Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937 (Women in Culture and Society) - Softcover

DeJean, Joan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226141365 ISBN 13: 9780226141367

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1989

Synopsis

Considering Sappho as a creature of translation and interpretation, a figment whose features have changed with social mores and aesthetics, Joan DeJean constructs a fascinating history of the sexual politics of literary reception. The association of Sappho with female homosexuality has made her a particularly compelling and yet problematic subject of literary speculation; and in the responses of different cultures to the challenge the poet presents, DeJean finds evidence of the standards imposed on female sexuality through the ages. She focuses largely though not exclusively on the French tradition, where the Sapphic presence is especially pervasive. Tracing re-creations of Sappho through translation and fiction from the mid-sixteenth century to the period just prior to World War II, DeJean shows how these renderings reflect the fantasies and anxieties of each writer as well as the mentalité of his or her day.

About this title

About the Author

Joan DeJean, author of seven previous books on French literature, history, and culture during the reign of Louis XIV, is Trustee Professor of French at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught for the past fifteen years. She has also held positions at both Princeton and Yale. Bicultural, she shuttles regularly between her homes in Philadelphia and Paris, with her finger on the pulse of both venues.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0226141365
• ISBN 13: 9780226141367
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 402