A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition

Gregory Woods

Yale University Press, Jan 1, 1998 - Social Science - 456 pages

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, Washington Post 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

Contents

• The Making of the Gay Tradition: 1
• The Greek Classics: 17
• The Roman Classics: 32
• The Christian Middle Ages: 41
• The Orient: 53
• The European Renaissance: 68
• Christopher Marlowe: 84
• William Shakespeare: 93
• The Pastoral Elegists: 108
• From Libertinism to the Gothic: 124
• New Bearings in the Novel: 136
• The American Renaissance: 151
• Muscular Aestheticism: 167
• Spirit Versus Physique: 181
• Marcel Proust: 192
• Homosexual Men by Women: 201
• The Harlem Renaissance: 209
• The Tragic Sense of Life: 217
• Fantastic Realism: 226
• Towards the Popular: 237
• The Pink Triangle: 247
• The PostWar StartingPoint: 257
• 3233: 267
• 25: 289
• 27: 305
• 28: 321
• 30: 344
• 31: 359
• Notes: 390
• Bibliography: 406
• Illustration Credits: 446

Bibliographic information

• Title: A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition
• Author: Gregory Woods
• Edition: unabridged
• Publisher: Yale University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0300080883, 9780300080889
• Length: 456 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / LGBT Studies / Gay Studies