Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) - Hardcover

Bernadette J. Brooten

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226075915 ISBN 13: 9780226075914

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

Love Between Women examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing an unparalleled range of cultural sources, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women and establishes that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of love between women.

"An extraordinary accomplishment. . . . A definitive source for all future discussion of homoeroticism and the Bible."—Mary Rose D'Angelo, Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review

"[Brooten's] convincing analysis . . . not only profoundly reshapes our understanding of the past, but it should also shape the way in which that past, particularly the early Christian texts with their immense normative weight, will be used for the future."—Anne L. Clark, Journal of Lesbian Studies

"Love Between Women gives contemporary debates on sexuality a carefully delineated past. It boldly insists upon a different future, one informed by history but not tyrannized by it."—Susan Ackerman, Lambda Book Report

"Fascinating, provocative and lucid. . . . Brooten has made a fundamental contribution to women's and gender studies, gay and lesbian studies, and classics."—Elizabeth A. Castelli, Women's Review of Books

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Studies Book, 1997

About this title

Review

The last two decades have produced an enormous amount of literature about the role of male homosexuality in the classical and early Christian world--but almost nothing about lesbianism. Bernadette Brooten's Love Between Women remedies that oversight with a vengeance. Brooten's extraordinarily well-researched and breathtakingly argued book proves that female homoeroticism was well-established and thriving 2,000 years ago. Equally as important are her analyses of 19th century and contemporary scholars who have re-closeted lesbianism through ignorance and prejudice. Love Between Women is a breakthrough book that radically changes how we think about history and sexuality.

From the Back Cover

Bernadette J. Brooten examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing an unparalleled range of cultural sources, from magical spells and medical texts to astrological horoscopes, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women and discusses the surgical procedure of clitoridectomy as a method of controlling female homoeroticism. She incontrovertibly establishes the fact that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of sexual love between women. Culling significant information from her sources to illuminate the lives and beliefs of myriad ancient Mediterranean peoples, she gives a tour, at once delightful and distressing, of Roman-world attitudes.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0226075915
• ISBN 13: 9780226075914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 446
• Illustrator: Joel Peter Johnson