Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World [Hardcover]

Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz (Editor), Lisa Auanger (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2002

Women's and men's worlds were largely separate in ancient Mediterranean societies, and, in consequence, many women's deepest personal relationships were with other women. Yet relatively little scholarly or popular attention has focused on women's relationships in antiquity, in contrast to recent interest in the relationships between men in ancient Greece and Rome. The essays in this book seek to close this gap by exploring a wide variety of textual and archaeological evidence for women's homosocial and homoerotic relationships from prehistoric Greece to fifth-century CE Egypt. Drawing on developments in feminist theory, gay and lesbian studies, and queer theory, as well as traditional textual and art historical methods, the contributors to this volume examine representations of women's lives with other women, their friendships, and sexual subjectivity. They present new interpretations of the evidence offered by the literary works of Sappho, Ovid, and Lucian; Bronze Age frescoes and Greek vase painting, funerary reliefs, and other artistic representations; and Egyptian legal documents. Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz is Margaret Bundy Scott Professor of Comparative Literature at Hamilton College, where she also coordinates the Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society, and Culture. Lisa Auanger is an editor of the Bibliography of the History of Art at the Getty Research Institute.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is the most thorough account of female homo-erotic materials from the ancient Mediterranean I have yet seen in English... I can easily see it becoming a standard work on ancient female homo-eroticism." John S. Rundin, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Texas at San Antonio

Review

This book is the most thorough account of female homoerotic materials from the ancient Mediterranean I have yet seen in English. . . . I can easily see it becoming a standard work on ancient female homoeroticism. (John S. Rundin, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Texas at San Antonio )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 407 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292771134
• ISBN-13: 978-0292771130
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,522,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars overall, a pretty good beginning, September 13, 2002

By 

TammyJo Eckhart "TammyJo Eckhart" (Bloomington, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic in the Ancient World (Hardcover)

If we leave out the introduction, there are 9 essays in this book that attempts to discuss female-female relationships from Bronze Age Greece through Late Antiquity in Egypt. Of these 9, three are outstanding works of scholarly deduction and clear writing; another two are very good though they wander a bit or lack a clearly defined conclusion. The topics covered include visual representations on a variety of mediums, writing from women, drama and satire, and finally religious connections between "correct behavior" and control. This is not a book for anyone with a casual interest in gender and sexuality in antiquity -- the more you already know, the better your own Greek and Latin (at least), the more good you'll get from these studies.