Sappho and the Virgin Mary [Paperback]

Ruth Vanita (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1996 | Series: Between Men-Between Women - Lesbian and Gay Studies

This work looks at the legacy of love between women in the English canon from romantic to postcolonial literature. It examines layers of homoeroticism in works by male and female authors, and demonstrates the place of lesbian desire in the Western literary imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Academic literary criticism can often be a tough read. Luckily, this is not the case with Ruth Vanita's Sappho and the Virgin Mary, a compelling look at how these twin images of sex and celibacy--both outside the world of men--have brought the idea and meaning of lesbianism to British writing. Vanita has a likable style that makes the literature she explicates--Keats, the Brontes, Christina Rossetti, E. M. Forster, George Eliot--live again in a new light. Beautifully argued and intelligently written, Sappho and the Virgin Mary surprises us on every page, making us reexamine previous assumptions in a new light.

Review

Exposing the unacknowledged 'Protestant bias' that has led thinkers such as Freud, Foucault and Paglia to discount lesbianism, Sappho and the Virgin Mary challenges many of the assumptions regarding modernity and cultural history that currently dominate gay and lesbian studies. Intrepid, sophisticated, and worldly. -- Corinne E. Blackmer coeditor of En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera

Her broad definition of the Sapphic allows Vanita to explore such fascinating matters as the ambiguous status of the virgin / celibate, for men as well as women; the Romantics' search for alternative forms of family; the overlaps between Victorian feminism and male homoerotic causes; and the buried connections between Catholicism and homosexuality. She sheds new light on well-known novels like Howards End as well as obscure texts she has resurrected, such as Jane Austen's poem to Anne Lefroy. . . . A delightfully unpredictable book. -- Emma Donoghue

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr (April 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231105517
• ISBN-13: 978-0231105514
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,935,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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