” Further, even the word “homosexual” is ght wh problems: is often believed, rrectly, that origated as a medi-scientific term to classify homosexualy as a disease. The word “homosexual” was, fact, created the late neteenth century as an English equivalent for German Homosexualtät, which first appeared prt 1869 a pamphlet argug agast the Pssian legal that prcribed punishments for men who engaged same-sex relatns. “Homosexual” was ed for the first time A Problem Morn Ethics (1891) by the Brish poet and sayist John Addgton Symonds (1840–1893).