The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231096712 ISBN 13: 9780231096713

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In the three decades since New York City's Stonewall rebellion, gay literature has exploded as a distinctive form of cultural expression. In a variety of styles and genres, gay men have increasingly begun to articulate their sexual identities. At the same time, gay writers and scholars have begun in earnest the search for a literary history long denied by the refusal to recognize homosexual love as an integral part of Western literature. Yet to date, no single volume has brought together the full range of poetry, fiction, essays, and autobiography that portray love between men.

From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the poems of Allen Ginsberg and gay literature of the 1980s and '90s, The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature draws together hundreds of texts from Western literary history that describe experiences of love, friendship, intimacy, desire, and sex among men. While other anthologies have focused primarily on poetry, drama, or fiction, this volume is the first to include a full range of genres. Spanning more than two millennia, from ancient Mesopotamia to the late twentieth century, this anthology brings together the best-known texts of gay male writing such as the poetry of Martial and Walt Whitman, and excerpts from E. M. Forster's Maurice, as well as from lesser known works such as nineteenth-century English homoerotic poetry and selections from two early American novels of homosexual love―Joseph and His Friend and Imre.

In The Columbia Anthology readers become acquainted with the early bonds of male companionship found in Homer's writings on Zeus and Ganymede, and with the homoerotic poetry of Catullus and Juvenal. From Shakespeare's Sonnets to the philosophy of de Sade, to the political writings of Edmund White, this masterful anthology traces a multifaceted tradition.

Arranged chronologically, sections are supplemented by illuminating introductory essays; many individual pieces include background commentary on the writer and the work.

As a landmark to the enduring spirit of gay writers, this collection is an essential addition to the library of anyone searching for the historical foundations of gay identities. With its excellent annotations and suggestions for further reading, The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature will also serve as an invaluable resource to students and scholars in need of a guide to a massive body of literature that has long been hidden, ignored, or misrepresented.

About this title

Review:

It would be impossible to compile a complete survey of gay male literature; the very looseness of the definition of "gay" (not to mention the wealth of possible material) would overwhelm the project. Despite that, Byrne R.S. Fone has fashioned a useful, intelligent, and amazingly functional volume that traces gay male themes from classical antiquity to the present day.

Drawing on a variety of traditions and cultures--from ancient Greece to modern Egypt, from the Hebrew Bible to the Russian revolutionary Sergei Esenin--Fone has reprinted not only significant texts, but has also supplied readable, intelligent introductions that illuminate the subject. Most of the material here, apart from a short section on Latin American and Cuban writing, is steeped in a Western European tradition; the book nevertheless conjures a good case for a gay sensibility--or rather a series of sensibilities--that amazes, alarms, and endures. --Michael Bronski

Book Description:

Here at last is a single volume that reveals the bright thread of gay literature throughout the Western tradition. With hundreds of works by authors ranging from Ovid to James Baldwin, from Plato to Oscar Wilde, The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature presents a wide range of poetry, fiction, essays, and autobiography that depict love, friendship, intimacy, desire, and sex between men.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0231096712
• ISBN 13: 9780231096713
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 912
• Editor: Fone Byrne R. S.