Gay and lesbian poetry: An Anthology from Sappho to Michelangelo

Description

Rutgers medievalist Wilhelm's ambitious survey collects European homoerotic poetry from 7th century BCE Greece through the Italian Renaissance. Though Dante, Chaucer, and others deploying gay characters are included, as are a scattering of antihomosexual polemicists, the voice of these poems is typically a mature gay man (Sappho is one of but a few women represented), the object a smooth-cheeked youth. Selections from medieval Arabic and Hebrew poetry provide some of this anthology's most disarming reading? Eg, Imn Shuhaid's "he passed me in a herd of deer, a smiling moon with lucky teeth"? As well as evidencing the improbable license apparently then possible under Islamic rule. Though generally capable, the translators sometimes resort to anachronisms (a calculator in a Juvenal satire?) and contemporary subculture argot to mixed effect. And aside from brief introductions to each section and to individual poets, the annotations are minimal? Too minimal, perhaps, for many a lay reader without a literary dictionary immediately at hand. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents PREFACE SECTION I CLASSICAL GREEK LITERATURE Chapter 1 SAPPHO (ca. 630–ca. 580 B.C.) Chapter 2 EARLY MALE LYRIC POETS Chapter 3 THEOCRITUS AND THE PASTORAL TRADITION Chapter 4 STRATO OF SARIDS MUSA PUERILIS THE BOYISH MUSE SECTION II CLASSICAL LATIN LITERATURE Chapter 5 THE LYRIC: CATULLUS, HORACE, AND TIBULLUS Chapter 6 VERGIL Chapter 7 OVID Chapter 8 SATIRE: MARTIAL, JUVENAL, AND PETRONIUS SECTION III MEDIEVAL LATIN LITERATURE Chapter 9 A.D. 300–1000 Chapter 10 A.D. 1000–1300 Chapter 11 ANONYMOUS POEMS FROM LATER MANUSCRIPT SECTION IV ARABIC POETRY Chapter 12 MEDIEVAL SPANISH SELECTIONS SECTION V HEBREW POETRY Chapter 13 MEDIEVAL SPANISH SELECTIONS SECTION VI LATE MEDIEVAL VERNACULAR LITERATURE TO 1400 Chapter 14 THE TROBAIRITZ BIETRIS DE ROMANS (ca. EARLY 1200S) Chapter 15 DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265–1321) Chapter 16 GEOFFREY CHAUCER (ca. 1341–1400) SECTION VII ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE TO MICHELANGELO Chapter 17 SELECTIONS FROM 1400 TO 1550 GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF AUTHORS AND LONGER WORKS