A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition [Paperback]

Gregory Woods (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1999

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

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The very idea of a unique tradition of gay-male writing began relatively recently. Early in the 20th century, homosexual writers began to write more honestly. Yet writers, both gay and straight, have written about the experience of homosexuality since ancient times. In his encyclopedic overview, Gregory Woods has knitted together a transhistorical and transcultural history--a tradition--of gay-male writing over the centuries. Using a broad but readily applicable definition of gay literature that includes works by openly gay men, works in which homosexual activity occurs, and works that manifest a gay "sensibility," Woods manages to move us from Homer to David Leavitt, from Arabic poets of the classical age to contemporary South African poetry, from closeted Victorian memoirs to AIDS literature. By its nature, A History of Gay Literature lacks the specificity of critique that illuminates individual work, but this approach is more than compensated for by the book's ability to locate and discuss amazing similarities of experience and expression throughout history and culture. Highly intelligent, jauntily written, and endlessly informative, A History of Gay Literature is an impressive addition to contemporary gay scholarship. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Woods's (Articulate Flesh: Male Homo-Eroticism and Modern Poetry) dense but rewarding history has a lofty aim: "queering the canon." Starting with the man-boy love of Greek classics, this academic text focuses on homoeroticism in the literary imagination. But Woods does more. By analyzing attitudes about homosexual men, he looks at the homophobic ideologies that poetry and prose have encouraged throughout history. While there is not enough information on the role of religion in classifying sodomy as sin, Woods demonstrates that as early as the 12th century, hostility against man-to-man love was evident. But despite the linking of homosexual love with shame and repentance, it formed a culture?described by writers as diverse as Aristophanes, Rumi, William Shakespeare, the Marquis de Sade, Walt Whitman, Federico Garcia Lorca, Langston Hughes and Jane Austen?that held on. Woods's commentary about the Nazis and about the popular postwar belief that fascism developed because of Germany's tolerance of "sexual perversion" is eye-opening, as is his deconstruction of 1950s crime fiction, which routinely depicted gay men as deviants. Woods moves his readers into the decades since Stonewall and scrutinizes writing that deals with gay pride as well as AIDS. Throughout, his point that homoerotic traditions are a literary constant is well-taken and persuasively argued. Woods makes inroads in defining queer culture and illuminates the essential role gay men have played in the Western canon.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (November 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300080883
• ISBN-13: 978-0300080889
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #895,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important, major survey that reads like a great history !, April 22, 2000

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition (Hardcover)

Poet and author Gregory Lewis has given us one of the more readable compendiums tracing the birth and maturation of gay themes and styles in literature. Many authors have approached this task as a sensational "outing" of famous writers whose true sexual preferences will always be shrouded by the curtain of history. Lewis has chosen to deal with actual portions of writings in a scholastic method that creates a credible case for his choices of inclusion in the lineage of gay writers. Infused with brief descriptions of the social history of the times he is describing (Greek, Roman, Middle Ages, Shakespeare/Marlowe, Melville, Whitman, Wilde, Forster, Genet, Gide, Holleran, Leavitt, Monette, Auden, Rechy, etc), he lays the timely mores for interpreting the written word and in doing so does not preach to his readers. And though this book is heavily footnoted, researched, and extensive in its coverage of known and less known writers, it is eminently readable! Lewis is not afraid to let us know when his "opinion" versus "cold fact" is being stated; he allows us to grow to understand his method of decision making and is generous in his quotations of passages that support his claims. For the reader who wants a gossipy book of "Secrets of the Closeted Writers" this is not the resource. For those who want to examine the works of Thomas Mann, Shakespeare, E.M. Forster, Henry James, Plato, Socrates (the list is endless) in an erudite manner, welcome to the feast. Lewis is a gifted historian, social commentator, and gentle philosopher. And this book is one to read over an unhurried, extended period of time. There are riches here to savour as you read and for later as a reference volume of considerable significance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Survey, February 12, 2001

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition (Paperback)

Gregory Woods, in A History of Gay Literature, The Male Tradition, has written a comprehensive examination of gay male literature through the centuries and around the globe. It looks at text and subtext and context to find the gay meaning or the meaning for gays in the annals of historical literature. Along the way the reader will learn new aspects of literature (such as the chapter on African poetry, to name one example from my own ignorance) and new ways to look at familiar books and poems. For all its breadth, it is wonderfully readable and somewhat addictive. It had me searching out various books to read them for myself. The writing is so good that I was equally fascinated reading about the books I had not read or did not even know about as I was reading about the others. This is a very good survey and a fun read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guidebook to a New Field, January 12, 2008

By 

Ford Ka (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition (Paperback)

If your interest in gay literature is just starting (and there is no need anymore to explain why) this book will give you a head start. You can find here information on a vast variety of books which you may pick up to expand your knowledge, curiosity, or simply spend you time reading for pleasure. Woods draws an interesting panorama of homesexual themes in literature from the Antiquity to the Present.
However, if you are quite far in the subject, you may find this volume a little bit too simplistic and disagree with some of Woods conclusions - e.g. the use of the word "gay" in the title may be quite disputable in the context. But still you may find many pieces of information you haven't yet heard.