Flashcards
Love Through the Ages- Homosexual Love
Cards in this deck (10)
- 1Ancient Mythology BackgroundLGBT themes have been explored in a variety of different mythologies (e.g. European, Asian, African, etc.). However it is most commonly found in Greek mythology, with many gods and heroes having male partners, such as Achilles and Patroclus, Apollo and Hyacinth as well as Zeus and Ganymede. There are, however, few myths about lesbian couples, though one example would be Athena and Myrmex.
- 2Ancient Mythology LiteratrureAeschylus' The Myrmidons
Plato's Symposium - 318th and 19th Centuries BackgroundAs homosexuality had been illegal in England and America since the 1500s, it was dangerous for authors to publish works with openly homosexual themes. As a result of this, many authors (who were homosexual themselves) chose to explore these themes in transgressive genres, such as Gothic and horror. In Matthew Lewis' The Monk (1796) for example, the title character falls in love with young novice Rosario, though Rosario is later revealed to be a woman. In a similar way, the valet Cyprian (in Charles Maturin's The Fatal Revenge- 1807) asks his master, Ippolito, to kiss him as if he was Ippolito's female lover, and it is later revealed that Cyprian is actually a woman.
- 418th and 19th Centuries BackgroundUse of Ancient Greece as the setting was common for writers during this time, as references to Greek/ Roman mythology were a seen as code for homosexual readers, as they "commonly understood ancient Greece and Rome to be societies where homosexual relationships were tolerated and even encouraged,", whereas heterosexual readers would overlook such references.
- 518th and 19th Centuries LiteratureAugustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg's A Year in Arcadia: Kyllenion
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray - 620th Century BackgroundIn the 1900s, society started to discuss homosexuality in a more open manner as their understanding of it grew. Novels started to feature themes which were overly homosexual, rather then discreetly homosexual as it had been in previous times.
- 720th Century LiteratureAndré Gide's The Immoralist
E.M. Forster's Maurice - 821st Century BackgroundMany works featuring homosexual themes have received mainstream acclaim, as writing about homosexuality is less shocking than it was in previous centuries.
- 921st Century LiteratureAlan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child
Sarah Waters' The Night Watch
Jamie O'Neill's At Swim - 10Other Examples of Homosexual Love in LiteratureA Street Car Named Desire: Blanche's late husband was
homosexual. She see's him
cheating on her with another
man and tell's him "you disgust
me" and then he kills himself
The God of Small Things: Estha and the Lemondrink
Orangedrink man- prey's of Estha for a
sexual favour
Warming Her Pearls by Carol Ann Duffy- Addressed to her lesbian lover- "my mistress"