|
Paul Knobel
A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry
© Paul Knobel 2002,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Reproduced here by
special permission of the copyright owner Paul Knobel
Dedication
Suggested subject
term cataloguing:
Introduction
This work consists of the Overview entries from my Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry and its Reception History which was first published on cdrom in 2002 and contained 6,301 entries relating to 243 languages and 118 countries of the world’s about 200 countries (the exact number fluctuates from time to time); in length it came to 1.02 million words. Altogether there are 83 language and language family Overviews here, a total including this Introduction of over 63,367 words. The Overviews are here arranged alphabetically by language and language family under the same name used in the Encyclopedia (where they appear as, for instance, Overview—English, Overview—Italian). In effect A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry constitutes a world history of male homosexual poetry. It is also the closest we have to a survey of male homosexuality worldwide since no other work is known which surveys the world so fully for male homosexuality.
Generally, only languages which had more than 7 entries were given Overviews. So, for information on the other 160 languages, the Encyclopedia itself needs to be consulted and readers will need to consult the 2002 cdrom of the whole work (usable on both PC and Macintosh Versions 8 and 9) or the 2009 reprinting of all entries in a pdf file in a single alphabetical sequence. As there are some 6–10,000 living languages of the world and many more dead languages, the record is far from complete, despite the 19 years it took to compile the Encyclopedia. (Its genesis was a 1983 review of *The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse in The Age Monthly Review (July 1983, 5–7): a card catalog became a computer file in 1990.) It has been estimated that up to 33,000 languages have existed throughout world history, many now dead (2 of these, Akkadian and Hittite, have Overview entries): see the list of languages in volume 10 of the Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics (Oxford, 1994). The entries in An Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry, *Languages of the world, *Cultures, ethnic groups and peoples of the world and *Countries of the world, provide further information. All words with an asterisk (*) in the World Overview and this Introduction to it have entries in the Encyclopedia. The full titles of works mentioned with short titles in the Overviews can be found in the list of the 450 reference works listed here in the World Overview at the end of the Overviews under Works Cited. In Overview entries, as in the full Encyclopedia, short titles for reference works have been chosen in such a way that readers in all cases should be able to go directly to computer based library catalogs to find the work. I hoped with the title chosen to give some idea of the reference work also; my only regret is that I did not include the date of the work since that gives a cutoff year for the knowledge contained in the work.
As an example of the breadth of material in the Encyclopedia, there are 195 entries which are homosexual poetry anthologies. Users of the Encyclopedia 2002 and 2009 cdroms are strongly urged to read the Introduction of those works (which can be printed out for easier reading) to get a better understanding of the work. Nothing is to be assumed of the sexuality of any person mentioned: as its title indicates, An Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry is a reading of world poetry for homosexuality and not of poets for their sexuality and this holds also for the World Overview.
Two works which were inadvertently missed but should have been cited are the fine German biographical dictionary Mann für Mann: biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte von Freundesliebe und mannmännlicher Sexualität im deutschen Sprachraum edited by Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller first published in Hamburg in 1998 and now in a second edition with additional material, and the Spanish biographical dictionary Para entendernos: diccionario de cultura homosexual, gay y lésbica compiled by Alberto Mira (Barcelona, 1999) and also now in a second edition. In English I was not aware in 2002 of Timothy F. Murphy, A readers guide to gay and lesbian studies (Chicago, 2000). The 1987 Encyclopedia of Religion edited by Mircea Eliade (which is a cited work) is now in a second edition (Detroit and London, 2005), edited by Lindsay Jones. In 2002 I was unaware also of another landmark work, Africana: the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates (New York, 1999) which has a splendid article on homosexuality. Encyclopedias increasingly have articles on homosexuality: for instance, a 2004 fascicle of Encyclopaedia Iranica (volume 12, fascicle 5, New York, 2004) has a ground breaking article on Iranian cultures, “Homosexuality” by the editor *Ehsan Yarshater (which nevertheless does not discuss Iranian art). The Encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history in America (New York, 2004) edited by Marc Stein, at three volumes the most detailed encyclopedic gay and lesbian survey of any culture to date, is another landmark, as was Louis Crompton’s wideranging survey Homosexuality and Civilization (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003). Naturally gay poetry and gay poetry anthologies continue after 2002.
The US Supreme Court case Lawrence versus Texas (2003), which decriminalized male homosexual acts across all 50 states of the United States has given a huge boost to gay culture and is likely to be influential in other countries and probably was in the 3 July 2009 decriminalization in India by the Delhi High Court (there were still in the United States in 2003 several states besides Texas in which consenting adult homosexual acts were illegal despite 30 years of repeal of laws state by state). Many of the over 120 amicus curiae (friend of the court) interventions in this historic case, some from eminent gay scholars, showed that, far from “sodomy” being universally condemned in Christian cultures, as previous federal United States law had relied on, there was no agreed definition on what *sodomy was. The evolutionary and biological perspective of Bruce Bagemihl’s Biological exuberance: animal homosexuality and natural exuberance (New York, 1998) has come to seem more and more important as it makes clear that *homosexuality and even *pederasty are natural to animal species for those who had any doubt. The scholarly articles of the US psychologist Bruce Rind on adolescent sexuality are also landmarks (some are available on the internet).
Research on my Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Art, which has extended over 18 years so far, and of which a first version was published in 2005, has taught me that I must constantly check such library catalogs as, in Australia, where most of the work of compilation was done, Libraries Australia, the country’s union catalog (available on the internet), Worldcat, the most wideranging union catalog which merged the United States RLG Union catalog and OCLC’s catalog and was made available freely on the internet in 2007, and COPAC (the British union catalog of major university and public research libraries which is freely available on the internet and is easy to use). Worldcat is the most wideranging of these catalogs. The catalog of the Library of Congress is another source of information. It is freely available on the internet and a magnificent research instrument with 90-95% of the main (Jefferson) reading room card catalog sucessfully converted to machine readable form and where keyword searches yield the most amazing things, though many of the library’s card catalogs in its several reading rooms were not yet included as of 2005. The catalogs of such United States universities as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, the University of California and the New York Public Library (which is especially good for homosexuality) may be checked individually as well; in Great Britain, Cambridge University has an especially good library for the humanities. A research visit to the United States in 2009 showed that Harvard University’s catalog is by far the best for homosexuality with more items showing up for keyword searches for “homosexuality” than even the Library of Congress: some 4,889 items for Harvard versus 4,501 items for the Library of Congress were found on a keyword search for “homosexuality” on 28 October 2009. The libraries of the separate national libraries, all available on the internet through the National Libraries splash page, of which the catalogs of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, the Deutsche Bibliothek for Germany and the National Library of Spain are outstanding for their respective languages, should be checked for individual languages. I suggest users of such national library catalogs use words from the main language of the library for keyword searches (eg French “homosexualité” for the Bibliothèque Nationale). Using such words as keyword subject searches narrows the search even further.
The catalogs of gay libraries and *archives also need to be checked, especially the section titled Relevant of *Homodok (now Ihlia) in Amsterdam which lists notable new works, including articles as well as books; it is annotated mainly in Dutch, though sometimes in English. The United States gay and lesbian archive One IGLA in Los Angeles is outstanding in its coverage of library books and archival holdings. Gay bookshops, for instance *Prinz Eisenherz in Berlin, are another source of information on new works. The fact that the Library of Congress since 2006 has non Roman scripts is an exciting development, as is the increasing use of Library of Congress subject headings by libraries in all parts of the world. Once found such subject headings can yield surprising discoveries.
In the increasingly complex world of library research (which now encompasses the internet), Thomas Mann’s The Oxford Guide to Library Research, third edition, 2005, is a brilliant guide to library use by a senior Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress who has a Ph D. This third edition fully covers the internet which was only in its infancy when the second, 1998, edition was published; a new edition is promised. On the question of the internet versus libraries may I say that in my experience both are necessary for researchers in the age in which we live. It is also doubtful if the internet will ever supplant libraries since copyright laws ensure that many books will not be available on the Internet for 70 years at least. Projects to put all books out of copyright on the internet eg (all books before 1929) will revolutionize scholarship and already have begun to do this.
The increasingly better and better machine readable catalogs of libraries means that the next major problem to solve is that of “not on the shelf” books, a problem which plagues research libraries and where I have found, in the Library of Congress for instance, up to 40% of books in any book batch of ten books, cannot be located consistently over 27 years of usage of this great library, the greatest single cultural monument of the United States. At the University of Sydney up to 20-30% of books could not be located in recent years (they could not be located and were not on loan). Oxford University some years ago recognized this problem; a stocktake was to be held following the computerization of the catalog (there were books in the catalog which were not on the shelves and books on the shelf which were not listed in the catalog). The University of Cambridge closes its library for 5 days every year for a stocktake. It is vital to realize also that it may take up to 3 years or even more for a major reference work to get cataloged in a major research library, another reason to check library catalogs widely; however CIP (cataloguing in progress) cataloguing done before publication is reducing this time frame. This appears not to be the case at Harvard University Library however, one reason its catalog is so useful. In addition on a 2009 visit to Harvard where over 200 works were examined over 99% of books could be located (the one item that did not come back, a gay periodical, appeared to have been stolen).
I wish to express thanks to librarians in many countries (over 50 countries) who helped with this work and the two cdroms. Some changes have been made to the text in the Overviews as published in 2002, mainly tidying up awkward sentences, correcting some spelling mistakes and adding dates. Only rarely has some information been added. Mistakes in the text are of course mine. An Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry has the added complication in that, since it covered 243 languages (several with diacritics), no automatic spelling check could be used. The original work took over a year to proof read and involved two people, the author and Louise Campbell (unmarried name, Louise Bateson), to whom I wish to express again my thanks, especially for drawing attention to awkardnesses in style and in pushing me towards brevity and I hope clarity.
Finally I would again like to strongly stress to readers who use the 2002 and 2009 cdroms that they should read the Introduction to the cdrom (as distinct from this Introduction) to get the best results in using them; the 2009 cdrom, an offshoot of the 2002 work, is easier to use being in a single alphabetical sequence but, not being in a database, cannot be searched in the way a database allows. This Introduction was largely completed while working in the Library of Congress and I would like to say how inspiring this library is. No library, with the possible exception of Harvard, collects on the scale of the Library of Congress. This second, corrected, edition also adds new material in the Introduction. I thank the staff of the National Library of Australia for their speedy cataloguing of the first edition; 49 copies of that edition were printed and dispersed to national libraries on 5 continents and to 2 of the dedicatees. One of the two Chinese dedicatees Zhang Zhaizhou has been found to be a pseudonym; the author’s real name is Zhang Jie and he is a librarian at the old books section of the National Library of China in Beijing. Apart from publishing his 1999 history of gay China, in 2008 he published a work in Chinese on illustrations of homosexuality in old Chinese books with the ISBN 978-7-222-05340-3.
Washington, DC—Naples—Melbourne—Sydney 15 November 2005—29 October 2009
African languages consist of indigenous languages (such as the Bantu languages of South Africa) and introduced languages such as Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans and Flemish (a language close to Dutch and the language of Belgium, a country which controled the Republic of Congo in the nineteenth century). See the separate entry *African languages for discussion of the variety of languages spoken in the continent. The indigenous languages (which are the vast majority of languages) largely exist in oral form and have only recently been committed to writing (an exception is Hausa which was written in Arabic characters from the fifteenth century; Swahili has also been written in Arabic for many centuries). See the separate entries *Overview—Egyptian, —Arabic, —English—South Africa for those languages.
Homosexuality is very hidden in Africa south of the Sahara; Nigeria is the least repressive country, though male homosexuality is illegal, as it is in many countries of Africa. There has been controversy in Zimbabwe over gay rights due to repressive anti-gay statements by the head of the country, Robert Mugabe.
*Oral epics, *heroic poems and *praise poems are the major genres of relevance. *Chants and songs associated with *Initiation rites are of significance. *Male bonding in singing is strongly homoerotic: most singing by males is performed in groups and frequently in the past was performed in many parts of the continent in a semi-naked or naked state.
For African religions, which are strong social forces, see Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion; *serpent myths with homosexual undertones have been reported and are incorporated into religious songs. For an excellent history of Africa see Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 1994.
Northern (Saharan) Africa. Arabic, Egyptian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Nubian are major languages. See *Overview—Arabic for Arabic material. The Sahara is a desert covering the northern part of Africa. Nubian. Males often go nude and grooming ceremonies occur; oral poems are likely relevant. A famous book of photographs on the Nuba, Die Nuba von Kau, 1976 (English translation: The People of Kau, 1976), was compiled by Leni Riefenstahl, the German filmmaker and photographer; she also was working on a film of the Nuba which was unfinished at her death.
Sub Saharan indigenous languages. "Homosexuality in Sub-Saharan Africa" in Gay Books Bulletin no. 9 (Spring 1983), 20–21 by *Wayne Dyne contains the most important bibliography to date (contributed by *Stephen Wayne Forster) on sources for homosexuality in black Africa. It is a bibliography of major importance. Ijaw: see *Ijaw initiation songs. Luo: see *Okut p'Bitek. Nuer: see *Songs—Nuer. Fula: see *Songs—Fula. Swahili. Written in Arabic script and spoken in east Africa: see *Sufism. Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the richest countries in west Africa for languages. Hausa is spoken in the north of Nigeria; see also *Songs—Fulani, *Dance poem—Igbo *Initiation songs and chants—Ijaw, *Chants and songs—Yoruba and *Wole Soyinka. Wudaabe: men dress almost as women and oral poems are possible. South African languages. *Bantu languages are widely spoken: see, for example, *B. J. Laubscher (active 1937). Bands in Africa play bawdy called Kwasa Kwasa (now, now) which may have gay material.
For information on languages see John Middleton, Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara, 4 volumes, 1999.
Ethnic groups in Africa. See Laure Meyer, Black Africa: Masks, Sculpture, Jewelry, Paris, 1992, pp. 214–15 for a map of ethnic groups above South Africa. There are also maps in Tom Phillips, editor, Africa: The Art of a Continent, 2000, which occur at the beginning of each section.
Introduced European languages. Afrikaans. Afrikaans is close to Dutch and is spoken by Dutch colonists and their descendents in South Africa. See *Overview—Afrikaans. English. English was spoken by British colonists in South Africa and in east Africa in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). See *Overview—English—South Africa. French. See *Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (possible reference only). The article "Theyting de dat?" The treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature by Chris Dunto, Research in African Literatures, vol. 20 no. 3 (Fall 1989), 822–48 only discusses homosexuality in the modern novel in English and French and not poetry.
Overall, Ruth Finnegan, Oral Literature in Africa, 1970 (with bibl.) is a place to start in investigating oral literatures (second edition, 1976). African Literatures in the 20th Century, edited by Leonard S. Klein, 1988, is a guide by language. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1536–1566, is a major survey of African literatures. On African sexuality see Roger B. Beck, A Bibliography of Africana in the Institute for Sex Research, Bloomington, 1979, 134 pages; with an index with five items referring to homosexuality (none referring to homosexual poetry); very rare (copy: *Paul Knobel; this copy was made as a photostat from the Kinsey Copy). Further on African sexuality, see Hans Freimark, Das Sexualleben der Afrikaner, Leipzig, 1906. A major study of African homosexuality was edited by *Stephen O. Murray in 1998, Boy-wives and female husbands; this surveys the subject for Sub-Suharan cultures: see pp. xi-xxii and pp. 1–18 for concise surveys of African homosexuality. The article “Homosexuality” in Africana (1905) edited by Kwame Appiah is an outstanding concise survey.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature: "African Literature"; with bibl. to 1946. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature vol. 1: "Africa (Subsaharan)"—discusses several literatures and gives bibliographies; the first edition of this work, 1953, has an article "Negro Literature" by Nora Chadwick which is the first survey in English on African oral literatures. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "African Religions". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "African Poetry". Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behaviour: see "Africans, Sex Life of"; "Negro". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon vol. 20: "Traditionelle Literatur des schwarzen Afrika" (Traditional literature of Black Africa); with bibl. Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: see "African and African-Diasporic" regarding religions. Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: many references, see the index. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 204–09. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 239–41: sub-Saharan Africa. Other. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 116–84. Black Eros, 280–83 (discussion of homosexuality amongst African tribal cultures); map of tribal cultures 284–85; important bibl. 291–97. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: many references on *bisexuality, see the index. Second ILGA Pink Book: see 188–97 re laws. Greenberg, Construction of Homosexuality, 60–62. Homosexuality and world religions, 1-46: article on the Americas and Africa.
Afrikaans is an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group and is a dialect of *Dutch. It dates in usage from 1652 when the first Dutch persons arrived in South Africa where it is spoken. The *Overview—Dutch entry gives the Dutch background. Gay material of relevance dates from 1915 so far.
Male homosexuality was only legalized in South Africa in 1995 with the new constitution (see ILGA Pink Book 1985 and Second ILGA Pink Book for the previous situation). British law had prevailed prior to 1995, homosexual acts being illegal; homosexuality was included in the human rights legislation in 1995 as a ground of discrimination (under sexual orientation).
Afrikaans poetry only came into existence in the late nineteenth century. Material dates from ca. 1915. Poets who wrote homosexual poems include *Melt Brink, *Louis Liepoldt, *Izak Du Plessis, *Ernst van Heerden and *Hennie Aucamp (who, in 1990, published a survey of homoeroticism in South African prose in the twentieth century titled Wisselstroom ). *Lucas Malan established a reputation in the 1980s and *Johann De Lange is a contemporary poet who has written relevant poems. *E. Frost has written an unpublished thesis on homoeroticism in Afrikaans poetry. Several poets appear in translation in the anthology *Invisible Ghetto.
A translation of *Shakespeare's sonnets exists in Afrikaans and the bisexual *Roy Campbell and the homosexual *William Plomer edited what has claims to be a gay journal, the satiric Voorslag, 1924–26. There is a Gay Association of South Africa (Gasa) which publishs a journal in English and Afrikaans, Link/ Skakel. The University of Witwatersrand has a gay archive. See also *Overview—English—South Africa. For indigenous languages see *African languages (the *Bantu language family is a major group spoken in South Africa). On Afrikaans see T. J. Haarhoff, Afrikaans: Its Origin and Development, Oxford, 1936, 72 pp.
References. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 1231–45. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature, vol. 1, 7–8. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "South African Poetry", pp. 1183–84.
Akkadian, an *Afro-Asiatic language, was spoken in Iraq from ca. 2,500 B.C.; actual material of relevance dates from 612 B.C.
The language seems to have been spoken from the early third millennium to the beginning of the Christian era; for a long period it was the accepted language of international diplomacy and a lingua franca in Syria, Iran, Turkey and Egypt; from the seventh century this role was taken by Aramaic.
The fullest surviving text of *Gilgamesh—with its strong homosexual relationship between the hero, Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu—is in Akkadian. This makes the Akkadian version of Gilgamesh the first surviving *epic poem of gay relevance (predating the surviving text of *Homer's Iliad which dates from the *Hellenistic period).
The poem survived by being an *epigraphical inscription in cuneiform (a system of over 500 signs predating the alphabet). It dates from before 612 B.C. when the Palace of Ashurbanipal was destroyed. The Gilgamesh tablets in the Palace contain the only complete surviving version of the poem. *Prostitution associated with religion round the cult of *Ishtar occurred (see *Hieroduoleia) and a poem from this background is *"My hire goes to the promoter". Love poems existed (see Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol.18: "Akkadische Liebeslieder") though whether any were homosexual is not known. The Middle Assyrian laws referred to homosexuality. There were two dialects of Akkadian: Assyrian and Babylonian.
As a spoken language Akkadian was replaced by Aramaic from 800 B.C. Homosexuality is discussed in Vern L. Bullough, "Attitudes towards deviant sex in ancient Mesopotamia", Journal of Sex Research, vol. 7 no. 3 (1971), 184–203.
An anthology of the literature is Ben R. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature, 2 volumes, Bethesda, 1996. For a discussion of the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 253–76. On the language see the entry in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. On ancient religious aspects of homosexuality see "Ancient Near Eastern and Western Antiquity" in Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: see "Mesopotamia". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 427–35.
Albanian, which is a language isolate and does not belong to any known language family, is spoken in Albania and Serbia and Montenegro and in the former province of Yugoslavia, Kosovo (which, from the late 1990s, was under United Nations control after a disastrous war brought about by the breakup of the former Yugoslavia). Material of relevance dates from 1853.
Situated in the Balkans, Albania is opposite southern Italy, adjoining Serbia and Bosnia. The religion of Albanian speakers is *Islam (Kosovo, now 90% inhabited by Albanian speaking Muslims, was formerly inhabited by Serbo-Croat speaking Serbians and contains many old *Orthodox monasteries.) The area was occupied by the Turks for several centuries and was part of Yugoslavia after 1945, being occupied by Italy during the Second World War. Oral poetry is extremely rich.
The earliest reference to homosexual poetry is in an article by *Johann Georg von Hayn published in German in 1853, which includes translations of gay poems by *Nesin (or Nesim) Bey. Another article in German referring to gay oral poems was published in German in 1904 by *Paul Nacke. *Oral epics and *epics are also relevant; these may be very ancient having been handed down by word of mouth. *Pobratim or blood brotherhood exhibited in them is relevant. The bisexual English poet *Byron visited Albania in the early nineteenth century with his friend John Cam Hobhouse (Hobhouse wrote a book, Journey to Albania; repr.)
On Albanian literature see Everyman Companion to East European Literature, “Albanian” pp. 507–08. Surrounding languages are south *Slavic languages to the north and east and Greek to the south; these languages as well as Turkish have all influenced Albanian literature. Many people in this part of the world are bilingual or even trilingual. There have been strong trading links with Italian to the west.
References, Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 1513–1531.
Arabic is one of the languages of the *Afro-Asiatic family. Arabic poetry comes from the Middle East and north Africa, from Morocco to Iraq, and was formerly spoken in Portugal and Spain. Homosexual poetry dates in written form from ca. 622.
Arabic poetry referring to homosexuality emerged out of *oral traditions and, in written form, dates from the rise of *Islam, the religion of most Arabic speakers, from 622, the date of the writing of the Islamic holy book, the *Koran. Written in Arabic, the Koran is in a poetic form of prose. Islam quickly spread by conquest to Iran, north Africa and Spain, though *Christianity was and is also a major religion in many Arabic-speaking lands. (Islam is now the majority religion in Afghanistan, Malaysia and Indonesia and a major religion in India; in all of these countries Arabic may be read or spoken since the Koran is read in Arabic.) The writing down of the Koran stimulated the writing down of poetry (all Arabic poetry until 622 was transmitted orally). The *Umayyad period (661–750), the first major period of written Arabic poetry, was also a major period for gay poetry.
*Islamic law from 622 became the dominant form of law from Iran to Spain.
Syria, Egypt and Iraq. *Anthologies may date from ca. 870. *Drinking songs—called *khamriyya in written form—are a source of gay poems. A *debate on love featured homosexual poems used as examples of love poems and this debate shows homosexual love accepted as normal in earlier centuries and many Arabic speaking cultures. Most poets remain in manuscript so delineating the corpus of gay poetry is difficult (see *Manuscripts—Arabic).
Syria. Syria's crucial position in relation to trading routes passing though the country (to the Mediterranean Sea) has made it a bridging culture between Greek and Islamic culture. The capital *Damascus has long been a cultural center: see *Philosophers—Arabic. In the *Ummayad period Syria was especially rich in gay poets. Poets: see *Abu Tammam, *al-Mutannabi, *al-Wasani, *Beha al-Din Zoheir, *Walid II.
Egypt. Egypt has a huge gay literary history centered on the capital *Cairo where the *Arabian Nights—which contains homopoetry—was first published. *Alexandria, the port at the mouth of the Nile on the Mediterranean, is the second largest city and dates back to Greek times and is names after a homosexual or bisexual Greeek speaking king. Arabic was only spoken following the Islamic invasions of the seventh century; before this Egyptian, also an Afro-asiatic language, was the common language. Greek and Latin were the languages of prior conquerors of Egypt and Turkish was spoken following the Turkish occupation of Egypt (1517–1798).
*Ibn Sana al-Mulk compiled the first gay Egyptian Arabic anthology as such called *Dar at-Tiraz. *Ibn al-Farid is an outstanding *Sufi poet. In the twentieth century *Taha Husayn wrote the first modern article on homosexuality in poetry and *Muhammad Haddara has written an outstanding recent study of early gay poetry. (See *Overview—Egyptian for poetry in ancient Egyptian; *Overview—Greek is also relevant.) For the Mamluk period (1200–1550), see Wright, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature, pp. 158–91.
Iraq. The capital *Baghdad was the capital of the Islamic empire during the *Abbasid period when the famous homosexual poet *Abu Nuwas wrote. The poet *Di'bil ibn 'Ali wrote a brilliant poem on the gays of the city. According to some the poets, *Bashshar is second in fame as regards homosexuality but *Abu Tammam, who also lived in Egypt, is also notable.
Both Abu Nuwas and Abu Tammam were first edited by *Abu Bakr al-Suli and later by *Hamza al-Isfani, the first editors of Arabic homopoetry in written form. Other outstanding Iraqi poets include *al-Bahili, *Muti' ibn Iyas, *Ibn Dawud, *Ibn al-Hadjdjadj and *al-Ramidi. Recent literary scholarship has turned to the long neglected area of *oral poems. For biographical sources see *Biography—Arabic.
Spain, Portugal and North Africa. Arabic was the language of the rulers of the Iberian peninsula from 711 to 1492. Arabic is still spoken across Saharan Africa in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and in Egypt.
Spain. Spain (called Andalusia: from the Arabic "al-Andalus", "the west") was invaded in 711 by Berbers from north Africa who spoke the Arabic of Morocco (not the classic Arabic of the Koran). A *romance dialect was spoken in Spain and the first Spanish poems are *kharjas, which were initially the final lines of the Arabic *muwashshah genre. Some kharjas are homosexual in inspiration, as are muwashshah. In 1492 the Arabs were expelled but, for the six centuries prior, Arabic civilization in Spain reached splendid heights. A huge homosexual literature was produced but most poets remain in manuscript or inadequately edited.
The eleventh century was a major period of Arabic literature in Spain. Notable poets include *Ibn Kuzman (only edited this century by *A. R. Nykl), *Ibn Sahl (whose lover *Musa is known), *Ibn Khafadja, *Abu Hayyan and *al-Ramadi. *Ibn Sa`id complied a notable anthology, including many homopoems. *Ibn Hazm from *Cordoba, then the largest city, wrote a notable *treatise on love. Many poets have written one or two outstanding gay poems. Poets have become more widely available through translation in the twentieth century: see the gay anthology *In Praise of Boys.
Arabic love poetry of Spain influenced the *troubadours and, through them, Arabic ideas on love reached Europe (see *Debate on love—Arabic.) The journal al-Andalus covers the country.
References for Spain. See Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry, pp. 3–71: overview of Arabic poetry in Spain in general. Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, volume 1, pp. 599–603: see "Arabic Literature in Spain" under "`Arabiyya" (overview of literature). For a recent overview of Spain see Salma Khadra Jayyusi, The Legacy of Muslim, Spain, 1992, a detailed cultural analysis which openly discusses homosexuality.
Morocco and Tunisia. There were close connections between Andalusia and these countries. *Al-Fath ibn Khakan, who produced an anthology with homopoems, was from Spain but died in Morocco and *Al-Nafzawi in Tunisia produced a notable erotic *sex manual with homopoetry quotations. *Tangier in Morocco on the north coast adjacent to Spain has been a center for western gay visiters and some have chosen to live there and written poetry. See also *Arcadie 103–04 (July-August 1962), 451–53, re two poems in L'anthologie de la litterature marocaine, arabe et berbere. In *Gay Histories and Cultures, the article "Morocco" gives the social background. Portugal: see *Ibn Muglana, *Ibn Sara.
*Marc Daniel (pseud.) has written a fine overview of Arabic homosexual poetry overall, one of the most brilliant surveys in any language. Critical comment has grown: see *Critics—Arabic. A general literary survey of Arabic literatures is H. A. R. Gibb, Arabic Literature: an Introduction, second edition, 1963.
Transliteration of Arabic presents special problems since words have been transliterated in several ways: see *Transliteration of Arabic for more detailed information.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia vol. 2, 216–18: see "Literature" under the entry "Arabic Culture". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Arabic Poetry". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Middle Eastern Literature: Arabic". Gay Histories and Cultures:see "Arabic Literature". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 277–322.
Aramaic, an *Afro-Asiatic language sometimes called Chaldean, was a lingua franca in the middle east from Egypt to Iran from the seventh century B.C.— when it replaced Addadian in this role (see *Overview—Aramaic)—until the first centuries of the *Christian era. Material of relevance dates from ca. 30. The language is close to Hebrew (see *Overview—Hebrew).
Apart from the Targums, translations of the *Old Testament from Hebrew into Aramaic, little material in Aramaic has survived and material from the time of Jesus has only recently come to light in the material of the Dead Sea Scrolls, early manuscripts mainly of the Old Testament found in Israel and preserved by the dryness of the climate. The Targums were originally oral works but some survive in written form. Some parts of the Old Testament are in Aramaic; *"David's Lament for Jonathan" is a relevant poem. There are many commentaries on the Old Testament in Aramaic.
Aramaic was the spoken language of *Jesus Christ (died ca. 30) and some words used by him are in the *Gospels, the major source of the teachings of *Christianity. There are some who believe the Gospels were originally compiled in Aramaic and the Greek version came later. Works in *Manichaeism are in Aramaic and the *Jewish mystical work the *Kabbala is partly written in it.
On the language see "Aramaic" in G. A. Buttrick, editor, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, vol. 1; there were several dialects. Syriac was an eastern dialect of Aramaic (see *Overview—Syrian).
Aranda, an *Australian Aboriginal language, is the language spoken around Alice Springs in central Australia. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1908. Oral poems and songs relating to *initiation ceremonies are relevant. Aranda is now also spelt Arrente.
Aranda is one of the Australian aboriginal languages with the greatest number of speakers (at least several hundred). The Aranda people have been one of the most studied tribal groups in Australia with one of the earliest ethnographies of a tribal people being written on them by Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen: The Aranda, 1927. The first written work discussing the Aranda in any detail was Spencer and Gillen's Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899. *Géza Roheim has written extensively on their culture from a *Freudian view, including homosexuality.
Their songs, some homoerotic, have been extensively studied by one of Australia's greatest anthropologists, *T. G. H. Strehlow, who was brought up with Aranda children and became fluent in the language from childhood and whose collection of Aranda artefacts is in the Strehlow Research Foundation in Alice Springs. *Initiation ceremonies involving homosexuality have been analyzed by *Les Hiatt and *Ronald Berndt. *Androgyny has been seen in their myths.
Early works of relevance are by *B. Schidlof (active 1908) and an analysis of their culture was written in German by Carl Strehlow, T. G. H. Strehlow's father, a Lutheran missionary from Germany who first sought to convert the Aranda to Christianity. Robert O. Lagace, Sixty Cultures (New Haven: *Human Relations Area Files), 1977, pp. 16–26 has a concise survey of Aranda culture. Adjoining Aboriginal cultures such as the Walpiri and the Pintupi have religions strongly relating to Aranda religion. See *Singing and Dancing in Tribal Cultures, *Songs—Aranda, *Ritualized homosexuality.
Armenian, a *Caucasian language in the *Indo-European group, has an ancient and rich poetry tradition and strong literary traditions. Christian *hymns date from at least ca. 500. The language is spoken in Armenia but there is a large overseas diaspora.
*Christianity also came early to Armenia ca. 300 and there are two branches of the religion, an Orthodox church and a *Catholic rite. Armenian poetry has been strongly influenced by Persian poetry; *Sa'di and *Omar Khayyam have been translated (as has *Homer's Iliad). See *Anonymous poems—Armenian for poems based on Persian mystical traditions. Wandering *troubadours called ashik were common. One, *Sayat Nova, was the subject of a film by the homosexual Georgian *Parajanov; see also *Nahapet Khutchak.
Illustration of poetic manuscripts should be considered (see Parajanov) and here are very rich oral traditions. Armenia was under Russian rule from 1827 to 1990. Georgian is an adjoining language, see *Overview—Georgian. See also *Overview— Persian since Persian strongly influenced Armenian and the language predates Armenian. For information on writers see Kevork B. Bardakjian, A Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature 1500–1920(2000).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia vol. 2: see "Literature" under "Armenian SSR". Everyman Companion to East European Literature: "Armenian", 508–12. Other references. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 791–802.
Australian Aboriginal oral cultures
Australian Aboriginal languages are spoken in Australia by the indigenous inhabitants. Though Australian Aboriginal oral literatures are very ancient, recorded material of relevance only dates from ca. 1900.
Some 250 languages were spoken in 1788 at the time of the British occupation of Australia (languages were in some twenty-nine language families) but some 150 languages only are now spoken.
*Ritualized homosexuality has been reported widely across north and central Australia; it may have covered the continent and possibly Tasmania as well (*phallic rituals were recorded in South Australia in the last century and *initiation ceremonies in New South Wales). On sexuality in general in Aboriginal cultures, which is much more sex positive than in the white population, see "A Perspective on Aboriginal Sexuality" in Ronald M. Berndt, Love Songs of Arnhem Land, Sydney, 1976, pp. 3–15. *Censorship and English *laws have been inhibiting factors in the elucidation of Aboriginal male homosexuality overall (male homosexual acts were prohibited from 1788 to the 1980s in most states and this prohibition held for Aboriginal cultures; indeed it was only in 1967 that Aboriginal people were admitted into full citizenship).
In traditional Aboriginal cultures, song permeates Aboriginal life. There are the grand song cycles of the ritual ceremonies and there are ordinary songs made up to sing around the campfire (see, for example, *Tabi songs). *Songs, *chants and *oral poems in connection with ritual ceremonies are the main works for consideration (e.g., in Aranda, the most widely spoken language as recorded by *T. G. H. Strehlow). Ritual ceremonies among males occur in a naked state in most surviving cultures in the center, north (in Arnhem Land) and west (especially in the Kimberleys) of Australia, the only parts where Aborigines still live in tribal cultures. *Géza Roheim, a disciple of *Sigmund Freud, has remarked on the repressed homoeroticism of all male initiation ceremonies in Aboriginal cultures.
Sacred cycles contain hidden levels of meaning only revealed to initiated men and then only over long periods. Secret languages used in *initiation ceremonies exist (these are mentioned in books on the languages overall by R. M. W. Dixson). Male initiations were carried out over periods of months and spread over years and when women were absent. *Bisexuality is common in central Australian cultures and is connected to myths (see *snake and serpent motifs, *Songs—Yirrkalla).
Fertility and renewal of the land are at the heart of many Aboriginal religions. Stories about creative creatures with large phalluses who sexually penetrate everything (called Djanggawul) in north Australia are common. *Mimi spirits come out at night and have large penises and are simliar pansexual creatures (poems about such creatures need to be considered). *Serpent myths frequently have phallic connotations. The Kunapipi myth—widely dispersed across northern Australia—also has submerged sexual aspects (see *R. M. Berndt). Yams and fertility ceremonies relating to them occur in initiation ceremonies among the Tiwi (who live on islands to the north of Darwin) and may relate to similar ceremonies in Papua new Guinea; yams grow in central Australia and are involved in rituals.
The bullroarer is associated with initiation ceremonies across Australia as in Papua New Guinea and subincision occurs widely (this is an operation where, on the underside of the penis, a long cut is made, said to represent a vagina in some cultures by some interpretators).
*Bawdry material is very likely at all levels since *Puritanism did not exist among the Australian Aborigines before the coming of the whites. Campfire songs with possible erotic references present great possibilities for research. Gossip songs and heterosexual love magic songs occur. There are usually both sacred and secular song cycles of the same material.
As much as forty percent of the vocabulary of some languages has been said to be of sexual words (Professor *Les Hiatt, University of Sydney, to the author, 1987); such vocabulary has not usually been recorded by missionaries. Only a small number of ethnographies—studies of cultures—exist (e.g., of the Aranda, Murgin, Tiwi).
For individual languages see the following entries. Northern Australia. See *Songs—Murngin, *Songs—Oenpelli language, *Songs—Yirrkala, *Songs—Tiwi. Western Australia. *Songs—Kimberley languages,*Tabi songs (re Pilbara languages), *Songs—Tiwi, *Songs—Kutatja. Central Australia: see *Overview—Aranda, *Oral poems—Pintubi, *Songs—Walpiri, *Shamans (re Warramunga) and *Thomas Jangala (re Anmatjarra). North Queensland. *Songs—Dyirbal. Exact area unknown: see Initiation songs and chants—Yaroinga.
On homosexuality in general, see "Peopling the Empty Mirror: The Prospects for Lesbian and Gay Aboriginal History" in Gay Perspectives II, ed. Robert Aldrich, Sydney, 1992 pp. 1–62 (with bibl. in the footnotes at the end). This is the best bibliography so far (see especially p. 51, footnote 13). For bibliographical information on the Australian Aborigines overall, consult John Thawley, Bibliographies on the Australian Aborigine, 1987, and the Annual Bibliography of the Institute of Australian Aboriginal Studies, Canberra (published from 1975) now available in computer form and on the *Internet. The Institute—known as AIATSIS—is the premier institute for the study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander cultures.
For an overview of the literary traditions see Margaret Clunies-Ross, "Australian Aboriginal Oral Traditions", Oral Tradition vol. 1 no. 1 (1987) and the Kindlers reference below. For another overview see Australian Encyclopedia, 1965 edition; under "Aborigines" see "Music, Poetry, Songs" (by *T. G. H. Strehlow). In the 1977 printing see "Oral Literature" under "Aborigines" (by Alice M. Moyle). For earlier material on literature see "Australian [Aborigine]" in Joseph T. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, New York, 1946, pp. 74–78. In the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians see "Aboriginal Music and Dance" under Australia.
A map of the Aboriginal tribes of Australia is included in The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia, 2 volumes, edited by David Horton, Canberra, 1994, which also has articles on many aspects of Aboriginal cultures.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: "Die Literatur der Australischen Aborigines"; with bibl. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Initiation, Secret Societies and Masculine Sacrality" (these articles give the essential background). Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: see index. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 237–38. Other references. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: several references (see index). Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 65–90 (the earliest bibliography of homosexuality in relation to the Australian Aborigines). Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, 3–6: lists cultures where ritualized homosexuality has been recorded (reference has been incorporated here). Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities, 3–9.
Azeri, sometimes called Azerbaijani, is a *Turkic language with a large oral literature and an ancient written literature (under Russian control in the twentieth century, the Cyrillic alphabet was used as the alphabet of record). The language is spoken in Azerbaijan in central Asia. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1200—see *Dede Korut. *Dancing boy *songs exist. See also *Sufism, *Sayat Nova, *Vazekh.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia vol.1: see "Literature" under "Azerbaijan SSR". Criticism. Jünger, Literatures of the Soviet Peoples, 48–52.
Bengali, an *Indo-European language spoken in northeastern India, is the second largest language spoken in India (after Hindi, the most widely spoken language). Material of relevance dates from 1450.
*Hinduism is the main religion of the state of Bengal in which Bengali is mainly spoken. Bengali is also the language of Muslim Bangladesh to the east of Bengal (this country was formerly part of India but partition took place in 1971, making it a separate country). The language belongs to the *Indic subgroup and is the easternmost Indo-European language. In India, the capital of west Bengal, Calcutta, was formerly the capital of the British colony before the capital was moved to the present capital *Delhi in 1912.
Bengali has an ancient history and rich literature and is one of the most vibrant contemporary literatures of India. The city has many film studios and films on the ancient epic *Ramayana have been made there. Calcutta houses the National Library of India and has been a publishing centre for three hundred years (editions limited to Indian distribution may be published in India simultaneously with overseas editions of the same work). The Calcutta Writer's Workshop published *Vikram Seth's first book of poems which included a gay poem.
The same word is used for "he" and "she" in Bengali which make love poems difficult to interpret as to whether homosexual or heterosexual in intent. *Allegorical gay interpretations of the early— apparently heterosexual—poet *Jayadeva are possible. The *Vaisnava movement relating to Indian *mysticism produced mystical homoerotic works from ca. 1450 (see *Caitanya, *Candidas). Homosexual references have been found in the work of the nineteenth century poet *Isvar Chandragupta. The work of the greatest poet of modern Bengali, as well as the first Asian writer to win the *Nobel Prize, *Rabindranath Tagore, warrants reading for homoeroticism. *Zia Haidar from Bangladesh has written a homoerotic poem about Tagore.
There have been many translations from other Indic languages into Bengali (e.g., The *Mahabharata, *Bhagavad Gita, *Ramayana, *Kabir and *Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra); interaction of Bengali with these languages has been close over a long period of time and the outstanding Bangladeshi poet *Nazrul Islam translated *Omar Khayyam. Since a significant number of people cannot read, there are rich oral traditions of reciting and storytelling: see *Hijras, *Baul songs. There is also much *pornography in Bengali which is a very sophisticated culture.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 500–11. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature vol. 1, 303–05: see "Bengali" (in "Indian literatures"). New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Indian Poetry".
Burmese is a *Sinitic language and is part of the Tibeto-Burmese sub family. Known material dates from ca. 1985 so far.
Burmese is spoken in Burma, now called officially Myanmar, where it is the majority language. It is written in an alphabet based on a south Indian script which in turn is related to devanagari, the script of Sanskrit. Some 161 languages were spoken in Burma in the last reliable census carried out in 1931 and most languages are spoken by tribal peoples, resulting in rich *oral traditions.
Perhaps due to the military regime at present ruling the country, which has instituted tight control over the country, little is known about homosexuality and less still of homosexuality in relation to poetry. The democratically elected government of 1990 of Aung San Suu Kyi has not been allowed to govern.
Burma is a *Buddhist country (see *Buddhist hymns and chants) but there are strong animist traditions especially amongst tribal peoples. *Transvestism with singing is believed to exist, as in neighboring Laos, Cambodia and Thailand (ca. 1985). *Court traditions saw the writing of homoerotic poems addressed to rulers. The *Ramayana has been translated into Burmese.
An excellent survey of Burmese culture is by Aung San Suu Kyi in her Freedom from Fear (1995). Homosexuality has been documented by western travellers in Burma from the seventeenth century.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: see "Burma" (by *Paul Knobel). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 1384–94.
Catalan, one of the *Romance group of languages which are a subgroup of the *Indo-European language family, is very close to Provençal (on which see *Overview—Provençal). It is an *Iberian language spoken in the province of Catalunya, in north east Spain, whose capital is *Barcelona. Material of relevance dates from 1175.
Catalan has a rich literary heritage and its speakers are highly literate. In Spain, the same number of books normally sell in Catalan as sell in Spanish, although there are many fewer speakers of Catalan (which is a minority language in Spain).
The poet *Guillem de Bergueda (active 1175) wrote the first known gay poem of note and the first major Catalan writer is the poet *Raymond Llull who wrote philosophical works on love which warrant gay perusal. Another early poet, *Ausias March, is linked with homosexuality in a single document. Major gay poets such as *Whitman and *Shakespeare have been translated. A number of contemporary poets appear in the anthology *Poemes Gaies (1978). On the side of criticism, *Ana M. Gil has made a survey of homosexuality and Catalan literature. Barcelona houses major libraries and is the publishing center. See Arthur Terry, Catalan Literature, 1972.
On Catalan see J. T. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 1946, "Catalan Literature", pp. 138–43 and Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, pp. 805–26,
Central American Indian (also called Central Amerindian) languages
Cental American Indian languages are spoken in Mexico, Guatemala and the countries of the central American isthmus. Important languages are Náhuatl and Mayan; several language families exist. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1500. Since the conquest of the Central American Indians by Spain from the fifteenth century, Spanish has been the main language of scholarship.
Náhuatl. This is the language of the Indians of Mexico; see *Songs—Náhuatl, *"Song for Meeting a Friend". *Nezahualcoyotl is alleged to have been a homosexual poet. Myths concerning Quetzalcoatal, the feathered *serpent god, may involve *effeminacy and poems addressed to him are relevant (see "Quetzalcoatl" in Encyclopedia of Mexico, ed. Michael S. Wagner, 1997). In Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine, pp. 190–202, see Clark L. Taylor, "Mexican Gaylife in Historical Perspective", which is an overview of gay life in Mexico (reprinted from *Gay Sunshine no. 26/27, Winter 1975–76); in this article, see pp. 190–92 on homosexuality and the Aztecs.
On the oral literature of the Aztecs overall, see the entry "Náhuatl Literature" in Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature.
Mayan. Mayan is spoken in Guatamala and Mexico; there are over twenty different dialects. A rich oral literature existed of which little survives (mainly the *Books of Chilam Balam, which contains sexual *insults often connected with *anal sex, the *Popul Vuh (both works being in poetry) and the pre-Hispanic play the Rabinal Achí). The Mayan were the only pre-Hispanic people in America to have a written language (their writing system was partly phonetic, partly ideographic). The *Polul Vuh is the sacred book of the Maya. See also *Songs—Mayan re The Book of Chilam Balam.
On the literature overall see "Mayan Literature" in Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature. For a selection of anthropological material, see *Alberto Cardin, Guerreros, Chamanes y Travestis (Cowboys, *Shamans and Transvestites), 1984 (in Spanish). See also the note on homosexuality in Richard C. Trexler, Sex and Conquest, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 174–76.
For a discussion of ancient Mexican, Maya and Peruvian literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1495–1510.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "American Indian Poetry"; see 44–45. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Mesoamerican Religions". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: "Latin America". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: "Altamerikanischen Literaturen"; with bibl. Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: check under sodomy etc. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 220–27. Criticism. Gay Books Bulletin no. 12 (Spring 1985), 17–19: "A Bibliography of Homosexuality Among Latin-American Indians" by *Stephen Wayne Foster—the major survey to date. Gay Sunshine no. 38–39 (Winter 1979), 37–39. Murray, Male Homosexuality in Central and South America, 4–23. Katzner, Languages of the World, 9: notes several language families exist. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 363–92. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht.
Chinese, the major written language of East Asia, is a *Sinitic language. It is as a written language that the term Chinese is used in this entry. (Oral material referred to here refers to the language Mandarin or Putongwa, the standard spoken dialect.) Poetry dates from 479 B.C.
Chinese has one of the richest and oldest homosexual poetry traditions in the world; however, due to the huge volume of poetry which survives, research on gay poetry is only in its infancy.
Many cultures and religions have mingled in China, which is a huge country, one of the largest in the world and is akin to Europe as a cultural concept (for instance there is a large *Islamic population in the western provinces and these have links to central Asia): for the cultural background see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China (1954–). Chinese civilization has continually been renewed by external influences and China has been ruled by several foreign dynasties (for example the Mongolian speaking Mongols and the last dynasty to rule the country, the Manchu speaking Manchus).
There are seven main spoken languages in the Chinese group, including Mandarin—or Putonghua, "common everyday speech", as it has been called since 1949—in the north, Shangaiese, spoken in Shanghai, the second largest city of China, situated in the north east, and Cantonese in the south; these languages are, however, fairly close. Poetry that can be interpreted as being homosexual, dates from the *Shih Ching, the Classic of Poetry, from before 479 B.C., where *gender ambiguity is present. This was first recognized by the critic *Zhao Yi in the eighteenth century. *Ch'u Yuan (before 340 B.C.) is the first known poet to refer directly to homosexuality, in his poem Li sao (Remembering Sorrow), a poem which shows the influence of *shamanism.
Ancient Chinese. Poetry was the dominant literary genre from 479 B.C. to the *Republican period (which dates from 1911); all *scholars wrote it, though literacy rates were not high before 1949. The *shih and the *tz'u were the main genres and complex meanings intended by poets were attached to poems. In addition the Chinese writing system is of great complexity, allowing for several meanings to the one written character. This needs to be taken into account in reading the poetry.
Strong male *friendships, first noted in comments on Chinese poetry in a European language by the English translator *Arthur Waley and shown in the poetry from *T'ao Ch'ien (born 365) onwards, are an outstanding feature, especially among the *T'ang poets. The T'ang period, 618–907, was traditionally regarded as one of the great periods of Chinese poetry. Such friendships are integral to *Confucianism, a Chinese ethos for over two thousand years from 500 B.C., which emphasized close *male bonding (marriages in China were traditionally arranged).
*Buddhism—which came from India and which never condemned homosexuality—was a major religion in China and is at present undergoing a revival. *Zen Buddhism, which originated in China, is of particular interest as is the *Gozan literature of Japan written in Chinese. No anthologies of homosexual poems as such exist so far but the anthology *Yu-T'ai Hsin-Yung (ca. 545) contained homosexual poems; *Tuan-hsiu-pien (ca. 1650), compiled in the early *Ch'ing period, was the first collection of texts referring to homosexuality in Chinese history. In 1927 a quasi anthology of poems written about a gay *actor, *Hsu Tzu-yun, was published. Homosexuality was long associated with the *theater and poems were written about popular actors. *Singing boys are also very ancient.
*Emperors and all *scholars wrote poetry and all gay emperors, such as the Jianwen Emperor (503–551), need to be considered as well as all gay Chinese males who could write. Calligraphy and *design of books reached great heights of aesthetic perfection in China. *Illustration, which was frequently done by the poet, since calligraphy and Chinese painting were intimately connected, is also relevant. *Allegorical interpretations of poems are common; in such a situation *critics and commentators assume new importance and Chinese has an ancient and brilliant exegetical tradition, one of the oldest in the world.
In the *Han period (206 B.C.–220) several Emperors were gay or *bisexual and in this period *esthetes first emerge. The absolute power of the emperor probably meant that no one would dare contradict him even as a child, thus allowing him free play in his sexuality. The *Orchid Terrace School of poets (ca. 502) was a group of aesthetes who seem gay as do a later group of the same name around *Na-lan Hsing-te (born 1655). The *Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (active ca. 250), included a pair of homosexual friends, *Ruan Ji and *Xi Kang; the literati friendships in this group set the pattern for all later poets. At this time *Zhang Hanbin (265–420) wrote a fine love poem inspired by an actor. *Hsieh Ling-yun (385–443) seems homosexual and *Fei Chang (active 550) wrote a gay love poem.
*Coded or indirect language is a common feature of Chinese poetry especially from the T'ang: *peach sharing, for instance, and *cut sleeves were common euphemisms for homosexuality; but a large repertoire of indirect references to the erotic existed. The *T'ang period, as already noted, has been long regarded as a major period of Chinese poetry by later writers (3,000 Tang poets are known). T'ang poets strongly influenced poets not only in China but also poets in Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as models of what a poet should be.
The T'ang period. The intense homoeroticism of the four major T'ang poets— *Li Po, *Tu Fu, *Wang Wei and *Meng Hao-jan—was remarked on by Robert Hans *van Gulik, who wrote the first modern survey of Chinese sexuality in a European language. The earliest *manuscript of a homosexual poem, a poem by *Po Hsing-chien, only rediscovered in the twentieth century at *Dunhuang in north-west China (in a huge Buddhist library not yet adequately assessed), dates from this period. The corpus of poems of the T'ang Buddhist monk poet *Han-Shan (pseud.) is also relevant.
In the Sung period (960–1279), also a major period of Chinese culture, there has been little close investigation of homosexuality in the huge corpus of surviving poetry though *Su Shih warrants perusal. Epicureanism was strong in China in all periods and outstanding later poets include the bisexual *epicurean *Yuan Mei (born 1716). *Songs date from the Shih Ching since Chinese poetry was commonly sung or written to song tunes from this work onwards; *singing boys abounded in *pleasure quarters in all major cities (such as *Beijing, the capital from 1644, Nanjing, Shanghai and Canton). Poems written by males from a female point of view (of which there are many, e.g., by *Wang Mo-jo, born 1887) need to be considered. There is also a long tradition of transvestism in boy singers.
*Laws referring to homosexuality date from the Sung period and are more rigid in the *Ch'ing but burning at the stake for male homosexuality, as occurred in Europe, never occurred in China, so the conditions for the writing of gay poetry were much more favorable.
From the Ming period onwards. The *Ming (1368–1644) and Ch'ing periods (1644–1911) saw the publication of erotic novels and literary works on a large scale, a trend which reached Japan; these works sometimes contained poems. The Republican period (from 1911) saw the translation of *Whitman into Chinese, the beginnings of western literary influence and the beginnings of the writing of *free verse (though China was in turmoil from 1912 until 1949 when the *Communist regime took over and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan). *Achilles Fang, who lived abroad, hints at a homosexual interpretation of *Hu Shih (born 1891); the German scholar *Hans Frankel also drew attention to homosexuality in the interpretation of Chinese poetry.
China has huge *libraries especially the Peking Library (over 15 million volumes; though western holdings are only a small part) and the Shanghai Library, dating from 1849 and where the main library has over 8 million volumes. Many cities have libraries of more than 2 million volumes. These figures may be inflated since Chinese books consist of chuan—or fascicles—and one book may contain several fascicles which are counted individually as books. These libraries have not been thoroughly assessed for homosexuality, let alone gay poetry; manuscript collections are especially important.
The situation since 1949. Since 1949, with the coming to power of the *Communists, the situation overall in China has been repressive and not favorable for open gay writing, though this appears to be changing. *Male bonding in Communist poetry warrants perusal.
The Communist Party was rigidly controlled by *Mao Tse-tung, who is known to have had homosexual experiences and who also wrote poetry; *Chou en Lai may also be relevant. The works of *Lu Hsun, a poet favored by the Communists, include many poems on male bonding. Western homosexuals who lived in China this century include the literateurs *Harold Acton and *Edmund Backhouse. The United States homosexual poet *Witter Bynner was responsible for a major translation of the famous anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems which was subtitled The Jade Mountain (1929); in the United States he occupied a position akin to Arthur Waley in Great Britain.
Recent surveys of homosexuality include the *Hong Kong published two volume work published in 1964 by a committee of scholars who called themselves *Wei hsing shih kuan ch'i chu (pseud.) and a literary and historical survey by *Sam Shasha (pseud.) first published in 1984, both in Chinese. A brilliant literary survey published in 1990 by *Brett Hinsch exists in English, subsuming much of the Chinese material in a concise and readable form; *Louis Crompton is known to have worked on a history of homosexuality in China in English. *Karsch-Haack wrote the first survey of Chinese homosexuality in a western language in German in 1906. In China *Kuo Mo-jo has commented on homosexuality in *Du Fu and *Li Bai; recently, *Allen Ginsberg has been translated into Chinese. Beijing now has several gay bars. *Gay liberation is referred to in a recent Chinese edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.
There are two systems of transliteration of Chinese into western languages (though neither makes account of the tones): the *Wade Giles (created by western scholars in the late nineteenth century) and *Pinyin (originating from mainland China after 1949). Both systems have been used in this encyclopedia depending on the way an author's name has been transcribed in a written source; the system used is usually stated.
Granted the tradition of indirect reference, homosexuality is more likely to be expressed in a coded way in twentieth century works on both the mainland and Taiwan. This is changing.
Taiwan. Traditional Chinese culture has been nourished in Taiwan where homosexuality is not mentioned in the legal code. There is a vibrant gay scene much influenced by the United States, to which the country has close links. A history of homosexual literature has been written by *Mao-feng chu who has also published a study on the *aesthetics of homosexuality.
Hong Kong. *Hong Kong, which was under British control for a hundred and fifty years returned to Chinese control in 1997. Though homosexuality (now legalized) was illegal under British law, the two finest known surveys of homosexuality and China were published there in this period. In 1996 there was a gay conference in Hong Kong organized by the Tongzhi Culture Society, a gay group. Two Chinese language homosexual periodicals originate from Hong Kong.
Minority languages in China. Over fifty minority languages are spoken in China: see Brian Hook,The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China, 1982, 97–102. Languages spoken by one million people include Uighur, Korean, Manchu, Mongolian, Yi (Lolo) and Tibetan (Tibet has been incorporated into China since 1950). Tibetan is a *Sinitic language in the same language family as Chinese: see *Overview—Tibetan for material of relevance. For the others see *Overview—Korean, *Overview—Manchi, *Overview—Mongolian.
China has been the dominant country in East Asia for over 2,000 years and Chinese was read as a literary language in Korea, Japan and Vietnam: see the entry *Influence—Chinese. A large volume of *Chinese literature written in Japan, Korea and Vietnam exists. There has also been extensive commentary on Chinese poetry in these countries.
As all Korean poems were written in Chinese until 1643, all Korean poetry until this date is relevant. Vietnamese poetry was written in Chinese characters until 1800 so entries in Vietnamese up to 1800 are relevant to consider. In Japan, Chinese occupied the place amongst scholars—all who could write—that Latin did in western Europe until recently and most Japanese scholars read and wrote Chinese until the contemporary period. The Japanese script is based on Chinese. For a history of China see John H. Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer, China: Tradition and Transformation, revised edition, Boston, 1989.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 212–21. Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, 59–74: "Poetry"—overview of Chinese poetry to 1918. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Chinese poetry". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Poetry Antholgies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 437–43. Criticism. Woods, History of Gay Literature, 59-63.
Czech is a *Slavic language of the *Indo-European language family spoken in the western and central parts of what was formerly Czechoslovakia but is now the Czech Republic; it is closely related to Slovak (spoken in the former eastern part of the country). Czech and Slovak may be seen as dialects (compare Croatian and Serbian); however so fiercely has language been considered that language has been defined amongst linguists as “a dialect with a gun”. (These two different language speaking areas were joined until 1992 in the country of Czechoslovakia but are now separated; the two languages are treated as one here.) Material dates from ca. 1500.
Czech has a rich poetic history, but many classic gay authors have been translated into the language—including *Martial, *Omar Khayyam, *Shakespeare, *Whitman, *Oscar Wilde and the *Palatine Anthology. Only one native poet, however, is known to deal with homosexuality in his poems: *Jiri Karasek ze Lvovic. *Karel Hlavacek was also a decadent poet. *Richard Weiner seems to have been gay and *Jaroslav Vrchlicky (pseud.) wrote a poem on an hermaphrodite. Amongst modern poets *Allen Ginsberg and *Sandro Penna have been translated. Homosexuality may be looked for in the poet Jan Neruda (1834–91) who was closely attached to his mother. In 1995 gay poems were openly published in *Journals.
The *Catholic Church has been very influential and censorship was strict until 1918–38, when Karasek published. Czech has rich scholarly traditions: see *Jan Rypka (one of the greatest literary historians of Persian). The language was formerly called Bohemian (in which language a translation of the sonnets of *Shakespeare exists). For the social background see Gay Histories and Cultures, "Czech Republic".
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Czech Poetry". Everyman Companion to East European Literature, 519–20.
Danish, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group, is spoken in Denmark adjacent to the Dutch speaking Netherlands and adjacent to Germany in the south; to the north are Norway and Sweden where Norwegian and Swedish, both very close to Danish, are spoken. Norse, spoken in Iceland, is close since the language originated in Denmark, as Iceland was colonized by the Danes. Gay poetry dates from ca. 1850.
The first literary figure of relevance so far known is the famous writer of fairy tales *Hans Christian Andersen who wrote some homopoems. The tortured gay novelist *Herman Bang also wrote a few poems. Two Danish language gay anthologies exist, the English *Gay Life and Gay Writers, and * Digte om mænds kærlighed til mænd (1980), the first gay anthology of poetry in the language (although it consists entirely of foreign—i.e. non-Danish—poets from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe).
*Bent Hansen has compiled a detailed bibliography published by the gay archive *Forbundet af 48 and *Uffe Bjørn Hansen is a fine recent poet. *Wilhem von Rosen has written a detailed general gay history. *Journals publishing poetry have existed since 1948;. See also *Overview —Norse since old Norse and old Danish are virtually the same language. Many books on homosexuality in Danish are in the *Library of Congress.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 311–12: "Denmark". Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Denmark". Bibliographies. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 193–94. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 381–82 and 385-91 (selection of poems).
Dutch, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group, is spoken in the Netherlands (it was formerly spoken in Indonesia, then a Dutch coloby, from ca. 1650 to 1949); Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa, which was colonized by settlers from the Netherlands, is a dialect (see *Overview—Afrikaans). Gay poetry so far documented dates from ca. 1880.
Male homosexuality was legal in the Netherlands from 1811 (see *Laws—Dutch) though formerly it was persecuted; this enabled the early emergence of a vibrant gay culture. The Flemish poet *Guido Gezelle, a *Catholic priest, is the first poet of prominence so far discovered and his poetry has been recorded in a brilliant series of gay *anthologies. Outstanding poets at the turn of the century include *P. C. Boutens, *Jacob Israël de Haan and *Louis Couperus. *Georges Eekhoud published the first bibliography in the Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen in 1904 in conjunction with the leading member of the Dutch Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, *J. A. Schorer (who founded the Dutch branch of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in 1911; the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee being a homosexual group which was founded in Germany by *Magnus Hirschfeld in 1897).
*Willem de Mérode (pseud.) was a noted *pederastic poet whose books were brilliantly illustrated and *Albert Verwey, a disciple of *Stefan George, wrote a noted book of poems titled in Dutch "On the love called *friendship". *Nazism caused a hiatus in Dutch cultural life, 1940–45, when the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans and repression occurred. *Hans Lodeizen was an outstanding gay poet up to his death in 1950.
Following *gay liberation, many poets have been active from 1970 when the *influence of English gay liberation poets becomes apparent. *Gerard Reve, a gay novelist, has written a significant volume of gay poems, while *James Holmes, a major United States gay poet, lived in *Amsterdam, the main city of gay life. A major gay library resource, the *Homodok library and archive, is housed in Amsterdam.
Noted gay poets translated into Dutch include *Abu Nuwas, *Oscar Wilde, *Walt Whitman and *Constantine Cavafy; works translated include the *Mahabharata and the *Bhagavad Gita. *Edward Brongersma has written an outstanding work on *pedophilia and *pederasty. *Wim van Wiggen and *Marten Schild have written theses in Dutch on Arabic poetry and the Islamic Middle East respectively.
Flemish. Flemish is a dialect of Dutch spoken in Belgium. Relevant poets include *Albrecht Rodenbach and *Guido Gezelle. See *Overview—French for French influences. De Gay Krant (ca. 1980+) is a gay journal, apparently later called De Homokrant (from 1974).
The article "Schwule Literatur aus dem Niederlanden und Flandern" in Magnus Special no. 10 (October 1993), 1–30, is a survey of Flemish and Dutch gay literature.
Frisian is a dialect of Dutch spoken in east Holland and has a gay poet, *Sybe Krol. The *Overview—German entry is also relevant since German has had a strong influence on Dutch and vice versa. See *Germanic languages for other languages close to Dutch such as Danish (spoken in the adjoining country to the north, Denmark), Norwegian and Swedish.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 884–92: "Netherlands (Holland)"—an historical survey. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 261–63 (overview) and 267–319 (selection of poems).
Egyptian is an *Afro-Asiatic language formerly spoken in Egypt from before 3,000 B.C. to 100 A.D. Coptic, the modern language (from 100 A.D.), is a descendant of ancient Egyptian and is spoken by the Christian minority, mainly in upper Egypt but also in lower Egypt (each part having a distinctive dialect). Arabic, which is also Afro-Asiatic, is the present spoken language in most of Egypt (see *Overview—Arabic for gay poetry). Homosexual poetry in Egyptian dates from before 2,175 B.C. (see *"Go forth plant thyself on him).
On the Egyptian and Coptic languages see the entries in Encyclopædia Britannica. It should be noted that dates in relation to the earliest material discussed here are uncertain, as are some later dates; there has also been recent discussion amongst linguists about whether ancient Egyptian was actually Afro-Asiatic. The language was only deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1821, following the 1799 discovery of the Rosetta Stone, now in the British Museum, and which contained an identical inscription in ancient Egyptian and Greek. Prior to 1821 the language could not be read. The surviving literature is almost all in poetry though the question of the prosody has not yet been settled.
Homosexual behavior is well recorded in ancient Egypt. Gay love is depicted on the so-called Tomb of the Two Brothers ca. 2,360 B.C. (see Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, item 474). *Terence J. Deakin has written a concise overview of knowledge in English; Lise Manniche briefly discusses homosexuality in Acta Orientalia 38 (1977), 14–15, and in a book as does *Alessandro Simone. Ancient Egyptian had a highly erotic literature which has all been published and there is a large corpus of heterosexual love poetry. Almost all the surviving literature of ancient Egyptian is poetry.
No gay love poems as such have come to light so far and experts think it is unlikely any will be found (if they existed). A possible poem showing positive homoerotic desire (in a Swedish translation) *"Skön är gestalten, skapad av Ptah" may date from before the time of *Christ.
Poems of relevance referring to homosexual sex relate to *spells put on enemies: see *"Go forth plant thyself on him" (which is from the earliest religious texts and is from the *Pyramid Texts of 2,350 BC to 2,175 BC). Similar spells occur in the related Afro-Asiatic language Hebrew in the *Old Testament. In the Maxims of *Ptahhotep, which are in strophic poetry, men are urged not to have sex with boys as it will inflame the boys and make them want more. Ptahhotep reputedly lived 2,350 B.C. but surviving manuscripts date from 1,850 B.C. The *Book of the Dead, a key religious text, required an affirmation of freedom from indulgence in *anal sex before the corpse could enter the next world. The Pyramid Texts relate to the myth of *Horus and Seth and one is an assertion of sexual power over other males: see *Hymns—Egyptian.
The Pharaoh *Akhenaton—who reputedly had a homosexual relationship with his son-in-law according to some sources (though this idea is generally discounted today)—wrote the famous "Hymn to the Sun". The concept of *God or monotheism, which Akhenaton is sometimes credited with inventing, dates from this time. On ancient Egyptian religion see Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: "Egyptian Religion".
Works in other ancient Afro-Asiatic languages, with which the Egyptians were in close contact— for instance Akkadian and Hebrew—interreacted with Egyptian; for instance the *Old Testament came from a common corpus of middle eastern writing and is in turn related to *Gilgamesh.
Erect phalluses in relief sculptures and on papyri—see illustrations in Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, vol. 5 part 2 (1903), 734–39—seem to suggest religious rituals in ancient Egypt which may involve oral poems or songs: see *phallicism, *Boris de Rachewiltz. Some statues show the Pharaoh embracing a figure of the god Amen-Ra which is ithyphallic, that is, has an erect penis (see Allen Edwardes, Erotica Judaica, 11).
Oral material relating to songs sung by male dancing boys is likely in the main spoken languages of modern Egypt, Arabic and Coptic, since this practice occurs extensively throughout the middle east in Arabic speaking countries. It is possible that homosexual dancing boys could have existed in ancient times (but this has not been proven), as dancing boys are known in the contiguous Greek speaking civilization in ancient times (on the interrelationship of Egyptian and Greek cultures see Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilizations, 2 volumes, 1987–1991, a brilliant work on cross-cultural influences and *orientalism).
Egypt has been much invaded: by the Greeks from 323 B.C. (when the bisexual or homosexual *Alexander the Great invaded), by the Latin speaking Romans, by Arabic speakers who brought *Islam and made Arabic the spoken language from the seventh century, by the *Ottoman Turks (ruled 1517–1798), then by the French under Napoleon and finally by the British (1882–1952). Dominic Montserrat, Sex and Society in Graeco-Roman Egypt, London, 1996, deals with sexuality in the *Roman and Greek periods but has some historical and social material on the earlier periods: see Chapter 6. "Homosexuality", 136–62; the work states p. 144, "sources for male homosexuality from Pharaonic Egypt are certainly not positive towards it..."
For a concise introduction to ancient Egyptian literature see J. R. Harris, The Legacy of Egypt, second edition, Oxford, 1971, Chapter 9, 220–56. Overall for homosexuality in ancient Egypt, see Lexikon der Agyptologie vol. 2 (1977), 4–9, "Erotik" and 272–74, "Homosexualität"; see also the entries "Götter" (Gods) and "Androgyne" in this work.
For Coptic, a descendent of ancient Egyptian and spoken by Egyptian Christians from the time of *Christianity, the surviving literature is mainly religious since the language has been mainly used for liturgical reasons: see *Gospels, *Gnosticism, *Early Christian hymns. For information on the Coptic language and literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 769–779.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature: "Egyptian Literature". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 350–51: "Egypt" New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Egypt, Ancient". Bibliographies. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, items 430–78. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 427–35. Other works. Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, 30–33. Bullough, Sexual Variance, 64–66.
English, an *Indo–European language, is the main spoken language in Great Britain. Via British colonization it has spread to be the spoken language in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and other overseas former British colonies. In India, which was formerly a British colony, it is one of the fifteen official languages. Material of relevance dates from ca. 725.
*Male bonding is strong in the poetry of *Old English (ca. 725–1066) as in the *epic poem *Beowulf, the first English poem (probably in existence ca. 725 but datable in manuscript to around 1000). Old English was brought when the Angles, Saxons and Jutes (from the Netherlands and what is now Denmark) invaded and conquered the Celtic speaking natives in the preceding centuries (these peoples were driven west to Wales and Ireland and north to Scotland where Celtic languages were spoken as well as the newer English). In *Middle English (from 1066) *Chaucer's pardoner in The Canterbury Tales is a recognizable homosexual. Prior to Old English Latin was brought to the United Kingdom when the Romans invaded and conquered the island (it continued to be the language of scholars for many centuries and was the official language of the *Catholic church until the late twentieth century); French was spoken by the Norman ruling classes for some 400 years after they invaded and conquered England in 1066 (Chaucer was well read in French and partly translated the classic work about love The Romance of the Rose).
The Elizabethan period. It is in the *Elizabethan period, the first great period of English language gay poetry, that homosexuality comes dramatically to the fore, in *Barnfield's Sonnets, the first extended gay work, and in *Shakespeare's Sonnets detailing a homosexual love affair (alongside a later heterosexual one). *Marlowe and *Drayton are other outstanding poets of this period. In 1620 English spread to the United States with the *Puritans’ immigration (see *Overview—English—United States); the rise of *censorship of published works dates from this time. English was first spoken in India with the beginnings of British colonisation in 1612 and reached Canada in 1670. Homosexual *bawdry may date from the Elizabethan period and gay *broadsheets date from 1698. Male homosexual behavior was forbidden by law, in various degrees, from the sixteenth century when Henry the eighth transferred homosexuality from the church courts to the civil courts (after the founding of the Church of England in 1533) until 1967 when consenting homosexual acts were legalized for males over twenty one in the United Kingdom of Great Britain (the full name of what some incorrectly refer to as England: since the Act of Union of 1701 Ireland—but from 1917, when Ireland became an independent country, only the northern part, the province of Northern Ireland— and the states of Wales, Scotland and England have formed the United Kingdom). Even affectional behavior between males has been proscribed (though it was never illegal for women). In this way the *law has severely inhibited the writing of gay poetry.
The bisexual *Rochester is the outstanding poet of the *seventeenth century while in the *eighteenth century, *satires against homosexuals proliferated. *Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is perhaps the outstanding gay poem of the eighteenth century. Identifiably homosexual *publishers date from Gray's close friend *Horace Walpole.
The nineteenth century. In 1788 English reached Australia (see *Overview—English—Australia), in 1806 South Africa and in 1814 New Zealand with the beginnings of British colonisation in these countries. The *bisexual *Byron is the outstanding poet of the *Romantic period beginning in the 1790s and continuing to around 1820. In the *Victorian period, the poet *Tennyson's In Memoriam *sequence (1850) shocked with its portrayal of strong feelings of grief at the death of a man, the poet's friend *Arthur Hallam: the British monarch of the time, Queen Victoria, even thought it was written by a woman when she read it. In the United States *Whitman, the originator of *free verse, is the outstanding English language homopoet of the *nineteenth century; his Calamus poems, a section of his long sequence Leaves of Grass, published in the second edition of this work in 1860, were openly gay. In Great Britain, *Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the *Rubaiyat of *Omar Khayyam revealed the Persian homosexual tradition in a guarded way to English readers and became cultish, spreading in translation around the world.
The eighteen-nineties. *John Addington Symonds and *Havelock Ellis commenced the tradition of the serious study of gay culture in English in the *eighteen-nineties, the richest decade of the nineteenth century for gay poetry. *Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Goal (1898) written after his imprisonment for homosexuality from 1985 to 1897 is the best known poem of this time. The *Uranian poets were a group writing ca. 1890–ca. 1910 who have been investigated by *Timothy d'arch Smith; in 1924 *Frederick E. Murray a *bookseller published the first English language literary gay *bibliography in 1924 based on their work; it is from this time that bookselling of gay books is recorded and booksellers catalogs become important bibliographically. The homosexual *A. E. Housman in A Shropshire Lad (1896) captured the mood of despair in English speaking countries and colonies where male homosexual sex was illegal after the Wilde trial for homosexuality with teenage prostitutes (Oscar Wilde got two years in jail), until 1967. It was only at 1967, as already noted, that homosexual acts were decriminalized for males over 21 in Great Britain and only in the early part of the twenty-first century that an equal age of sexual consent for heterosexuals and homosexuals became law at 16. Decriminalization followed in the other English speaking countries gradually though male homosexual acts were still illegal in many states of the United States as late as 2002 (only with the US Supreme Court Ruling in the Lawrence versus Texas case in 2003…. CHECK DATE were male homosexual acts decriminalized across the whole of the United States). Legal ages of sexual consent still vary, being as high as twenty-one in Western Australia, in 2000 for instance (though now 16), with 16 being normal though still several years above puberty. (The legal age of sexual consent for heterosexuals in Britain and its colonies was 12 for heterosexuals until 1885 when it was raised due to feminist agitation about young girls being forced into prostitution, not a rational reason; the legal age of marriage had in Europe been 12 for girls and 14 for boys from the Romans onward). From the eighteen-nineties, Canadian entries are relevant (see *Overview—English—Canada.
The twentieth century. In 1902, *Ioläus, the first indigenous English language gay anthology, edited by the British gay political activist *Edward Carpenter, appeared and in 1908 the United States writer *E. I. P. Stevenson, using the pseudonym *Xavier Mayne, published a major survey of gay culture—including poetry—which is still to this day outstanding in every way. For the twentieth century, English has the most gay poetry anthologies of any language. Outstanding, too, as a poet, was the exponent of *magic, *Aleister Crowley, but his poems only circulated surreptitiously at this time. *Wilfred Owen wrote homoerotic verse in the First World War; *Siegfried Sassoon was another war poet. The *Georgians, a group of poets who wrote mainly about the countryside had a homoerotic side. The anthology *Lads (1989) which includes works by some of them is the outstanding anthology of first world war poets and a subtle reading of the poetry in gay terms; it is perhaps the finest anthology in English of a particular period.
In the United States, *Hart Crane was a major poet of modernism in the 1920s. The British poet *W. H. Auden, who started publishing from the 1930s when *surrealism was a dominant style, emigrated to the States in 1939. His poem The *Platonic Blow (only published in 1965 but written in 1948) shows another side of him: of conscious but mainly suppressed same sex eroticism (there are also many hidden homosexual meanings in his work).
English has a rich *translation tradition in the twentieth century as well. For instance, the translation of *Cavafy into English from 1951 revealed a major Greek homopoet to English readers. *Allen Ginsberg and the *Beats in the United States brought homosexuality into the open from the fifties. The *New York School, prominent from the 1950s, and including *Frank O'Hara, *James Schuyler and *John Ashbery, had a strong *camp tone and has produced enduring poetry. *Los Angeles (see *Dennis Cooper), *Boston (see *John Wieners) and *San Francisco (*Robert Duncan) have also been centers of gay poetry. Gay *archives, which are especially strong in the United States, have preserved gay books, *journals and *manuscripts.
Law changes from 1967 encouraged openly gay writing in Great Britain: both the partial repeal of sodomy laws in 1967 and the lessening of censorship from 1970. Many *biographies and *autobiographies have appeared in this period which openly discuss the homosexuality of poets, starting with the biography of *Lytton Strachey by *Michael Holroyd, first published in two volumes in 1967–68 (now in a second edition with more material).
Gay liberation period from 1969. From 1969 when *gay liberation began, English has had the greatest number of openly gay poets ever to write in any language and this period is the finest period of gay verse in the language or any lanaguage. Outstanding in Great Britain are *James Kirkup (who, however, lived extensively abroad, mainly in Japan after a poem he published in the periodical *Gay News, suggesting Jesus was a homosexual caused a furore and eventually lead to the bankruptcy of what was one of the most outstanding gay newspapers in English:an example of how powerful laws deployed against homosexuals can be), Also outstanding in Britain is *Ivor Treby. In the United States, *Harold Norse, *James Merrill, *Allen Ginsberg, *Jonathan Williams aand *Tom Meyer have all produced an extensive body of work; in Canada, *E. A. Lacey lived mostly in foreign countries and died in tragic circumstances; in Australia, *David Malouf and *David Herkt are outstanding. *Edwin Morgan and *Stephen Gray are important gay poets in Scotland and South Africa respectively, while *James K. Baxter, possibly New Zealand's finest English language poet, had a strong homosexual side (see *Overview—English in New Zealand). In India *Vikram Seth, a novelist as well as poet, wrote the first gay poem in modern Indian English. Paradoxically, the first English language anthology of gay poems was actually published in India in 1881 and was a translation from Persian of an anthology of poets from the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar by *H. S. Jarrett; for India see *Overview—English in the Indian subcontinent.
The period from 1969 has also seen an outpouring of *anthologies—for instance, those of *Winston Leyland and *Ian Young are outstanding. There has also been a proliferation of *journals, while several outstanding bibliographies have revealed gay literature in increasing depth (see *Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality, *Male Homosexual in Literature); these bibliographies have made the English language gay poetry heritage more widely known to readers as well as material from non English languages. The finest known anthology in any language and the most comprehensive ever produced is in English: *The Eternal Flame compiled by *Anthony Reid, of which volume 1 was published in 1992; the author worked on it for over forty years and had to wait ten years for the second, concluding, volume to be published.
An outstanding contemporary journal of new poetry and reviews is the United States published *The James White Review (1983+); *The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review (1994+) is outstanding for critical comment, as is the *Lambda Book Report (1990+). The sexually transmitted disease *Aids, which has had a huge impact since 1983, has produced a masterpiece by *Paul Monette, who unfortunately succumbed to the disease. The Australian anthology of poetry and prose *Love and Death (1987) was the world's first Aids anthology. Black gay poets are proliferating, especially in the United States: see, for example, the anthology *The Road Before Us.
Important contemporary *critics include *Robert K. Martin and *Gregory Woods who has written a history of gay literature. English is especially rich in *translation of homopoems and poets from other languages and is the language which is richest in these translations. Anthologies continue to proliferate: *The Badboy Book of Erotic Poetry is an excellent survey of contemporary United States erotic gay verse; *The Name of Love and *The Art of Gay Love are concise surveys.
English and Welsh language poets from Wales
Wales is one of the provinces of Great Britain; it is in the southwest of the main island of Great Britain. Poets writing in Welsh, Latin and English are relevant from 575 but relevant poets from Wales are earlier than English language poets from Great Britain.
Welsh. Welsh is a *Gaelic language. It has a great tradition of poetry writing from the *middle ages. See *Aneirin (active 575), *Anonymous poet—Welsh, *Huw Arwystli and *Brydydd. The poetical works *Amis and Amiloun; *Homer, the *Anacreontea, the *Palatine Anthology, *Martial and The Rubaiyat of *Omar Khayyam have all been translated into Welsh.
English. For poets writing in English, see *George Herbert, *Thomas Vaughan, *Edward Thomas (the three preceding poets are Anglo-Welsh), *Dylan Thomas, *David Jones, *Paul Chidgey (openly gay). For an early Latin poet from Wales see *Walter Map (active 575). The Mabinogion, a collection of stories from the fourteenth century, has a homosexual incident (see Woods, History of Gay Literature, 48–49).
References. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 339–50. See the entry "Welsh Literature" in the fourteenth edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.
English, an *Indo-European language of the *Germanic group, has been spoken in Australia from 1788 and is the main spoken language. (For languages spoken by indigenous peoples, see *Overview—Australian Aboriginal oral literatures; there are also over a hundred introduced languages mainly from Europe and Asia but also from South America and Africa.)
The first direct reference to male homosexuality in a poem so far in Australian English is in a work by *Christianos (pseud.), dating from 1847 and written in the southmost state, Tasmania. Hints appear earlier—see *Francis MacNamara and the ballad *"Botany Bay" (dated possibly to ca. 1790).
In the *eighteen-nineties, before the trial of *Oscar Wilde in 1895, homoerotic poems were written by *J. Le Gay Brereton, the first Professor of English at the University of Sydney and formerly the University Librarian; he seems to have been homosexual for part of his life at least (he later married a woman) and probably *bisexual overall. He was also a *critic who was fascinated by the gay poet *Christopher Marlowe. *Mateship was a strong force with homosexual undertones in Brereton's poetry and in that of other 1890s poets such as *Henry Lawson and *Victor Daley. Many *ballads—poems which circulated orally—were written around this theme.
The first known poem referring to physical male homosexuality was written by *Christopher Brennan (written sometime after 1914 in a copy of *Oscar Wilde and Myself by *Alfred Douglas); it still remains a revolutionary homosexual poem in English. *C. J. Dennis, author of a popular sequence about a bashful bridegroom, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915), may have been gay. The novelist *Martin Boyd, who was probably homosexual, wrote homoaffectional verse while at *Cambridge University in Great Britain in the early part of the twentieth century. The *Nobel Prize winning homosexual novelist *Patrick White commenced his career at this time with a volume of love poems published in 1935; he has had a brilliant biographer in *David Marr. *William Blocksidge, a poet and philosopher, may have written a *lost book of *pederastic verse. In 1941, Charles Rischbieth Jury published the first work in poetry to openly deal with homosexual love, the verse drama, Icarius.
Homosexual *bawdry is only documented from the 1950s and, due to *censorship, the first openly published homopoem, by *Robert Adamson, was only published in 1971. (For laws restricting homosexuality see *Law— English). Consenting male homosexual acts became partly legal in the state of South Australia first in 1972 and later in other states; only in 1997 were male homosexual acts legalized in Tasmania (for males over seventeen; legal ages of sexual consent vary from state to state being mostly 16 and 17). In 1964 *Laurence Collinson left the country to live in London where he wrote fine openly gay poetry. Around 1971 the underground poem describing gay sex, The *Platonic Blow (later sourced to *W. H. Auden), was published in Australia, as an attack on the censorship laws; it received wide currency.
Only in the 1970s, after the beginning of *gay liberation in 1969, is there the beginnings of a gay poetry tradition: see for instance *Michael Dransfield, *Garth Clarke. Many poets of the *Generation of 68, which saw the emergence of *post modernism and of which Michael Dransfield was a major figure, wrote gay poems. *David Widdup published the first gay book of poems, The Homosexual Love Poems of David Widdup, around 1972 in Sydney. The unique multi-cultural journal *Ganymede: A Journal of Gay Poetics was published 1980–81, though it was not until 1983, with the publication of the first Australian gay anthology, *Edge City, that gay poetry writing emerged in any degree as an open activity. Poetry was published in gay *journals from 1970, though a few poems appear in journals before this date (for instance, by *Don Maynard).
The *Songs of the Gay Liberation Quire (1986), compiled and partly written by *Paul Van Reyk, is a selection of this choir's protest *songs. The first *Aids anthology in the world was the Australian anthology *Love and Death (1987), edited by the fine gay poet *Denis Gallagher who published the *long gay poem Making Do in Sydney in the early eighties. *Sydney, the largest city and capital of the state of New South Wales, has had an active gay movement since 1970. An annual gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade in February or March, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators, many from overseas is a focus of gay culture. The novelist *David Malouf published a masterly gay love sequence in 1976 and an outstanding recent poet is *David Herkt. An important but little known contemporary poet is the formerly *Adelaide based *Mikol Furneaux.
The gay literary *journal *Cargo was founded in 1987 by the leading gay male *publisher of the country, *Laurin McKinnon. The anthology of prose and poetry, male and female, *Pink Ink (1991), shows a move towards *queer poetry (of whom outstanding examples are the openly *bisexual *Michael Dargaville and *Tim McCann). The *Melbourne based *Javant Biarujia is a *post modernist poet; his partner *Ian Birks has also written gay poems. Some recent poems of *Stephen Williams are also outstanding. *Queer poetry, a newer movement, is also represented by the selection in *Robert Dessaix's mixed poetry and prose anthology Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing (1993).
*Michael Hurley has written an outstanding Guide to Lesbian and Gay Writing in Australia which includes poets. The world's largest dictionary of sexual *words in English is being compiled in Sydney by *Gary Simes. The author of this Encyclopedia, *Paul Knobel, is also a poet and has written a survey of homosexual poetry, Male Homosexuality and Australian English Language Poetry published in 1999.
See the *Overview—English in Great Britain entry for the background prior to 1788 and the influence of British material. The *Overview—English in the United States entry is also relevant from *Whitman onwards (from 1855) and especially from gay liberation in 1969.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 93–95: "Australia" by Gary Simes. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Australia". Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Australian Literature"; by *Michael Hurley.
English, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group, has been spoken in Canada from 1670. French, spoken from 1604, is the other official spoken language of the country (see *Overview—French, for Canadian French poets). *Indian languages are the languages of the indigenous peoples and poems may exist in Inuit, the language of the Eskimos, the native people of the Arctic region (see *Oral poems—Inuit). *Overview—English gives the general background against which Canadian gay poetry emerges. The United States has had an especially strong influence on Canadian culture.
The first poets of relevance so far known date only from the nineteenth century and include *Tom MacInnes, *Bliss Carman, *E. J. Pratt and *Frank Call. The homosexual poet *Walt Whitman had a Canadian disciple in *R. M. Bucke who published the first detailed biography of Whitman in 1883, as well as writing a mystical work which prefigured the ideas of *gay liberation. R. M. Bucke also edited Whitman's letters to *Peter Doyle published in 1897.
*Oscar Wilde and *Edward Carpenter were visitors to Canada; indeed Oscar Wilde's first lover and close friend *Robert Ross was born in the major Canadian city, *Toronto. The Canadian *Henry S. Saunders was an important *collector of Whitman material as well as compiling Parodies of Walt Whitman (1923), a defacto gay anthology.
In the first half of the twentieth century, *John Glassco wrote poetry on the *decadent model. *Patrick Anderson wrote gay poems from the early 1950s. He later went on to compile the outstanding English language anthology *Eros: An Anthology of Friendship, after leaving the country to live in Great Britain. Canadian gay culture, despite being overshadowed by that of the United States, was strong from the beginnings of the *gay liberation period (1969+), and especially in the 1970s. This period has seen a large number of openly gay poets. The major poet *Earle Birney even changed a word in a previously published poem in 1975 because of concern about the meaning of the word *gay. This period saw the founding of the important gay political and cultural *journal The *Body Politic (1971–87) published in Toronto, a major city of gay activism. *Montreal, in French speaking Canada, the country's second biggest city, also has English speakers and an achive of gay material.
The poet *Ian Young, though of British citizenship, has been mainly resident in Canada; he conducted a fine review column for The Body Politic and compiled the first gay liberation poetry anthology *The Male Muse published in 1973 and the bibliography *The Male Homosexual in Literature in (1975; expanded edition 1982). The first edition includes Canadian bibliographical entries. Ian Young was also a publisher and helped the work of many poets get into print through his printing press, *Catalyst. *bill bissett (who spells his name in lower case) has been associated with poetry activities in *Vancouver (the major west coast city at the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean and with links to the east). There has been a strong radical streak in Canadian gay poets: see *anarchism, *Marxism.
The *Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto has been the source of two major gay bibliographies, both titled *Homosexuality in Canada (1979; second edition 1984; further additions) and both listing poets, the first being annotated; they constitute the finest bibliographic record of gayness in a nation. The Archives contains unpublished *manuscripts and has finally in 2005 been granted a permanent headquarters helped by the city of Toronto. *E. A. Lacey was an outstanding recent poet, one of the finest English language gay liberation poets, who has, however, like many Canadian gay poets, lived much of his life away from Canada, in south America and south-east Asia in particular. Similarly, *Daryl Hine, writer of an outstanding *long poem, has long been resident in the United States.
Strangely, with so much gay literary activity, there have been no separate Canadian gay *anthologies except for *Larkspur and Lad's Love; Canadian poets have invariably been incorporated into United States published anthologies. For academic achievement relating to gay poetry, see *David A. Campbell, *Richard Dellamora and *Phyllis Grosskuth. *Robert K. Martin has written the finest overall concise survey of Canadian English language gay poetry. Compare *Overview—English—Australia. Perhaps because of United States influence being so much stronger, Canadian gay poetry was much quicker to bloom after the beginnings of gay liberation than in Australia, where repressive laws were in place for longer and United States cultural influences were not so strong (due to copyright links with Britain for book publishing ensuring that many United States books, especially gay poets, did not reach Australia).
The *law in Canada was changed nationwide in 1969 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, before the first change in Australia, in the state of South Australia in 1972, and this law change undoubtedly greatly encouraged gay culture. *Censorship has been fierce at times (e.g., the Body Politic has fought several legal battles). See *"Old King Cole" for a sung parody with homo reference from Ontario dating ca. 1963.
In 1990, the seventy-six-year-old poet *Douglas LePan came out with a suite of love poems to a young man. *John Barton is a recent poet of note. English Studies in Canada vol. 20 no. 2 (1994) is a special gay and lesbian literary issue. For Indian languages see *Overview North American Indian languages. There are a large number of introduced languages in Canada due to large scale emigration, especially since 1945; the country is widely ragared as a successful multicultural society.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 192–94: see "Canada". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Canadian Literature in English".
English, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic subgroup, has been spoken in Great Britain from ca. 550. Other languages spoken in Britain include the *Celtic languages: Welsh, Irish and Scots Gaelic (as noted in the general Overview for English above, Latin and French are also languages which have been spoken and which have left their mark on English). English has a rich homosexual poetry heritage from the earliest poetry, the *heroic poem *Beowulf (which survives in an eleventh century manuscript datable ca. 1000)
Old English and Middle English. In the *Old English period (to 1066), the first known English long poem, Beowulf, and *The Battle of Maldon show strong *male bonding with covert homoeroticism. *Christianity came to Great Britain definitively in this period when missionaries from Rome came to Canterbury. In the *Middle English period (1066–1550), *Chaucer (1340–1400) created in his pardoner a recognisable homosexual. The universities of *Oxford and *Cambridge started in the late *Middle Ages when they were institutions of single men (both have long homosexual histories). Anti-homosexual laws were introduced in the civil courts in shortly after 1533 by Henry the Eighth broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England came into existence (see *Law— English); before this, homosexual behavior, which was stigmatized, was controlled by the church. *Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the first Renaissance poet, may have been gay.
The Elizabethan Period. The *Elizabethan period, when Queen Elizabeth the First was on the throne from 1558 to 1603, is a rich one for gay poetry. *Richard Barnfield, whose sonnets were outstanding wrote gay love poems at this time while *Shakespeare's Sonnets, which show the poet besotted by a young man and later a woman, were published in 1609 by the printer *Thomas Thorpe, probably some fifteen years after being written; they have been the subject of much controversy: such as whether his relationship with the man was even sexually consummated which the homosexual scholar *A. L. Rowse maintained was not the case. *William Webbe (active 1586) and *E. K. (pseud.) began gay criticism of poetry in English at this time. *London, the chief city and capital, is documented as a major center of male homosexuality from the period, including for the writing of gay poetry and the publishing of it. *Translation from Greek and Latin is especially important in making available the Greek and Latin heritage. Most poets before the mid twentieth century read Latin and some read Greek: these poets were aware of the rich heritage of homosexual poetry in these two languages (see *Overview—Greek, —Latin). *William Golding's Elizabethan translation of *Ovid, which revealed the homosexual loves of the ancient Pagan gods, was a popular work.
The poetry of the Elizabethan poets *Spenser, *Sidney, *Dyer and *Greville has strong homosexual undercurrents; in the theater the apparently homosexual couple *Francis Beaumont and *Thomas Fletcher wrote verse plays (their sexuality was first discussed by the first English biographer to mention homosexuality, *John Aubrey). Licensing of book publishing at this time led to the beginnings of *censorship which has plagued British English language gay poetry. After 1620, when many Puritans emigrated to what was to later become the United States, the English poetry heritage spread to north America as did *Puritanism, an anti-sexual and anti-pleasure movement in the Christian church, one of main inhibiting factors operating against the writing of open homosexual poetry besides anti-gay laws.
The seventeenth century. In the *seventeenth century the Cavalier poet *Crashaw expressed ardent love for *Jesus Christ in homoerotic terms and *Abraham Cowley in "Platonick Love" wrote that human beings were *androgynous; their fellow *Metaphysical poet *George Herbert's poetry is also relevant. The seventeenth century English poet *John Milton wrote love poems to the Italian *Charles Diodati (in Latin) but also wrote relevant poems in English; he supported freedom to write in a famous tract. The bisexual *Rochester wrote the only surviving erotic homopoetry from the *seventeenth century, as well as recording a poem showing that St James's Park, in central London, was a homosexual *meeting place. The rhymed play *Sodom has also been attributed to him, though this has not been proven. In the late seventeenth century *John Dryden, then a leading dramatist, produced a fine gay poem about a homosexual couple with allusions to the Latin poet *Vergil. *Bawdry and *broadsides survive from this time: see "The He-Strumpets" (1707).
The eighteenth century. In the *eighteenth century, gay scandals abound in British poetry (see the 1739 *College Wit Sharpened about such a scandal at Oxford university). *Satire using homosexuality appeared in quantity. *Thomas Gray seems likely gay and Gray's Elegy, probably the most famous English poem, can be read as a gay poem and probably is. *Alexander Pope was certainly sexually repressed, though whether homosexually so remains to be proven—if, as in so many cases, it ever can be proven.
The Romantic period and Victorianism. The *Romantic period from 1780 to 1820 saw the bisexual *Byron emerge as a major English poet. His fellow poet *Shelley translated *Plato's *Symposium and wrote an elegy to *John Keats who died in another man's arms in Rome. In the *Victorian period, *Tennyson's In Memoriam, 1850 (written to the poet *Arthur Hallam and first published anonymously) was assumed by The Times reviewer to have been written by a woman, an assumption also made by the monarch, Queen Victoria, when she read it.
The *Rubaiyat of *Omar Khayyam, translated into English by *Edward Fitzgerald from a Cambridge manuscript, made available in 1859 a Persian homopoet. It was widely read, though it has been erroneously heterosexualized in illustration; the text, in referring to the male cupbearer uses the non gender specific “thou” so it could pass as a heterosexual work to those unfamiliar with the homosexual Persian conventions (a strategy which was to be widely used by gay poets from this time on). The homosexual poet *Beddoes committed *suicide in exile in Switzerland at this time. The *Catholic Jesuit priest *Gerard Manley Hopkins, who strongly identified with *Walt Whitman, wrote some homoerotic poems. It seems he fell in love with the poet *Digby Dolben whose poetry is much stronger homoerotically than Hopkins and who died tragically early. The sublimated gay *Cardinal John Henry Newman also wrote poetry and is buried in a grave with his closest male friend. In this period *Swinburne wrote the first English poems directly inspired by homosexual *sado-masochism; *Henry Layng wrote sadistic poems with homosexual undertones in the century prior.
The pre-Raphaelites, such as *Dante Gabriel Rossetti, exhibited *androgyny in their poetry and the anonymous 1866 poem *Don Leon is a defence of homosexuality showing that, despite the repression of the *Victorian period, it continued to flourish. From this time gay erotic *publishers existed in London.
The Aesthetic Movement and the 1890s. *Walter Pater and French *influence heralded the advent of the *aesthetic movement in the 1880s, culminating in the *decadent movement whose best exemplar is the poet and playwright *Oscar Wilde (who was imprisoned for two years for homosexuality in 1895 and emerged from prison a broken man). Around 1881 *Count Eric Stenbock published an openly gay book of love poems and, from 1877, *Henry Spencer Ashbee published the fruits of his serious study of sexual books in English (and, incidently, European gay culture).
The *eighteen-nineties saw a dramatic increase in homosexual poetry. The first English gay *journals, *The Spirit Lamp (1892–93)—edited by Wilde's lover *Lord Alfred Douglas—and *The Chameleon (1894) appeared in this period. The poetry of the eighteen-nineties was frequently guilt ridden and religiously based. Many poets—such as *John Gray and *Lionel Johnson—went into the *Catholic Church following Cardinal Newman (who had converted from the Church of England), as did the intriguing figure of *Frederick Rolfe (who called himself Baron Corvo as well as Father Rolfe), a *pederast who died in *Venice. Oscar Wilde's Poems (1881) show he started life as an aspiring poet. His most famous poem, however, is his widely translated *Ballad of Reading Goal (1898) about his experiences in Reading prison 1895–97. He had sued Alfred Douglas's father for calling him a sodomite (that is, for libel) and lost, leading to his being charged with consorting with male prostitutes (which evidence emerged in the libel trial). The bookseller *Christopher Millard's 1914 bibliography of Wilde's works remains to this day an exemplary listing of a gay poet and writer and has set a high standard for gay bibliographies of individual writers. The mood of the period after Wilde's trial in 1895 is expressed by *A. E. Housman in A Shropshire Lad (1896), which has remained a continuously popular work, its maudlin quality appealing to repressed homosexuals.
*J. A. Symonds in A Problem in Greek Ethics published in 1883 revealed the Greek homosexual literary traditon and inaugurated the serious study of gay culture in English. *Benjamin Jowettt's translation of *Plato's dialogues, the first complete English translation from the Greek, also revealed the heritage of ancient Greek homosexuality to readers. *Havelock Ellis in Sexual Inversion (1897; revised and enlarged third edition 1915) began the serious study of gay culture overall—though the banning of this book in Great Britain denied gay cultural history to British gays, who for the next eighty years lived in ignorance of their history. (Since British copyright laws extended to fomer colonies this efffectively denied Australian, Indian, South African and New Zealand gays their history, too; the work was published freely in the United States in *Philadelphia.) *Charles Ricketts was noted for his fine bindings of poetry books, a feature of the nineties. A group of English poets, the *Uranians, who have been discussed in detail by *Timothy d'Arch Smith, wrote pederastic verse from 1890 to 1930: see, for example, *E. E. Bradford, *D. W. Cory, *J. G. Nicholson. They reveal a *pederastic and *pedophile underground which continues to this day, which has been savagely repressed on occasions.
The influence of the major United States gay poet, *Walt Whitman, becomes apparent from the 1880s on. He especially influenced *Edward Carpenter who published the first modern surviving indigenous English language anthology *Ioläus: An Anthology of *Friendship in 1902, published simultaneously in London, *Manchester, the second largest city in Great Britain, and *Boston; it has remained almost continuously in print in the United States and Great Britain and been nicknamed “the bugger’s Bible”. The rise of *socialism, a movement which shows homosexual feeling, parallels Whitman's influence.
Modernism and the twentieth century. The founders of English *modernism, *T. S. Eliot and *Ezra Pound (both born in the United States but later living in Great Britain), had a close friendship which the United States critic *Wayne Koestenbaum has argued has homoaffectional undertones. In traditional rhymed verse, the *Georgian poets had their homosexual contingent: *Siegfried Sassoon (who later married when he became a *Catholic), *Rupert Brooke (who vividly described having homosexual *anal sex in a letter) and the much admired *Wilfred Owen (who died tragically on the last day of World War I; poems of his were used as the text in the homosexual and pacifist composer Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem written to commemorate the opening of Coventry Cathedral which was destroyed by German bombs in the second World War).
*F. E. Murray in 1924 compiled the first catalog of a *bookseller and also the first separate book length *bibliography ever of gay books in English. *Roger Goodland's 1931 annotated Bibliography of Sex Rites and Customs is still a major source for homosexual poetry in cultures all over the world; the author wrote only this one book and worked on it for many years. *Surrealism was a major movememt in the 1930s extending to poetry: see *Dylan Thomas (who had a homosexual relationship with *Oswell Blakeston) and *David Gascoyne (who later married a woman). *W. H. Auden was the outstanding traditional poet of the period 1930–60 but he lived in the United States from 1939; his *long poem *The Platonic Blow (published in 1965, but written in 1948) revealed a startlingly different homosexual side while “Lay your sleeping head” widely regarded as the finest love poem in English was written to a 14 year old youth, though Auden had to employ the “you” strategy used by Fitzgerald in the Rubaiyat; his close friend *Stephen Spender wrote gay poetry in the 1930s but later married a woman.
The works of such major poets as the Welshman *David Jones and the Mercian poet *Geoffrey Hill and the *poet laureate *Ted Hughes warrant perusal. The *poet laureate *John Betjeman and the playwright *Noel Coward have both written charming and outstanding gay poems which will last. *William Plomer, though homosexual, mostly concealed it in his poetry, though clues were left for astute readers. *Ralph Chubb secretly produced his mostly awful but sometimes inspiring pederastic poetry in illustrated copies in small editions from 1924 to 1960.
After World War II a flood of *translation from such diverse languages as Arabic, Chinese, Persian and Turkish has appeared and English has the richest translation tradition of all written languages.
Gay Liberation from 1969. It was only in 1967 that male homosexuality was legalized in Britain (in private for males over 21; it was lowered to the heterosexual age of 16 only in the early years of the twenty first century). Legalization was a prelude to the *gay liberation movement which emerged in 1969. Major post war anthologies include *Eros: An Anthology of Friendship (1961), *Brian Reade's fine anthology of Victorian poems 1860–1900 *Sexual Heretics (1970) and *The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse (1983) compiled by *Stephen Coote. The latter was the most wide ranging gay anthology in any language until the publication in 1992 of volume one of *Anthony Reid's two volume *The Eternal Flame, the most brilliant anthology of gay poems in English (when volume 2 was published the work covered over 600 poets).
In the contemporary period a major gay British poet is *James Kirkup, a poem of whose was the subject of a court case by the journal *Gay Times (when he alleged in the poem that *Jesus Christ was a homosexual). (The ensuing controversy bankrupted the paper.) James Kirkup has written a fine series of autobiographies and has lived abroad for much of his life, mainly in Japan after the Gay Times controversy. *Ivor Treby is also a major contemporary gay British poet while the outstanding *Scots poet *Edwin Morgan is only one of a number of poets in the first English and Gaelic anthology from Scotland, *And Thus Will I Freely Sing (1989). There are also fine *Irish and *Welsh gay poets writing in English.
Of recent anthologies, the anthology *Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches (1989) is exemplary for its subtle reading of the poetry of World War One and *Language of Water, Language of Fire (1992) is an outstanding general gay anthology. Attention is being increasingly paid to individual periods such as, for the Elizabethan period (see *Alan Bray, *Gregory W. Bredbeck, *Bruce R. Smith), the *Victorian period (see *Richard Dellamora) and the *twentieth century (see *Gregory Woods). *Gay News (1972–83) was the major journal of the *gay liberation period (1969+) with outstanding poetry and literary coverage; its successor *Gay Times has good book reviews.
Fine biographies are being written— e.g., *Peter Parker's on *A. J. Ackerley and *Philip Hoare's on *Stephen Tennant, the *lover of Siegfried Sassoon. These followed the 1967 biography by *Michael Holroyd who openly discussed the homosexuality of the *Bloomsbury prose writer *Lytton Strachey (who nevertheless wrote a brilliant gay poem on an envelop to his lover *Roger Senhouse). The poet *John Fuller has published outstanding readings of the poems of *W. H. Auden many of which have esoteric meanings.
The anthology *Not Love Alone (1985) gives a good idea of contemporary British gay poetry. *Peter Daniels' *Oscars Press has also published an anthology *Take Any Train (1990) and a series of *chapbooks. Most major English language poets have been edited but works still remain in *libraries and *archives in *manuscript. The *Hall Carpenter archives is a major gay archive and library. *Aids has also made its presence felt.
The historical and social background to British English language gay poetry has been investigated by *Montgomery Hyde, *A. L. Rowse and *Jeffrey Weeks. Since 1945 especially many languages introduced to Britain by emigrants, especially from former British colonies (for instance India or countries in Africa), are spoken.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 354–57: "England". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "English Literature". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 19–21 and 131–34 (poets born after 1882).
English has been spoken in New Zealand since 1814 when colonization from Great Britain began; the language of the indigenous inhabitants was and is Maori, a Polynesian language which is now enjoying a substantial revival after years of decline (see Overviews for *Maori and *Polynesian languages). Material dates from 1860 with the visit of the gay novelist *Samuel Butler, author of a few poems, to New Zealand.
Male homosexual relations in New Zealand (which has a unicameral system of government) were only legalized in 1987, with an *age of consent of 16, and before this the culture was very repressive with strong censorship laws; anti-discrimination laws have subsequently been passed. A famous poem "Not Understood", though not a gay poem, by the nineteenth century bachelor poet *Thomas Bracken and first published in 1879 summed up the situation until 1987. Though British influence on New Zealand has been very strong, leading the country to look to Britain for literary models, a series of lectures on *Walt Whitman, then thought a daring writer, were given in 1904 in Dunedin by *W. H. Trimble and published as a book in 1905. *David McKee Wright who wrote ballads about *mateship later lived in Australia.
There has been a fairly strong bohemian presence in New Zealand best represented in poetry by the major poet *James K. Baxter who had a homosexual side, as his biographer *Frank McKay has revealed. *Charles Brasch, founder of the major New Zealand journal Landfall, was homosexual and wrote fine love poems as well as an autobiography, only partly published. Brasch's poetry and homosexuality was first discussed in the seminal article on New Zealand gay literature published by *Bobby Pickering in the London based *Gay News in 1982; the well known homosexual story writer *Frank Sargeson (pseud.), discussed in this article, possibly wrote one poem. He was a friend of *D'Arcy Cresswell, who was involved in a homosexual scandal involving the mayor of Wanganui (who commited a murder in association with it: such was the ignominy of homosexuality in those times). He wrote a verse play, The Forest (1952) about the primacy of homosexual love.
*Karl Wolfskehl, the German poet and *disciple of *Stefan George, lived for his last years in New Zealand. The poet*Rewi Alley, who never married, left New Zealand to live in China and support the Communist Revolution where he published translations of *Tang poetry and other works. In 1999 *Jonathan Fisher published the first New Zealand gay poetry anthology, *When Two Men Embrace while in 1996 the anthology My Heart Goes Swimming: New Zealand Love Poems, edited by Jenny Bornholdt and Gregory O'Brien, included poems by *Charles Brasch. In 2000 some poems by *Charles Brasch were included in New Zealand Love Poems: An Oxford Anthology, edited by Lauris Edmond (Auckland, 2000) at pp. 89 and 189-90 (the editor, a famous poet, states in the introduction that she read many gay love poems; but these seem the only ones in the book, with the possible exception of a poem by Mohammad Amir on p. 9 which can be read as a gay poem). The homosexual critic *Eric H. McCormick wrote some of the first surveys of white (in Maori, Pakeha) English language literature while the poet *A. R. D. Fairburn charged homosexuals with exerting undue influence in the arts in a 1944 essay "The Woman problem".
Many New Zealanders have left the country to live in Australia: see for example, *David Herkt who has produced the finest gay erotic sequence. *Barry Sotham is a recent poet of note. *Witi Ihimaera, the first New Zealand gay Maori novelist, has written a few poems. The *Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand (LAGANZ) is a major gay archive housed in the National Library, Wellington and the only such archive to enter a national library collection. *A. P. Millett has compiled a bibliography of homosexuality including a small section on poetry. The New Zealand National Bibliography began publication in 1967 replacing the Current National Bibliography; it is on computer and lists gay material and has subject entries.
Nigel Gearing, Emerging Tribe: Gay Culture in New Zealand in the 1990s (Auckland, 1997) surveys the contemporary gay scene with a chapter, Chapter 10, pp. 148–60 on "Gays and the Arts".
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage.
English, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group, has been spoken continuously in South Africa since 1806. Afrikaans is the other main introduced *European language of South Africa (see *Overview—Afrikaans for discussion). Both English and Afrikaans are minority languages in South Africa. Bantu is a major indigenous language family. For discussion of indigenous African languages (of which there are more than eight) see *Overview—African languages.
*George Gillett (active 1894) is the first poet of note. The Portuguese poet *Fernando Pessoa, who wrote homosexual poems in English, was raised for some years in South Africa in Durban. The bisexual *Roy Campbell and the homosexual *William Plomer both emigrated to Europe and recent biographies of both have been written by *Peter Alexander. *Jan Smuts wrote a study of *Whitman and rhe South African born *F. T. Prince has written homoerotic poetry. *Dennis Brutus has written powerfully of homosexuality in prisons.
*Stephen Gray is a fine openly gay poet and a major South African literary figure. *Marcellus Muthien is a black poet living in London. The openly gay Afrikaans poet, *Johann de Lange, who writes in Afrikaans has poems translated into English. The anthology *Invisible Ghetto (1993) includes some poems.
Male homosexuality was legalized in 1995, under the new constitution, and equality of homosexuals under the law is also guaranteed. There is a gay journal Exit and gay group Gasa (see *Overview—Afrikaans). The lesbian novelist Mary Renault lived in South Africa: see her biography by David Sweetman, 1992, for details of homosexual life there during her lifetime. The *Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa at the University of Witwatersrand is archiving the country's gay history and culture. For the recent social background see Mark Gevisser and Edwin Cameron, Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa, London, 1995, which also includes a literary essay (review: Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter, Fall 1996, 19–21 by Ann Smith). See also Garry Wotherspoon and Clive Faro, "Against the odds", Outrage (Australian journal), August, 1989, 36–41.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature, vol. 1, p. 6. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "South African Poetry". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Black Men/ White Men , 85–89. Invisible Ghetto: has various articles on the social background.
English in the Indian subcontinent
English, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group, has been spoken in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the three main countries in the Indian subcontinent (sometimes called south Asia) since India was first colonized by Great Britain from 1612.
India. Indian English is today spoken by more than forty million Indians and is one of the fifteen official languages of India (whose capital is *Delhi). An *oral proverb (ca. 1885) translated from Kashmiri by Richard Burton is the first poem of relevance. The *A`in i Akbari anthology, a translation of a Persian anthology which is in effect an anthology of gay poems, which was published in English translation in 1894 Calcutta in a translation by *H. S. Jarrett, is the first English language gay anthology as such. Translations of Indian poets e.g., of *Kabir, for instance, by *Rabindranath Tagore in 1915, are relevant.
*Vikram Seth wrote the first gay book of poems in 1982 and the collection of writing *A Lotus of Another Color (1993) has the first selection of gay poems; this work also lists journals publishing poetry. The poet *Hoshang Merchant compiled a selection of gay writing published by *Penguin Books in India in 1999 title Yaraana: Gay Writing from India and which includes eleven poets. Both books give much information on the gay literary heritage and gay life in general both in the present and the past. (Translations of erotic poetry classics from India into English mentioning homosexuality—e.g., the *Kama Sutra—should be mentioned here as well as general philosophical works such as the *Upanishads.)
From 1980, there have existed various gay journals and newsletters for the Indian gay community, both in India and for Indians living abroad and these may contain poems (there is a large Indian diaspora in countries as far apart as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and Fiji). These journals include, in India, Freedom and Bombay Dost ("Bombay boyfriend"—from 1991; rare—a copy is in the *Library of Congress). Bombay Dost prints some poems and was founded by the gay activist Ashok Row-Kavi. In the United States there are Anamika (1980—the earliest journal), Trikone and Shakakami; in Canada Khush Khayal and, in Great Britain, Shakti Khabar. (See also *Journals—English.) A gay conference was held in Bombay in 1995. Homosexuality is still illegal in India but the High Court has reduced the maximum penalty drastically.
Pakistan See *Ifti Nasim, *Anthologies—Urdu and the important critics *Tariq Rahman and *Mohammad Sadiq. Bangladesh: see *Zia Haidar.
References. Lotus of Another Color, 21–33: article, "Homosexuality in India".
English, an *Indo-European language of the *Germanic branch, has been spoken in the United States since 1620 when British colonization started in earnest in *Boston Massachusetts and from 1607 in Virginia, south of the capital Washington. (For indigenous languages see *Overview—North American Indian languages.) See *Overview—English in Great Britain for the background prior to and influence after 1607. From 1969, the volume of gay poetry in the United States has exceeded that of all other English speaking countries together.
With over 260 million inhabitants, the United States is the third largest country in the world after China and India. Spanish is spoken in California, which adjoins Mexico, and may become a majority language in California in years to come; there are also many introduced languages due to large scale immigration, especially from Europe (e.g. Hebrew, Yiddish—see *Overview—Hebrew, —Yiddish) but latterly from east Asia (e.g., Cantonese Chinese). French was formerly spoken in the *Southern states as was Spanish in some. Relevant poets date from 1662.
After the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, English gradually became the dominant language over the whole of the country and, unfortunately, the anti-homosexual religious movement *Puritanism became a dominating ideology. *Censorship was strong until 1970. The first poet of interest is *Michael Wigglesworth whose 1662 poem The Day of Doom refers to homosexuality. The first known poem to deal directly with male homosexuality is the anonymous A *Present for the Sodomites (1808). *Friendship is a theme in poems by *Thoreau—who may have been gay though his exact sexuality may never be known; it is also a theme in *Ralph Waldo Emerson. Both writers were part of the movement called *Transcendentalism.
*Walt Whitman was the first major homopoet of consequence: his Calamus poems from the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass appeared in enlarged editions of Leaves of Grass to 1891 and are his best known works of relevance (though his Civil War poems where he nursed soldiers are also important). His use of *free verse makes him a pioneer of *modernism. *R. M. Bucke, a disciple of Whitman, wrote the first notable *biography of the poet in 1883. *Stephen Wayne Foster has uncovered homosexual *tropes in many late nineteenth and early twentieth century poets and homosexuality in their lives. Even President *Abraham Lincoln, a much loved President who led the north in the American Civil War of 1861–1865, wrote a homopoem. *Harvard University in the *eighteen nineties had several homosexual poets, such as *George Santayana; many gay poets have subsequently attended the university.
Followers of Whitman in the late nineteenth century were called Calamites or *Uranians and were first documented in the first United States gay poetry anthology *Men and Boys, 1924, compiled by *Edward M. Slocum. On present knowledge *songs date from 1888 (see *Eugene Field).
The United States expatriate writer *E. I. P. Stevenson under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne published the first extended literary survey of European and United States gay culture round 1911. The founders of English language *modernism were *T. S. Eliot and *Ezra Pound, both United States born citizens who later lived in Europe, and there is some homosexual interest in the poetry they wrote. Translations of gay poets emanating from the United States—e.g., *R. B. Cooke's translation of the sonnets of *Platen written in German—have been excellent.
The homosexual *Hart Crane was an important modernist poet; his poetry has *surrealist overtones and his homosexuality was disclosed in *Philip Horton's 1937 biography. From 1910, *George Sylvester Viereck was the most notable United States poet writing in the *decadent manner.
The British poet *W. H. Auden lived in the United States from 1939, becoming a US citizen in 1946, and composed the famous erotic poem *The Platonic Blow in 1948; it has had numerous reprintings from its first publication in 1965. Due to *homophobia, the homosexual critic *F. O. Matthiesson may have committed suicide in 1948; his pioneering book American Renaissance is notable for avoiding homosexuality in Whitman and others and its lack of positive comment shows the extent of social ostracism of homosexuals at the time.
The work of *Alfred Kinsey, who published the largest survey of male sexuality in 1948, saw the beginnings of more enlightened attitudes to homosexuality and the United States has been a leader in sex research; *psychology, which has done much to improve the life of gays, has also been a strong movement in the United States. *Vance Randolph collected *oral material from the 1940s and *Allen Ginsberg and the *Beats came to prominence in the 1950s.
*Frank O'Hara and the New York School (which included *James Schuyler and *John Ashbery) are notable from the fifties. *On the *west coast, Jack Spicer was a major poet of this time as was the openly gay *Robert Duncan from *San Francisco. The *gay liberation period from 1969 saw a flowering of poetry, much of which was published in the gay liberation *journals Gay Sunshine (1969–82) edited by *Winston Leyland (who has compiled several anthologies—most recently *Gay Roots, a selection from Gay Sunshine), Fag Rag (1971+; edited by a collective which included the outstanding *Boston based poet and critic *Charley Shively), and the outstanding poetry journal *Mouth of the Dragon (1974–80) edited by *Andrew Bifrost. *Christopher Street journal under the guidance of the poet *Charles Ortleb, himself a fine poet, has published excellent poetry. Indeed, the United States has produced the finest gay poetry journals in English in the period from 1969.
Centers of gay liberation included *San Francisco, *Boston, *New York and *Los Angeles. Outstanding *bibliographies were compiled by *Dorr Legg and *Vern L. Bullough in the 1970s; they contributed vastly to increased knowledge of gay culture. *Wayne Dynes, the editor of *The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality (1990), which contains much literary material, published the finest research guide to homosexuality to its date in 1987 (it has been supplemented by that of the Australian *Gary Simes published in 1998 and to which this author contributed many entries). *Robert K. Martin in The Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry (1979) wrote the first extended study of homosexuality in United States English poetry.
Outstanding openly gay poets of the period since 1969 (apart from those mentioned) include *Gavin Dillard, *Dennis Kelly, *James S. Holmes, *John Weiners, *James Broughton, *Felice Picano, *Dennis Cooper, *John Gill, *Thomas Meyer and *Harold Norse. Many major late twentieth century United States poets such as *John Ashbery and *James Merrill are regarded as amongst the finest United States poets of the time, though gay poets have been unjustly neglected in recent general literary histories and criticism (almost all of which so far fail to mention recent gay poetry of the last thirty years since 1969). Harold Norse's gay poems, though written in the forties and fifties, were only published in 1976.
Recent *Black gay poets have been outstanding and a series of black gay *anthologies has been published of which *In the Life edited by *Jim Beam and *The Road Before Us, edited by *Asotto Saint (pseud.), stand out.
*Paul Monette and *Michael Lassell have written fine poems about *Aids, which has been prominent since 1983. Major gay biographies of recent date include *Barry Miles on Ginsberg and *Tom Clark on *Charles Olson—the leading poet of English language *Postmodernism. On the other hand, *Arnold Rampersand's recent life of *Langston Hughes reveals little of the subject's gay life.
The United States has outstanding *libraries and archives which have not yet been fully consulted by researchers on gay poetry; they contain many important *manuscripts (see for example *Horace Traubel). *Booksellers and *publishers of gay poetry books in the United States are outstanding and have greatly helped the present gay cultural renaissance (secondhand books can now be searched on the *Internet). The *nineteen seventies, *nineteen eighties and *nineteen nineties are the richest decades in English language gay poetry so far.
The *James White Review (1983+) is the leading periodical publishing poetry and reviews. *Queer literature, claiming too be inclusive of all sorts of homosexual and bisexual behavior, is the latest movement in the United States. *Vladimir Nabokov the Russian and English language novelist and poet produced in Pale Fire an enduring work about homosexuality, poetry, literary criticism and truth.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, vol. 2, 1341–52: "United States" (gives an historical overview). Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage, 25–53: overview of gay literature. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "U.S. Literature" and "U.S. Literature: Contemporary Gay Writing". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 461–67. Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, 523–817: anthology of poetry and prose covering United States English from 1840. Criticism. Woods, History of Gay Literature, 151–66: "The American Renaissance" (of the mid nineteenth century).
English language Scottish and Scots Gaelic poets
Scots English, which is spoken in Scotland, the province in the north of Great Britain, is markedly different from southern British English and sometimes can be difficult to understand. Poets discussed here wrote or write in English (and sometimes Scots English) and in Scots Gaelic (which is part of the Gaelic group of languages spoken in Ireland, Wales and Brittany in France). Material dates from ca. 1500. The languages are *Indo-European.
Scotland was united with England in 1707 and lost its separate parliament (only restored in 1999). *William Dunbar and *Walter Kennedy who worked in the last quarter of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth are the first poets of relevance (compare *Middle English). In 1515 in England *Alexander Barclay published the first English *eclogues. The gay King *James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England in 1603) wrote poetry and *Robert Burns collected *bawdry (though only one poem is of relevance here). *W. E. Henley and *R. L. Stevenson lived and collaborated in *Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
In the twentieth century, the poet *John Henry Mackay whose works celebrate *pederasty, though born in Scotland, wrote in German and lived in Germany. *And Thus Will I Freely Sing is a modern anthology in English and Scots Gaelic, which includes some poetry and which was compiled by *Toni Davidson; the introduction is by *Edwin Morgan, a major openly gay twentieth century Scots poet writing in English. *Christopher Whyte writes in Scots Gaelic which is enjoying a revival as well as English. See also *G. M. Brown, *Norman Douglas, *Hugh MacDiarmid, *Richard Livermore, *Tom Leonard, *Douglas Young.
The *Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and *Homer's Iliad have both been translated into Gaelic. A Scottish journal, Gay Scotland, exists and has had cultural material. Sometimes the Gaelic of Scotland is differentiated from Irish Gaelic—or Irish—by being called Scots Gaelic. A gay guide giving contemporary social background is Scottish Gay Scene (1998).
References. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 327–338.
Finnish is a *Uralian language related to Hungarian and Estonian (which is spoken adjacent to it). Gay poetry dates from 1789.
Finnish is spoken in Finland, which is called Suomi ("swamp"–the country is low lying and marshy) in Finnish. The country is across the Gulf of Finland from Sweden—which occupied the country until 1809—and is adjacent to Russia (which occcupied the country in the Second World War). Swedish has particularly influenced the culture.
Male homosexual acts were illegal until 1971. Although homosexuality is legal, public opinion is negative. Written texts date only from the mid nineteenth century but there are rich literary traditions dating from then. The country has especially rich oral traditions only recorded from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The singing of the national poem the *Kalevala (recorded from 1835) had homoerotic undertones—see *singers—as does the subject matter; the poem has some erotic material and the huge corpus of recorded oral material related to it may yield homosexual material on closer examination.
*Modernism has been influential in the twentieth century. Contemporary poets of relevance include *Uuno Kailas, *Pentti Holappa and *Jrjo Kaijarvi. The gay erotic artist *Tom of Finland (pseud.) is supposed to have written poems. The Finno-Swedish poet *Gunnar Bjorling lived in Finland but wrote in Swedish. Translation into Finnish has been particularly rich—e.g., *Whitman, *Homer's Iliad and *Ginsberg have been translated and translation dates from *Horace's Odes in 1789. The Georgian poet *Rustaveli has been notably translated.
For a *bibliography of gay wrritings see *Bent Hansen. For the legal situation, see Second ILGA Pink Book. Censorship: see IGA Pink Book 1985, pp. 109–113.
French, one of the *Romance group of *Indo-European languages, is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (settled by French speaking Europeans from 1604); some African countries, former French colonies, are Francophone (French speaking), eg Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. The language dates from ca. 1100 and is a modern form of the Latin spoken in France. The *Overview—Latin and *Overview—Greek entries are relevant as poetry in these languages, especially Latin, strongly influenced French poetry.
From the Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Poems with homosexual reference exist in French from the *Middle Ages. *Troubadour poets were homosexual or referred to homosexuality in their poems (e.g., *Conon de Bethune). A 1270 poem by *Guillot refers to homosexuality in the streets of *Paris, the capital of France, the intellectual center from this time on.
In the *Renaissance, the poetry of *François Villon (active 1453) has homosexual aspects and in the sixteenth century homosexual *epigrams—especially relating to the homosexual king *Henri III—circulated (as noted, for instance, by the diarist *L'Estoile). *"Epitaph for Jean Maillard", ca. 1570, refers to the death of a homosexual sodomist. *Saint-Pavin and *Viau are notable poets of this period.
*Ode aux Bougres (1789) published at the time of the French Revolution is an extraordinary poem pretending to satirize homosexuality but actually written by someone fully familiar with gay customs in France. Following the revolution, the *law was changed in 1791 legalizing male-male homosexual relations in line with the enlightened beliefs exhibited by the philosopher *Voltaire's writings, a pattern followed by enlightened European countries whose law was modelled on the French Code Napoléon.
The ninetenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century, *Baudelaire's poetry opened up new subject matter in poetry: the underworld of Paris. The homosexual lovers *Rimbaud and *Verlaine, influenced by Baudelaire, produced openly gay erotic poetry (but only published from 1894) and the two collaborated on a famous sonnet to the arsehole, perhaps the finest poem ever written on the subject. Rimbaud's text has proved difficult to edit and only in 1991 was a comprehensive text published by *Alain Borer. *Lautreamont displayed a gay dimension as well as writing about the sexuality of animals. From this time French has had a strong tradition of openly gay poets.
In 1897, *André Raffalovich published in French the first modern history of gay culture and gay literary *journals exist from 1909 when the journal *Akadémos was published for one year by the rich Swede *Jacques Adelswärd Fersen (who was found guilty of sex with minors and later lived in exile on the island of *Capri in Italy near *Naples). The closely related *decadent and *aesthetic movement were strong in France and the *dandy *Robert de Montesquiou wrote poems. The poems of Wilde's lover *Alfred Douglas, translated into French in a bilingual edition in English and French, were widely read on publication in 1896 in Paris. This followed the 1895 trial and imprisonment of Wilde. In the *eighteen nineties the gay novelist *Marcel Proust also wrote poems which were set to music by his lover *Reynaldo Hahn.
The twentieth century. The homosexual poet *Jean Cocteau produced some twenty books in the 1920s (including much poetry) at the same time as the *Nobel Prize winning *André Gide defended homosexuality in his prose work *Corydon. *Surrealism, which was homophobic in the person of its leader *André Breton, had a French contingent and a gay poet, *René Crevel. In the 1940s the outstanding gay French novelist whose work emerged out of the milieu of prisons and reform schools,*Jean Genet, began his career; he was hailed by *Sartre in a long work of criticism in 1952 and wrote some poems.
The French gay journal Arcadie (1954–1982) was the only journal in a Romance language during its time of publication and circulated as far as Portugal; it published scholarly articles and gay poetry and prose and remains one of the most important gay journals ever. In 1968 *Pierre Guiraud published a study of François Villon's language, arguing that each poem contained three levels of meaning, one of which was homosexual.
*Gay Liberation has produced two excellent anthologies *Beau Petit Ami and *Les Amours masculines. *L'amour en... vers et contre tout (1989) and *Pour tout l'amour des hommes: Anthologie de l'homosexualité dans la litterature (1998) are more recent. The gay historian and philosopher *Michel Foucault wrote in French and there was a strong gay element in the critical movements called *Semiotics and *Deconstruction with which Foucault was also deeply involved; see also *Roland Barthes.
Notable contemporary poets include *Pierre Gripari (born 1925), *Willy Marceau (born 1961), and *Bernard Delvaille (born 1931). French has a strong tradition of translations.
Belgium. French is spoken in Belgium in conjunction with Flemish, a dialect of Dutch. *Charles-Joseph de Ligne wrote erotic gay poems in the Romantic period (but they were only published in the late nineteenth century); see also *Georges Eekhoud. *William Cliff and *Eugène Savitzkaya are contemporary poets. See also *Overview —Dutch and Flemish since Flemish is the dialect of Dutch spoken in Belgium and there has been continuous interchange between the two cultures.
References. See Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 123–25.
Canada. French has only been spoken from 1604. In the early twentieth century *Emile Nelligan may have been gay. A group of French Canadian poets emerged from 1970 who deal with male homosexuality in their poetry: see *Paul Chamberland, *André Roy. *Montreal and *Québec are the most important cities. A journal Sorti (1982+; defunct) has emanated from French Canada.
For the social background see *Paul-François Sylvestre (who is also a poet), Bougérie en Nouvelle-France (1983).
Switzerland. French is also spoken in Switzerland in the south west of the country; Geneva and Lausanne are the main cities. The Swiss gay journal *Der Kreis (1933–1967), the longest running gay periodical to date, had French material; its full title was Der Kreis = Le Cercle = The Circle. With personal advertisements in English and “physique” photos from European and United States photographers it even reached out to an English speaking audience, especially in the United States. *Blaise Cendrars has written poetry of relevance. *Edmond Fazy (pseud.?) appears to have been a Swiss translator from Turkish to French of gay poetry. *Steven Finch is a translator into English who lives there.
On French literature in general see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume three: the whole volume is a history of French literature; detailed indexes are included.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 383–467. Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, 402–03: "France (1970–1945)".
Georgian is spoken in Georgia in the Caucasus, the region between the Black and Caspian seas. The language is from the *Caucasian language family. Gay poetry dates from ca. 1200.
Original literature developed from the fourth century when the country became Christianized and the *Gospels were translated; the Christian church in Georgia is a self-governing branch of *Orthodoxy. A rich gay poetry heritage, influenced by Persian traditions, is strongly suspected. The great Georgian *epic poem and national epic by *Shota Rustaveli, The Man in the Leopard Skin, has strong homosexual material. The Persian epic, the Shahnama of *Firdawsi, was early translated.
*Sayat Nova wrote in Georgian besides his native Armenian. The twentieth century poets *Paolo Iashvili and *Titsian Tabidze seem relevant. The film maker *Parajanov has made relevant films. Compare *Overview —Armenian.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 17: under "Georgian SSR" see "Literature". Everyman Companion to East European Literature: see "Georgian", 525–27. Criticism. Lang, Guide to Eastern Literatures, 181–96. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 803–21.
German, one of the *Germanic languages, a subgroup of the *Indo-European language family, is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The langauge was also formerly spoken in overseas colonies in Africa and in the Pacific (eg in Papua New Guinea, under German control in the northeast part of the island until 1918); German is a second language in eastern and southeastern Europe. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1150.
Germany. *Male bonding in old German literature was strong, especially in the work of the *minnesingers and works using *Arthurian material. This continued later in the cult of *friendship in the *Aufklarung (Enlightenment; 1700–1800; see also *Elisabeth Frenzel). There have been notable readings of literature from this point of view: see *Friendship—German.
The rediscovery of the Greek *Mousa Paidike and its editing by *C. A. Klotz in the mid eighteenth century made the Greek gay poetry heritage fully accessible and German scholars were well aware of Greek and Latin gay poetry from the *Renaissance onwards since both languages were part of a gymnasium education (see *Overview—Greek, —Latin).
The Romantic period. *August Platen (1796–1835) is the first outstanding gay German poet; he was vociferously attacked by *Heinrich Heine about his homosexuality and lived in Italy for much of his life, dying there. A noted biography of Platen is by *Peter Bumm and a brilliant *bibliography is by *Fritz Redenbacher. The great German *Romantic poet *Goethe wrote some homosexual poems. Under the influence of *Orientalism such translators as *Rückert and *Hammer-Purgstall first brought into German poetry translations of Persian, Turkish and Arabic homopoetry. *Karl Theodor German translated Shakespeare's sonnets into German (published ca. 1823) beginning a cult for the sonnets of Shakespeare in German translation; there have been many translations into German.
In 1838 the Swiss *Heinrich Hössli published the first German anthology *Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen, in response to a debate with his friend *Heinrich Zschokke. *Paul Derks has made the major literary study to date of a single period 1750–1850 (which includes the time of Hössli).
In the nineteenth century, *Richard Wagner wrote the librettos of his operas in poetry; his last opera, Parsifal, is especially relevant but interpretations of his main work the four opera work Der Ring der Nibelungen (The ring of the Nibelung) have many possibilities from a homosexual angle (eg in terms of the work of *Jung). The Bavarian King *Ludwig the Second fell in love with him and wrote ardent love letters which have survived. The nineteenth century poet *Mörike seems to have been gay and the *Munich group of poets warrant attention as well. *Karl Ulrichs who lived in the last part of the nineteenth century and was the first German gay activist, also wrote poems and has been the subject of a notable biography by *Hubert Kennedy. Many works of German erotic *bibliography, which begins with *Hugo Hayn in 1875, have been published; Hayn later collaborated with *Alfred Gotendorf to produced the largest, most detailed, erotic bibliography known in any language.
The late nineteenth century. Gay bibliography has been notably thorough in German. Gay literary bibliography starts from 1899 in the *Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen (1899–23) which contained some of the first gay literary criticism. It was edited by *Magnus Hirschfeld, the German gay sexologist who founded a sex research institute in 1919 in *Berlin, the capital of the then recently united Germany, and formerly the capital of the state of Prussia. Before 1870, Germany was a series of smaller states; in 1870 the Bavarian law, which criminalized homosexual behavior (though not mutual masturbation), was adopted for the whole new nation. Some parts of Germany, such as Prussia in the north had not previously criminalized *anal sex. Magnus Hirschfeld also campaigned against the German *law though it was not repealed until 1969 sixty years after Hirschfeld's death. The German *homosexual emancipation movement grew steadily in the years 1896–1933 (see *Historical and social background—German) when a huge *debate on homosexuality occurred: see *Hans Blüher, *Benedict Friedländer, *Gustav Wyneken. This period also saw the rise of *sexology, the serious study of sexual mores. At the beginning of this period the Estonian *Elisar von Kupffer, who had emigrated to Germany, compiled the anthology *Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur (Darling Love and Friend Love in World Literature; 1899).
The circle centered on the gay *symbolist poet *Stefan George called the *George Kreis was a gay group of poets, and George’s journal Blätter für die Kunst (1892–1919) was the first German literary journal with significant gay content. Stefan George wrote love poems to the youth *Maximilian Kronenberger; the critic *Marita Keilson-Lauritz has written a fine study of his homosexual work. The *Leipzig *publisher *Max Spohr published the first modern gay books in German (including gay poetry) from 1896 until his death in 1906. From the late nineteenth century, *Whitman became available in German where there was, as in France, intense discussion about his homosexuality (see *Eduard Bertz). *John Henry Mackay was a noted *pederastic poet of this time.
The twentieth century. *Adolf Brand, editor of the major gay cultural journal Der *Eigene (1896–1932), also wrote poetry and compiled an anthology *Die Bedeutung der Freundesliebe (published in 1923). Many *journals containing poetry were published in the period 1896–1933 when a large gay culture flourished in Germany. A number of literary histories of erotica appeared in German from 1908 but most, such as that by *Paul Englisch, slighted homosexuality (see also *Herbert Lewandowski). When the *Nazi regime came to power one of their first acts was the burning of the Hirschfeld Institute for Sex Research's library in 1933 and homosexuality entered a dark period until 1945. Stefan George fled to Switzerland where von Kupffer, also a major gay artist as well as poet and anthologist, had long lived.
However, the journal *Der Kreis (1932–67) published in Switzerland, continued publishing German material, including much gay poetry. After the war Germany was divided into West Germany under United States, British and French control and East Germany under Russian domination. Berlin, in the Russian area, was under joint control of all four allied powers, with the western half of the city under United States, British and French control and the eastern half under Russian control; the western part was was to remain an island (officially under United States, British and French control) within East Germany until 1989 when east and west Germany were reunited following the downfall of the *Communist regime in the east. Male homosexual acts remained illegal through the Nazi period and were only finally legalized in West Germany in 1969 though they were legalized in *Communist East Germany from 1953.
The postwar period. In 1964, *Ernst Günther Welter published the first comprehensive gay bibliography which was unfortunately carelessly compiled. The major study of *bisexuality in ritual and myth by *Hermann Baumann, published in 1955, yields much material on literature. *L'amour bleu (translated from the French) is the most comprehensive historical anthology in German.
Several *anthologies have emanated from *Berlin in the *gay liberation period: they are notable for having an *anarchistic streak, a characteristic associated with Berlin in the years when West Berlin was cut off from West Germany. Germany, reunited in 1989, has outstanding *libraries and several gay *archives. Research is being carried out at several large *universities. The capital was moved from Bonn to Berlin in late 1999. The *Lexikon homosexuelle belletristik, being compiled at Siegen by *Wolfgang Popp and others, surveys gay writers mostly prose writers.
In 1982, *Manfred Herzer published a non-literary bibliography of German works. *Hubert Fichte is a noted recent literary theorist and *Detlev Meyer a recent poet of note. *Verlag rosa Winkel in Berlin is the foremost gay publisher and *Prinz Eisenherz bookshop in Berlin is the largest European gay bookshop (its catalogs are bibliographical documents). Following the reunification of Germany, the reorganization of the library system which followed, should greatly help literary research (see *Libraries and archives—German).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 471–74: "Germany" (background to the poetry). Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 187–95 (overviewi) and 199–255 (selection of poems). Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, 440–56: "Germany (1899–1939)". Criticism. Mayne, The Intersexes, 295–325: fine literary overview mentioning many poets.
Austria. Austrian poetry starts with the *Nibelungenlied (ca.1200) and the poet *Der Stricker (pseud). A book of *Theognis owned by the Austrian humanist *Georg Tanner now in *Harvard University Library may be relevant for marginalia.
Poets of relevance include *Grillparzer, the librettist *Schikaneder, *Josef Kitir, *Emmerich Stadion-Thannhausen and the twentieth century poet *Rilke. *Hammer-Purgstall was a noted early orientalist and *Johann Hayn wrote the first work on Albania (discussing homopoetry). *Erich Lifka is a notable gay poet after World War Two while *Norbet C. Kaser is a recent poet who has provoked recent interest. The English language poet *W. H. Auden lived in Austria for the summers of the last years of his life.
Austria produced a huge literature on sexuality in the early part of the twentieth century—see *Sigmund Freud, *F. S. Krauss, *Bilder-lexikon—and the gay philosopher *Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential of twentieth-century philosophers, was Austrian. The rise of the Nazis in Germany in 1933 preceded an authoritarian period in Austria from 1934 and the Nazis entered Austria in 1938, leading to the eclipse of gay culture until after the war. The HOSI gay group in *Vienna, the capital, publishes a journal Lambda Nichrichten. *Johannes W. Paul is a poet currently writing. Michael Handl and others, Homosexualität in Osterreich, 1989 (bibl., pp. 236–39) is a work which mainly deals with the contemporary period.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 97–99: see "Austria". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "German and Austrian Literature".
Switzerland. Despite harboring the *Puritanical *Calvin, Switzerland produced *Heinrich Hössli who published the first Germany gay anthology in Switzerland in 1838.
The British poet, researcher and writer *John Addington Symonds lived in Switzerland to escape the repressive British *laws. The Estonian born poet *Elisar von Kupffer, who edited the second German gay anthology (as noted above), spent most of his life at Minusio in Italian speaking Switzerland. Both J. A. Symonds and Elisar von Kupffer attest to the fact that Switzerland has given refuge to gays who could not live in other countries. Von Kupffer's lover *Dr. Eduard von Mayer also wrote poetry. As already noted above, *Stefan George, too, to escape the Nazis fled to Switzerland where he died. The American journalist and novelist *E. I. P. Stevenson, who published the first major survey of gay culture in English, also died there. The philosopher *Friedrich Nietzsche lived in Switzerland for much of his life and *Vladimir Nabokov died there.
*Der Kreis (1932–67), the world's longest running gay journal was published from Switzerland edited by the *actor *Rolf Meier. It included much poetry as well as serious essays.
Basel and Zurich are the main cities in the northern German speaking part and an exhibition of the history of gay Basel was held in 1988 (see Forum no. 3, 1988, 137–38). The catalog of this exhibition titled Mannergeschichten: Schwule in Basel seit 1930, edited by Kuno Trueb and Stephen Miescher was published in 1988 (Basel: Basel Zeitung) and is 230 pages long and contains many photos of gay venues and life. Geneva and Lausanne are the main cities in the south west French speaking section; Italian and Romansch (official languages with French and German) are spoken in the south east. See also *Gottfried Keller. For Swiss laws see *Law— Switzerland.
Greek is spoken in Greece and was formerly spoken in Turkey, Egypt and southern Italy where there were Greek colonies. Greek homopoetry is known continuously from ca. 700 B.C. onwards.
The corpus of ancient Greek literature as it survives is only a small part of what actually existed. Much has been destroyed or *lost and undoubtedly many lost works dealt with homosexuality.
The first centuries of gay poetry in Greek. There has been much critical discussion as to whether *Achilles and Patroclus, the two central protagonists of *Homer's *Iliad (ca. 700 B.C.), which begins recorded Greek literature were intended to be seen as lovers. The poets *Hesoid (who wrote about the hero *Hercules) and *Archilochus (who survives only in fragments, many showing desire for males) may have lived at the time of Homer. Many Greek *myths which survive in literature refer to the homosexual loves of the gods. Amongst poets, *Alcaeus of Mytilene (born 620 B.C.) inaugurates a *lyric tradition associated with homosexuality which continues to this day. In the next century *Anacreon (ca. 570–485 B.C.) wrote poems about homosexual lovers but appears to have been *bisexual.
*Theognis (active 544 B.C.) was an outstanding gay poet and a work related to his works, the *Theognidea, contains what many *scholars regard as the first gay anthology. Many poems in the Theognidea while attributed to Theognis, are probably by others; they are the first known example of the copying of an ancient poet which makes the work of later *editors difficult (see *fakes). (In Persian, for instance, the corpus of works of *Omar Khayyam, known as the Rubaiyat is one such.) In the twentieth century the Scottish poet *Douglas Young comprehensively searched for Theognis's surviving manuscripts and came up with many previously unknown, a process which could be applied to the manuscripts of other poets.
In the fifth century *Pindar (518–438 B.C.) wrote homoerotic poems inspired by, among others, the cult of athleticism associated with the gymnasium and the Olympic Games. The first surviving *critic of Greek homopoetry in gay terms was *Aeschylus, though homopoems survive on Athenian vases of the fifth century (the names of males desired homosexually inscribed on the vases have been cataloged by *David M. Robinson).
A vigorous *debate on love was started by *Plato in the fourth century B.C. in his *Symposium (in which the validity of homosexual love was accepted); this continued into the Christian period, when the *Gospels of *Jesus Christ form part of the background against which poetry was written. Poems and *hymns addressed to Jesus can have an underlying homoeroticism, especially from a *Freudian point of view (such works exist in many languages). Plato was also a poet. Homosexuality was a feature of ancient Greek comedies on the stage and figures prominently in the plays of the comic writer *Aristophanes (active 427 B.C.) in the form of *transvestism.
In the fourth century B.C. Athens at the time of Plato was the dominant Greek city, a position it was to lose in the *Hellenistic period to *Alexandria in Egypt. Poems associated with homosexual *dancing boys, who sang at all male dining and drinking occasions, date from this time; the dancing boys frequently sang bawdy *songs, a tradition which relates to other languages of the middle east. In the fourth century the Greeks fought the Persians and the contiguity of Greek culture with eastern cultures such as Persia (and later Arabic and Turkic cultures) may be one reason why homosexual dancing boy songs occur in all and as far as India; however just where such customs and others originated is lost in time.
The Hellenistic period 323 B.C.—146 B.C. *Theocritus and other *Alexandrian poets wrote brilliant gay poetry in the third century B.C. in the city of Alexandria. This city was founded by the possibly homosexual *Alexander the Great, at the mouth of the Nile in Egypt, to which country Greek civilization had spread (Alexander conquered lands as far as India). Greek culture also extended to southern Italy at this time and was present in Turkey— where The liad takes place and where the Greek presence in *Istanbul was very ancient.
Theocritus established the *pastoral tradition, with male shepherds conversing, sometimes amorously. He has been widely translated (including into such languages as Turkish) and was widely influential in European poetry from the *Renaissance. Greek homopoetry influenced Latin poetry after 146 B.C. when Rome subjugated Greece and the Hellenistic period ends. The Roman conquerors were infatuated with Greek civilization and were frequently biblingual (see *Overview —Latin for the extent of this influence).
The anthology called the *Anacreontea (compiled from 323 B.C. to 899 A.D.), which dates in inception from the Hellenistic period contains a selection of gay poems. They are joyous and fun-loving like much ancient Greek homosexual poetry. The collection of Greek poems, the *Palatine Anthology, a major surviving corpus of ancient Greek lyric poetry, contains as one of its fifteen books, the *Mousa Paidike, an important gay anthology compiled ca. 117–30 by the Greek poet *Straton. Much of the material of the Mousa Paidike, though dating from the reign of the probably exclusively gay Roman Emperor (and poet) *Hadrian, comes from the Hellenistic period. The poems in this work are erotically directed towards youths by older men in a symposium context, in the same joyous and fun-loving context as the preceding anthologies. The Palatine Anthology also contains poems dating from the Hellenistic period and a few homosexual poems are in other books apart from Book 12. *Meleager (active 100 B.C.) is a typical poet of the Mouse Paidike.
A *fragment of a poem on the theme of a lion hunt of Hadrian written by *Panchrates survives from the late second century A.D. However, this marks a dramatic decline in homosexual poetry coinciding with the rise of *Christianity which was anti-homosexual. Tropes such as the *cupbearer and *down on the face associated with homosexuality date from before 300 B.C.
The Byzantine period. The homopoems in the Palatine Anthology were handed down in *manuscript (mainly by supposedly celibate monks from the Christian period) until the compilation of the Palatine Anthology manuscript ca. 980 by *Constantine Cephalas in Istanbul. The city, the largest Greek speaking city, was then under *Byzantine rulers, the capital of what was formerly the Roman empire having been moved there in 324. It is now the capital of Turkey. The Palatine Anthology was finally published by *Friedrich Jacobs in 1813 thus making this corpus widely available (though the Mousa Paidike was first edited separately by the German *C. A. Klotz in 1764 and the erotica by *J. J. Reiske in 1752). The influence of the Palatine Anthology on European poetry, which has been enormous, has been studied by *James Hutton.
Istanbul was then called Constantinople after the Emperor Constantine who had made it the capital and it remained in Greek hands until the Turks captured the city in 1453; Greeks fleeing the city in the centuries prior took with them Greek manuscripts, which has enabled many ancient Greek works to survive. The city had been much weakened by its capture during western European crusades to bring the Holy Land, now Israel, under Christian control.
The early Byzantine poet *Nonnus wrote an epic of the loves of *Dionysus, god of wine. Otherwise the Byzantine period represents a drying up of homosexual poetry in Greek.
The Renaissance. From the *Renaissance onwards, the Greek classics, including Homer and especially Anacreon, who was very popular, were edited and published in book form, at first in Italy and then gradually in all the countries of Europe. This resulted in the heritage of ancient Greek homosexual poetry gradually becoming widely known in European scholarly circles since most scholars knew Greek and all learnt Latin (into which translations were immediately made as with other ancient Greek writers). Commentaries, almost invariably in Latin and usually accompanying the Greek text, date from this period—see *scholars.
The first major modern work discussing Greek gay culture, including poets, was an article by *M. H. E. Meier published in 1847, though *Heinrich Hössli discussed the Greeks and included a generous selection of poets in translation in the first German gay anthology, *Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen (Eros: The Male Love of the Greeks; 1838). Greek poets have been included in all comprehensive European culture originated historical gay *anthologies from Hössli on.
Meier's article was relied on by *John Addington Symonds in the loate nineteenth century and translated into French in the first half of the twentieth century (with the footnotes incorporated into the text) by *Georges Hérelle. The work of *Paul Brandt, however, constitutes the major discussion of ancient Greek homopoetry to date; *Félix Buffière has also written comprehensively. The *Byzantine period has been barely examined by scholars and there has been no known comprehensive search even for material for gay poetry in manuscript (as has occurred for Latin—see *Thomas Stehling).
Modern Greek. There is a large gap in important homopoets between *Nonnus and the best known twentieth century Greek poet *Constantine Cavafy who wrote from the 1890s to 1935. Cavafy's biography by *Robert Liddell is outstanding, while his poetry has only recently been completely and satisfactorily edited by *George P. Savidis, a problem which has bedevilled many homosexual poets.
Nevertheless, evidence has emerged that the Greek Romantic poet *Solomos was gay while *Napoleon Lapathiotis, who committed suicide in the 1940s, was a poet on the *decadent model. An outstanding contemporary Greek poet is Cavafy's successor, *Dinos Christianopoulos, whose poetry is much more explicitly erotic that Cavafy. The great left-wing poet *Yannis Ritsos is known by oral tradition to have had gay experiences and probably to have been basically gay, at least for part of his life.
The Russian gay poet *Gennady Trifonov has been translated into Greek as has the Russian *Essenin, as well as such classics as the sonnets of *Shakespeare and the works of *Whitman. The background to the ancient debate on love in the early Christian period has been brilliantly investigated by *Michel Foucault whose work goes a long way towards explaining the decline of homopoetry (as well the loss of so much from the pre-Christian period) due to the rise of *homophobia with the coming of *Christianity.
The 1982 anthology *Amerikanike homophylophile poiese (1982) translated American gay poets of the *gay liberation period into Greek and constitutes a modern Greek anthology. Another anthology is the brilliant collection of oral poems, containing many homosexual ones, compiled by *Mary Koukoules, titled *Loose-tongued Greeks, 1983, a landmark in the collection of erotic bawdy. *Rembetika came from Turkey mainly after the war with the Turks in 1922 when Greek civilization in that country came to an end (following the war, which the Greek lost, there was an exchange of citizens with Greeks in Turkey going to Greece and Turks in Greece going to Turkey; at the same time the Christian Greek Oxthodox Patriarchate was allowed to remain in Istanbul though the Church’s headquarters, the cathedral of St Sophia became a museum). Rembetika contain homosexual references, representing a continuation of the long ancient Greek tradition of oral poetry.
*Constantine Trypanis, whose poetry shows some homoerotic interest, has recently written the finest survey of Greek poetry ever. Other notable contemporary Greek gay poets include *Nikos Aslanoglou and *Loukas Theodorakopoulos. See also *Influence—Arabic, —Turkish as interconnections between these languages and Greek have been strong. There is now a large Greek-speaking diaspora overseas (notably in the United States and Australia where Melbourne has one of the largest Greek speaking populations of any city): see *S. S. Charkianakis for a poem on Cavafy written in Australia. Greece follows the Code Napoléon and there is a legal age of consent for homosexual acts of 15.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 491–504: overviews of Ancient and Modern Greek civilization. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Everyman Companion to East European Literature: see "Byzantine and Modern Greek", 527–28. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 107–16; 141–42; volume 2, 461–67 (overview) and 471–560 (selection of poems). Criticism. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 576–620: deals with the early Christian period to 400; 697–750 (the Byzantine period). Woods, History of Gay Literature, 17–31: deals only with ancient Greek.
Hebrew is an *Afro-asiatic language close to Arabic and was anciently spoken in Israel. Relevant material survives from ca. 50.
Hebrew is the religious language of *Jews all over the world, though Jews speak the language of the country in which they live (in the United States, for instance, English; in Italy, Italian and so on). Jewish culture has both contributed to and taken on the coloring of the native culture of the nation of domicile. Hebrew is spoken in Israel, the Jewish national state since 1948, and is the national language (Arabic is also spoken by Palestinians).
The dating of the earliest homoerotic poetry in Hebrew is problematical. Material dates from the time of Christ in surviving written form from the Dead Sea Scrolls, ca. 50 (*Song of Songs manuscripts). A Greek translation of the Christian *Old Testament (called by Jews the *Tanach) is known from 250 B.C. preceding the canon of Hebrew works which came into existence ca. 100 (at this time the spoken language of Jews in Egypt and Israel was Greek). However much material is believed to predate surviving written material either in oral form or written on materials which have perished.
Hebrew, the language of the Tanach (which has the same number of works as the Christian Old Testament), nearly died out as a spoken language in the late nineteeenth century: Jews in eastern Europe spoke Yiddish, a mixture of German and Hebrew, as their main spoken language until 1945 (see *Overview—Yiddish). Due to the rise of the *Nazis from 1933 and the killing of some six million Jews in the Second World War (1939-45) Yiddish also nearly became extinct. Jewish people also speak the native languages of the country in which they live as noted above and poetry by them has been written in these languages.
*"David's Lament for Jonathan" by King David is possibly the earliest poem (it is said to date from 970 B.C. but is only verifiable from surviving written records from 300 in the Codex Vaticanus written in Greek). Poems of the temple prostitutes, *hierodouleia (which custom dates from before 586 B.C.), may be relevant. *Judaism has been strongly *homophobic and this in turn influenced *Christianity; Judaic *law strictly forbade homosexuality and emphasized marriage in order to propagate the faith. *Sodom and Gomorrah were cities said to have fallen due to homosexuality and this became a famous trope in *European poetry referring to homosexuality; the trope also occurred in Hebrew poetry.
Jewish scholarship, which has focused on the interpretation of the Tanach is very ancient (commentary on the Tanach which is an ancient exegetical tradition is called the Torah). *Allegorical and *hermetic interpretations in homosexual terms of the erotic collection of poems *The Song of Songs are possible (especially associated with the *Kabbala a secret underground interpretation of Judaism). There is also a long tradition of secret interpretations of the Tanach. A homosexual *parody in English exists of the Song of Songs by *William Alan Robinson (active 1976).
*Medieval Hebrew poets writing in Spain under the influence of Arabic models produced a rich corpus of gay poetry from 1000 to 1300, which has only been published and studied in any detail in the twentieth century. The poets were not edited until around 1850 and much material remains in *manuscript. Outstanding medieval poets who wrote on homosexual themes are *Samuel Ha-Nagid, *Solomom Ibn Gabirol, *Judah Ha-Levi, *Moses Ibn Ezra and *Isaac Ibn Mar Shaul. These poets were all heavily influenced by the Arabic poetry of Spain and homosexual tropes such as the *cupbearer, *wine drinking, the *faun and the *coming of the beard all appear in their work. The brilliant scholar and editor of some of these poets *Jefim Schirmann wrote the seminal article on homosexuality and poetry.
*Norman Roth has written outstanding articles on homosexuality and medieval poetry, as has Schirmann's pupil *Dan Pagis. With the revival of Hebrew in the late nineteenth century, many classsics were translated into Hebrew (e.g., *Shakespeare's Sonnets, *Whitman, the *Palatine Anthology). *Ilan Schoenfeld and *Mordechay Geldmann are two openly gay poets writing in Hebrew in Israel. The city of *Jerusalem, now the capital of Israel, has been a focus of Jewish life from King David who ruled there. See also *Jewish Poets.
The anthology She-lo ke-derekh ha-teva': homoseksu'alim, lesbiyotm shirah, prozah, ma'amarim, katavot compiled by Oren Kaner (Tel Aviv, 1994) is believed to contain some gay male poems (not sighted). It has been cataloged with the *subject heading "Homosexuality Literary Collections".
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia Judaica: see "Poetry". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Hebrew Poetry". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 427–35.
Hindi, an *Indo-European language, is spoken in India and is a modern form of Sanskrit; it is one of the *Indic subgroup of the Indo-European family. Material of relevance dates from 800.
Hindi is the language of the Hindus, the largest religious group in India and is the most widely spoken language in India (Bengali is next in number of speakers in India). Written in the Devanagari alphabet, Hindi is is descended from Sanskrit and is close to Urdu (which is written in the Arabic script); Rajasthani is sometimes regarded as a dialect. Read the *Overview—Sanskrit entry first as this provides the background to Hindi poetry.
Hinduism is the religion of most Hindus and is itself a group of religions; see *Siva, *Krishna for gods to whom poems have been addressed. *Hymns are especially important. *Kabir is the most important poet for homoeroticism (see especially the translation by *Robert Bly). The *Bhakti movement which has produced homoerotic poetry is a major relevant religious movement within Hinduism.
*Bihari is the author of *love poems written in the persona of a woman and is one of the most popular Hindi poets. The *epic poem The *Mahabharata which features some homosexual incidents is widely performed. For other poets see *Tulsidas, *Raskhan. *Hijras are men who dress as women and castrate themselves; they exist throughout India and are invariably homosexuals. They sing songs and exist all over India. Marriages in India are arranged (which means there is social pressure on homosexuals to marry). The literary anthology *A Lotus of Another Color deals with Indian homosexuality in English.
There is now an Indian diaspora in Great Britain, the United States and other countries with a very active gay movement readily found on the *Internet. Since India has some forty million speakers of English, many of whom also speak Hindi, homosexual poetry and culture is easily available to educated Indians (see *Overview—English for this background).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 515–21. Great Soviet Encyclopedia: see "Hindi literature". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Hindi" under "Indian Poetry". Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature, vol. 1, "Hindi Literature" (under "Indian literatures"). Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: "South Asian Literatures".
Hittite is an *Indo-European language, now extinct, but formerly spoken in Turkey. Material dates from before 1,200 B.C.
Hittite contains in the *Gilgamesh *epic, the earliest surviving *heroic poem—whose Hittite version dates from prior to 1200 B.C., the approximate date of the fall of the Hittite capital Hattusa (the modern Turkish town of Bogazkoy). Hittite seems to have been spoken from 1700 to 1100 B.C. After 1100 B.C. it became extinct.
The Hittite Gilgamesh, which survives on *epigraphical inscriptions on tablets in the palace library of Hattusas, only excavated in the early part of the twentieth century, contains elaborate homosexual puns which have been discussed by *Geoffrey Tigay. *Bisexuality, *friendship and even *lovers figure in this work of a *patriarchical culture. The *cupbearer relationship may be implied in Hittite myths in a homosexual way: see the note on the word saqi in footnote 85 in Wright, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature, 138–39.
For the language see the entry in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. For discussion of the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 332–342.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopædia Britannica; the date of the fall of Hattusas has been taken from here
Hungarian is spoken in Hungary. The language, a *Uralian language related to Finnish and Estonian, has a rich poetic traditon; it is called Magyar by its speakers. Note: Hungarian names are given with the surname first and they have been written thus here. Relevant material dates from 1789.
The great *Romantic poet *Petöfi Sándor, though heterosexual, strongly bonded with other men, a recurring feature of other Hungarian poets (e.g., Tompa Mihaly and the one time actor Arany Janos; Vorsmarty Mihaly and Kisfaludy Karoly are another example). The influence of *Wilde is apparent in the work of *Babits Mihaly. Twentieth century poets have demonstrated a bizarre streak and homosexuality is suspected in some cases but has not been proven.
The decadent movement was especially strong in Hungary e.g., Toth Arpad and Babits Mihaly were influenced. The major poet *Attila Josef translated *Rimbaud and *Villon from French and *Esenin from Russian (Attila Josef later threw himself under a train; some have seen Hungarians as prone to suicide). *Laszlo Nagy translated *García Lorca. *Nadasdy Adam is an openly gay contemporary poet. *George Faludy is a *bisexual poet who has lived much of his life abroard. Hungarian is rich in translation: for instance, *Virgil's Eclogues (1789), *Whitman, *Auden. The National Library, Budapest, is the major library and a very fine library.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Everyman Companion to East European Literature, 529–32.
Irish language and English language poets from Ireland
Ireland, the island to the west of the island comprising England, Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, is divided into two parts: the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Ireland, which is a province of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Both Irish and English are spoken. Irish is sometimes called Irish Gaelic and sometimes loosely called *Gaelic, though Gaelic is actually the name for a group of languages in the *Indo-European language family, the most westerly group of this family. *Welsh and *Scots Gaelic are closely related languages: on these languages, see *Overview—English and Scots Gaelic. Poetry of relevance dates from 800.
*Dublin is the capital of the republic of Ireland and *Belfast is the capital of the province of Northern Ireland. The population of the Republic of Ireland is *Catholic and that of Northern Ireland is Catholic and Protestant. Both parts of Ireland have been harshly condemnatory of homosexuality and *Puritanism has had a terrible effect on Irish sexuality. Early poets dating from ca. 800 were not puritanical, however: see *Cormac Mac Airt Presiding at Tara (possibly ca. 800) and *"My love is no short year's sentence". The Celtic renaissance at the end of the nineteenth century set up a cult of Ireland which appeared in the work of the *decadent poet *Lionel Johnson.
Republic of Ireland. Male homosexual acts were only legalized in 1993. Catholicism has played a heavy hand in Irish life though after 1993 a vibrant gay movement emerged.
Irish. There is a rich poetic tradition (see Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Irish Poetry"). The *Tain Bo Cuailinge is an important early work. *Homer's Iliad and The Rubaiyat of *Omar Khayyam have both been translated into Irish.
For English language poets see *Thomas Moore, *Brendan Behan. *Edmund Spenser,*Oscar Wilde. *W. B. Yeats and *James Joyce came from Ireland. There is an Irish gay journal, Identity, published in Dublin from 1984 which has published poetry. The Dublin journal Kottabos published poems by *Oscar Wilde and *Sigma (pseud.) 1877–81 (see Reade, Sexual Heretics, 145 and 154). *Green is the color of Ireland as well as being in the twentieth century a gay color; Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a green carnation (the flower was artificially dyed).
On the background see Eibhear Walshe, Sex, nation and dissent in Irish writing, New York, 1997 (a collection of essays, only two relevant, one on *Wilde and one on *Forrest Reid) and Anthony Bradley, Gender and sexuality in modern Ireland, 1997.
Northern Ireland. For English poets see *Sir Roger Casement, *Paul Durcan, *Tom Paulin, *Anthony Weir, *Paul Wilkins; see also *Sir John Leslie, *Forrest Reid. The law was only changed in northern Ireland in the 1990s, due to the Dudgeon case in which the British government was taken to the European Court of Human Rights by the gay activist Jeffrey Dudgeon. On losing, the government changed the law though, strictly speaking, it was not obliged to do so. The journal Gay Star has been published in Belfast since 1980. Irish influence has spread to other parts of the world: see, for instance, the Australian poet *Roderic Quinn.
References. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 327–338. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 613–14: "Ireland".
Italian, a *Romance language in the subgroup of *Indo-European language family, is spoken in Italy. Material of relevance dates from ca. 1250.
Italian is a development of ancient Latin and gay poetry in Latin forms the background against which Italian homosexual poems were written (see *Overview—Latin for this Latin background). *Rome, the capital of Italy since the unification of the Italian states in 1870, has been continuously occupied since ancient times but often sacked. *Vatican City, the headquarters of the Catholic Church (the religion of almost all Italians), is a separate state situated in Rome which in effect became a country in 1929 by agreement with the Italian government. (The Catholic Church, catholic meaning “universal”, had in some prior centuries controlled directly large parts of Italy and even parts of France). Latin was the language of administration of the Church as well as being the language of *universities (such as the University of *Bologna) and of learning until recently.
The earliest gay poems. Italian is close to Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian, other Romance languages. It has a very rich gay poetry writing tradition from the time of *Brunetto Latini (active 1250) and a circle of homosexual poets in *Perugia of the same century. This tradition emerges out of the Latin poetry tradition of Italy which dates back to the Romans (*Martial lived in Rome, *Juvenal satirized the city, and *Virgil, who wrote the epic The Aeneid which relates to the foundation of Rome, were all popular poets in Italy with many editions published there). Since Latin was read by all priests and monks of the Catholic church and by all European *scholars until the twentieth century, all known Latin homosexual poems are relevant and especially those of writers living in Italy. Latin homopoems written by Italians following the downfall of the Roman empire have been little examined before the contemporary period because of continued usage of Latin in church and learned circles which frowned on homosexuality and discouraged any research. (On Latin’s relation to Italian overall, compare Sanskrit in India in relation to Hindi.)
For 2,000 years of Italian history the Catholic church has been the dominant factor in life and politics in Italy with most Popes (leaders of the church) coming from Italy. *Dante is regarded as the greatest Italian poet and came at the end of the *middle ages when the Church's influence was at its height; its theology was elaborated by *Saint Thomas Aquinas. Dante lived in *Florence but was exiled for periods of his life. A detailed study of *sodomy in the *medieval world of the Catholic Church in his most famous poem The Divine Comedy has been written by *Richard Kay. Dante's teacher *Brunetto Latini was apparently gay.
The Renaissance. The *Renaissance saw the publication of many *epigrams with homosexual reference in line with the publication in mechanically printed form of the ancient Greek and Latin classics with their rich heritage of gay poetry which became more widely known from this time due to mechanical printing which allowed for wider circulation than hand written manuscripts which took much time to copy and in any case were subject to errors because of many copyists copying them. *Bernesque and *Burchiellesque poetry also contain much homosexual material, as yet little analyzed, as does *Fidentian poetry. *Platonism and *Platonic Love—as seen in the work of the renaisance philosopher *Marsilio Ficino—were *coded ways of referring to homosexuality.
*Pastoral poetry dates from the Renaissance and was another homosexual focus of poetry. Much of this Renaissance material was written in opposition to the Church and a tradition of *pornography dates from this time (see *Pietro Aretino); Italian translations of the licentious *Anacreontea and *Meleager were also popular in the Renaissance. However it is apparent that forces in the church did not actively discourage the propagation of the ancient Greek and Ltin homosexual corpus outlined in the Greek and Latin overviews. *Michelangelo's *sonnets, vividly portraying his love for *Tommaso de' Cavalieri, are the outstanding poetic achievement of the Renaissance and compare to *Shakespeare's. *Benedetto Varchi was a homosexual poet who eulogised Michelaneglo at the great sculptor, painter and poet's funeral. Torquato Tasso seems to have been gay.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a tradition of *libertinism was strong in Italian literature, a tradition especially associated with the maritime empire centered on the city of *Venice. In 1782 *Giuspanio Graglia translated the *Palatine Anthology into Italian at a time when it had to be read in Latin in most countries.
It is now also possible to look for homosexuality in the poet regarded as the greatest Italian *Romantic poet, *Giacomo Leopardi, who lived with his friend *Antonio Ranieri for many years in *Florence and never married. In the late eighteenth century *Goethe visited Italy where he wrote homosexual poems in German in *Venice. The German Romantic gay poet *August von Platen died in *Sicily after a long stay; Platen was twice translated into Italian in the latter part of the nineteenth century. *Byron also visited Italy and wrote extensive poetry based on his life there (mostly dealing with heterosexual love affairs however, especially in Venice).
Male homosexual acts were legalized in Italy in 1889, following the unification of the nation (which formerly had been a number of city states, some, as already noted, under the control of the Catholic Church). However, little poetry has come to light for the nineteenth century. The *Decadent movement, which has been analyzed by the homosexual *Mario Praz, is represented by the work of *Gabriele D'Annunzio; in Italy it acted as the focus of opposition to the heavy hand of the church in moral issues. The German gay anthologist *Elisar von Kupffer, who lived in Florence for several years, wrote a book of poems in Italian.
The twentieth century. Italy has produced notable gay poets in the twentieth century. Outstanding modern gay poets include *Umberto Saba, the brilliant *pederastic poet *Sandro Penna—perhaps the finest twentieth century Italian gay poet until his death in 1977—and the equally fine contemporary poet *Mario Stefani (brilliantly translated into English by *Anthony Reid), and most recently the anguished Catholic *Giovanni Testori. The *Marxist filmmaker *Pier Paolo Pasolini also wrote poetry; fine biographies of him have appeared. *S/M has made its appearance in Italian gay poetry in the poetry of *Corrado Levi.
The first and only gay anthology (on historical lines) *L'amicizia amorosa (Amorous friendship) was published in 1982. It was compiled by *Renzo Paris and *Antonio Veneziani. *Piero Lorenzoni compiled an anthology of erotic material including gay poems in 1976 after the advent of *gay liberation (which has had a strong effect in Italy despite the opposition of the Catholic Church). *Giovanni Dall'Orto has compiled the first gay Italian bibliography of works which only deals, however, with works from 1800 onwards.
Important gay poets translated into Italian include: the English poets *Whitman (first translated by *Luigi Gamberale in 1881), *W. H. Auden, *Allen Ginsberg, the German *Stefan George, the Portuguese *Fernando Pessoa, the Greek *Cavafy, the *Palatine Anthology (most recently translated by *Adolfo Magrini and *Filippo Montani) and the *Mousa Paidike (notably translated by Guido Paduano in 1989). An excellent selection of Italian poems in English is in Anthony Reid's anthology *The Eternal Flame (he lived in Italy for some time).
There are a large number of dialects of Italian in which poets have written homopoems e.g., Neapolitan (see *Nicola Capasso), Roman (see *Giuseppe Belli), Florentine (the standard spoken and written language from Dante on) and Venetian (see *Giorgio Baffo). Friulian, spoken north of Venice (see *Domenico Naldini, *Pasolini) is treated as a separate language. *Oral poems are likely in these languages, as well as in standard Italian. There are some 30 Italian dialects.
Italy has important gay *archives (see *Bologna, *Milan, *Rome, *Stefano Casi, *Massimo Consoli—whose archive is now in the National Library, Rome—and *Fondazione Sandro Penna). *Journals include *Sodoma and the popular monthly *Babilonia (which has had good cultural articles, especially by Giovanni Dall'Orto who has an outstanding *Internet site). The *European Gay Review had an Italian-born editor *Salvatore Santagati.
Italian has been a major language of *Oriental research: see *Historians and Critics— Arabic, —Persian, —Turkish. Many Italians emigrated from Italy from the nineteenth century due to poverty: to south America (for instance Brazil and Argentina), the United States and, from 1945 after the devastation of the Second World War, to Australia. Unfortunately Italian libraries have not matched the country’s literary reputation.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 620–26: "Italy". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 205–7
Japanese is spoken in Japan. As a language it is frequently regarded as a language isolate but it may be related to Korean and recent research relates the language to the *Altaic language family; some linguists believe the language may be a mixture of Altaic and Austronesian languages. Material of relevance dates from 780. The Chinese Overview above is relevant as all Japanese *scholars read Chinese until recently and the Japanese writing system is based on the Chinese.
The bibliography compiled by *Iwata Jun'ichi, *Nanshoku Bunken Shoshi (compiled before 1944) was the first comprehensive homosexual bibliography in any known language and documents homosexuality in Japan from 780 to 1800; the author also laid the foundation of Japanese gay cultural history in a series of essays in Japanese. However, earlier work was done in German by *Ferdinand Karsch-Haack (active 1906) and *Friedrich Krauss. The *historical and social background has been increasingly explored in detail and Japan has one of the richest documented histories of homosexuality of any nation (much of this material has not been translated into English).
The earliest gay poetry. As in China, poetry is central to Japanese culture and permeates Japanese life. From the beginning, Chinese *influence has been paramount, especially the influence of the *T'ang poets. Interpretation of poems in homosexual terms dates from the corpus of the first Japanese poetic anthologies, the *Manyoshu (ca. 780) and the *Kokinshu. The *waka or *tanka (from which the *haiku emerged) represented in these anthologies are major Japanese poetic genres from then on. Following Chinese practice, the use of *coded or esoteric language is central to Japanese poetry: homoerotic meanings may be read and intended where none might be suspected at a cursory reading (see *Kiyomitsu).
The *Heian period 794–1185, when the capital until 1868 was *Kyoto, saw the work of *Saigyo, a monk poet suspected of homosexuality. *Gozan literature flowered from this time. It was connected with *Buddhist temples where homosexuality flourished, helped by the belief that *Kobo Daishi (774–835), the founder of Japanese Buddhism, who came from China, was gay. *Shinto was the religion before Buddhism and continues to be practised. *Chigo Monogatori, tales of monks and boys with poems interspersed, date from this time (see *Maggie Childs). *Confucianism also exerted a strong influence on Japan. *Murasaki Shikibu's famous *prosimetrum novel The Tale of Genji, dating from 1000, includes at least one homosexual incident.
The Edo period. A long tradition of *aesthetes dates from the Kamakura period which followed the Heian period: see, for instance, *Yoshida Kenko (this aesthetic tradition which related to a similar one in China far preceded any in Europe). Gay *emperors, scholars and *shoguns (military rulers had exercised the real power in Japan) all wrote poetry on the Chinese model and, as in China, all who could write wrote poetry, regarded as the mark of a scholar. Some poets even wrote poems in Chinese: see *Chinese literature written in Japan. Haiku emerged with *Matsuo Basho who was gay—at least, in his own words, "for a time"—and whose Narrow Road to the Deep North (composed 1687–89) was written in conjunction with his travel companion *Sora. *Pupils of Basho warrant perusal and possible erotic traditions of haiku warrant scholarly investigation.
*Iwatsutsuji, published in 1676, and compiled by *Kitamura Kigin was the first Japanese gay anthology; it included poems but consists mainly of stories. *Saikaku's Great Mirror of Male Love (1687) was a famous gay classic based on *samurai traditions (its prose had poems scattered throughout). This outpouring of homosexual literature was influenced by Chinese *Ming and *Ch'ing erotica and the fact that scholars always looked to China, with its much older homosexual traditions, for inspiration.
The period from 1600 to 1868 was called the *Edo period, when the capital was Kyoto; *Hajime Shibayama has written a detailed study in Japanese of homosexuality in this period. *Senryu are satirical poems, many of which deal with homosexuality and date from this period. *Pleasure quarters especially date from this time; they included the *theater area of major cities. *Actors, *prostitutes and *transvestites, who were associated with the pleasure quarters, all had poems written to them or based on them if they were famous. Homosexual *songs (see also *Anonymous poems—Japanese) and *singing boys, who sang in tea houses, also existed. *Censorship operated, forcing material underground and forcing the emergence of a *pornography tradition.
The twentieth century. Following Japan's coming under United States influence in 1868 when the presence of the United States navy forced the country to open its borders to trade with the United States and Europe, the capital was moved to *Tokyo and male homosexuality was made a crime (see *Law —Japanese). An examination of the life of *Masaoka Shiki, who revived haiku in the late nineteenth century, shows homoerotic relationships with disciples as had occurred from Basho's time (Masaoka Shiki never married). The Buddhist poet *Miyazawa Kenji's poetry also reveals homoeroticism in some poems (he too remained single). The early twentieth century saw several translations of *Whitman (from 1919) as well as translations of poems of his disciples, *Edward Carpenter and *Horace Traubel; free verse made its appearance at this time.
In the contemporary period *Takahashi Mutsuo (translated into English by *Hiroaki Sato) is an outstanding poet of gay sexuality in the manner of *Allen Ginsberg. The gay novelist *Yukio Mishima—who committed suicide in 1970 in dramatic public circumstances with his male lover—wrote some poems. *Tanikawa Shuntaro, has written sixty books of poetry, is Japan's best known poet and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize. He wrote a poem in which homosexuality is granted equal status with heterosexuality, an attitude typical of China and Japan. *Ishii Tatsuhiko is a fine contemporary poet.
*Design and *illustration of books and the *calligraphy of a poet are regarded highly in Japan. The article "Homosexuality" in the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, English version, 1983, by *Noguchi Takenori and *Paul Schalow (who has translated Saikaku) is a concise cultural survey. The Australian poet *Harold Stewart lived in Japan for many years as did the British gay poet *James Kirkup. *W. H. Auden has been translated into Japanese and *Arthur Waley has been an outstanding translator from Japanese to English.
The Korean Overview is also relevant because of the close contact between Japan and Korea for many centuries. Japan invaded Korea in the nineteenth century and occupied the country 1910–1945. For a concise overview of Japanese literature see The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan, edited by Richard Bowring and Peter Kornicki, 1993, pp. 122–49. On the language see the entry in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
The names of all entries in this encyclopedia have been standardized here (as far as possible) with the form of spelliing and of entry in the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Japanese Poetry". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 632–36: "Japan". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 445–53. Criticism. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Woods, History of Gay Literature, 63–67.
Korean is spoken in Korea. Recent research suggests the language is part of the *Altaic language family. Korean has a very old poetry tradition dating from the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C.–935) with homosexuality documented from 550 in the *dancing boy or *hwarang tradition (though homosexuality is reported as being more forbidden than in China or Japan). The language was written in Chinese characters until the invention of the Korean phonetic alphabet by King Sejong in 1443 so the Chinese Overview is also relevant: all scholars to this time and even later read Chinese.
There were three dynasties in early Korean history. The Silla dynasty was followed by the Koryo (918–1392) and then the Yi dynasty (1392-–1910). Japan formerly exercised a strong influence on the country as did China (the Korean peninsula strategically joins China and Japan with only a very narrow strait between Korea and Japan). After occupation by the Japanese from 1910 to 1945, the country was occupied by the Americans in the south after 1945 and is now a republic below the 49th parallel; the north is a *Communist dictatorship under Kim Il Sung a bitter war in the 1950s having been fought between the two halves (peace was extablished with United States help but no formal treaty ending the war was ever signed).
Love and nature were the main themes of traditional Korean poems which were usually sung (see *sijo, *Yun Son-do). Homoerotic feelings are strongly present in the poetry from earliest times as already noted, both in terms of strong *male bonding—exemplified in *Confucianism—and in individual relationships: see *Chong Ch'ol. The Chinese homosexual *cut sleeve trope appears in a poem of *Yi Hyang-Gum.
Korean *Buddhism also has a homosexual component: see *Great Master Kyunyu, *Han Yong-un. *Yi Chong-bo wrote an outstanding homosexual poem and *King Kong-min seems gay. However even in 2001 there is an unbroken tradition in Korea "that homosexuality be shrouded in silence" (Sydney Morning Herald, 3 March, 2001, p. 5).
The first study of homosexuality in relation to Korea was by *Ferdinand Karsch-Haack in German in 1906; *Father Richard Rutt wrote the seminal article on the poetry. *Peter H. Lee's poetry translations into English are outstanding. All *scholars wrote poems and *calligraphy was highly regarded as in China and Japan; poets also frequently did *illustrations to their poems many, following Confucian tradition, showing groups of all male scholarly drinking parties. There are very few records of popular culture before the nineteenth century. For an overview of the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1305–1316. Leupp, Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan, 17–19, has a historical over of homosexuality in Korea.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 667–68: "Korea". For the language see Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Latin is an *Indo-European language, the original language of the *Romance group. It was spoken originally in Italy. Material of relevance dates from 200 B.C.
While spoken initially in Italy. with the spread of the *Roman empire, in Europe as far as Britain, German and the *Iberian peninsula, in north Africa along the Mediterranean coast (including in Tunisia and Egypt), and in Greece after 146 B.C., when the Romans conquered the country, Latin became widely spoken in west Europe, north Africa and western Asia. It was also spoken in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel, which were conquered by the ancient Romans. It was the language of the *Catholic church and of scholars in western Europe which ensured that poetry in Latin continued to be written until the twentieth century at the same time as creating a huge exegetical tradition which has been little explored. From about 1100 Latin became Italian, from about 1000 French, Spanish and Portuguese in France, Spain and Portugal.
Ancient Latin. Latin has a rich homosexual poetry tradition, beginning with the first Latin satirical poet *Lucilius (active 131—103 B.C.), of whom only fragments survive, and continuing with the *Roman poets *Catullus (85–54 B.C.), *Tibullus, *Martial and *Juvenal. However, the works of the dramatist Plautus (ca. 240 B.C.–184 B.C.), who wrote in verse, contain the earliest poetry relating to homosexuality. Both Catullus and Tibullus wrote poems to male *lovers and both were bisexual judging by their poetry.
The Roman educated classes were bilingual after 146 B.C. when the Romans subjugated Greece. The upper classes were infatuated with Greek civilization and educated people—such as the poet *Virgil—spoke Greek and we can assume the entire Greek homopoetry heritage was known to them including many poets lost to us today (see *Overview—Greek and *lost works—Greek). Of course, knowledge of such works depended on access to written manuscripts which were not as widely circulated as mechanically printed books have become. Latin homosexual poetry of the Roman period was written in this environment.
Homosexuality occupies a significant place in surviving ancient Latin poetry. The Second Eclogue of *Virgil (70–19 B.C.), the writer of the finest *epic in ancient Latin, The Aeneid, is a homosexual love poem. Male homosexuality finds a restrained place in his great contemporary *Horace (65–8.C.), the most popular Latin lyric poet in Europe from the *Renaissance when the Roman poets were first published in printed form. The *epigrams of Martial (ca. 40–ca. 104) describe homosexual activities in *Rome in great detail and he regarded Virgil as a homosexual; the 300 and more surviving manuscripts of Martial testify to his great popularity through the *Middle Ages and he is the Latin homosexual poet par excellence. His work was to inspire the writing of the *European epigram from the Renaissance on (though rarely in explicit sexual terms because of harsh laws against homosexuality).
The Second and Ninth Satires of *Juvenal (60–140) are the first Latin homosexual *satires to survive: they vividly portray male *transvestism and *prostitution in Rome, attesting to a rich homosexual culture. They have been frequently omitted from editions of the poet's work owing to *censorship. Later in the middle ages, satire in poetry, by such writers as *Bernard of Cluny, was directed against the dominant Italian and west European institution, the *Catholic Church, accusing it of fostering homosexuality .
Homosexuality is referred to in *myth in the Roman poet *Ovid (43 B.C–17), a major souce of ancient Greek and Roman myth to the modern world, and a homosexual *graffiti poem survives from *Pompeii. *Gallias Caesar subegit and other oral poems about *Julius Caesar (100 B.C.–44 B.C.) are the earliest Latin *bawdry *songs known, a tradition later continued in the songs of the *Carmina Burana and *student songs. The late *imperial poet *Nemesianus (active 283) is the last poet to write a homopoem in the Latin *eclogue tradition started by Virgil.
The middle ages. In the *middle ages homopoems continued to be written in monasteries, since Latin was the language of western Christianity—see the brilliant anthology of the period 300–1400 of *Thomas Stehling *Medieval Latin Poems of Male Love and Friendship, an anthology based on careful scholarship. *John Boswell, who has dealt with the religious background, also compiled an anthology of poetic works. It has been estimated by A. G. Rigg that up to ninety per cent of literature written in Great Britain 1066–1422 was written in Latin; much of this material has not been analysed for homosexuality and if similar figures hold for other countries a huge volume of Latin material awaits analysis.
Many gay love poems were written in the Middle Ages and popular poems such as *O Admirabile Veneris Idolym (about a beautiful youth) and *Altercatio Ganimedis et Helene (debating whether it was better to love a man or a woman) testify to the popularity of gay themes. The French philosopher *Michel Foucault has brilliantly discussed the rise of *Christianity and its suppression of Greek and Latin literary culture, including homosexuality.
Though Latin remained the language of learning in western Europe from the fall of the Roman empire until the late nineteenth century, it was otherwise a dead language, gradually breaking down into such *Romance languages as French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian. But scholars in these languages were aware of the literature in Latin since Latin was used in the universities as well as the Catholic Church. For the Middle Ages see the special entry *Medieval Latin. Major poets are *Walafrid Strabo, *Baudri, *Marbod and *Hilary the Englishman.
The Renaissance period. In the *Renaissance, writing poetry in Latin enjoyed a revival—see *Neo-Latin Poets—and poems were written by such figures as the Frenchman *Théodore de Bèze (who was attacked by his enemies for homosexuality), the Italian *humanist *Angelo Poliziano and the English writers *Francis Bacon and *John Milton. The works of *Beccadelli, Bèze, *Henry More, *John Milton (whose English language epic poem Paradise Lost was banned) and the *Priapeia were put on the Catholic Church's *Index (1559+), a list of books which Catholics were forbidden to read. The ancient Latin classics, in spite of their blatant homosexuality, were not banned, which shows a certain complicity of the Catholic Church in their dissimination.
The publication of the ancient poets—such as Martial—in book form from the Renaissance on made them widely available to a learned audience (especially supposedly celibate clerics); previously manuscripts had only a limited circulation as has been pointed out in relation to ancient Greek poetry. The collection of the works of five Latin poets, *Quinque Illustrium Poetarum (1791), published in *Paris after the French Revolution, reprinted the Latin poets *Beccadelli, *Pacificus Maximus and *Ramusius. *Commentaries in mechanically-printed editions, dating from ca. 1475, need examination, these usually being written by the *editors (see also *scholars). Translation from Latin to *European vernacular languages commenced in 1480 with the translation of Juvenal into Italian. The ancient Latin poets have been widely translated into European vernacular languages and their work is known in all countries sharing European educational traditions, from Brazil to Australia to South Africa to the United States.
Translation of ancient Greek homopoetry—an important vein of homopoetry—into Latin itself also started in the Renaissance (the *Anacreontea was a favorite work, as were *Theocritus and *Theognis). This continued until the nineteenth century. Translation into Latin has acted as a form of *censorship: learned readers, including Catholic clerics and university educated males (women were not permitted to go to universities until the nineteenth century), could enjoy the works while denying them to vernacular readers. However it was not until the 1750s that the major anthology of Greek poems, the *Palatine Anthology, containing the first complete homosexual anthology, the *Mousa paidike, was put into Latin by *J. J. Reiske.
Later poets. The tradition of poets, writers and scholars writing poems in Latin continued into the eighteenth century with such writers as *Thomas Gray, *Horace Walpole and *Richard West writing poems and, in the nineteenth century, with *William Johnson and *Lionel Johnson (a brilliant poem referring to *Oscar Wilde). The first surviving poem of the famous nineteenth century French homopoet *Rimbaud is a Latin poem. In the seventeenth century the poet *Théophile de Viau wrote what have been described as homosexual love letters in Latin. The early gay German activist *K. H. Ulrichs wrote poems in Latin and edited a journal written entirely by him in Latin .
The writing of Latin poetry virtually ceased at the end of the nineteenth century though Latin poems used in homosexual *magic rituals by *Aleister Crowley and *Victor Neuburg, involving *anal sex, were composed by *Walter Duranty ca. 1914. The *Oxford scholar *John Sparrow who was homosexual also wrote Latin poetry. *Dissertations in Latin concerning poetry and homosexuality have been written—especially at the *Sorbonne, in Paris; these were noticed by the great gay scholar *Georges Hérelle in the early part of the twentieth century.
In 1943, the gay book collector *C. R. Dawes wrote the first—and still unpublished—study of homosexuality in ancient Roman life and literature. *Otto Kiefer in Sexual Life in Ancient Rome (1933; repr.) discusses homosexuality in the chapter "Love in Poetry". Recent scholarship, especially since the weakening of censorship in the United States and other countries from the mid-1960s, shows increasingly candid discussion (see *Kenneth Quinn) and there has been detailed work on Martial, with commentaries on several books of his epigrams in English, for instance. In 1983 *Sara Lilja published the first comprehensive study of homosexuality in *Republican and early Imperial literature but no overall study of homosexuality in Latin literature—let alone homosexuality and poetry—has been written even for the Roman period. A detailed bibliography of references in literature is being compiled by *Claude Courouve.
The Persian poet *Sa`di was translated into Latin in 1651 and such diverse works as *Shakespeare's Sonnets and the works of the Persian poets *Hafiz and *Omar Khayyam (pseud.) have been translated into Latin; on the other hand, Catullus has been translated from Latin into such languages as Ukrainian. No overall anthology of Latin homopoetry—the longest continuous gay poetry tradition in a west European language—exists. The closest is *Il Gaio verso: poesia latina per l'altro amore, an anthology of ancient Latin homosexual love poetry published in 1992.
See Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, pp. 237–316, for an overview for the period from Christianity onwards; volume one, pp. 479–539, has an overview of the earlier Latin period.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Roman Literature". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 153–66 (ancient Latin); 205–11 (Renaissance Latin; some poets only). Criticism. Woods, History of Gay Literature, 32–40: deals with ancient Latin.
Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese and Balinese
Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese and Balinese are *Malayo-Polynesian languages and are all close (especially Malay and Bahasa Indonesia). Malay is spoken in Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese and Balinese are spoken in Indonesia. Material dates from ca. 1000 in Javanese (see *Mahabharata). See the separate entry *Overview—Oral languages—Southeast Asia for oral cultures in these two countries.
*Indian religions have been very influential culturally in Malaysia and Indonesia: the Indian *Mahabharata and *Ramayana exist in translation and in adaption in the languages. Javanese, spoken on the island of Java in Indonesia, is the most ancient written language—records go back a thousand years. The poem *Centini contains references to homosexuality and the *Lay of Jaya Prana warrants perusal. Javanese is written in a script descended from Indian scripts and is sometimes called Kawi (also spelt Kavi); Malay and Bahasa Indonesia are now written in the Roman alphabet.
*Islam has been the predominant religion in Malayasia and Indonesia since 1500 and the *mystical influence of *Sufism appears in the Malay *Pantun and the work of *Hamzah Fan Suri (pronouns in Malay are *non gender specific, an added complication for Sufi poetry—which could in theory be addressed to a man or a woman). *Omar Khayyam has been translated into both Malay and Bahasa Indonesia. Prior to Islam *Buddhism was the dominant religion. Animistic religions are still widely practiced.
For twentieth century poetry, in Bahasa Indonesia, see *Amir Hamzah and *Chairil Anwar; the *Bhagavad Gita has also been translated. The gay journal Gaya Nusantara (1987+), edited by the gay activist Dede Oetomo of Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, has published some gay poems: e.g., in vol.1 no. 2, p. 36 and no. 4, pp. 8–9, though the poems are unsigned (copies sighted: *Cornell University Library; copies in the collection of *Paul Knobel). Another journal is Jaka (1985+) edited in Yogyakarta by Persaudaraan 'G' (source: *Library of Congress Catalogue). W. S. Rendra, a famous contemporary Indonesian poet and dramatist has written a poem, "Prostitutes of Djakarta Unite", which may have some applicability as some prostitutes are transvestites. In Balinese, spoken on the island of Bali in the east of Indonesia, a most unusual situation is described in the poem *Gaguritan Brayut: a woman who appears to fuck a man from behind, thus suggesting homosexual anal sex.
For the literatures of Indonesia overall see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1425–44: "Indonesian literature". Some 669 languages were listed as being spoken in Indonesia in 1988 (see "Indonesia: Language Situation" in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics). For the very recent gay social background to Indonesia see "Indonesia" in Gay Histories and Cultures.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon: see volume 20, 725–33, "Die Malaio-Indonesischen Literaturen" for a general overview of the literatures; bibl., 733. Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens: see "Indonesian" and "Java" for libraries in Indonesia. Other works. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 185–228. Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities, 373–85.
Manchu, in the *Altaic language family is in the *Turkic language group of Altaic and spoken in China from ca. 1644.
The Manchus ruled China from 1644 and were called the *Ch'ing dynasty; they came from Manchuria. Manchu is related to the Tungus language and Manchu-Tungus form an Altaic subgroup; it was written in a modified version of the Mongolian alphabet. As one of the only inner Asian languages to be written, the language enjoyed considerable prestige. Material dates from 1644 when the Chinese classics were translated by order of the Emperor: see *Shih-ching.
The early *emperors sought to retain the use of Manchu by the nobility; however, by the time the dynasty was overthrown in 1908 the Manchus had become absorbed into the Chinese populace. *Sir Edmund Backhouse wrote books on the end of the dynasty; some Manchu *emperors had homosexual experiences and the last emperor *Pu Yi was homosexual.
Very little original poetry exists in the language but the *Ch'ien Lung Emperor, who had a homosexual lover, wrote a poem "Ode to Mukden". *Buddhist hymns and chants are relevant. See also *Translation—Chinese, *Influence—Chinese. A survey in German is in W. Fuchs, Tungusologie, 1968, 1–7; with bibl. p. 7.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopædia Britannica. Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Maori, a language of the *Austronesian family, is spoken in New Zealand and is in the Polynesian subgroup of languages (see the *Overview—Polynesian on them). New Zealand was colonized probably from Hawaii around 1000 A.D. by ancestors of the present Maori people and oral poetry traditions are very old. Relevant material dates in written form from ca. 1900.
Men dance in all male groups and sing songs called haka (dance songs). Poems are composed for all occasions and there are many poetic genres—for instance, songs have been composed in return to insults (these songs are called patere). Eric Schimmer, The World of Maori, 1966, Chapter 19 "Song, Speech and Dance", pp. 91–97, notes the wide number of genres including abuse and defamatory poems. *Insult poems and poems written in reply may possibly refer to homosexuality but none are at present known. Poems are oral or sung.
Waiata, "song", is the most widespread type of oral poem and they are a mixture of love, sorrow and longing; see Margaret Orbell, Waiata: Maori songs in history (1991) with bibliography pp 113–14. *Love poems are a major genre as are *elegies or laments for the dead, called pokeka. Karakia are *spells. *Omar Khayyam has been translated and the *Bible was translated and published complete in 1851. Erotic carvings on buildings were suppressed with the coming of Christianity so the erotic element in Maori culture has been considerably underplayed in the last two hundred years. *Witi Ihimaera is the first openly gay New Zealand Maori poet (so far as is known he has only written poetry in English).
Fine translations of Maori oral poetry have been made by Margaret Orbell who has also written on it. A large volume of material exists. Collection of material began from 1815 and manuscripts of nearly all early collections are in public libraries in New Zealand; most material is unpublished.
After nearly dying out, Maori has experienced a renaissance from the 1990s and from 1987 is, with English, an official language of New Zealand. For information on Maori literature see Ian Wedde and Harvey McQueen, The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, Auckland, 1985, pp. 53–62, "The Maori Tradition" by Margaret Orbell—a concise survey; this anthology also includes a selection of poems in Maori and English translation. "Maori Literature: a survey" by Jane McCrae in Terry Sturm, editor, The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English, 1991, pp. 1–25, is written by a librarian at the University of Auckland and includes detailed bibliographical references (a second edition which also includes this article was published in 1998). Agathe Thornton, Maori Oral Literature as Seen by a Classicist (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1987) is a comparative study.
Some gay social background is given in the writings of the Maori lesbian activist Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Mana Wahine Maori, 1991; see especially "Dykes and Queers: Facts, Fairytales and Fictions", pp. 36-41. See the *Overview—English in New Zealand for English language gay poetry. Polynesian and Micronesian islanders have emigrated to New Zealand bringing with them their cultures and languages (see *Overview—Micronesian).
Micronesian languages are in the *Austronesian family and include the languages of the Marshall, Pelau, Mariana, Caroline and Gilbert Islands between *Polynesia and the Philippines to the north east of Papua New Guinea. The Caroline Islands are a United Nations trust territory under United States control. Material of relevance dates from before 1911.
Oral poems or *chants in relation to male homoerotic dancing are likely: see *Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, p. 249, re Caroline Islands language (material dates from 1911). Ifalik. "The young men are very affectionate with each other generally. They lie next to each other in the canoe houses, singing bwarux. They may stand together, their arms circling the others waist. And almost universal is their practice of walking down the path, hand in hand" (the author characterises these as "mild homosexual manifestations"); cited in the *Human Relations Area Files from Melford Spiro, Ifaluk: A South Sea Culture, unpublished manuscript, Washington DC, Coordinated Investigation of Micronesian Anthropology, Pacific Science Board, National Research Council, 1949, no page, Washington DC.
Similar works are likely for the other languages since dancing with chants occurs widely in *Polynesian and *Papua New Guinea languages.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Micronesian Religions". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon: "Die Traditionell Literatur Mikronesiens" (overview of the literature). Other references. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 249–51. Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities, 150: map of the area.
Mongolian, an *Altaic language related to Turkish and spoken in the Mongol Republic in the northwest of China, is actually the name for a group of languages of which the major dialect is Khalkha. Material of relevance dates from at least ca. 1240 and probably much earlier.
The *Secret History of the Mongols (ca. 1240) is the first work of relevance: one passage suggests homosexuality in this work which is considered a poem by some authorities. *Buddhism is the national religion (though *Marxism has contributed to a dramatic decline in Buddhism). The language of the Buddhist church is Tibetan and monks know this language in which the scriptures are taught so Tibetan influence is strong (see *Overview—Tibetan). Almost all males spend time in monasteries. There is a rich *epic literature and *Tantrism figures in the religious practices.
For the political history, which is complex, see Guy Wint, Asia: A Handbook (London, 1965), "Mongolia" by Owen Lattimore pp. 117–22. Russian explorers re-discovered the ancient Mongol capital of Karakorum in 1948. Nikolaus Poppe and others, Mongolistik (Leiden, 1964), is an excellent survey of the languages and literature. A Mongolian gay group was formed in 1997.
On Mongolian see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1140–56.
Nepalese is an *Indo-European language spoken in Nepal, a country in the foothills of the Himalayas (mountains which straddle Nepal and Tibet). There are many Tibetan loan words and the culture is very influenced by Tibetan culture. Relevant material survives from ca. 1500.
The culture is a mixture of *Buddhism and *Hinduism and the Buddha was born in Nepal. *Tantrism is very strong and there is much erotic iconography in the art; homoerotic poems are suspected. The *Ramayana has been translated. A Nepalese *queer group was formed in 1996, Nepal Queer Society, and its director K. P. Sharma sent an appeal abroad for foreign aid because he claims "Everyone hates us" (see *James Saslow, Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts, 1999, p. 302).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopædia Britannica .
Norse, a *Germanic language close to Norwegian and Swedish, is also known as Icelandic in its modern form; the language is in the *Indo-European family. Written records from ca. 1200 survive only from Iceland, a colony of Norway.
Norse was formerly spoken both in Iceland and Scandinavia (in Norway and Denmark); Iceland was colonized from Denmark. In the early *middle ages the language was spoken in the northern part of Great Britain and Norse invaders even reached Canada and the United States. Norse is now spoken only in Iceland.
*Laws referring to male homosexuality are negative and date from 1164. Homosexual references occur extensively in the ancient literature which is obsessed with it. An *Ebbe Hdertzberg writing anonymously made the first study of homosexuality and old Norse literature in 1902. *Preben Meulengracht Sørensen has made the most detailed recent study. Several of the poetic *edda are relevant but most references to homosexuality in them are negative and homophobic. *Havamal does present a positive reference. The concepts of nid (or nith) and ergi are crucial.
Modern Icelandic. The singer and songwriter *Hördur Torfason founded the country's gay organization Samtökin '78 after coming out of the closet in 1975 and seeing his career ruined. See *Bent Hansen re his bibliography *Nordisk Bibliografi, the first listing of gay material in Icelandic. For translations of gay poetry intp Icelandic, see *Theocritus, *Homer, *Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. A journal Ur felum was published ca. 1982 by the gay organization Udgivet af Samtokin '78; this may have literary material.
See Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, pp. 317–26, for an overview of Icelandic literature.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature, vol. 1: "Norse Literature"; "Edda"; "Scald". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Old Norse Poetry". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 1156–58: "Medieval Scandinavia". Bibliographies. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 193–94.
North American Indian (also called North Amerindian) languages
North American Indian languages are spoken in the United States and Canada. There are approximately six language families. Several million native Indian people existed in the United States and Canada in the sixteenth century; 1.8 million were listed in the 1980 census in the United States. Originally there were between 500 and 1000 languages but in 1940, only 149 were spoken.
United States. *Chants in ritual dramas, *songs and oral narratives are the main forms of surviving oral literature of these languages. Dance traditions are strongly homoerotic; in summer males dance almost nude (see also the Sioux poet *Ben Geboe). Navajo is the most widely spoken language by numbers today: see *Songs—Navajo.
Songs comprise the largest part of Indian literatures and are composed extensively on many subjects: none on homosexuality has come to light so far, though they must be suspected in all *tribal cultures. The *trickster figure in Winnebago culture is a figure of interest. *Berdache are men who dress as women and this has been the most discussed aspect of homosexuality in north American Indian cultures so far (e.g., among the Zuni); see also *Songs—Mohave. However, the berdache is only one aspect of homosexuality, perhaps the most public in some cultures. Little detailed systematic research has been done on homosexuality and north American Indian peoples.
Translation into English to date has been very restrained and censorship of records is suspected due to *Puritanism of the white translators; the Navaho creation myth is highly sexual but this hardly comes through in the two translations to date (both of the late nineteenth century); translation of poetry has been similarly chaste. Only recently have adequate translations begun to appear.
Poets in *Living the Spirit, the first English language gay Indian anthology may also have written in Indian languages. English is now a major Indian literary language. See also *Indians, *Historical and Social—North American Indian. Religion and myth: see the article in Encyclopedia of Religion, "American Indian Religions". Kwakiutl: see *Serpent. Pawnee: see *Berdache. Wintu: see *Daniel-Harry Steward. Yokut: see *Berdache. A discussion of sexual roles is in Sue-Ellen Jacob and others, Two Spirit People: Native Anerican Gender Indetity, Sexuality and Spirituality, 1997 (review: Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, summer 1998, 47–48 by Randy P. Conner); in this book a recurring theme is that gay and lesbian Indians insist they are not berdaches
Canada. For the Eskimo or Inuit who live in the north of Canada in the Arctic area see *Performance traditions. The Canadian gay poet *bill bisset has been influenced by Indian chants.
The Smithsonian Museum, Washington, and Museum of Natural History, Field Museum, Chicago, have films of Indian rituals. A Museum of the American Indian now exists in Washington with a research library attached. See A. La Vonne Brown Ruoff, American Indian Literatures, 1990, for detailed bibliography (pp. 147–89) and discussion of literatures to 1989: this is the place to start in research. On the literatures see also Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1513–1522. Translations and records are in French, English and Spanish though mainly in English. See also *Mark Thompson for an important sociological essay.
Compare *Overview—Central American Indians, —South American Indians, *Overview—African languages.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behaviour: see "American Indians" (with bibl). Parlett, Short Dictionary of Languages: see "Amerindian languages". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "American Indian languages" 42–44; with bibl. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 593–95. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: "Native North American Literature". Encyclopædia Britannica: "American Indian Cultures". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: "Literatur der nordamerikanischen Indianer"; with excellent bibl. Katzner, Languages of the World, 8: lists languages. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "American Indian/ Alaskan Native Gender Indentity and Sexuality". Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: check index. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 215–19. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 242–44. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Living the Spirit: the whole anthology is relevant; see especially the listing of 133 tribes with *Berdache roles pp. 217–222; bibl. 229–35. Other works. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 320–62. Katz, Gay American History, 282–334: documents on Indian homosexuality to 1976. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: many references re bisexuality (consult index). Homosexuality and world religions, 1-46: article on the Americas and Africa.
Norwegian, an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group spoken in Norway, is a dialect of Danish (spoken to the south) and is close to Swedish spoken in the adjoining country, Sweden. German, also close, has heavily influenced the language. Norway was joined to Denmark until the nineteenth century. Norway is close to English speaking Scotland from where British influences have come. Gay poetry dates from 1900 as presently known.
The earliest *law proscribing homosexuality dates from 1164. Norwegian stems from old Norse. For earlier poems see *Overview—Norse.
The Norwegian scholar *Ebbe Hertzberg published an article in German anonymously in 1902 discussing homosexuality in old Norse literature. The first Norwegian gay poetry anthololgy *Frå mann til mann: Dikt om menns kjærleik til menn, consisting of translations from other European languages, was compiled by *Jan Olav Gatland and published in 1986; poets included date from *Whitman, *Rimbaud and *Verlaine and the main concentration is on the poets of *gay liberation, similar to the earlier anthology in Danish *Digte om mænds kærlighed til mænd to which it owes its subtitle which means "poems of men's love towards men". The same author also compiled a major critical and historical study of homosexual themes in nineteenth and twentieth century poetry and prose published in 1990 and completed the first separate bibliographical study in 1996.
Relevant poets in Norwegian only date from ca. 1900: see *Jens Peter Jacobsen, *Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, *Asmund Sveen (known as a gay poet), *Tor Jonsson and his close friend *Jan-Magnus Bruheim, *Jens Bjorneboe and *Ole Frederik Einarsen. *Jan Olav Gatland cites the poets *Sigmund Skard, *Ole Fredrik Einarsen, *Nils Yttris, *Hårvard Rems, *Edvard Ruud and *Erik Fosnes Hansen for the period from 1970 to 1990. Homoerotic sentiments have been detected in the poetry of Norway's national poet *Henrik Wergeland. Bibliographies covering Norwegian homopoetry are also by *Olle-Petter Melin and *Bent Hansen.
*Shakespeare's Sonnets, *Whitman, *Wilde's Ballad of Reading Goal and *Hafiz have been translated into Norwegian. Male homosexuality is now legal and there is an anti-discrimination law (see Second ILGA Pink Book, p. 238). There are two gay organizations DNF-48 (full name: Det Norske Forbundet af 48), which is based on the Danish organization Forbundet af 48, and FHO. For a general gay history in Norwegian see *Karen-Christine Friele.
Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 381–82 (overview), 392–95 (selection of poems).
Oral languages of southeast Asia in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines
These languages are spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and are mainly in the *Malayo-Polynesian family. Material of relevance dates from 1954 at least.
Religious dualism and *bisexuality in gods is relevant and poems, songs and *chants associated with religious rituals. Compare also similar religious practices amongst tribal peoples in the mainland of Southeast Asia—in Burma for instance (see *Overview—Burmese). Little research has been done on homosexuality in these languages.
Malaysia. Over 200 oral languages exist. See *Prostitution—Sacred re Toraja, Olo Nyadja, Olo Dusun, Kayan. See also *Oral poems—Iban (possible poems only).
Indonesia. Sulawesi and Kalimantan—huge islands north of Java—are the two main islands of tribal cultures in Indonesia; Papua (the province formerly called West Irian) was incorporated into Indonesia in 1965 and East Timor from 1975 both having many tribal groups. West Papua languages belong to the *Papua New Guinea languages. The large island of Sumatra to the west of Java is also important for tribal cultures. There were some 669 languages spoken by the peoples of Indonesia in 1988; on the island of Alor alone 70 languages are spoken. (On Indonesian languages see the article "Indonesia" in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.)
Transvestism and oral poetry. See the seminal article *"Transvestism and the Religious *Hermaphrodite in Indonesia", Journal of East Asiatic Studies (1954), 257–65; regarding male transvestitism and hermaphroditism and the Toraja of Malaysia (Borneo) and *shamanism see pp. 257–58; for oral poems, songs, *chants linked to the Ngadju Daya (i.e. Ngaju Dyaya) of Kalimantan (Borneo) see pp. 259–60 (on these people see also the Encyclopedia of Religion article above p. 523); for oral poems linked to the Bugis (speakers of Buginese) and Makarassese people (speakers of Makassan) of Sulawesi with a *bisexual religious ritual and subincision ceremony performed (see *Initiation) see pp. 260–63 of this article; see further Marind-Anim *initiation discussed pp. 263–65 in relation to homosexual *initiation ceremonies and *snake symbolism (Marind-Anim speakers live in Indonesia in Irian Jaya and also in Papua New Guinea).
Mambai. Spoken in east Timor: see Encyclopedia of Religion, "Southeast Asian religions", p. 523, re dualism and an hermaphroditic being which shelters the world; poems and songs associated with religious rituals are relevant.
Buginese. *I La Galigo is an epic cycle recited by male *transvestite priests who enjoy great esteem in the culture and are linked with the authorship of the poem. Bugis street in Singapore is a gay meeting place and transvestites have been seen (personal visit of the author, 1985). The Buginese, who live in south west Sulawesi (formerly Celebes), have a rich written literary tradition in an alphabet based on an Indian form of writing (see the entry "Buginese" in Encyclopædia Brittannica); they were *Buddhists until the seventeenth century, when they converted to *Islam; they are traders.
There are elaborate chanted heroic *epic poems in Buginese and Makassan played with a two stringed lute (see Frits A. Wagner, Indonesia, 1962, pp. 186–87); this performance practice may be related to similar methods of performance in central Asia; there were trading links by sea and through Islam with Islamic parts of south Asia.
Philippines. See *Songs—Cebuano, *Songs— Tagalog. *Transvestite singers occur in the form of males who dress as women and who are homosexual.
See also *Overview—Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya re the province of Irian Jaya and *Overview—Malayo-Polynesian languages. Compare *Overview—Papua New Guinea, *Overview—Polynesian languages, *Overview—Australian Aboriginal. See also *James Frazer.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: "Southeast Asian Religions". Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: several references, see index. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 177–82. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 221–22, 234. Other references. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 185–228. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: several references.
Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya oral languages
Papua New Guinea languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Material of relevance dates from 1885.
There are some 870 languages in the *Papuan New Guinea languages spoken in Papua New Guinea itself, the largest spoken group in Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya; possibly up to 1,000 separate cultures exist, many cultures speaking their own language and making this area of the world one of the richest in languages. Little scientific work has been done on them. Papua New Guinea and the adjacent islands are called Melanesia, from the Greek word for black and referring to the fact that the people are dark black skinned (in contrast to the lighter skinned Polynesian peoples). Language groups in Papua New Guinea include Melanesian languages (immigrant languages which are nearly all coastal), *Polynesian languages and Papuan. For general information see "Languages" by A. Capell in Peter Ryan, editor, Encyclopaedia of Papua and New Guinea(1972); with bibl. Many of these languages are very little known apart from their native speakers. Attempts are being made to translate the *Christian *Gospels into them.
Papua New Guinea. Material dates from 1885, when *ritualized homosexuality in connection with initiation ceremonies was first recorded—see *Initiation songs—Kiwai. Clothes in the western sense are not worn in traditional societies and eroticism is much more perceptible; men wear penis gourds in some cultures, a piece of clothing which emphasises the penis.
Songs and *chants associated with initiation ceremonies are the major poetic works of importance with regard to homosexuality: see *Gilbert Herdt (who has specially discussed the Eastern Highlands peoples in relation to ritualized homosexuality), *Bruce Knauft (who has studied ritualized homosexuality in relation to the south coast peoples) and *Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg. Few initiation songs have, however, been recorded and fewer still translated: as an example see *"Cosmogonic song" in Yagwoia. However, songs exist for virtually anything in these languages since song making is a daily activity; gossip songs are common as are love magic songs and songs of these two types are likely in relation to homosexuality.
Relevant oral material undoubtedly exists (e.g., oral *bawdry poems as well as ordinary homopoetry). Homopoems relating to the penis shaped yam, a crucial food in Papua New Guinea, are very likely. Initiation ceremonies are linked to fertility rites and *magic (especially to yam ceremonies, the yam being a staple food) and to the fertility of the dugong fish in the case of the Kiwai (these relate to similar ceremonies in northern Australia). Male sperm may be inseminated in the anus, given in the mouth—*fellatio—in the case of the Sambia and Iqwaye or smeared over the body in initiation ceremonies (sometimes, as in the Kiwai case, in connection with female sperm): see *Initiation—Sambia, —Iqwaye. All males must undergo such ceremonies which have been reported in the south coast and the eastern highlands; in some cultures initiation ceremonies have ceased. Reports also exist of some youths being allegedly so debauched in the initiation ceremonies that they have been alleged to become homosexual afterwards (see the Knauft article in *Initiation songs—Kiwai); such youths may, however, have been homosexual initially. See Barry Adam's remarks in "Age, Structure and Sexuality" in Journal of Homosexuality vol. 11 numbers 3 and 4, Summer 1985, 25–29 for a concise summary of Papua New Guinea ritualized homosexuality.
Secrecy—after western penetration of the country—is a feature in many cultures (e.g., Sepik) so this is an added complication in anything to do with homosexuality. Homosexuality was illegal under Australian law (see *Law—English) and Papua New Guinea was under Australian control from 1918 to independence in 1975 (and prior to this under Australian control from 1883 in Papua while the northern part was under German control until 1918); homosexuality was illegal in 1999 and does not appear to have been changed from the law under Australian control. German law prevailed in New Guinea from the nineteenth century to 1918 (from 1879 with unification homosexuality was illegal in Germany).
*Christianity, which was introduced from the late nineteenth century, also condemned homosexuality. See entries for initiation songs for ritualized homosexuality for Sambia, Baruya, East Bay, Etoro, Foi, Gebusi, Kaluli, Marin-anim, Kiwai, Keraki, Kolopom, Yagwoia. Compare *initiation songs for Australian aborigines e. g., Aranda initiation songs (see *Overview—Aranda) and similar works in Irian Jaya (see below). *Songs sung by transvestite men in Iatmul are relevant.
Ethnographies for the hundreds of cultures of Papua New Guinea wait to be written and a huge amount of oral poetry of relevance is suspected. Links exist and have existed in the Torres Strait where the northern state of Queensland in Australia and Papua New Guinea are joined: it is possible to walk from Australia to Papua New Guinea at low tide and the two countries were joined as one landmass up to 10,000 years ago. The bull roarer, used in southern Papua New Guinea, is also used widely across Australia in initiation ceremonies. In addition, links have existed by boat between New Guinea and Australia. Whether Australian Aboriginal cultures got customs from Papua New Guinea or vice versa remains to be elaborated, if this is possible ever to be proven; certainly Australian aboriginal and Papua New Guinea cultures do show close connections with similar ritualized homosexuality reported widely across northern and central Australia and similar implements such as the bullroarer used. Compare other *tribal cultures (e.g., in *Africa, *South America).
The journal Oral History, published in Port Moresby, records Papua New Guinea folk tales and mythology. See Peter Ryan, Encyclopaedia of Papua and New Guinea, 1972, for information on individual cultures. English is widely spoken since Australia took over control in 1883 in the south (Papua) and in 1919 in the north, formerly New Guinea. German was spoken as the language of administration in the north to 1918. The country as a whole became independent from Australia in 1975.
Indonesia. West Papua, to the west of Papua New Guinea, formerly called Irian Jaya, is now a province of Indonesia (the province was renamed in 1999). Material follows a similar pattern to Papua New Guinea—see entries *Initiation—Kimam initiation (referring to an outstanding article by J. Patrick Gray), *Initiation—Asmat. Bahasa Indonesia is the language of administration since Indonesia took over in 1965 (previously Irian Jaya was under Dutch control and Dutch had been the language of aadministration). Some five hundred languages are spoken.
Compare also *Oral poems—Big Nambas relating to Vanuatu.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 209–14. Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Initiation". Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon vol. 20: "Traditionelle Literatur Melanesiens". Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Melanesia". Bibliographies. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 234–37. Other references. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 91–115.
Pashto is spoken in Afghanistan, northern India and northern Pakistan. It is the language of Afghanistan and is an *Iranian language which is in the *Indo-Iranian family. The earliest literary records date from the seventh century but the earliest gay poem so far known dates only from 1885.
Persian (also called Farsi or Farsi-Kabulli) is read and spoken by the educated classes in Afghanistan and Persian influence is very strong. *Sa`di has been translated and *rubai written. The *Whirling Dervish *Sufi order exists.
Pashto has strong oral traditions—see *Songs—Pashto, *Afghani love song, *Oral poem—Pashto (ca. 1885), the earliest relevant work. *Alessandro Bausani has written a study of the literature (in Italian). Work on the literary history has been done in Russia (see Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, p. 808—bibliography).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition: under "Afghan" see "Pashto Literature". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 17–18: "Afghanistan". Great Soviet Encyclopedia vol. 2: under "Afghan" see "Literature". Bibliographies. Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies: see "Pushtu literature" for manuscript sources.
Persian, an *Indo-European language, part of the *Iranian languages group, is spoken in Iran. The language has one of the strongest traditions of homosexual poetry of any language. Material of relevance dates from 500 B.C.
The language, called Farsi by native speakers, is the major literary language of the Iranian languages, a group extending into central Asia, Pakistan and India (see, for example, *Zuhuri). Poetry was the major literary art form until recently and was more highly regarded than prose. The Persian language dates back in Old Persian to at least 1000 B.C., and the first literary works of note, the *hymns of the philosopher *Zoroaster (active 500 B.C.) are strongly homoerotic; these works have influenced *Indian philosophies in India, *Sufism, *Christianity and possibly *Plato (ancient Athens defeated a Persian invasion and *Alexander the Great invaded and conquered what is now Iran). Zoroastrianism, which relates to the Indian *Vedas, is a world religion.
Modern Persian dates from 800 A.D. when the country was occupied by Arabic speaking Islamic Arabs and when *Islam was adopted and the language written in the script of Arabic. Since then there has been a huge interchange between Arabic and Persian poetry. Seljuq Turks invaded Iran in the eleventh century and brought Turkish influence; interaction with Turkish was constant from then to the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1918. (See *Influence— Persian, —Arabic, —Turkish.) Persian has itself strongly influenced Urdu and languages in Pakistan and north west India (e. g., Punjabi). The Persians occupied Pakistan—see the poet *Farrukhi—and parts of India from the thirteenth century following the invasion of the Indian subcontinent by the Persian speaking Mughals and a school of *Mughal poets existed. Persian influence was enormous in Pakistan and India as far as Bengal: the language was for centuries a lingua franca and widely spoken and written (including Persian poetry) until the British domination of the Indian subcontinent from 1857.
The entire tradition of classical Persian *divan poetry is pederastic with many poems directed at *youths and the *saki (or *cupbearer at drinking parties), who is a fixture of the poetry tradition (this custom may date back to ancient times; it almost certainly has connections with the ancient Greek *symposium tradition). A *Saqi-nama is a collection of wine drinking verses, usually, but not invariably, by one poet.
The tradition of Persian poetry is basically lyrical and the *ghazal was the main poetic form (though *masnavi or long poems were written). The *epic poet *Firdawsi's Shah-na-mah shows considerable homoeroticism; it relates to vast epic traditions in the area of central Asia and *Turkestan. *Wine drinking—see *Khamriyya—and *down on the face are notable tropes associated with homosexuality throughout Persian poetry. The trope of *Sultan Mahmud and the slave *Ayaz is a trope of gay love occurring in the works of many poets.
But if *epicureanism is a major theme in Persian poetry so also is *sado-masochism, especially the subjugation of the lover to the beloved, ideas which recall the European convention of *courtly love, which may be related to Persian traditions through Arabic poetry. The sex of the *beloved in love poetry in Persian was usually male. Like Turkish, Persian does not have gender, which can make for ambiguity in love poetry, as the historian of Persian literature *Jan Rypka has pointed out.
Illustration of Persian manuscripts is especially homoerotic showing all male groups with male cupbearers—see *Illustration—Persian. *Court poets seem in many cases homosexual, as the rich tradition of illustration of manuscripts shows. Since Persian was written in the Arabic script *calligraphy was highly valued as with Arabic poets. Much poetry remains in manuscript or is inadequately edited and *manuscripts are scattered all over the world having been treasuered for their illustrations in many cases; the Ottoman capital *Istanbul has huge numbers, as *Helmut Ritter pointed out, but so do cities like *Oxford, *London, *Delhi and *St Petersburg.
Outstanding poets include *Omar Khayyam whose complex text has been best edited by *Mohammed ali Forughi, while *Ali Dashti and *Arthur Christensen are notable writers on the complex problems associated with the text of this poet, who seems to have been homosexual and certainly wrote within a homosexual tradition: the text as we have it is actually an anthology. *Edward Fitzgerald famously translated Omar Khayyam's homoerotic *Rubaiyat (Works) into English, a translation which, after publication in 1859, was then retranslated into languages all over the world. Most Persian poets were handed down in handwritten manuscripts until the nineteenth century. Other outstanding poets of relevance include *Sa`di (one of the greatest Persian poets, whose poems are taught in schools), *Hafiz (whose homosexual poems are outstanding), *`Attar, *`Iraqi, *Jami and the *Jewish homosexual Persian poet *Sarmad.
Explicitly erotic homosexual poetry occurs in the work of *`Ubayd Zakani and *Iraj Mirza (who wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century). *Dancing and singing boys (noted by *E. J. Browne a century ago in *Shiraz) still sing bawdy songs. Urdu and Turkish poets also wrote in Persian; for example see the Urdu poets *Dard and *Ghalib and the Turkish poet *Nef`i. Classical Persian dates to 1500 but traditional forms were used until 1945.
The *Sufi tradition of *mystical poetry is strongly homosexual. The founder of Persian and Turkish Sufism, *Rumi, wrote strongly homosexual poetry and the Sufi *Kirmani is an outstanding homosexual poet. Sufism descends from, has in turn been influenced by, and in turn influenced *Indian Philosophy in India and Pakistan (see *Kabir but even further back the *Vedas). It has strongly influenced the poetry of all languages around Iran—such as the northern *Indian languages.
*Literary historians and critics (e.g., the brilliant Czech Jan Rypka already mentioned) have notably commented on homosexuality in Persian (which cannot be escaped, though *A. J. Arberry the noted British expert managed to avoid mentioning it). *Marten Schild has perceptively discussed homosexuality in the Middle East, including Persian. Recently such major Persian scholars as *Ehsan Yarshater have dealt extensively with homosexuality in the poetry (notably in the entry “Homosexuality” in Encyclopaedia Iranica. *Paul Sprachman has written an exceptional article on the Persian bawdy tradition in which poets insult others by homosexual reference (compare similar traditions in Arabic—see *Jarir).
Translation of Persian homopoetry into *European languages dates from the late eightenth century (see *Platen, *Hammer-Purgstall, *Edward Fitzgerald) while *Aleister Crowley, writing in English, has brilliantly parodied Persian gay poetry in one of the most brilliant gay works of poetry ever composed: The Scented Garden of *Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz.
Strong *censorship in Iran in the twentieth century has severely curtailed the writing of gay poetry especially from the 1970s. The modern poet *Reza Bahareni has written about *rape in *prison. In Iran, from the time of the Islamic revolution of 1979, homosexual behavior has been severely proscribed leading even to the death penalty: see *Law —Persian. A contemporary poet *Cyrus Atabay lives in Germany and writes in German. The poet *Hushang Merchant who comes from Iran has written a fine work in English. For biographical sources see *Biography—Persian.
A concise survey of Persian literature is A. J. Arberry, The Legacy of Persia, 1953: "Persian Literature", 199–229. Reuben Levy, An Introduction to Persian Literature, 1967, is a recent excellent history. Rypka, History of Iranian Literature is a basic reference; it includes a section on Persian literature in India.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition: under "Persia" see "Persian Literature". Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition: under "Iran" see "Literature". Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 612–13: "Iran". Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 10: see "Literature" pp. 396–98 under "Iran". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Persian Poetry". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Middle Eastern Literature: Persian" (the first overall gay discussion). Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Persian (Iranian) Literature and Culture" and "Iran". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 335–54. Criticism. Woods, History of Gay Literature, 57–59.
Polish, spoken in Poland, is an *Indo-European language in the *Slavic group. It is the third largest Slavic language after Russian and Ukrainian, both contiguous languages. *Slowacki (died 1850) seems the first poet of relevance.
The great Polish Romantic poet *Mickiewicz died in the arms of a male friend and the poet *Cyperian Norwid wrote a long poem based on the gay Roman emperor *Hadrian. The *decadent movement had a significaant influence in Polish (e.g., *Pater was translated). *Waclaw Rolicz Lieder around 1900 was a disciple of the homosexual German poet *Stefan George.
*Modernism and *surrealism were strong movements in the twentieth century. Polish poets of the twentieth century who are relevant include *Iwaskiewicz, *Jan Lechon (pseud.), *Bialoszewski, *Gombrowicz and *Andrzejewski. For contemporary poets see *Josef Czechowica, *Tadeusz Olszewski, *Grzegiez Musial. The *Nobel Prize winner *Csezlaw Milosz has translated Whitman and Shakespeare. Polish is rich in translations of gay poets and works e.g., *Michelangelo, *Martial, *Whitman, *Oscar Wilde and the *Palatine Anthology. In 1995 gay poems were openly published in *Journals.
On homosexuality see Krzysztof Boczkowski, Homoseksualizm, Warsaw, 1992 (rare: a copy is in the *British Library).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 1012–14: "Poland". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Polish Poetry". Everyman Companion to East European Literature. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 417.
Polynesia refers to the area to the south east of Papua new Guinea as far east as Hawaii (a state of the United States). The people have light brown skin in contrast to the black skinned Papua New Guineans. They mainly live on small islands including Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti (a French overseas territory), Hawaii, and New Zealand (which consists of the two largest islands in the group). New Zealand—where Maori is the language of the indigenous people—is the largest country and there has been a recent revival of Maori which is now a national language. Polynesian languages are part of the *Malayo-Polynesian family. Material of relevance dates from 1881.
Gay *oral poems have been discovered in Hawaiian. *Chants associated with the strong male bonding exhibited in *dancing (men dance and sing in groups with other men) are of interest. Male *transvestites who sing and dance also exist. *Eulogies in which men praise other men who have died are another genre which needs examination. However much literature remains in manuscript (e.g., in Maori in Auckland Public Library and the Hocken Library, Dunedin, and in Hawaiian in the Bishop Museum in Hawaii). Until this material is published no adequate assessment is possible and even then *censorship may have resulted in the non recording of homobawdy, particularly as *Christian missionaries played a big part in the recording of these languages.
An excellent survey of the Polynesian literatures to 1940 is in H. Munro Chadwick and Nora Chadwick, The Growth of Literature, 1932–40, volume 3, Part 2, pp. 229–474; this was written by Nora Chadwick. More recent work is covered in Ruth Finnegan and Margaret Orbell, editors, South Pacific Oral Traditions, 1995. The *Gospels have been translated into these languages. See Victor Krupa, The Polynesian Languages, 1982, for discussion of the languages.
Maori. Maori is the indigenous language of New Zealand; there are several dialects. The language is undergoing a vigorous revival after nearly dying out. See *Overview—Maori for discussion.
Tongan: see *Ulamoleke. Although Raymond Firth, "Sex and Slander in Tikopia Song", Oral Tradition vol. 5 numbers 2–3, 219–40, examines only heterosexual material in these *insult poems, the scabrous nature means that homosexual reference cannot be ruled out; this work is reprinted in Ruth Finnegan and Margaret Orbell, editors, South Pacific Oral Traditions, 1995, pp. 64–84. Tikopia is in the Solomon Islands.
Samoan. Erotic heterosexual dancing in connection with love has been recorded: see *B. Schidlof, Liebe und Ehe bei den Naturvolkern, 1932, Ch. 6 pp. 156–73 (trans. as Sex Life in the South Seas, 1953, with the imprint Melbourne Anthropological Research Association but published in the United States: see "Love Dances and Erotic Songs" pp. 203–230 in this translation). Homosexual songs are likely. Marquesan language. See *Songs and oral poems—Marquesan (though not confirmed, material seems likely). *Herman Melville visited the Marquesas and homosexuality occurs in his early novels set in the south seas. Tahitian. See *Transvestite singers. Rapa Nui. *Oral poems which are relevant may exist in this language which is the language of Easter Island. Hawaiian. A brilliant sexual poem to a man was composed by *Papa`ala before 1881.
The Journal of the Polynesian Society surveys material in these languages and is nearly one hundred years old. See *Stephen O. Murray for the social background and bibliographic sources for homosexuality; see also Bengt Danielsson, Love in the South Seas, New York, 1933 (trans. from Swedish).
.Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behaviour, volume 2, 832–40. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 937–40: see "Pacific Cultures". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Polynesian Poetry"; with important bibliography and manuscript sources; see also the entry in the 1974 edition of this work. Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, vol. 20: see "Traditionelle Literatur Ozeaniens". Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "Oceanic Religions". Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: many references (see index). Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp. 209–14 Criticism. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 229–48. Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 1469–92. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: many references especially to Maori (see index).
Portuguese, an *Indo-European language of the *Romance group, has been spoken in Brazil from 1500. Material dates from ca. 1680.
Brazil was colonized by Portugal and *Overview—Portuguese in Portugal gives the background for Portuguese spoken in the parent country. Brazil was founded as a Portuguese colony in 1500 and has been the most relaxed country in South America for homosexuality (there is a Portuguese saying “there is no sin under the equator”). The first poet to refer to male homosexuality is *Gregorio de Matos (born 1633). Nineteenth century poets include *Alvares de Azevedo and *Olavo Bilac. A *Carnival Song of ca. 1920 refers to homosexuality and in 1928 *Mara L. Flaury wrote a study of homosexuality in literature (though it is not useful for poetry).
The great gay poet *Antonio Botto who was brought up in Portugal spent his last years (1947–1959) in the country and is the first major gay poet associated with Brazil. Many poets from the late nineteenth century appear in the first Portuguese gay anthology *Poemas do amor maldito (1969), compiled by the poets *Gasparino Damata (pseud.) and *Walmir Ayala; published in Brazil it was on the *decadent model. The country has an active gay movement which saw the publication of the cultural *journal *Lampião (1978–81). *Cassiano Nunes and *Franklin Jorge both appeared in the first Latin American anthology *Now the Volcano (1979). The major poets *Carlos Drummond de Andrade and *Jorge de Lima have written homosexual poems. In 1982 *Glauco Mattoso published an extraordinary volume illustrated with erect penises. *Robert Piva is a noted contemporary poet.
*Twenty-four Poemas Gays (1982) is the second Brazilian gay poetry anthology. *Valdo Mota is an outstanding recent gay poet whose poetry is centered on the asshole as a way of finding *God. *Valery Peleleshin, a gay poet who wrote in Russian and lived in Brazil, has also written some poems in Portuguese. *Chants and songs sung in connection with *Afro-Brazilian cults contain homosexual poetry, but need investigating.
There have been periods of repression of homosexuals in Brazil though the law was decriminalized in 1823 under the influence of the *Code Napoléon. *João Trevisan has written a fine historical and cultural study and *Luiz Mott has written extensively on Brazilian gay culture and compiled the first detailed bibliography. *Irwin Stern has written the first article in English on homosexuality and literature in Brazil. David William Foster, Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing, 1991, deals with prose (bibl. pp. 165–74). Libraries in Brazil are generally poor in quality. The city library in Rio de Janeiro was formerly the National Library until 1960, when the capital was moved to Brasilia, an artificially created city which now houses the National Library.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 162-64: see "Brazil". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Latin American Literature".
Portuguese is spoken in Portugal and Brazil (for Brazil see *Overview—Portuguese in Brazil). The language is an *Iberian language, part of the *Romance group of the *Indo-European language family. It is close to Spanish, French and Italian, other Romance languages. Gay poems in Portugal date from Portuguese *troubadours (e.g., *Pero de Armea) from ca. 1250.
*Cantigas, a form of ballad with homosexual reference, date from 1300. Anti-gay *laws also date from the *middles ages though male homosexual acts were legalized in 1852, following the *Code Napoléon. *Gregorio Ferreira wrote a satirical poem ca. 1660 naming Portuguese sodomites and there are gay references in the work of the *epic poet *Luís de Camões, author of the national epic Os Lusíadas.
In the late nineteenth century, the *decadent movement (deriving from the French poets *Baudelaire, *Rimbaud and *Verlaine) was strong in Portugal (see *Gomes Leal, *Antonio Feijo) and much poetry of relevance was written in the *eighteen nineties (see *Eugenio de Castro). French influence has been the strongest of all outside influences on Portuguese culture—for instance in poetry, *Rimbaud and *Verlaine, whose gay poems were being published in French from 1894. The decadent movement and French gay poetry formed the background for the poetry of Portugal's greatest *modernist poet—and perhaps greatest poet —*Fernando Pessoa, who never married and is widely regarded as being gay. He wrote a spirited defence of his contemporary *Antonio Botto's openly gay sequence Os Cancões (The Songs; 1920), a work which appeared in expanded editions as *Walt Whitman has done with his Leaves of Grass; *José Regio (pseud.) has written a notable book of criticism on Botto's work. (Botto later emigrated to Brazil in 1947, due to a court case relating to his homosexuality.)
The compatriot of Pessoa and Botto, *Gomes Leal, defended sodomy in a pamphlet entitled Sodomia divinisada ("Sodomy Divined") at this time, while another friend the possibly bisexual *Mario de Sá Carneiro committed suicide in *Paris in 1914. The outstanding Portuguese literature on gay cultural history begins with *Arlindo Monteiro, who wrote a huge cultural study of homosexuality in 1922 showing the influence of *Magnus Hirshfeld. *Asdrubal D'Aquiar has written a survey mostly discussing the laws while *Luiz Mott has done recent work on the historical background.
The *surrealist poet *Mario Cesariny has written homosexual poems while *Eugenio de Andrade is an important poet active from 1940 whose work, especially from 1988, is relevant. *Al Perto (pseud.) was a notable 1980s gay poet. *José Blanco has compiled the finest bibliography on *Pessoa (many of whose works remain unpublished; there is no collected edition of his poems); *João Simões's biography of the poet remains inadequate in dealing with homosexuality.
Portugal is at present a democracy (from 1975) but has been a military dictatorship at times during the twentieth century; it was formerly a monarchy. The influence of Portuguese homopoetry in Portugal on Portuguese in Brazil is considerable and also from 1968 in the reverse direction as regards homosexual poetry: that is, of Brazilian Portuguese gay poetry on Iberian Portuguese.
The only anthology in Portuguese, the Brazilian *Poemas do Amor Maldito (1968) comes out of the *decadent tradition in Portuguese. The *Catholic Church is still the basis of Portuguese religious life. *Julio Gomes Viana has written the most recent survey in Portuguese of gay culture. The National Library in the capital *Lisbon is a major library for research purposes.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 678–81: see "Latin America". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 329–31 and 335–81 (selection of some poems with Spanish poets).
Provençal is also called Occitan, that is, the language of Oc, referring to the south of France. It is spoken in south west France along the Mediterranean and is a *Romance language of the *Indo-European language family. It is very close to *Catalan (which is spoken in north east Spain around *Barcelona). The language is still spoken today. Material dates from 1180.
A number of *troubadour poets are relevant—e.g., *Arnaut Daniel—though more research is needed on them. The *Anacreontea have been translated. On Provençal see Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 162-64: see "Brazil". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Latin American Literature".
Portuguese is spoken in Portugal and Brazil (for Brazil see *Overview—Portuguese in Brazil). The language is an *Iberian language, part of the *Romance group of the *Indo-European language family. It is close to Spanish, French and Italian, other Romance languages. Gay poems in Portugal date from Portuguese *troubadours (e.g., *Pero de Armea) from ca. 1250.
*Cantigas, a form of ballad with homosexual reference, date from 1300. Anti-gay *laws also date from the *middles ages though male homosexual acts were legalized in 1852, following the *Code Napoléon. *Gregorio Ferreira wrote a satirical poem ca. 1660 naming Portuguese sodomites and there are gay references in the work of the *epic poet *Luís de Camões, author of the national epic Os Lusíadas.
In the late nineteenth century, the *decadent movement (deriving from the French poets *Baudelaire, *Rimbaud and *Verlaine) was strong in Portugal (see *Gomes Leal, *Antonio Feijo) and much poetry of relevance was written in the *eighteen nineties (see *Eugenio de Castro). French influence has been the strongest of all outside influences on Portuguese culture—for instance in poetry, *Rimbaud and *Verlaine, whose gay poems were being published in French from 1894. The decadent movement and French gay poetry formed the background for the poetry of Portugal's greatest *modernist poet—and perhaps greatest poet —*Fernando Pessoa, who never married and is widely regarded as being gay. He wrote a spirited defence of his contemporary *Antonio Botto's openly gay sequence Os Cancões (The Songs; 1920), a work which appeared in expanded editions as *Walt Whitman has done with his Leaves of Grass; *José Regio (pseud.) has written a notable book of criticism on Botto's work. (Botto later emigrated to Brazil in 1947, due to a court case relating to his homosexuality.)
The compatriot of Pessoa and Botto, *Gomes Leal, defended sodomy in a pamphlet entitled Sodomia divinisada ("Sodomy Divined") at this time, while another friend the possibly bisexual *Mario de Sá Carneiro committed suicide in *Paris in 1914. The outstanding Portuguese literature on gay cultural history begins with *Arlindo Monteiro, who wrote a huge cultural study of homosexuality in 1922 showing the influence of *Magnus Hirshfeld. *Asdrubal D'Aquiar has written a survey mostly discussing the laws while *Luiz Mott has done recent work on the historical background.
The *surrealist poet *Mario Cesariny has written homosexual poems while *Eugenio de Andrade is an important poet active from 1940 whose work, especially from 1988, is relevant. *Al Perto (pseud.) was a notable 1980s gay poet. *José Blanco has compiled the finest bibliography on *Pessoa (many of whose works remain unpublished; there is no collected edition of his poems); *João Simões's biography of the poet remains inadequate in dealing with homosexuality.
Portugal is at present a democracy (from 1975) but has been a military dictatorship at times during the twentieth century; it was formerly a monarchy. The influence of Portuguese homopoetry in Portugal on Portuguese in Brazil is considerable and also from 1968 in the reverse direction as regards homosexual poetry: that is, of Brazilian Portuguese gay poetry on Iberian Portuguese.
The only anthology in Portuguese, the Brazilian *Poemas do Amor Maldito (1968) comes out of the *decadent tradition in Portuguese. The *Catholic Church is still the basis of Portuguese religious life. *Julio Gomes Viana has written the most recent survey in Portuguese of gay culture. The National Library in the capital *Lisbon is a major library for research purposes.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 678–81: see "Latin America". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 329–31 and 335–81 (selection of some poems with Spanish poets).
Provençal is also called Occitan, that is, the language of Oc, referring to the south of France. It is spoken in south west France along the Mediterranean and is a *Romance language of the *Indo-European language family. It is very close to *Catalan (which is spoken in north east Spain around *Barcelona). The language is still spoken today. Material dates from 1180.
A number of *troubadour poets are relevant—e.g., *Arnaut Daniel—though more research is needed on them. The *Anacreontea have been translated. On Provençal see Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Occitan".
Punjabi, spoken in India and Pakistan, is an *Indo-European language; it is sometimes spelt Panjabi. Material of relevance dates from the *Kafi genre (from ca. 1550), a type of poem written in the persona of a woman.
Punjab means land of the five rivers and is an area in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent; since 1947 the area has been divided between India and Pakistan. It is the land of the Sikhs. Punjabi is one of the fourteen official *Indian languages and is close to Hindi and Urdu. *Sikhism is a religion strongly influenced by *Sufism and *Indian religions and founded by *Guru Nanak. Homoeroticism is strongly present in Sikh religious hymns.
*Gulab Singh (active ca. 1830) is one of the rare homosexual *dancing boys known by name. The twentieth century poet *Puran Singh according to one critic had a "feminine sensibility" and was strongly influenced by *Walt Whitman; he also translated into English *Bhai Singh whose poems are homosexual in feeling. Persian and Urdu poetry has heavily Punjabi poetry: see *Influence—Persian, —Urdu. *Omar Khayyam has been translated. For information see Omakara Aina Kaula, Punjabi Language and Linguistics: annotated bibliography, Patiala, 1992.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 552–56. Encyclopædia Britannica: "Punjab"; "Punjabi language". Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition: see under "Pandjab"; with bibl. at end. Other references. Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies: see under "Panjab"; Toomey, A World Bibliography of BIbliographies 1964–1974: see under "Punjab" for manuscripts and printed book catalogs.
Romanian, an *Indo-European language, is the easternmost *Romance language and is spoken in Romania; it is close to Italian. Material dates from 1900. Sometimes it is spelt Rumanian, especially in older reference works.
Though little gay poetry has been found to date—see however *Caragiale re *sonnets—the language is rich in gay translations of note: *Shakespeare's Sonnets, *Cavafy (trans. *Aurel Rau), *Virgil's Eclogues and *Whitman (trans. by Alexandru Busuioceanu in 1925). See the poet *Tudor Arghezi for possible connections. There are strong poetry traditions especially in relation to the theater and more material is suspected.
Laws against homosexuality under the *Communist regime were extremely harsh and the country was a dictatorship from 1945 until the early 1990s; in 1994, Romania was asked to change its anti-gay laws as well as other laws against civil rights to bring it in line with west European civil rights law: see Public Scandals: sexual orientation and criminal law in Romania (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998). *Radu Afrim is the first openly gay contemporary poet. Much research needs to be done: for instance, figures like the theater director Vasile Alecsandri (1821–1890) who visited Morocco, long a mecca for gays, in 1853 and who wrote poetry await investigation. On the literature see Gino Lupi, La letteratura romena, Milan, 1968.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Romanian Poetry". Everyman Companion to East European Literature, 541–43: "Roumanian". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 417.
Russian, the most widely spoken *Slavic language, is spoken in Russia. Poetry of relevance dates from 1200.
The language is in the *Indo-European language family and has a very rich gay cultural heritage. Its literature divides into three areas: religious literature, oral folk literature and a classical literature, inspired by western European literature, from the eighteenth century; all contain gay poetry.
The first reference to male homosexual acts in Russia is in an English poem by *George Turberville written after a visit in 1568–69, though the legend of *Boris and Gleb deals with homoerotic bonding and *byliny date back to 1200 (first written down in the 1760s). The early *epic poem *Lay of Igor dating from 1200 is also relevant.
Anti gay *laws date from 1706 and anal sex was a criminal offence until 1917; it was recriminalized for sexual acts with males under sixteen in 1922 and for all males in 1933 under the *Communist leader Stalin and not decriminalized until the summer of 1993 when it was legalized by direct Presidential decree of President Boris Yeltsin. *Censorship (controlled by the *Orthodox Church until the Communist revolution of 1917) has been mainly strict except in the periods 1905–17 and from 1991.
The first poet of note is *Ivan Dmitriev (1760–1837) though in the field of *pornography much work remains to be done, especially on *oral poems and underground samizdat (illegal) publications which date from the eighteenth century. The poet *Mikhail Lermontov wrote several homosexual bawdy poems in his youth based on his experiences at cadet school in *St Petersburg in 1834–35 (they were first published in 1879 in *Eros Russe —see below).
The great Russian *Romantic poet *Pushkin—whose career was modelled on *Byron and who was notably accepting of homosexuality—wrote some gay poems. *Bawdry and *songs date from ca. 1840, though works probably date back much earlier and much more bawdry material of an oral nature is suspected than has come to light. Russian also has a rich tradition of erotic bawdy words and *dictionaries (see *Vladimir Kozlovskii, compiler of a dictionary of gay sexual slang).
Gay poetry in Latin (e.g., *Catullus, *Virgil) has been translated as have such poets as *Shakespeare and *Whitman. In 1879, in Geneva, the first anthology containing homosexual poems was published titled *Eros Russe. In the last decades of the nineteenth century the poet *Alexei Aputkin was the lover of the homosexual composer Tchaikovsky (who set his poems to music). The *decadent and *symbolist movements had a huge impact in Russia at this time, as did the poets of the *eighteen-nineties and later *modernism.
The twentieth century. The period 1905–1917, free of *censorship, saw the publication of openly gay poems. These were notably by *Mikhail Kuzmin (whose lovers included the *bisexual poet *Vsevolod Knyazev), *Nikolai Klyuev, *Vyacheslav Ivanov and the bisexual *Sergei Esenin, who committed suicide after writing a poem in his own blood (see the biography by *Fritz Mierau).
The coming to power of the Communist regime in 1917 and the overthrow of the system of the Tsar (who was an absolutist ruler in Russia as in China) changed life inexorably. From 1920 to 1933 very little material was printed and the Stalinist repression from 1933 saw gay life go underground. Some poets—such as *Anatoly Steiger—went into exile. *Valery Pereleshin (pseud.) lived in Brazil after emigrating from China. The novelist and *Nobel Prize winner *Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a poem of intimate friendship in 1938. The Russian novelist *Vladimir Nabokov emigrated to the United States where he wrote in English a satirical novel on editorship of the works of poets, Pale Fire, after himself editing an edition of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin; his father had been responsible for reducing the penalty for homosexual sex to a maximum of three months in 1903.
*Gennady Trifonov is an outstanding contemporary gay poet, a worthy successor to the earlier twentieth century poets. He has been imprisoned for writing gay poems (though the poems in question were only circulated in manuscript and were never printed—an example of the extent of gay persecution in *Communist Russia). The gay writer *David Dar, now living in Israel, wrote the first gay critique of Trifonov's work in Russian in 1978. A huge literature of oral poems relating to the Stalinist prison camps is only now beginning to be assessed: see *Libraries and Archives—Russian. A lesbian and gay archive exists in *Moscow the capital which also has a gay center.
Recent editing and translation in the west of twentieth century Russian poets—see *Vladimir Markov—has increased knowledge of Russian gay poetry. From 1990 material has been published in Russia, notably the complete poems of Kuzmin. Manuscripts by Klyuev, thought lost in the Stalinist purges, have recently come to light. *John E. Malmstad has written an outstanding life of Kuzmin, while *Simon Karlinsky, who lives in the United States, has written the only detailed literary surveys to date of homosexuality and Russian culture (with much reference to poetry). *Yevgeny Kharitonov, though best known as a prose writer, is an outstanding gay poet recently published. In 1997, a fine English language anthology of Russian gay poetry and prose Out of the Blue was published in San Francisco by *Gay Sunshine Press. There is no comprehensive anthology of gay poetry in Russia though one was planned in the 1920s (see *Kuzmin).
A huge number of literary histories of *Islamic languages containing much homosexual poetry have been written in Russian and these works need to be examined for comment: see *Literary Historians and Critics—Arabic, —Persian, —Turkish, —Urdu. Much research has been done in Russian on *Turkic languages and all the *languages of the USSR (the former Soviet Union in existence from after the revolution until 1990); this research was instrumental in recent interest in *oral poetry. *Overview—Polish is relevant as Polish and Russian have influenced each other, being neighboring languages.
Slavic attitudes to sexuality have generally been more liberal than in the United States, Great Britain and Australia (which have suffered from *Puritanism with the Slavic world lacked). See also *Historical and social background —Russian.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics : see "Russian poetry". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Russian Literature". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, 457–68: see "Russian Literature (1836–1922)". Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 417–19 (overview).
Sanskrit was and is spoken in India where it is one of the fifteen official languages (however, only a few thousand persons spoke it in a recent census). It is an *Indo-European language. Material dates from 1100 B.C.
Sanskrit is the most ancient recorded language of India dating to the *Vedic hymns (believed to date from before 1100 B.C. and possibly as early as 2,000 B.C.); on the language see the entry in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. The relevant material is religious in basis as Sanskrit was the religious language of India (and is still so used). *Phallic worship, connected with fertility, is very ancient and one of the oldest loci of poetry. The language was replaced in the *Middle Ages by the vernacular languages such as Hindi and Bengali—dating from ca. 1000—of which Sanskrit is the precursor (these vernacular languages are sometimes called Prakrits). Sanskrit has exercised a strong influence on all *Indian languages (including the *Dravidian languages spoken in southern India through translation).
Material of relevance dates from the most ancient documents of *Hinduism, the *Vedas. The texts of *Buddhism were written in Sanskrit, though the Buddha used the prakrit or vernacular language Pali for speech. The *Upanishads, of which the *Bhagavad Gita is the main work, are major Hindu works. Homosexuality, though not mentioned in the Vedas or the Upanisads, is nevertheless incorporated into the cosmology of the Hindu universe: this universe is seen as a unity where nothing is excluded and male and female and all opposites are united, especially in *Brahman (and sometimes in *Siva).
The huge *epic poem the *Mahabharata, widely diffused both in India and in south east Asia as far as Indonesia in translation, is relevant: for instance, in the relation of *Krishna and Arjuna which exemplifies *disciple relationships, which pervade Indian civilization (see *Sikhism, *Kabir). Homoeroticism also appears in the smalller epic, the *Ramayana, which has been widely diffused in India and south east Asia. *Hymns to Shiva and *Krishna by men are strongly homosexual in inspiration, especially as the authors were usually men. Many poems have been written in the persona of Radha, Shiva's consort, addressed to Siva, by male poets and can be read homosexually.
*Vatsyayana's Kama Sutra is a *sex manual written in poetry which has a strong religious basis and one chapter refers to homosexuality. The Sanskrit *anthologies of poetry contain love poems, some capable of being read homosexually. *Tantric sexual rituals which are widely practised in India were originally compiled in Sanskrit and there is a homosexual side to tantrism. The openly gay *Thomas Meyer has translated poems from ancient Sanskrit.
Sanskrit mysticism stemming from the Upanishads strongly influenced *Sufism and such Sufi poets as the Persian *Rumi are inconceivable without the Sanskrit background. See also *Indian Philosophy and Religions, *Orientalism and *Translation—Indian languages. Arthur A. Macdonell, A History of Sanskrit Literature, 1899, is a concise introduction.
Overall, Sanskrit reveals there are strong homosexual aspects to the cultures of India and ancient Sanskrit traditions have continued in the modern vernacular languages descended from Sanskrit. Sanskrit greatly influenced the literature of the two most widely spoken languages in India—Hindi (see *Bhakti, *Kabir) and Bengali (see *Vaisnava poets, *Tagore). It also influenced all other *Indic languages of north India, especially through the bhakti movement and the cults of Krishna and Shiva. Sanskrit has influenced the Dravidian languages; e.g., see *Overview—Tamil. To the north, Tibetan and Nepalese *Buddhism took their basic documents from Indian Sanskritic Buddhism and have a strong Tantric component.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition: see "Sanskrit" (brilliant overview). Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature: see under "Indian". Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature, vol. 1, 296–99 (under "Indian literatures"). Great Soviet Encyclopedia: see "Sanskrit Literature". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see under "Indian Poetry".
Serbo-Croat, a *Slavic language of the *Indo-European language family, is spoken in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, all countries of the former Jugoslavia (in existence from 1947 to 1990). Material of relevance dates from 1600.
There are different dialects in Croatia and Serbia and the Croatian dialect is written in the Roman alphabet, while the Serbian dialect is in the Cyrillic. The first poets of probable relevance are the Ragusan *Petrarchists, *Bobali and *Durdevic. *Oral epics (notably Meho Smailagic sung by *Avdo Mededovic but first recorded by *Friedrich Krauss in 1885) show close male bonding (see *pobratim); they remain a rich unexplored source of homoeroticism in poetry and a huge number survive. Bawdy homosexual songs have existed from before 1903: see *Songs—Serbo-Croat.
In the twentieth century, *Vladimir Nazor may have been gay and the modern poet *Hamdija Demirovic, who has been translated into English by *Charles Causley, has written a poem with the *Nisus and Euralyus trope. *Allen Ginsberg has been translated as have classic authors such as *Homer. See Babilonia no. 16 (1984), 42–44 on contemporary gay life. A gay literary anthology is being compiled in Serbia by Dusan Malkjovic (information from Gay Times, 250th anniversary issue, July 1999, 88—in the article on gays in Serbia, 88–90).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Yugoslav Poetry". Everyman Companion to East European Literature. see, among the entries at the rear: "Croatian"; "Serbian".
Slovenian is a *Slavic language spoken in Slovenia, formerly a Yugoslav republic, and adjacent to Austria and Italy. Material dates from 1950.
Homosexuality was legalized in Slovenia in 1974 and a gay movement quickly emerged from 1984 under the gay student rights group Magnus centering in the capital Ljubljana. The journal Revolver (from 1991) is edited by the poet *Brane Mozetic who has also compiled the first gay anthology of poems *Drobci stekla v ustih in 1989 and which included many fine translations such as those by *Ciril Bergles who has also published gay poems. *Shakespeare's sonnets have been translated as have Homer's Iliad (in 1950).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Slovenia".
South American Indian (also called South Amerindian) languages
South American Indian languages include Akamara from Peru and other Indian languages from Brazil, Venezuala and Bolivia (languages from other countries are almost certainly relevant). Poetry relating to homosexuality is known from 1959 in Makiritare from Venezuela.
Homosexuality has been reported amongst Amazon tribes in Brazil and Indian Andean cultures in Peru; however anthropological records are scant in relation to the huge number of tribes which once existed. Little material has come to light in these languages relating to oral poetry so far. Much more *oral tribal material is suspected especially among Brazilian Indians (who spoke 800 languages last century, only 170 languages being still spoken). See Julian H. Steward, Handbook of South American Indians, 1946 (repr.), 5 volumes, for bibliographical material. Spanish and Portuguese are the main languages of scholarship; Portuguese for Brazil and Spanish for the rest of South America. *Alberto Cardin has compiled an anthology of anthropological passages to do with homosexuality including South American tribal peoples.
Akarama. See *Song—Akarama (1969). Aymara. Spoken by Indians in the Andes, especially in Bolivia: see *Poems—Aymara (gay poems have not been confirmed but could be possible); the language is spoken on the Titicaca plateau in Bolivia, Peru and Columbia. Chaco. See "American Indian languages" in Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics article p. 44, re *chants (especially in all male groups). Makiritare: See *Oral poems— Makiritare (material only dates from 1959). Quechua. The language of the Incas of Peru; relevant oral poems may exist or have existed. On this language see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, 1506–09. Tupi and Guarani: see "American Indian languages" in Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, p. 44, re call and response couplets where the *performance tradition involving two males seems to have a homoerotic basis (these two languages are Andean cultures). There is a lot of homosexuality amongst the Guaranis: see Carlos Luis Jauregui, La Homosexualidad en la Argentina, Buenos Aires, 1987. *Shamanism has been reported in south American Indian tribes in relation to *trickster figures (see Encyclopedia of Religion article "South American Indians", p. 489).
Brazil is the largest country in South America, occupying over half the land mass. For information on languages, see "Indian Languages" in Dictionary of Brazilian Literature. Only 200,000 speakers of these languages exist in 1988 in Brazil of a Brazilian population of over 140 million (the fifth largest country by polulation in the world). Of the 170 presently spoken Brazilian Indian languages many are dying out. Compare *Overview—Central American Indian languages.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: in "American Indian languages" see pp. 44–45. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 44–46: "Amazonia"; 52–64: "Andean Cultures". Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion: see "South American Indians", "South American Religions". Bibliographies. Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites: see index. Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality, 241–42. Other reference works. Gay Books Bulletin no. 12 (Spring 1985), 17–19: "A Bibliography of Homosexuality Among Latin-American Indians" by *Stephen Wayne Foster (the major bibliographic survey to date). Murray, Male Homosexuality in Central and South America, 139–69. Trevisan, Perverts in Paradise, 20–22, 62: re the large extent of homosexuality among the Brazilian Indians. Katzner, Languages of the World, 9: notes several language families exist. Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: see index. Homosexuality and world religions, 1-46: article on the Americas and Africa.
Spanish in Central and South America
Spanish is an *Indo-European language in the *Romance group. It is spoken in South America in Mexico, Cuba, Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico (an autonomous political entity in the Caribbean in association with the United States) and other countries. It has been spoken in Mexico from the Spanish conquest of 1519–21 and in Peru from 1531–33 (when the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the country). Material of relevance dates from 1901.
All these countries have been sharply divided politically between the left and the right and dictatorships have been common during periods of their history. See *Stephen O. Murray for a general collection of social documents, *Law—Spanish for the legal situation, and *Dictionaries and words—Spanish for words. *Now the Volcano is the only anthology to date.
David William Foster edited Latin American Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes: a Biographical and Critical Sourcebook, Westport, CT, 1994; this work has excellent overviews of the writers in relation to homosexuality and entries have bibliographies; there is also a fine introduction with bibliography, pp. xxxiii–xxxvi, and a further bibliography pp. 471–73. *Ana María Brenes-García has written a brief overview of erotic and homoerotic writing in the Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature (1997), which work openly but briefly discusses male homosexuality. David William Foster, Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing, 1991, deals with gay prose ; bibl., pp. 165–74. See *Central and South American Indian languages for indigenous works of relevance. For material on *Chicano writers see the separate entry
Central America. Spanish speaking countries are Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama.
Mexico. Mexico has a rich gay history from the Aztecs, the Indian inhabitants prior to the Spanish: see *Songs—Náhuatl. The adoption of the *Code Napoléon following the French occupation (1862–67), made male homosexuality legal. Because of the fact that homosexuality has not been stigmatized in Mexico it has one of the richest South American gay poetry heritages. The earliest surviving poem so far known in Central and South American Spanish is *"Los 41 Maricones", a broadside of 1901, illustrated and published by the publisher of street literature *José Guadalupe Posada. *Agustín Lazo (born 1879) has been stated to be homosexual.
*Porfirio Barba-Jacob and *Xavier Villaurrutia are notable poets of the earlier twentieth century while the poet *Salvador Novo Lopez has written a gay memoir. The major Spanish gay poet *Louis Cernuda died in the capital *Mexico City. The *Nobel Prize winning *Octavio Paz has written on *Cavafy and *A. Jimenez has edited bawdy poetry. *Ernesto Bañuelos Enriquez, a very fine *gay liberation poet, died of *Aids. *Abigael Bohórquez is an openly gay poet. *Carlos Monsivais the country's leading intellectual has brought a gay sensibility to writing about poetry. See also *Arturo Rojas.
*Clark L. Taylor has written an overview of the gay history. See Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, pp. 803–07, "Mexico", for a general overview of gay life in the country.
Cuba. Cuba has a rich tradition of gay poets which is slowly becoming known. The situation for homosexuals was especially harsh with the coming to power of a *Communist regime under Fidel Castro from 1959, though has improved recently. See *Reinaldo Arenas (mainly a novelist), *Emilio Ballagas, *Julian del Casal, *Ernesto Che Guevara, *Nicholas Guillen Batista, *José Lezama Lima, *Virgilio Piñera. The novelist *Guillermo Cabrera Infante is important as a critic.
See the entries "Cuban Literature" and "Cuban Literature in Exile" in Gay Histories and Cultures.
Guatemala. See *Francisco Nájera. Puerto Rico. This country is an island to the east of Cuba and is a country in voluntary association with the United States. See *Manuel Otero, *Victor Fragoso (possible Spanish poet only), *Carlos and *Rafael Rodriguez-Matos, *Rane Arroyo, *Abniel Marat. A general work is José Ramón del Puente, El homosexual en Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras, ca. 1986; rare: a copy is in the *New York Public Library).
Costa Rica. A book Hombres que aman hombres (Men who love men) by Jacobo Schifter Sikora and Johnny Madrigal Pana was published in 1992 in San José by Ediciones ILEP-Sida and has bibliographical references pp 359–6. Not seen.
South America. Spanish-speaking countries are Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
Argentina. Argentina is the largest Spanish speaking country in South America. Its capital is the great city of *Buenos Aires. *Alberto Nin Frias was a major gay cultural historian. *Tulio Carella and *Nestor Perlongher are both poets who emigrated to Brazil. The poet and prose writer *Jorge Luis Borges is a fascinating figure from a homosexual point of view. The Polish writer *Witold Gombrowicz emigrated to Argentina in 1939, while the Argentinian *Juan Rudolph Wilcock emigrated to Italy where he writes in Italian.
With the return of democracy following the period of military rule (1976–1984), poetry writing has flourished: see *Miguel Angel Lens, *Claudio Lerena, *Daniel Navarro, *Oscar Vitelleschi.
Bolivia. See *Jaime Saenz, *Ernesto Che Guevara. Chile. The great *Communist poet *Neruda who won the *Nobel Prize for Literature and was not homosexual was, however, strongly influenced by *Walt Whitman. See also *Fernando Alegria. Columbia. See *Leon Zuleta. *Bernardo Arias Trujillo wrote a brilliant long gay poem about a *boy prostitute. Peru. See the Communist poet *Cesar Vallejo, *Garcilaso de la Vega, *Jorge Eduardo Eielson. Uruguay. See *Alberto Nin Frias. Carlos Basilio Munoz, Uruguay homosexual (Montevideo, 1996), 175 pp. with bibl. pp. 172–75, is a lightweight work in relation to gay culture. Venezuela. *Reynaldo Hayn, *Proust's lover, came from the country. *Enrique Nunez has written a sequence and *Miguel Castillo Didier compiled the first Spanish dictionary of sexual words. See also *Anthony Knight-Dewey and *Oral Poems–Makiritare.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, vol. 2, 678–81: "Latin America". Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: "Latin American Literature". Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Argentina", "Cuban Literature and Culture" and "Cuban Writing in Exile". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 329–81 (includes a selection of poems). Bibliographies. Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, pp.151–56. Other works. Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, 392–446.
*Kharjas are the first Spanish poems but were not poems as such. They were Spanish couplets added to Arabic poems. Spain was under Arabic domination until 1150 and had a rich Arabic homosexual tradition (see *Influence—Arabic) which continued in the extreme south in Granada until the expulsion of the Moors in 1492. Though the *Poema de Mio Cid (ca. 1200) is relevant, *Coplas del provincial (ca. 1474), which satirizes the court (referring to homosexuality) is the first poem with overt gay references.
The Spanish *mystic, *Saint John of the Cross, wrote homoerotic poems and the great seventeenth century poet *Góngora has been thought to be gay by some. The *law has been repressive and homosexuality only recently became legal in 1975.
The twentieth century. Several of the *modernist *generation of 1927—including the great poet *Federico García Lorca were gay; see also *Juan Gil-Albert. Lorca is the subject of a fine biography by *Ian Gibson who has also examined the circumstances of his murder in 1936 when Spain fell under the dictatorship of General Franco until Franco’s death in 1975). Lorca wrote gay poems, some only recently published. *Angel Sahuqillo has discussed homosexuality in the work of the generation of 1927 in a fine thesis and *Paul Binding has written a study of Lorca in gay terms. *Emilio Garcia Gomez's translation of Arabic homopoets from 1930 may have inspired Lorca. Lorca may have also possibly been inspired by *Antonio San de Velilla's *historical survey of gay culture published just before the Franco regime's repression from the 1930s. The fine gay poet, *Luis Cernuda, more important than Lorca for the openness of his poetry, fled to Great Britain, the United States and Mexico following the rise of General Franco when the republic was defeated. *Salvador Dali, the *surrealist artist, is known to have inspired Lorca's love.
*Poemes Gay (1978) is a recent anthology—the only gay anthology as such—while *Cuaderno Bibliografia Gay (1987) is the only gay bibliography so far. Spanish translations of Arabic (and Hebrew) poets who wrote homosexual poems form part of the corpus of Spanish gay poetry e.g., translation of the Arabic poets *Ibn Sahl and *Ibn Kuzman. Spanish also has a rich translation tradition from other languages—e.g., *Straton and the *Mousa Paidike have been translated from Greek. Latin was the language of the *Catholic church, the only religion from 1492, and gay poets in Latin were read by clerics and educated Spaniards.
The finest gay reading of Spanish poetry from Spain so far is an interview by *Jaime Gil de Biedma, who was himself a fine gay poet; he died of *Aids and has become something of a cult figure. *Luis Antonio de Villena is a major contemporary gay poet. Events in Spain and Spanish politics and culture have strongly influenced its former colonies in central and south America (from Mexico to Argentina and Chile).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage: see "Spanish Literature". Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Spanish Literature". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature, 475. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 329–31 and 335–81 (selection of poems).
Swedish is an *Indo-European language in the *Germanic group and is close to the neighboring languages of Norwegian, Danish, and German. It is spoken in Sweden. *Victor Rydberg (active 1870) is the first poet of note.
The work of *Vilhelm Ekelund and *Gunnar Bjorling (whose work belongs also with Fenno-Swedish literature, Swedish literature written in Finland) dates from 1900. *Nils Hallbeck who wrote from the 1950s is the finest openly gay poet. The work of the United Nations secretary-general *Dag Hammarskjold warrants perusal since he appears to have been gay. *Allen Ginsberg and *Dinos Christianopoulos (pseud.) have been translated into Swedish, as have many classic authors such as *Platen. *Bengt Martin is a contemporary poet of note.
*Olle-Petter Melin compiled a fine bibliography in 1975. The legal situation for gays is relaxed; see Gay Books Bulletin no. 5, 25–27 on the Swedish gay group RFSL. Rosa Rummet is a gay bookshop which has published from 1988 *Rosa Bulletinen, a listing of new European gay books. The gay and lesbian foundation of Sweden's archive is now at the Riksarchivet (State Archive) in Stockholm. See also *Overview—Norse. *Jacques d'Adelswärd Fersen came from Sweden.
Dictionaries
and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality,
1267–71: "Sweden". Bibliographies. Simes, Bibliography of
Homosexuality, 193–94. Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal
Flame, volume 2, 381-82 (overview), 396-9408 (selection of poems).
Syriac (sometimes called Syrian) is an *Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Syria through which much of ancient Greek culture passed to Arabic culture (for example, *Plato's Timaeus—though not, apparently, his *Symposium). The language is an eastern dialect of Aramaic, the language of *Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianit (see *Overview—Aramaic). Material dates from 100 B.C.
Syriac's importance for this encyclopedia is primarily as a bridge language. Antioch, a major city in northern Syria (an area formerly covering Lebanon and southern Turkey), was famous for its licentiousness in the ancient world: see *hymns regarding mother goddess worship and alleged males who castrate themselves (ca. 100 B.C.).
Though ancient Syria was preeminently the country of pleasure, the surviving literature from the time of *Christianity on, is religious in basis. Much ancient material seems lost. Cultures impinging on Syrian include ancient Hebrew and Greek cultures, the Latin speaking Romans and Persian, Arabic and Turkish speaking cultures. *Horace Satires i. 2. 116–19 mentions Syrian *slave boys; see also *New Testament, *Flagellation, *Sir James Frazer. The Syrian New Testament, called the Peshitta (Syrian: "simple"), is one of the earliest translations. Homosexuality is known extensively in monasteries and *Saint Ephraim, a famous Syrian saint who wrote hymns and praised virginity, may have been gay. On Syrian literature see W. Wright, Syriac Literature, 1894.
On the relation of the language to Aramaic see "Aramaic" in G. A. Buttrick, editor, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, vol. 1.
Tagalog is a *Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Philippines where it is the official language (about thirty-five other languages are spoken in the country). Material dates from 1992.
The first gay anthology *Ladlad, consisting of poetry and prose, was published in 1992, in which year a gay book of poems by *J. Neil C. Garcia was successfully launched. In 1993 a gay book of poems by *Nicholas Pichay was published. J. Neil Garcia has also published a history of Philippine gay culture and critical essays.
*Transvestites sing *songs and *singing and dancing boys exist; the term in Tagalog bakla has been used for effeminate gays but gay is increasingly used. On the *Internet a web site called Kakasarian (of the same sex), Queer Resources for Filipinos, has been in existence from at least 1995; material on the site includes an anthology of gay chants.
Tajik, one of the *Iranian languages, is a simplified form of Persian spoken in central Asia in the area known as Turkestan notably Tajikstan (see Encyclopædia Britannica entry and *Songs—Tajik). Material dates from 1500.
*Hilali (active 1500) is the first poet of note, though *Mushfiqi of Bukhara, who wrote gay poems in Persian may be relevant. *Dancing boy *songs can be documented from ca. 1885 at least (and probably date much earlier). *Islam is the religion. There are strong oral traditions.
As the discussion in Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, cited below, makes clear, Persian traditions operate and there are also close ties to Uzbek traditions. Tajikistan was under Russsian domination from 1917 to 1989, when the great Soviet orientalist *Evgenii Bertel's was the leading expert on the literature in Russia. *Lahuti is a modern poet of some relevance. Jünger, Literatures of the Soviet Peoples, pp. 80–83 has a survey of the literature.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, 483–600 and bibl. 814–31. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 25: see "Literature" in "Tadzik Soviet Socialist Republic".
Tamil is the most ancient and most widely spoken of the *Dravidian languages of southern India for recorded literary material; it is spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu. Material dates from 100 B.C.
The *Eight Tamil Anthologies are the earliest relevant works. In an *epic poem by *Ilankovatikal (active 500) the hero abandons his wife for men at one stage. The *Mahabharata, *Bhagavad Gita and *Ramayana all exist in Tamil versions as do various epic poems. Saivism (based on the work of *Shiva), *Vaisnavism and *Bhakti are practiced. There is a strong oral tradition of homoerotic *hymns addressed to Siva and *Krishna. *Hijras, men who dress as women and are castrated, exist. For a survey of the literature see Kamil Veith *Zvelebil, Tamil Literature, Weisbaden, 1974.
Sanskrit has had a strong influence: see *Overview—Sanskrit. George Hart, The Relation between Tamil and Classical Sanskrit Literature, Wiesbaden, 1976, discusses the interrelationship of the two literatures: it is claimed by some Tamil speakers that works in Sanskrit originated in Tamil and not vice versa which Sanskrit speakers claim.
Tiruvalluvar (active fourth or fifth century), a probably *Jain writer is famous for his couplets and has been compared to some of the world's greatest writers.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, 557–64. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 25: "Tamil Literature". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 590–92 and following.
Thai is a tonal language thought by some to be *Sino-Tibetan but regarded by others as from a separate family, called the Tai family. It is spoken in Thailand. Material dates from 1920.
*Buddhism is the religion though Indian influence has been strong—e.g., the *Ramayana is performed in dance. There is no law against homosexuality in Thailand and homosexuality is fairly openly accepted (e.g., there has been a Thai Prime Minister who was open about his homosexuality). Northern Thai is written in a phonetic script based on central Thai and Chinese *influence is noticeable. Southern Thai is written in a phonetic script related to south Indian and Khmer scripts and dating from ca. 1300. There are rich oral traditions in Thai and several minority languages in Thailand (e.g., Shan). Chinese, Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian are adjoining languages. There is a large Chinese community in Thailand, mainly from south China and Cantonese speaking. *Omar Khayyam has been translated.
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has a thriving gay culture and several gay journals have appeared from 1984 based around the bar culture (see the entry on the city in *Gay Histories and Cultures). In 1985, The National Library in the capital Bangkok held no books in Thai specifically on homosexuality (see Peter Jackson, Male Homosexuality in Thailand, cited below, p. 7). Homosexuals who worked in classical song and dance are relevant and a gay tradition is likely. Earlier in the century the French sexual philosopher *René Guyon worked in Thailand. A tradition of transvestism and *singers in populare culture may and probably does exist. There is a tradition of erotic heterosexual poetry. See *Suntorn Pu (1786-1855) for a *non gender specific love poem and *Camille Kepler re a poem on a *pedophile theme in French referring to sex with a ten-year-old Thai boy.
On the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1362–82. On the gay social background see Peter A. Jackson, Male Homosexuality in Thailand, New York, 1989; this contains a Thai English lexis pp. 276–77 and bibliography in English and Thai pp. 278–80 (review: Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities, 387–96; Journal of Homosexuality 20, 1990, 126–138); an expanded version of this book is Dear Uncle Go: male homosexuality in Thailand, Bangkok and San Francisco, 1995. The author has also written "Thai research on Male Homosexuality and Transgenderism and the Cultural Limits of Foucaultian Analysis", Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 8 no. 1 (1997), 52–85.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 1288–1290. Great Soviet Encyclopedia , vol. 24, 559. Gay Histories and Cultures: see "Thailand".
Tibetan, a *Sinitic language spoken in the Tibetan autonomous region of China (formerly the country of Tibet), has been greatly influenced by *Turkic languages (especially Uighur) spoken to the north. Material dates from 1670. Tibetan lacks gender.
The country has been under Chinese control since 1951 and there have been reliable reports of the large scale destruction of Tibetan culture since then (up to 3,000 monasteries and buildings destroyed especially since 1959). The country was formerly a theocracy with a monk ruler, the *Dalai Lama, who now lives in northern India in Dharamsala north of Delhi after escaping in 1959 (India is now a center of the culture but there is a Tibetan diaspora in other parts of the world).
As in Mongolia, monks and monasteries are a dominant feature of Tibetan life. No notice is taken of homosexuality in monasteries and Tibetans are said to very comfortable about homosexuality (see Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet, Los Angeles, 1981, p. 217); monks are frequently gay and no fuss is made (oral sources to the author). Peter, Prince of Greece and Denmark, in A Study of Polyandry, 1963, states, p. 458, "monasteries in Tibet.. have.. a very strong reputation for male homosexuality..." The *Tibetan Book of the Dead (text possibly ca. 1120), a prose work with poetry, which is a work of philosophy, has a homosexual episode. *Buddhist hymns and chants are relevant as is Tibetan *Tantrism and its secret sexual traditions; the *Kama Sutra has been translated.
Strong oral traditions exist and a huge literature—mostly religious—existed (though 60% of this has been destroyed under *Communist Chinese control of Tibet). The sixth Dali Lama *Lobzang Rindzin was a sexual libertine and his poems, emerging from the oral folk tradition, have been a source of much interest culminating in several translations. They present interesting possibilities from the point of view of a gay reading; some can be read as gay poems in English translation.
Tibetan is written in an alphabet related to Devanagari, the writing system of Hindi. Assamese and Nepali are spoken to the south east, Punjabi and Hindi in the south west, and Chinese to the north east. There are *secret interpretations of letters and words of the language.
For the language see the entry in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. For the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1118–39. David Snellgrove, A Cultural History of Tibet, 1968, is an excellent introduction to Tibetan civilization.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 25: see "Tibetan Autonomoous Region". Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: various entries.
Turkish, a member of the *Altaic language family, is the major literary language of the *Turkic languages which are spoken across Asia from Turkey to China; these languages are all close. Turkish is spoken in Turkey (sometimes referred to by Greeks in its ancient Greek name of Anatolia “eastern”). It is a major language for homosexual poetry. *Islam is the dominant religion and there has been close interconnection with *Islamic languages especially Arabic (see *Influence—Arabic) and Persian (see *Influence—Persian). Material dates from 1320.
Turkish before 1928 is called Ottoman Turkish; it was a language which was written in the Arabic script and had a large proportion of Arabic and Persian words. From 1928 the first President of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk, insisted by law that the language be written in the Latin alphabet. There was also a campaign in the 1920s to purify the language and replace Arabic and Persian words with Turkish words. As a result, Ottoman Turkish is not understood by modern Turkish speakers and is only taught in universities.
The Divan poets. The *mystical *Sufi oral poet *Yunus Emre (active 1320), whose poetry emerges out of that of *Rumi (the founder of Sufism who died in Turkey), is the first known relevant poet. The language has a strong poetry tradition dating from the fifteenth century. These poets, writing in the *Ottoman period are called *divan poets, so called because poems were recited on a low bed on the floor in a private setting. All divan poets are relevant as there was a convention of addressing the beloved in the male form (see *gender switching). There are also strong *oral poetry traditions which continue today, including *dancing boys who sing songs (see *Ingeborg Baldauf, *Jonathan Drake [pseud.]). Dancing boys were so famous that the poet *Enderunlu Fazil wrote about one, *Çingene Ismail, in poetry and forty-five are mentioned by name in another work; Enderunlu Fazil wrote a poem mentioning dancing boys from Istanbul.
Outstanding poets of the Divan tradition include *Baki, *Nedim, *Ahmedi, *Ahmet Pasha, *Nef`i, *Necati, *Razi; *pederasty was the dominant form of homosexuality in these poets (who appear in *The Penguin Book of Turkish Verse and in whose poetry the *ghazal is the major genre). Poetry of this period is many-layered. Traditional Turkish poets used *pseudonyms (see *takhallus). The Penguin Book of Turkish Verse has a splendid introduction discussing homosexuality in the traditional poetry by the great Turkish scholar *Fahrir Iz.
In *long poems *Mehmed Ghazali wrote a *mesnevi (also spelt mathnavi) comparing the anus and the vagina for pleasure and *Mesihi a mathnavi on the beautiful youths of Edirne. *Fadil Bey wrote homosexual poetry. During the Ottoman period, 1453 to 1921 (when Turkey became a republic) the Ottoman empire reached from the Balkans to Egypt and as far as Iran. Persian *influence was strong (Turkish—like Persian—also does not have gender) and can be seen in the use of the *cupbearer and *wine drinking tropes.
Many *Sultans, rulers of the Turkish Ottoman empire, wrote homopoems—for instance *Selim I—as did the Emperor *Babar in India. *Literary historians and critics who have discussed homosexual poetry include, in German, *Hammer-Purgstall and, in English, *E. G. Browne and *E J Gibb and there are several historians in Russian (where much work on Turkic languages has been done). The critic *Ismet Eyuboglu dealt with homosexuality in poetry.
A huge corpus of *Manuscripts exists, especially in *Istanbul, the capital of Turkey which has long connections with Turkish gay poetry (including a several centuries old *meeting place); *Helmut Ritter was a German gay scholar who lived there and wrote extensive critical works. The *historical and social background has recently been investigated in Turkish by *Arslan Yüzgün. For biographical sources see *Biography—Turkish. See also *Rebetika, a Greek genre which came from Turkey.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 1329–30: "Turkey". Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition (1934): see "Ottoman Literature" under the entry "Turks" 938–59 (with important bibl.). Great Soviet Encyclopedia: see "Literature" in the article "Turkey", vol. 26 pp. 474–77. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Turkish Poetry" (with bibl.). Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1, 357–76.
Ukrainian is an *Indo-European language in the *Slavic group and is spoken by more people than any other Slavic language apart from Russian. Material dates from 1913.
The language is spoken in Ukraine which became an independent state in 1990 after the breakup of the Soviet empire. The Russians under the Soviet system had ruled from 1924. Religion in the country is *Orthodox Christianity. Conditions in the country are very difficult. *Oral epics involving *pobratim (brotherhood) exist as do *songs. Translations of homopoets include *Whitman, *Shakespeare, *Catullus and *Martial, translated in 1913 (the latter both translated by T. Franko). Folk material has been investigated by Pavlo Tarasevskjy (see *Sexology and sexologists—European).
See Volodymyr Kubijovyc, editor, Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, 2 volumes, Toronto, 1963, for information on the country. Male homosexuality was legalized between 1990 and 1992 (before Russia). Kiev is the capital of Ukraine. Jünger, Literatures of the Soviet Peoples, pp. 86–93, has a survey of the literature.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 26, 599–605: see "Literature" under "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Ukrainian Poetry". Everyman Companion to East European Literature: "Ukrainian", 550–55.
Urdu is spoken in Pakistan and in parts of India and in overseas countries where Pakistanis have settled (such as Australia, Great Britain). It is an *Indo-European language. Material dates from ca. 1550.
The word "Urdu" is Turkish for "camp" or "army" and Urdu was a western Hindi dialect, Khari Boli ("standing language") overlaid with Persian and Turkish; Khari Boli is an amalgam of Pushtu, Arabic, Turkish, Aphabramsa and Persian so the language contains words from many other languages. It is a lingua franca used in India and Pakistan. Proto Urdu goes back to the thirteenth century when the Ghaznavids invaded the Lahore area, now in Pakistan. Notable poetry dates from the sixteenth century though the first written work was a work on *Sufism and morals by Khwaja Sayyid Samnani dating from 1308. Urdu is now the national language of Pakistan, though before 1947, when India was partitioned, it was spoken in northern India; after the partition of India into India and Pakistan many speakers left India for Pakistan. Arabic, and especially Persian, have provided literary models (see *Influence—Arabic, —Persian). Attempts to make Urdu the state language of Pakistan have never been entirely successful and continue to meet with opposition from the indigenous speakers (speakers of Sindhi, Pashto, Pubjabi, Baluchi and Seraiki).
Of all *Islamic languages Urdu has one of the richest homosexual literary traditions. Literary conventions such as the *coming of the beard which occur in Persian are present; *Sufism has had a strong influence on the poetry. The convention of a male beloved in the traditional Urdu *ghazal means all poems in this form are relevant; see also *gazal-e muzakkar. In more recent times the beloved is accepted as female and, when India and Pakistan were under the domination of Great Britain, the British rulers discouraged the concept of a male beloved. There have been outstanding homosexual poems in the *mathnavi form.
Outstanding *literary historians and critics who have revealed homosexuality in Udru include *`Andalib Shadani who wrote what is apparently the first article in Urdu ca. 1950 and *C. M. Naim who has written the most comprehensive discussion; *Muhammad Sadiq and *Ralph Russell have also written on the subject.
*Pederasty has been the dominant form of homosexuality in the poetry. The early poet Vali (pseud.) (1667–1741) who moved from the Deccan in India to *Delhi, wrote poems on the theme. Major poets with homosexual themes writing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries include *Abru, *Mir Taqi Mir, *Dard and *Ghalib. *Delhi and *Lucknow were centers of schools of poetry. The fine twentieth century poet *Firaq, who was known to be homosexual, did not write gay poetry. Sex has been a theme in twentieth century poetry as well as in earlier poetry: *Josh Malihabadi (pseud.) wrote openly of homosexuality and *Ifti Nasim has written poems in both English and Urdu. *Dancing boys still sing bawdy songs in Pakistan. All poets use *pseudonyms.
After the partition of India in 1947, the centre of Urdu literary activity moved to Pakistan. Much material remains in *manuscript in which illustration, following Persian influence, is outstandingly homoerotic. Compare *Overview—Persian, *Overview—Turkish.
Other Pakistan languages with homosexual themes include Baluchi (see *Songs—Baluchi), Sindhi (see *Songs—Sindhi, *Sufism, *Sayyid), Pashto (see *Overview—Pashto), Gujarati (also spoken in India; see *Hijras, *Mira) and Punjabi (see *Overview—Punjabi); see also the entry Pakistan in Great Soviet Encyclopeida, vol. 19.
Bengali was spoken in east Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after the 1947split. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971 when it split from Pakistan.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition: see "Urdu". Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature: see under "Indian" 567–71. Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature vol. 1, 301–02: "Urdu" (by *Ralph Russell). Great Soviet Encyclopedia: see "Urdu Literature". See also De Bary, Guide to Oriental Classics, 148–51.
Uzbek is a *Turkic language spoken in Central Asia in *Turkestan in Uzbekistan. Material is documented from 1885.
Notable *songs sung by young *dancing boys involved in the cult of bacabozlik or boy love are of major importance and have been studied by *Ingeborg Baldauf; photographs of such dancing boys exist from the 1890s. Dancing boy songs exist from ca. 1885. The poet *Magidi (active 1929) wrote satirical poems on this subject.
Persian and Turkish *influence is strong in Uzbek. *Firdausi has been translated and other *epics exist. See also *wrestling matches and *Influence—Persian, —Turkish as both languages influenced Uzbek. Uzbekistan is a strictly controlled state, more strictly controlled than the USSR under the Soviet regime; the capital is Tashkent. Uzbek Poetry, Moscow, 1958 (no editor given), pp. 7–10, gives an overview.
Vietnamese is a tonal language spoken in Vietnam; the language is part of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Material of relevance dates from 700.
Vietnamese was written in the Chinese script until the nineteenth century and Chinese influence has been strong, especially since the *T'ang period: see *scholars, *Confucianism. *Buddhism has been the main religion and *Communism the dominant ideology from 1945. Sex is an open subject in literature in Vietnamese and there have been several notable female poets dealing with it; homosexual poems dealing with sex are suspected.
Many references to male homosexuality occur in the work of the remarkable woman poet *Ho Xuan Huong (early nineteenth century). The poet *Du'ong Tu'ong wrote a poem referring to homosexuality which caused a scandal ca. 1992. An earlier twentieth century poet is *Xuan Dieu. Poets: see *Nguyen Trai, *Bui Tong Quan. The *Ramayana has been translated.
Male homosexuality is illegal in Vietnam in 1997. On sexuality in Vietnam, see Jean-Noül Bergmann, La sexualité à travers le monde: études sur la Péninsule Indochinoise, Paris, 1966, and Philip Marnais, Saigon After Dark, New York, 1967 (not sighted; very rare). On the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume one, pp. 1318–42.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, vol. 5 p. 437: see "Vietnam—Literature".
Yiddish, a mixture of two languages from the *Indo-European and *Afro-Asiatic families, was originally a dialect of Middle High German and is usually written in the Hebrew alphabet; it spread over Europe from western Europe to Russia and was the spoken language of the *Jews in Europe. Material dates from 1934.
From the twentieth century there was a dramatic engagement with contemporary literature in the poetry and a vigorous written poetic tradition. A selection of *Whitman (in 1934) and *Shakespeare's Sonnets have been translated. An oral literature appeared in the twelfth century and a printed literature in the sixteenth century.
Oral homopoems are likely since there was a rich oral literature; but none have been discovered so far and because of the destruction of the European *Jews in the Second World War none is likely to be found. Homosexual bawdry in the form of poetry is likely; see an essay in Bruce Jackson, Folklore and Society, 1966, for possible sources. A poem about the beautiful man *Joseph has been found in the Cairo Geniza.
The language suffered from the attempted genocide of European Jews in the Second World War and later under Stalin in Russia. French translations of Yiddish classics are being made in a series edited by Marion Van Renterghem called Domaine Yiddish. *New York and Israel are at present publishing centers of Yiddish. Many Yiddish books were saved and donated to United States libraries by Aaron Lansky in the 1980s: see Nicholas Basbanes, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes and the Eternal Passion for Books, New York, 1995, 383–94. Donations to such universities as *Harvard and *Yale enabled courses in Yiddish to be established when the language was thought to be near extinction. See also *Overview—Hebrew.
On the literature see Queneau, Histoire des littératures, volume two, 1246–73.
Dictionaries
and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of
Poetry and Poetics: see "Yiddish Poetry".
Everyman Companion to East European Literature: see "Yiddish",
555–57.
Works cited in A World Overview of Male Homosexual Poetry and in An Encyclopedia of Male Homosexual Poetry
Works cited are usually given under the author’s name plus the first words of the title so that by these words they can be readily found in library catalogs. Some four hundred and fifty works are cited (including over a hundred and thirty gay poetry anthologies). For homosexual anthologies, which all have separate entries, the first words of the title are usually used—for instance: *Men and Boys. Biographical and literary dictionaries and encyclopedias are usually listed under the main words of the title (e.g., Oxford Classical Dictionary). An asterisk (*) indicates an entry in the Encyclopedia. Where multiple works have been cited in entries, works are in approximate order of publication
Because of their importance *bibliographies of homosexuality are given individual entries (e.g., *An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality, *The Male Homosexual in Literature, *Leggere omosessuale). Major cities (e.g., *New York, *London) have separate entries (though these cities, as places of publication, have not been asterisked here. Poets whose names appear in titles and who have entries—e.g., *Wilfred Owen—are not asterisked here when occurring within a title, nor are concepts such as *homosexuality. For Abbreviations (e.g. UK) consult the separate list of Abbreviations Used.
In general, Thomas Mann, The Oxford Guide to Library Research (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) should be consulted by researchers; it was written by a senior reference librarian at the *Library of Congress and this, the third edition of the work thoroughly covers the Internet which the second edition published in 1998 did not. James L. Harner, Literary Research Guide, second edition (New York: Modern Language Association, 1993), is a basic research tool for *European languages. For reference works, Robert Balay, Guide to Reference Books, eleventh edition (Chicago: American Library Association,1996), is the standard work; previous editions edited by Eugene P. Sheehy are useful to their respective dates of publication.
The literatures of many little known languages are dealt with in Raymond Queneau, editor, Histoire des litteratures, 3 volumes (Paris: Gallimard, 1968–1978); this work is part of the Encyclopédie de la Pléiade which also includes Histoire des religions, 3 volumes (Paris: Gallimard, 1970–76), a comprehensive survey of world *religions.
For information on the *languages of the world consult the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (1994) and International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1992) both cited below. Excellent practical information giving the place where a particular language is spoken is available from the maps covering the world in Liana Lupus, Scriptures of the World (New York: United Bible Societies, 1992), pp. 81–109; updated edition Scriptures of the World, 1996 (New York: United Bible Societies, 1997). Information is also contained in Barbara F. Grimes, Ethnologue: languages of the world, thirteenth edition, (Dallas, TX: Summer Insititute of Linguistics, 1996); this latter work has excellent maps and is available as a CD ROM. More concise information is given in such works as Parlett, A Short Dictionary of Languages and Katzner, Languages of the World, both cited below.
For information on the *countries of the world the most up to date information can be found on the *Internet (e.g., under CIA—The World Factbook, though this is not a complete list of all countries). The Encyclopædia Brittanica Yearbook, Chicago: Encyclopædia Brittanica, which has information for the year before that in the title (e.g. 1997 Encyclopædia BrittanicaYearbook deals with information for 1996) has the latest information under the entry “Nations of the World”.
George Peter Murdock, Outline of World Culures, sixth edition (New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, 1983), is a concise guide to the *cultures of the world based on the *Human Relations Area Files. There are more cultures than languages though in many cases culture and language coincide. For information on the cultures of the world consult David Levinson, editor, Encyclopedia of World Cultures, 10 volumes (Boston: G. K, Hall, 1993) and Amiram Gonen, Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World (New York: H. Holt, 1993).
Information on literatures, languages, countries and cultures can also be obtained on the *Internet.
This listing below gives the abbreviated style of citation of works followed by the full publication details.
Adler, The Great Ideas = Mortimer Adler, editor, The Great Ideas: A Synopticon of Great Books of the Western World, 2 volumes, Chicago; Encyclopædia Britaninica, 1952 A`in i Akbari anthology = anthology in *Abu 'l-Fazl `Allami, *A`in-i Akbari, volume three, originally compiled probably in Delhi, ca. 1600, in the English translation of *H. S. Jarrett, Calcutta, 1894 Allgemeine deutsche Biographie = Historische Commission bei der Königlichen Academie de Wissenschaften, editors, Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 56 volumes, Berlin: Dunker and Humbolt, 1967–71 (facsimile reprint of the first edition Munich and Leipzig: Dunker and Humbolt, 1875–1912) American National Biography = John A. Garraty and Mark C Carnes, editors, American National Biography, 24 volumes, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. There may be entries in the Dictionary of American Biography (published 1928–1955) listed below. Amerikanike Homophylophile Poiese = *Andreas Angelakes, editor, *Amerikanike Homophylophile Poiese, Athens: Odusseas, 1982 Andere Lieben = *Joachim Campe, *Andere Lieben: Homosexualität in der deutschen Literatur, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988 And Thus Will I Freely Sing = *Toni Davidson, editor, *And Thus Will I Freely Sing: An Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Writing from Scotland, Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989 Angels of the Lyre = *Winston Leyland, editor, *Angels of the Lyre, San Francisco: Panjandrum Press and *Gay Sunshine Press, 1975 Anthologie de l'amour turc = *Edmund Fazy and *Abdul-Halim Memdouch, *Anthologie de l'amour turc, Paris: *Mercure de France, 1905 Arberry, Legacy of Persia = *A. J. Arberry, The Legacy of Persia, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1953 Arberry, Sufism =* A. J. Arberry, Sufism: An account of the mystics of Islam, London: Allen and Unwin, 1950 Art of Gay Love = [no editor], *Art of Gay Love, London: Hamlyn, 1995 Ashbee, Bibliography of Prohibited Books = *Henry Spencer Ashbee, Bibliography of Prohibited Books, 3 volumes, New York: Jack Brussel, 1962 (facsimile reprint of Index librorum prohibitorum, London: the author, 1877, Centuria librorum absconditorum, London: the author, 1879, and Catena librorum tacendorum, London: the author, 1885) Atkins, Sex in Literature = *John Atkins, Sex in Literature, 4 volumes, London: Calder and Boyers, 1970–78 A True Likeness = *Felice Picano, editor,*A True Likeness: Lesbian and Gay Writing Today, New York: Sea Horse Press, 1980 Australian Dictionary of Biography = Douglas Pike and others, editors, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 15+ volumes, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969– (in progress) A-Z Guide to Modern Literary and Cultural Theorists = Stuart Sim, editor, The A-Z Guide to Modern Literary and Cultural Theorists, Hertfordshire, UK: Prentice Hall, 1995 Badboy Book = *David Laurents, editor, *The Badboy Book of Erotic Poetry, New York: Masquerade Books, 1995 Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition = *Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, London: Longmans, Green, 1955 Balay, Guide to Reference Books = Robert Balay, Guide to Reference Books, Chicago: American Library Association, 1996 Bartlett, Who Was That Man? = *Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man?: A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde, London: Serpent’s Tail, 1988 Basham, The Wonder That Was India = A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, third revised edition, London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1967 Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht = *Hermann Baumann, Das doppelte Geschlecht: Studien zur Bisexualität in Ritus und Mythos, Berlin: Reimer, 1955 *Beau petit ami. See *L’amour bleu below. Beeston, Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period = A. L. Beeston, Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983 Bellamy, Banners of the Champions = James Bellamy and Patricia Steiner, Banners of the Champions; An Anthology of Medieval Arabic Poetry from Andalusia and Beyond, Madison: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 1989 Benson, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures = Eugene Benson and L. W. Connolly, Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, 2 volumes, London: Routledge, 1994 Bestandsverzeichnis der August von Platen-Bibliothek Siegen = Uwe Meyer, editor, Bestandsverzeichnis der August von Platen-Bibliothek Siegen, Siegen: Universität-Gesamthochschule Siegen, 1995 Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies = Theodore H. Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies and of bibliographical catalogues, calendars, abstracts, digests, indexes, and the like, fourth edition, 5 volumes, Lausanne: Societas Bibliographica, 1965–66. (Toomey, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies 1964–1974, below, continues this work.) Best Mates: Gay Writing in Aotearoa New Zealand = *Peter Wells and Rex Pilgrim editors, Best Mates: Gay Writing in Aotearoa New Zealand, Auckland: Reed Books, 1997 Bilder-lexikon = [*Leo Schidrowitz, editor], *Bilder-lexikon Kulturgeschichte, 4 volumes, Vienna and Leipzig: Institut für Kulturforschung, 1928–31 Biographie universelle = Joseph François Michaud, editor, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlaganstalt, 1966 (facsimile reprint of the first edition, Paris: Madame C. Desplaces, 1854–65) Black Men/ White Men = *Michael J. Smith, editor, *Black Men/ White Men: A Gay Anthology, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1983 Blue Boys = *Philebus (pseudonym) and others, *Blue Boys, London: *Gay Men’s Press, 1992 Boorman, Biographical Dictionary = Martin L. Boorman, Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, 5 volumes, New York: Columbia University Press, 1967–79 Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality = *John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981 Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry = *C. Maurice Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides, second revised edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961 Brandt, Sittengeschichte griechenlands, volume 2 = *Paul Brandt, Sittengeschichte griechenlands: Das Liebesleben der Griechen, volume 2, Dresden: Paul Aretz, 1926 Brandt, Sittengeschichte griechenlands, volume 3 = *Paul Brandt, Sittengeschichte griechenlands, volume 3, Ergänzungsband [Supplement volume], Dresden: Paul Aretz, 1928 Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England = *Alan Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England, London: *Gay Men’s Press, 1982 Bredbeck, Sodomy and Interpretation = *Gregory W. Bredbeck, Sodomy and Interpretation: Marlowe to Milton, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991 Briggs and Calder, Classical Scholarship = Ward M. Briggs and William Calder III, Classical Scholarship: A Biographical Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 1990 British Library General Catalogue = Jim Emmett and others, editors, British Library General Catalogue of Printed Books to 1975, 360 volumes, London: Clive Bingley, 1979_–87 Brongersma, Loving Boys = *Edward Brongersma, Loving Boys, 2 volumes, New York: Global Academic Publishers, 1986–1990 Bronski, Culture Clash = *Michael Bronksi, Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility, Boston: South End Press, 1984 Brother Songs = *Jim Perlman, editor,*Brother Songs: A Male Anthology of Poetry, Minneapolis: Holy Cow! Press,1979 Brother to Brother = *Essex Hemphill, editor, *Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, Boston: Alyson, 1991 Browne, Literary History of Persia = *Edward Browne, A Literary History of Persia, 4 volumes, London and Leipzig: T. Fisher Unwin and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1902–24 Brunet, Manuel du libraire = Jacques Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, fifth edition, 6 volumes, Paris: Didot, 1860–65. Consult also the Supplément, 2 volumes, edited by P. Deschamps and Gustave Brunet, Paris: Firmin, 1868–70 Buffière, Eros adolescent = *Felix Buffière, Eros adolescent: la pédérastie dans la Grèce antique, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1980 Bugger: an anthology = *Ed Sanders, editor, Bugger: an anthology of anal erotic, pound cake, cornhole, arse-freak, and dreck poems, New York: Fuck You Press, 1964 Bullough, Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality = *Vern L. Bullough, *W. Dorr Legg, *Barrett W. Elcano and *James Kepner, *An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality (in two volumes), volume 2, New York: Garland, 1976 Bullough, Sexual Variance = *Vern L. Bullough, Sexual Variance in Society and History, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976 Caesar, Taking It Like a Man = *Adrian Caesar, Taking It Like a Man: Suffering, sexuality and the War Poets, Brooke, Sassoon, Owen, Graves, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press,1993 Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature = S. H. Steinberg, editor, Cassell’s Encyclopaedia of World Literature, second edition, 3 volumes, London: Cassell, 1973 Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit = Randy P. Conner and others, Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore, London: Cassell, 1997 Collison, Dictionaries of Foreign Languages = Robert L. Collison, Dictionaries of Foreign Languages, New York: Haffner Publishing Company, 1955 Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature = *Byrne R. S. Fone, *Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature: Readings from Western Antiquity to the Present Day, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997 Contemporary Authors = [Gale Research Co.], Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Authors and their Works, 185+ volumes, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1962– (in progress). Continued by Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (see next entry). Contemporary Authors New Revision Series = Ann Evory and others, editors, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, 77 volumes, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1981_– (in progress). This is a continuation of Contemporary Authors (see previous entry). Contemporary Literary Criticism = Carol Riley and others, editors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, 120+ volumes, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1973– (in progress) Contemporary Poets, third edition = James Vinson, editor, Contemporary Poets, third edition, London: Macmillan, 1980. There may also be an entry in the fourth, fifth and sixth editions cited below and in earlier editions. Contemporary Poets, fourth edition = James Vinson and D. L. Kirkpatrick, editors, Contemporary Poets, London: St. James Press, fourth edition, 1985. There may also be an entry in the fifth and sixth editions or in earlier editions. Contemporary Poets, fifth edition = Tracy Chevalier, editor, Contemporary Poets, fifth edition, Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. There may also be an entry in earlier editions and the sixth edition, edited by Thomas Riggs, New York: St James Press, 1996 Cooper, Sexual Perspective = Emmanuel Cooper, The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the last 100 years in the West, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986 Courouve, Ces petits grecs = *Claude Courouve, Ces petits grecs ont un faible pour les gymnases... l’amour masculine dans les textes grecs et latins—nouvelle edition, Paris: the author, 1988 Courouve, Vocabulaire de l'homosexualité masculine = *Claude Courouve, Vocabulaire de l'homosexualité masculine, Paris: Payot, 1985 Crew, Gay Academic = *Louie Crew, editor, The Gay Academic, Palm Springs, CA: ETC Publications, 1978 Cuaderno bibliográfico gay = [no editor], *Cuaderno bibliográfico gay 1987/ Gay bilduma bibliografikoa, Bilboa: Movimiento de liberacion gay del pais vasco, 1987 Dar al-Tiraz = *Ibn Sana al-Mulk, *Dar al-Tiraz: Poétique du muwassah par Ibn Sana al-Mulk: édition critique d’après les mss. du Caire et de Leyde, second edition, edited by Jawdat Rikabi, Damascus: Librairie Dar al-Fikr, 1977 (reprint of the first edition Damascus, 1949) Dawes, A Phase of Roman Life = *Charles Reginald Dawes, A Phase of Roman Life, ca. 1914. Manuscript in the *British Library held in the *Private Case at Cup 363. ff. 4 Dawes, Study of Erotic Literature in England = *Charles Reginald Dawes, A Study of Erotic Literature in England, ca.1943. Manuscript in the *British Library held in the *Private Case at Cup. 364. d. 15. Deakin, Catalogi librorum eroticum = *Terence J. Deakin (pseudonym), Catalogi librorum eroticum: A critical bibliography of erotic bibliographies and book-catalogues, London: Cecil and Amelia Woolf, 1964 De Bary, Guide to Oriental Classics = William Theodore de Bary, A Guide to Oriental Classics, third edition, New York: Columbia University Press, 1989 Delight of Hearts = Ahmad *al-Tifashi, *Delight of Hearts, translated by *E. A. Lacey, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1988 Der kleine Pauly = Konrat Ziegler and Walther Sontheimer, editors, Der kleine Pauly: Lexikon der Antike, 5 volumes, Munich: Druckmüller, 1975 Derks, Der Schande der heiligen Päderastie = *Paul Derks, Der Schande der heiligen Päderastie: Homosexualität und Öffentlichkeit in der deutschen Literatur 1750–1850, Berlin: *Verlag rosa Winkel, 1990 Dessaix, Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing = *Robert Dessaix, Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993 Dictionary of American Biography = Allen Jones and others, editors, *Dictionary of American Biography, 20 volumes, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–1936,with 10 supplementary volumes, 1944–1995. There may be entries in the American National Biography (2000) listed above. Dictionary of Brazilian Literature = Irwin Stern, editor, Dictionary of Brazilian Literature, New York: Greenwood Press, 1988 Dictionary of Italian Literature = Peter and Julia Bondanella, Dictionary of Italian Literature, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979 Dictionary of Literary Biography = *Joel Myerson and others, editors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, 211+ volumes, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1978– (in progress) Dictionary of National Biography = Leslie Stephen and others, editors, Dictionary of National Biography, 22 volumes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1885–1901. Dictionary of National Biography 1901–11 etc. refers to the supplements of the Dictionary of National Biography for the years referred to; see also the next entry. Dictionary of National Biography: Missing Persons = C. S. Nichols, editor, The Dictionary of National Biography: Missing Persons, London: Oxford University Press, 1993. This volume has entries for persons omitted from the main volumes. Dictionary of Oriental Literatures = Jaroslav Prusek, editor, Dictionary of Oriental Literatures, 3 volumes, London: Allen and Unwin, 1974 Dictionnaire Gay = Lionel Povert, Dictionnaire Gay, Paris: Jacques Grancher, 1994 Die Bedeutung der Freundesliebe = *Adolf Brand, *Die Bedeutung der Freundesliebe für Führer und Völker, Berlin: *Der Eigene, 1923 Die Stumme Sünde = *Brigitte Spreitzer, *Die Stumme Sünde: Homosexualität im Mittelalter mit einem Textanhang, Göppingen: Kümmerle, Germany,1988 Digte om mænds kærlighed til mænd = Peter Boesen and *Vagn Søndergaard, editors, Digte om mænds kærlighed til mænd, Copenhagen: Tiderne Skifter, 1980 Dimock, Literatures of India = Edward C. Dimock, editor, Literatures of India: An Introduction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974 Directory of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Archives and Libraries = *Alan V. Miller, editor, Directory of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Archives and Libraries, Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1987 Dissertation Abstracts International = *Dissertation Abstracts International, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1935– (in progress). Issued as Microfilm abstracts from 1935 to 1951 and called Dissertation Abstracts from 1952 to 1969. A CDROM exists from 1993 called Dissertations Abstracts which includes all material from previous published editions and from 1998 there is an *Internet version. Dizionario biografico degli Italiani = Alberto M. Ghisalberti, editor, Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, 53+ volumes, Rome: Enciclopedia italiana, 1960– (in progress) Dover, Greek Homosexuality = *Kenneth J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality, London: Duckworth, 1978 Drew, Boys for Sale = *Dennis Drew and *Jonathan Drake (pseudonym), Boys for Sale: A Sociological Study of Boy Prostitution, New York: Brown Book, 1969 Duberman, Hidden from History = *Martin Duberman and others, editors, Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, New York: Meridian, 1989 Duroc, Homosexuels et lesbiennes illustrés = *Pierre Duroc, Homosexuels et lesbiennes illustrés: dictionnaire anecdotique, Brussels: Les Auteurs réunis, 1983 Dynes, Homolexis = *Wayne Dynes, Homolexis: A Historical and Cultural Lexicon of Homosexuality, New York: Gay Academic Union, 1985 Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide = *Wayne Dynes, Homosexuality: A Research Guide, New York: Garland, 1987 Edge City = * Gary Dunne and others, editors, *Edge City on Two Different Plans: A Collection of Lesbian and Gay Writing from Australia, Sydney: Sydney Gay Writers Collective, 1983 Edwardes, Erotica Judaica = *Allen Edwardes (pseudonym), Erotica Judaica: A Sexual History of the Jews, New York: Julian Press, 1967 Eglinton, Greek Love = *J. Z. Eglinton (pseudonym), Greek Love, New York: Oliver Layton Press, 1964 Eldorado = Berlin Museum, *Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Männer in Berlin 1950–1950: Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur, Berlin: Frölich und Kaufmann, 1984 Eliade, Encyclopedia of Religion = Mircea Eliade, editor, Encyclopedia of Religion, 16 volumes, London: Macmillan, 1987 Ellis, Sexual Inversion = *Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, third edition, Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1915 Enciclopedia italiana = Gaetano de Sanctis and others, editors, Enciclopedia italiana, 36 volumes plus supplements, Rome: Enciclopedia italiana, 1949 (in progress) Encyclopædia Britannica = [Encyclopædia Britannica, editor], Encyclopædia Britannica, fifteenth edition, 30 volumes, Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1982. The fifteenth edition, the current edition was first published in 1974; other printings of this edition apart from the 1982 printing may be checked for articles cited. Articles cited may also be in preceding editions. The Encyclopædia Britannica is also available on a CDROM and on the *Internet. Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition = [Encyclopædia Britannica, editor], Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, 29 volumes, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1910–1911 Encyclopædia Iranica = *Ehsan Yarshater, editor, Encyclopædia Iranica, 8+ volumes, London and Casta Mesa, CA: Routledge and Kegan Paul and Mazda Publishers, 1982_– (in progress) Encyclopedia Judaica = Cecil Roth and others, editors, Encyclopedia Judaica, 16 volumes, Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica, 1971–72 Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition = Martinus Theodorus Houtsma and others, editors, Encyclopaedia of Islam, first edition, 4 volumes plus supplement, Leiden: Brill, 1911–38 Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition = *H. A. R. Gibb and others, editors, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, 10+ volumes and Indexes, Leiden: Brill, 1960– (in progress). There may be entries in the French edition edited by the same editors, Encyclopédie de l’Islam, Paris: G. P. Maisonneuve, 1960_–. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality = *Wayne R. Dynes, *William A. Percy and *Warren Johansson, editors, Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, 2 volumes, New York: Garland, 1990 Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics = R. E. Asher, editor, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 10 volumes, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1994 Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature = Verity Smith, editor, Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature, London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997 Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology = Leslie Shephard, editor, Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, third edition, 2 volumes, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1991 Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behaviour = Albert Ellis and Albert Abarbanel, Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behaviour, 2 volumes, London: The Corsano Co., 1961 Encyclopedia of World Art = Massimo Pallottino, editor, Encyclopedia of World Art, 15 volumes and two supplements, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959–1987 (translated from the Italian edition Enciclopedia universale dell’ arte, edited by Massimo Pallottino, Venice and Rome: Instituto per la collaborazione culturale, 1958–1967, 15 volumes). 2 supplement volumes also exist. Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century = Leonard S. Klein, editor, Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, revised edition, 5 volumes, New York: Continuum, 1993, and Supplement volume, 1994. Eros: An Anthology of Friendship = *Alistair Sutherland and *Patrick Anderson, editors, *Eros: An Anthology of Friendship, London: *Anthony Blond, 1961 Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen = volume 2 of *Heinrich Hössli, *Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen, 2 volumes, St. Gallen, Switzerland: E. P. Scheitlin, 1836–38 Eros in Boystown = *Michael Lassell, editor, *Eros in Boystown, New York: Crown Publishers, 1996 Eros Russe = [no editor], *Eros Russe, Geneva [: no publisher], 1879, reprinted in facsimile Oakland, CA: Scythian Books, 1987 and Saint Petersburg, 1993 (on the St Petersburg printing the place of publication is stated to be Geneva). Everyman Companion to East European Literature = Robert B. Pynsent, editor Everyman Companion to East European Literature, London: Harper Collins, 1993. This work is titled Reader’s Encyclopedia of East European Literature in the United States printing, New York: Harper Collins, 1993 Flores, Spanish American Authors = Angel Flores, Spanish American Authors: The Twentieth Century, New York: Wilson, 1992 Forberg, Manual of Classical Erotology = *Friedrich Carl Forberg, Manual of Classical Erotology (De figuris veneris), 2 volumes in 1, New York: Grove Press, 1966 (facsimile reprint of F. C. Forberg’s De figuris veneris, Coburg, 1824, using the edition titled Manual of Classical Erotology which has the imprint Manchester: privately printed, 1884) Foster, Latin American Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes = David William Foster, Latin American Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994 Foxon, English Verse 1701_–50 = David Foxon, English Verse 1701_–50: A catalogue of separately printed poems with notes on contemporary collected editions, 2 volumes, London: Cambridge University Press, 1975 Frå mann til mann = *Jan Olaf Gatland, *Frå mann til mann: Dikt om menns kjærleik til menn, Oslo: Oktober, 1986 Frankel, Early Greek Poetry = *Hermann Frankel, Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, 1973 Gaio verso: poesia latina per l'altro amore =*Miro Gabriele, editor, *Gaio verso: poesia latina per l'altro amore, Ocata, Italy: Giano, 1992 Garde, Homosexual in Literature = *Noel I. Garde (pseudonym),The Homosexual in Literature: A Chronological Bibliography 700 B.C.–1958, New York: Village Press, 1959 Garde, Jonathan to Gide = *Noel I. Garde (pseudonym), Jonathan to Gide: The Homosexual in History, New York: Vantage Press, 1964 Garland of Meleager = *Garland of Meleager, place of compilation not known, possibly a city in Lebanon, ca. 80 B.C. Garland of Philip = *Garland of Philip, possibly published in *Thessaloniki, ca. 40 A.D. Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time = *Carl Morse and *Joan Larkin, editors, *Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988 Gay Bards = *Jim Kernochan and others, editors, *Gay Bards: An Anthology of Gay Poetry, New York: X Press, 1979 Gay Histories and Cultures = George E. Haggerty, The Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures: Volume II: Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, New York and London: Garland, 2000 Gay Poetry = [editor not known], Gay Poetry: (from oppression to liberation/ from past to present/ from in-the closet to coming out), Milwaukee: Gay Info Data Bank, [no date but ca. 1970–1982] Gay Roots: An Anthology of Gay History = volume 2 of *Winston Leyland, editor, *Gay Roots: An Anthology of Gay History, Sex, Politics and Culture, 2 volumes, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1993. This is a supplementary volume to the next entry. Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine = *Winston Leyland, editor, *Gay Roots: Twenty Years of Gay Sunshine, San Franciso: *Gay Sunshine, 1991. See also the preceding entry, which is a supplementary volume. Gay Verse = [editor not known], *Gay Verse, [London?, ca.1975] Gents, Bad Boys, and Barbarians = *Rudy Kikel, editor, *Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Male Poetry, Boston: Alyson, 1994 Geraci, Dares to Speak = Joseph, Geraci, Dares to Speak: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Boy-Love, London: Gay Men’s Press, 1997 Gibb, History of Ottoman Poetry = *E. J. Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, 6 volumes, London: Luzac, 1900–1909 Gibson, Federico García Lorca = *Ian Gibson, Federico García Lorca: A Life, New York: Pantheon Books, 1989 Gomes Viana, O homosexualidade no mundo = *Julio Gomes Viana, O homosexualidade no mundo, 2 volumes, Lisbon: the author, [no date; ca. 1985] Goodbye to Berlin? = Schwules Museum and Academie der Künste, Berlin, editors, Goodbye to Berlin?: 100 Jahre Schwulenbewegung, Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1997 Goodich, The Unmentionable Vice = *Michael Goodich, The Unmentionable Vice: Homosexuality in the Later Medieval Period, [no place]: Dorset Press, 1979 Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites = *Roger Goodland, Bibliography of Sex Rites and Customs: An Annotated Record of Books, Articles and Illustrations in all Languages, London: Routledge, 1931 Graves, Greek Myths = *Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, two volumes in one, Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell, 1988 Great Soviet Encyclopedia = A. M. Prokhorov, editor, Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 31 volumes, New York: Macmillan, 1973–83 (translated from the third Russian edition, Bol’shaia Sovietskaia Entsiklopediia, Moscow: Sovietskaia Entsiklopediia Publishing House, 1970) Greenberg, Construction of Homosexuality = *David F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988 Grier, The Lesbian in Literature = Barbara Grier, The Lesbian in Literature, third edition, Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press, 1981 Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music = Colin Larkin, editor, Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, second edition, 6 volumes, Enfield: Guinness Publishing, 1995. Entries may also be in the third edition, 8 volumes, London, 1998 Hafkamp, Pijlen van naamloze liefde = *Hans Hafkamp and Maurice Lieshout, editors, Pijlen van naamloze liefde, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SUA, 1988 Hallam, Book of Sodom = *Paul Hallam,*The Book of Sodom, London: Verso, 1993 Handbook of Elizabethan and Stuart Literature = James Ruoff, Handbook of Elizabethan and Stuart Literature, London and New York: Macmillan, 1975 Hansen, Nordisk Bibliografi = *Bent Hansen, Nordisk Bibliografi: Homoseksualitet, Copenhagen: Forlaget Pan aps., 1984 Harner, Literary Research Guide = James L. Harner, Literary Research Guide, second edition, New York: Modern Language Association, 1993 Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics = James Hastings, editor, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 13 volumes, Edinburgh: Clark, 1908–21 (reprinted) Hayn, Gotendorf, Bibliotheca Germanorum Erotica = *Hugo Hayn and *Alfred N. Gotendorf, Bibliotheca Germanorum Erotica & Curiosa, 9 volumes, Hannau/ Main: Müller and Kiepenheuer, 1968 (facsimile reprint of the first printing, volumes 1–8, 1912–25, edited by Hugo Hayn and Alfred N. Gotendorf, and volume 9, Ergänzungsband [Supplement], 1929, edited by *Paul Englisch) Henderson,
Introduction to Haiku = Harold Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku:
An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki, New York: Doubleday,
1958 Herdt, Rituals of Manhood = *Gilbert Herdt, editor, Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982 Here to Dare = *Assotto Saint, editor, *Here to Dare: 10 Black Gay Poets, New York: Galiens Press, 1991 Herzer, Bibliographie zur Homosexualität = *Manfred Herzer, *Bibliographie zur Homosexualität: Verzeichinis des deutschsprachigen nichtbelletristischen Schrifttums zur weiblichen und männlichen Homosexualität aus den Jahren 1466 bis 1975 in chronologischer Reihenfolge, Berlin: *Verlag rosa Winkel, 1982 Het huis dat vriendschap heet = *Ron Mooser, editor, *Het huis dat vriendschap heet; mannerlijke homoseksualiteit in de twintigste-eeuwse Nederlandse literatur, Amsterdam: B. V. Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1985 Hidden Heritage = *Byrne R. S. Fone, *Hidden Heritage: History and the Gay Imagination: An Anthology, New York: Avocation Publishers, 1979 Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve = *Brett Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990 Hirschfeld, Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes = *Magnus Hirschfeld, Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes, Berlin: Louis Marcus, 1914 Histoire de l'amour grec = *L. R. de Pogey-Castries (pseudonym), Histoire de l'amour grec, Paris: Guy le Prat, 1980 Homosexuality and world religions = Arlene Swidler, editor, Homosexuality and world religions, Valley Forge, PA: Trinity International Press, 1993 Homosexuality in Canada, first edition (1979) = *Alex Spence, Homosexuality in Canada: A Bibliography, Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1979. See also the next entry which is the second edition. Homosexuality in Canada, second edition (1984) = *William Crawford, *Homosexuality in Canada: A Bibliography, second edition, Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1984. The previous entry is the first edition. Hovanessian, Anthology of Armenian Poetry = Diana Der Hovanessian and Marzbed Margossian, Anthology of Armenian Poetry, New York: Columbia University Press, 1978 Howes, Broadcasting It = *Keith Howes, Broadcasting It: An Encyclopaedia of Homosexuality on Film, Radio and TV in the UK 1923–1993, London: Cassell, 1993 Human Relations Area Files = [no editor], *Human Relations Area Files: Survey of World Cultures, New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files,1958– (in progress) Hummel, Eminent Chinese = A. W. Hummel, editor, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period (1644–1912), 2 volumes, Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943_–44 Hurley, Guide to Gay and Lesbian Writing in Australia = *Michael Hurley, A Guide to Gay and Lesbian Writing in Australia, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996 Hutton, The Greek Anthology in Italy = *James Hutton, The Greek Anthology in Italy to the Year 1800, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,1935 Hyde, History of Pornography = *Montgomery Hyde, A History of Pornography, London: Heinemann, 1964 Hyde, The Other Love = H. *Montgomery Hyde, The other love: a history and contemporary survey of homosexuality in Britain, London: Heinemann, 1970. The United States edition, Boston: Little Brown, 1970, was titled The Love That Dared Not Speak Its Name: a candid history of homosexuality in Britain and is identical in pagination with the British edition. Ian Young: a bibliography (1962–1980) = [*Canadian Gay Archives], Ian Young: a bibliography (1962–1980), Toronto: Pink Triangle Press, 1981 IGA Pink Book 1985 = [no editor], IGA Pink Book 1985: a global view of Lesbian and Gay oppression and liberation, Amsterdam: International Gay Association, [no date; ca. 1985] The Third Pink Book below is the third edtion of this work. Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature = William H. Nienhauser, editor, The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986 In Homage to Priapus = E. V. Griffith, editor, *In Homage to Priapus, San Diego: Greenleaf Classics, 1970 In Praise of Boys = *Erskine Lane, translator, *In Praise of Boys: Moorish Poems from al-Andalus, San Francisco: Gay Sunshine, 1975 International Encyclopedia of Linguistics = William Bright, editor, International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 4 volumes, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 In the Life = *Joseph Beam, editor, *In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, Boston: Alyson, 1986 Invisible Ghetto = *Matthew Krouse and *Kim Berman, editors, The *Invisible Ghetto: Lesbian and Gay Writing from South Africa, London: *Gay Men’s Press, 1993 Ioläus (1902) = *Edward Carpenter, *Ioläus: An Anthology of Friendship, London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1902 Ioläus (1906) = *Edward Carpenter, *Ioläus: An Anthology of Friendship, second enlarged edition, London: *Swan Sonnenschein, 1906 Ioläus (1917) = *Edward Carpenter, *Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship, New York: Mitchell Kennerly, 1917 Ioläus (1935) = *Edward Carpenter, An Anthology of Friendship, New York, A. and C. Boni, 1935 Jünger, Literatures of the Soviet People = Harri Jünger, editor, The Literatures of the Soviet Peoples, New York: Frederick Ungar, 1966 Karlen, Sexuality and Homosexuality = *Arno Karlen, Sexuality and Homosexuality, London: Macdonald, 1971 Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker = *Ferdinand Karsch-Haack, Das gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker, Munich: Ernst Reinhardt, 1911 Katz, Gay American History = *Jonathan Katz, Gay American History, New York: Harper and Row, 1976 Katz, Gay/ Lesbian Almanac = *Jonathan Katz, Gay/ Lesbian Almanac, New York: Harper and Row, 1983 Katzner, Languages of the World = Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, revised edition, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986 Kearney, History of Erotic Literature = *Patrick J. Kearney, History of Erotic Literature, London: Macmillan, 1982 Kearney, Private Case = *Patrick J. Kearney, The Private Case: An Annotated Bibliography of the Private Case Erotica in the British (Museum) Library, London: Jay Landesman, 1981 Keine Zeit für gute Freunde = *Joachim S. Hohmann, *Keine Zeit für gute Freunde: Homosexualität in Deutschland 1933–1969: Ein Lese- und Bilderbuch, Berlin: Foerster Verlag, 1982 Kiefer, Sexual Life in Ancient Rome = *Otto Kiefer, Sexual Life in Ancient Rome, London: Abbey Library, 1934 (translated from the German edition Kulturgeschichte Roms unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der römischen Sitten, Berlin: Paul Aretz, 1933) Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon = Walter Jens, editor, Kindlers neues Literatur Lexikon, 22 volumes, Munich: Kindler, 1988–98 Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male = *Alfred C. Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1948 Klaniczay, History of Hungarian Literature = Tibor Klaniczay, A History of Hungarian Literature, [Budapest]: Corvina Kaidó, 1982 Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan = [Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, editor], Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 9 volumes, Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983 Kuster, Over Homoseksualiteit in middeleeus West-Europa = *Hendrikus Johannes Kuster, Over Homoseksualiteit in middeleeus West-Europa/ Some Observations on Homosexuality in Medieval Western Europe, Utrecht: the author, [no date; ca. 1977] Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches = *Martin Taylor, editor, *Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches, London: Constable, 1989 L’amicizia amorosa = *Renzo Paris and *Antonio Veneziani, *L’amicizia amorosa, Milan: Gammalibri, 1982 L’amour bleu = *Cécile Beurdeley, *L’amour bleu, New York: Rizzoli, 1978 Lang, Guide to Eastern Literatures = David Marshall Lang, Guide to Eastern Literatures, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1971 Language of Water = *Bertha Freistadt and *Pat O’brien, *Language of Water, Language of Fire, London: *Oscars Press, 1992 Larkspur and Lad’s Love = Clare MacCullough, editor, *Larkspur and Lad’s Love, Carlisle, Ontario: Brandstead Press, 1977 Lee, Poems from Korea = *Peter H. Lee, editor, Poems from Korea, London: Allen and Unwin, 1974 Leggere omosessuale = *Giovanni dall’ Orto, Leggere omosessuale: bibliografia, Turin: Edizioni Gruppo Abele, 1984 Legman, Horn Book = *Gershon Legman, The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bibliography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1970 (first published New York: University Books, 1964) Les Amours masculines = *Michel Larivière, editor, *Les Amours masculines: Anthologie de l’homosexualité dans la littérature, Paris: Lieu Commun, 1984 Lesbian Histories and Cultures = Bonnie Zimmerman, editor, The Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures: Volume I: Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 2000 Leupp, Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan = *Gary P. Leupp, Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 Levy, Persian Literature = *Reuben Levy, Persian Literature: An Introduction, London: Columbia University Press, 1969 Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae = [no editor], Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, 8 volumes, Zurich and Munich: Artemis, 1987–1997 Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens = Severin Corsten and others, editors, Lexikon des gesamten Buchwesens. LGB2, second edition, 4+ volumes, Stuttgart: Anton Hiersmann, 1987– (in progress) Lexikon homosexuelle belletristik = Dietrich Molitor, *Wolfgang Popp and others, editors, *Lexikon homosexuelle belletristik, Siegen, Germany: Uni-Gh Siegen, 1983– (in progress) Leyland, Gay Sunshine Interviews = *Winston Leyland, editor, Gay Sunshine Interviews, 2 volumes, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1978 and 1982 Licht, Sexual Life in Ancient Greece = *Hans Licht (pseudonym), Sexual Life in Ancient Greece, London: Abbey Library 1932 (translated from the German edition Sittengeschichte Griechenlands, Dresden: Paul Aretz verlag, 1925–28) Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon = Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ninth edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940 Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe = *Elisar von Kupffer, *Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur, Berlin: *Adolf Brand, 1900 Lilja, Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome = *Sara Lilja, Homosexuality in Republican and Augustan Rome, Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1982 Liu, Sunflower Splendor = Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo, Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry, New York: Anchor Books, 1975 Living the Spirit = *Will Roscoe, editor, *Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988 Lotus of Another Color = *Rakesh Ratti, editor, *A Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Experience, Boston: Alyson, 1993 Love and Death = *Denis Gallagher, editor, *Love and Death: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose, Sydney: Print’s Realm, 1987 Maldoror im blauen Mond = *Nico Wurtz, editor, *Maldoror im blauen Mond, Berlin: Maldoror Flugschriften, 1980 Male Muse = *Ian Young, editor, *The Male Muse, Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1973 Malinowski, Gay and Lesbian Literature = *Sharon Malinowski, Gay and Lesbian Literature, Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1994 Mannenmaat = *Gert Hekma, editor, *Mannenmaat: Rekenboek voor jongens zonder meisjes, Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Blaauw, 1980 Martin, Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry = *Robert K. Martin, The Homosexual Tradition in American Poetry, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979 “Matrosen sind der Liebe Schwingen” = *Joachim Campe, editor, *”Matrosen sind der Liebe Schwingen”. Homosexuelle poesie von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 1994 Mayne, The Intersexes = *Xavier Mayne (pseudonym), The Intersexes: a history of similisexualism as a problem in social life, New York: Arno Press, 1975 (facsimile reprint of the first edition, [Rome?: no publisher: ca. 1911]) Medieval Latin Poems of Male Love and Friendship = *Thomas Stehling, *Medieval Latin Poems of Male Love and Friendship, New York: Garland, 1984 Men and Boys = [*Edward M. Slocum, editor], *Men and Boys, New York and London: Coltsfoot Press, 1978 (facsimile reprint of the first edition New York: privately printed, 1924) Milchsilber = *Bernd Gaiser and others, editors, *Milchsilber, Berlin: *Verlag rosa Winkel, 1979 Milking Black Bull = Vega Press, editor, *Milking Black Bull: 11 Gay Poets, Sicklerville, NJ: Vega Press, 1995 Miller, Our Own Voices = Alan Miller, *Our Own Voices: Directory of Lesbian and Gay Periodicals 1890–1990, Toronto: *Canadian Gay Archives,1991. An expanded edition is available on the *Internet. Milosz, History of Polish Poetry = Czeslaw Milosz, The History of Polish Poetry, second edition, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983 Mitler, Ottoman Turkish Writers = Louis Mitler, Ottoman Turkish Writers: A Bibliographical Dictionary of Significant Figures in pre-Republican Turkish Literature, New York: Peter Lang, 1988 Moll, Berühmte Homosexuelle = *Albert Moll, Berühmte Homosexuelle, Weisbaden: J. F. Bergmann, 1910 Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry = *James Monroe, Hispano-Arabic Poetry, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974 Monteiro, Amor safico e socratico = *Arlindo Camillo Monteiro, Amor safico e socratico, Lisbon: the author, 1922 Murray, Catalogue of Selected Books = * Francis Edwin Murray, *A Catalogue of Selected Books from the Private Library of a Student of Boyhood, Youth and Comradeship, [London: the author], 1924 Murray, Islamic Homosexualities = *Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History and Literature, New York: New York University Press, 1997 Murray, Male Homosexuality in Central and South America = *Stephen O. Murray, editor, Male Homosexuality in Central and South America, San Francisco: Instituto Obregón, 1987 Murray, Oceanic Homosexualities = *Stephen O. Murray, editor, Oceanic Homosexualities, New York: Garland, 1992 My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries = *Rictor Norton, editor, My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, San Francisco: Leyland Publications, 1998 Naar vriendscaap zulk een mateloos verlangen = *Hans Hafkamp, editor, *Naar vriendscaap zulk een mateloos verlangen: Bloemlezing uit de nederlandse homo-erotische poezie 1880–nu , Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1979 Name of Love = *Michael Lassell, editor, *The Name of Love: Classic Gay Love Poems, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1995 National Union Catalog = [no editor], The *National Union Catalog of Pre 1956 Imprints, 754 volumes, London: Mansell, 1968–80. Supplements were published in book form in several series covering the years from 1956 to 1982. Neue deutsche Biographie = F. Wagner and others, editors, Neue deutsche Biographie, 19+ volumes, Berlin: Dunker and Humbolt, 1982– (in progress) New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians = Stanley Sadie, editor, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 volumes, London: Macmillan, 1980 New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics = Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan, editors, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993 New Songs from a Jade Terrace = *Anne Birrell, translator, New Songs from a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry, London: Allen and Unwin, 1982 Nin Frias, Alexis = *Alberto Nin Frias, Alexis o el significado del temperamento uraño, Madrid: Javier Morata, 1932 Nordisk Bibliografi = *Bent Hansen, *Nordisk Bibliografi: Homoseksualitet, Copenhagen: Forlaget Pan aps., 1984 Norton, Homosexual Literary Tradition = *Rictor Norton, The Homosexual Literary Tradition: An Interpretation, New York: Revisionist Press, 1974 Not Love Alone = *Martin Humphries, editor, *Not Love Alone: A Modern Gay Anthology, London: *Gay Men’s Press, 1985 Now the Volcano = *Winston Leyland, editor, *Now the Volcano: An Anthology of Latin American Gay Literature, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1979 Nykl, Hispano-Arabic Poetry = *Alois Richard Nykl, Hispano-Arabic Poetry, Baltimore: the author, 1946 Of Eros and Dust = *Steve Anthony, editor, *Of Eros and Dust: poems form the city, London: Oscars Press, 1992 Oinas, Heroic Epic and Saga = Felix J. Oinas, editor, Heroic Epic and Saga, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1978 Orgasms of Light = *Winston Leyland, editor, *Orgasms of Light: Poetry, Short Fiction, Graphics, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1977 Out of the Blue = Kevin Moss, editor, *Out of the Blue: Russia’s Gay Literature: An Anthology, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1997 Oxford Classical Dictionary = N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, editors, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970. There may be an entry in the third edition (see next entry). Oxford Classical Dictionary, third edition = Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, editors, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, third edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. There may be an entry in the second edition (see entry above). Oxford Companion to Australian Literature = William H. Wilde and others, editors, Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1985. There may be an entry in the second edition (see next entry). Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, second edition = William H. Wilde and others, editors, Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994. Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature = William Toye, editor, Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1983. There may be an entry also in the second edition (see next entry). Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, second edition = William Toye, editor, Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997. There may be an entry in the first edition (see preceding entry). Oxford Companion to English Literature = Margaret Drabble, editor, Oxford Companion to English Literature, fifth edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. There may be an entry in the sixth edition, 2000. Earlier editions may also have an entry. Oxford Companion to German Literature = Henry and Mary Garland, The Oxford Companion to German Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. There may be an entry in the second and third editions, 1986 and 1997. Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature = Roger Robinson and Nelson Wattie, editors, The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature = Philip Ward, editor, Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978 Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium = Alexander P. Kazhdan, Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 4 volumes, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991 Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church = F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, editors, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988 printing, with corrections, of the 1974 edition Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt = Donald B. Redford, editor, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 4 volumes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 Oxford English Dictionary = James H. Murray and others, editors, The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 20 volumes, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 Oxford Latin Dictionary = P. G. W. Glare, editor, Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982 Pagis, Hebrew Poetry = *Dan Pagis, Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991 Palatine Anthology = *Palatine Anthology, manuscript, Istanbul, ca. 980. See the entry for details of publication in mechanically printed form. Entries are cited to the *Loeb edition of *W. R. Paton, 2 volumes, London: W. Heinemann and Cambridge, MA: G. P. Putnam.s Sons, 1916–1918 (reprinted). Palatine Anthology xii = *Mousa Paidike (Book Twelve of the *Palatine Anthology ), Turkey?, ca. 130. Palatine Anthology xii:1 means Palatine Anthology, Book 12, poem 1 Parlett, A Short Dictionary of Languages = D. S. Parlett, A Short Dictionary of Languages, London: English Universities Press, 1967 Partings at Dawn = *Stephen D. Miller, editor, *Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature, San Francisco: *Gay Sunshine, 1996 Pauly, Wissowa, Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft = August Pauly, Georg Wissowa and others, editors, Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, second edition, Stuttgart: J. B. Metzlerscher, 54 volumes in 2 series, plus 15 supplements and Register (Index), 1894_–1980. There may be entries in the new edition Der neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike, edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, 8+ volumes, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1996+ (in progress) Pearson, Oriental Manuscripts = J. D. Pearson, Oriental Manuscripts in Europe and North America: A Survey, Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Company AG, 1971 Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse = *Stephen Coote, editor, *The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, London: Allen Lane, 1983 Penguin Book of Latin Verse = Frederick Brittain, editor, The Penguin Book of Latin Verse, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1962 Penguin Book of Turkish Verse = Nermin Manemencioglu and *Fahir Iz, editors, The *Penguin Book of Turkish Verse, Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1978 Penguin Companion to World Literature = Anthony Thorlby and others, editors, Penguin Companion to World Literature, 4 volumes, New York: McGraw Hill, 1969 Perkins, History of Modern Poetry = *David H. Perkins, A History of Modern Poetry, 2 volumes, Cambridge, US: Harvard University Press, 1976_–87 Peters, Hunting the Snark: A Compendium of New Poetic Terminology = Robert Peters, Hunting the Snark: A Compendium of New Poetic Terminology, New York: Paragon House, 1989 Pia, Les Livres de l'Enfer = *Pascal Pia (pseudonym), Les Livres de l'Enfer, 2 volumes, Paris: C. Coulet et A. Fauré, 1978 Pink Ink = *Kerry Bashford and others, editors, *Pink Ink: An anthology of Australian lesbian and gay writers, Sydney: Wicked Women, 1991 Plomer, Dictionary of the Printers = H. R. Plomer, Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland 1557–1775, Yorkshire, UK: The Bibliographical Society 1977 (unrevised facsimile reprint of the 1907–32 edition, London: Bibliographical Society) Poemas do amor maldito = *Gasparino Damata (pseudonym) and *Walmir Ayala (pseudonym), *Poemas do amor maldito, Brasília: Coordenada Editora de Brasília, 1969 Poemes Gais = [no editor], *Poemes Gais, Barcelona: Institut Lambda, 1978 Poems of Love and Liberation = *David Miller, editor, *Poems of Love and Liberation, New York: North American Man Boy Love Association, 1996 Poets for Life = *Michael Klein, editor, *Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to Aids, New York: Crown Publishers, 1989 Pour tout l'amour des hommes = *Michel Larivière *Pour tout l'amour des hommes: Anthologie de l’homosexualité dans la littérature, Paris: Delétraz Editions, 1998, Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature = Earl Miner and others, editors, The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985 Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics = Alex Preminger, editor, Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, enlarged edition, London and New York: Macmillan, 1975. There may also be an entry in the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (see next entry). Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms = Alex Preminger, editor, Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986 Prinz Eisenherz (editors), Lyrik = computer list of poetry books listed for sale 1988-1993 compiled by *Prinz Eisenherz bookshop, Berlin: Prinz Eisenherz, 1993 Quaritch, Contributions towards a Dictionary of English Book-Collectors = Bernard Quaritch, editor, Contributions towards a Dictionary of English Book-Collectors (facsimile reprint, New York: Burt Franklin, 1968, of the first edition London: Bernard Quaritch, 1891–1921) Queneau, Histoire des littératures = Raymond Queneau, Histoire des littératures, three volumes, Paris: Gallimard, 1955–58 Rachewiltz, Black Eros = *Boris de Rachewiltz, Black Eros. Sexual Customs of Africa from prehistory to the present day, London: Allen and Unwin, 1964 (translated from the Italian edition Eros nero, Milan, 1963) Raffalovich, Uranisme et unisexualité = *Marc-André Raffalovich, Uranisme et unisexualité, Lyon: Storck, 1896 Rahman, “Boy love in the Urdu ghazal”, Paidika vol. 2 no. 1 (1989) = *Tariq Rahman, “Boy love in the Urdu ghazal” in Paidika vol. 2 no. 1 (1989), 10–27 Reade, Sexual Heretics = *Brian Reade, *Sexual Heretics: Male Homosexuality in English Literature from 1850 to 1900, New York: Coward-McCann, 1970 Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature = Max J. Herzberg, editor, Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, London: Methuen, 1963. There may be entries in the third edition, [no editor], Benet’s Readers Encyclopedia, New York: Harper and Row, 1987 or the fourth edition, New York: Harper Collins, 1991 (reprinted). Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 1 = *Anthony Reid, The *Eternal Flame, volume 1, Elmhurst, NY: Dyanthus Press, 1992 Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2 = *Anthony Reid, The *Eternal Flame, volume 2 (unpublished manuscript, a copy of which is in the possession of *Paul Knobel) Road Before Us = *Assoto Saint (pseudonym), editor, *The Road Before Us: 100 Gay Black Poets, New York: Galiens Press, 1991 Rosen, Gay Life and Gay Writers = *Wilhelm von Rosen and *Vagn Søndergård, Gay Life and Gay Writers, Copenhagen: Skoleradioen,1979 Rossel, History of Scandinavian Literature = Sven H. Rossel, A History of Scandinavian Literature 1870–1980, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982 Rowse, Homosexuals in History = *A. L. Rowse, Homosexuals in History, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977 Ruitenbeck, Homosexuality and Creative Genius = *Hendrik M. Ruitenbeck, Homosexuality and Creative Genius, New York: Astor-Honor, 1967 Ruoff, American Indian Literatures = A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff, American Indian Literatures, New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1990 Rypka, History of Iranian Literature = *Jan Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1968 Sadiq, History of Urdu Literature = *Muhammad Sadiq, A History of Urdu Literature, second edition, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984 Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship = *Sir John Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, 3 volumes, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1903–1908 Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance = *James H. Saslow, Ganymede in the Renaissance, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986 Schmidt, Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen (1984) = Wolfgang Johann Schmidt, editor, *Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, 2 volumes, Frankfurt am Main: Qumran, 1984 Schmitt, Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies = *Arno Schmitt and Jehoeda Sofer, editors, Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies, New York: Haworth Press, 1992 Schreibende Schwule = *Bernd Gaiser and others, editors, Schreibende Schwule, Berlin: rosa Winkel, 1979 Schuyler, Diary = Nathan Kernan, editor, The Diary of James Schuyler, Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1997 Schwüle Lyrik, schwüle Prosa = *Elmar Kraushaar, editor, *_Schwüle Lyrik, schwüle Prosa, Berlin: rosa Winkel, 1977 Schyberg,Walt Whitman = *Frederik Schyberg, Walt Whitman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1951 Second ILGA Pink Book = [no editor], Second ILGA Pink Book: a global view of lesbian and gay oppression, Utrecht: Interfacultaire Werkgroep Homostudies Rijksuniversaiteit, 1988 Sedgwick, Between Men = *Eve Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, New York: Columbia University Press, 1985 Sergent, Homosexuality in Greek Myth = Bernard Sergent, Homosexuality in Greek Myth, Boston: Beacon Press, 1986 (translated from the French editon L’Homosexualité dans la mythologie grecque, Paris: Payot, 1984) Shasha, History of Homosexuality in China = *Sam Shasha (pseudonym), Zhongguo tongxingai shilu (History of Homosexuality in China, Chinese edition), Hong Kong: PInk Triangle Press, 1984 Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature = Joseph T. Shipley, Encyclopedia of Literature, New York: Philosophical Library, 1946 Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality = *Gary Simes, Bibliography of Homosexuality: A Research Guide to the University of Sydney Library, Sydney: The University of Sydney Library and The Australian Centre for Lesbian and Gay Research, 1998 Smith, Books of the Beast = *Timothy d’Arch Smith, The Books of the Beast, Crucible: [Wellingborough, Northhamptonshire], 1987 Smith, Love in Earnest = *Timothy d'Arch Smith, Love in Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English ‘Uranian’ Poets from 1889 to 1930, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970 Son of the Male Muse = *Ian Young, editor, The *Son of the Male Muse: New Gay Poetry, Trumansberg Press, NY: The Crossing Press, 1983 Sørensen, The Unmanly Man = Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, The Unmanly Man: concepts of sexual defamation in early Northern society, Odense: Odense University Press, 1983 Stambolian, Homosexualities and French Literature = *George Stambolian and *Elaine Marks, Homosexualities and French Literature, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979 Steele, Major Libraries of the World = Colin Steele, Major Libraries of the World: A Selective Guide, London: Bowker, 1976 Stern, Geschichte der offentlichen Sittlichkeit in Russland = *Bernard Stern, Geschichte der offentlichen Sittlichkeit in Russland, 2 volumes, Berlin: H. Barsdorf, 1907–08 Stern-Szana, Bibliotheca Curiosa et Erotica = Stern-Szana, Bibliotheca Curiosa et Erotica, [Vienna: the author, 1921] Sugar and Snails = [no editor], *Sugar and Snails: An Oscars Mixture, London: Oscars Press, 1987 Summers, Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage = Claude Summers, The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage, New York: Henry Holt, 1995 Surieu, Sarv e Naz: An Essay on Love and the Reception of Erotic Themes in Ancient Iran = *Robert Surieu, Sarv e’Naz: An Essay on Love and the Reception of Erotic Themes in Ancient Iran, Munich, Geneva and Paris: Nagel, 1967 Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics = *John Addington Symonds, A Problem in Greek Ethics being an inquiry into the phenomenon of Sexual Inversion addressed especially to medical psychologists and jurists, London: printed for private circulation, 1901 (using the facsimile reprint in John Lauritsen, editor, John Addington Symonds, Male Love: A Problem in Greek Ethics and other writings, Nork: Pagan Press, 1983) Take Any Train = *Peter Daniels, editor, *Take Any Train, London: Oscars Press, 1990 Tarnowsky, Pederasty in Europe = *Benjamin Tarnowsky, Pederasty in Europe, New York: Anthropological Press, 1933 Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature = Victor Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985 Theognidea = *Theognidea, Greece, 700 B.C.– ca. 460 B.C. Thieme, Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler = Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 volumes, Leipzig: E. A. Seeman, 1908–1950. A second edition is in progress titled Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bilden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, 26+ volumes, edited by Günter Meissner, Leipzig: E. A. Seeman and K. G. Saur (from volume 4), 1983–. Toomey, A World Bibliography of BIbliographies 1964–1974 = Alice F. Toomey, editor, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies 1964–1974, 2 volumes, Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1977. This work supplements Besterman, A World Bibliography of Bibliographies, listed above. Tongues Untied = [*Martin Humphries, editor], *Tongues Untied, London: Gay Men’s Press, 1987 Trevisan, Perverts in Paradise = *João S. Trevisan, Perverts in Paradise, London, 1986 (translated from the Portuguese Devassos no paraiso, Saõ Paolo: Editora M. Limonad, 1986) Trypanis, Greek Poetry = *Constantine Trypanis, Greek Poetry from Homer to Seferis, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1981 Türk ansiklopedisi = A. Dilacar, editor, Türk ansiklopedisi, 33 volumes, Ankara: Millî Egitim Basimevi, 1946–1984 Twenty-something = *Martin Humphries, *Twenty-something, London: Gay Men’s Press, 1992 Tyrkus, Gay and Lesbian Biography = Michael J. Tyrkus, Gay and Lesbian Biography, Detroit: Gale, 1997 Ullstein Enzyklopädie der Sexualität = *Ernest Borneman, Ullstein Enzyklopädie der Sexualität, Frankfurt: Ullstein, 1990 Unending Dialogue = *Rachel Hadas, editor, *Unending Dialogue: Voices from an Aids Poetry Workshop, Boston: Faber and Faber, 1991 Vanggaard, Phallos = Thorkil Vanggaard, Phallos: a symbol and its history in the male world, London: Macdonald, 1972 Van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China = *R. H. Van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974 Verzeichnis der Schwulen und Schwul-lesbischen Bibliotheken = Josef Fournier and Peter Nick, Verzeichnis der Schwulen und Schwul-lesbischen Bibliotheken, Archive und Geschichtswerkstätten, Cologne, 1991 Voices Against the Wilderness = *William L. Surrah, *Voices Against the Wilderness, Tucson, Arizona: Black Cardinal Press, 1983 Weindel, L’Homosexualité en Allemagne = *Henri Weindel and F. P Fischer, L’Homosexualité en Allemagne: étude documentaire et anecdotique, Paris: Juven, 1908 Welter, Bibliographie Freundschaftseros = *Ernst Gunther Welter, Bibliographie Freundschaftseros, Frankfurt: dipa-Verlag, 1964 When Two Men Embrace = *Jonathan Fisher, *When Two Men Embrace: The New Zealand Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Poetry, Publishing Giant Press: Christchurch, 1999 Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History= *Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon, editors, Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, London: Routledge, 2001. Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity = *Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon, Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II, London: Routledge, 2001. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, History of Classical Scholarship = *Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, History of Classical Scholarship, London, 1982 (translated from the 1927 German edition, Geschichte der Philologie) Wilhelm, Gay and Lesbian Poetry = *James J. Wilhelm, *Gay and Lesbian Poetry: An Anthology from Sappho to Michelangelo, New York: Garland, 1995 Winternitz, History of Indian Literature = Maurice Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature, revised edition, 3 volumes, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981–1985 (translated from the German Geschichte der indischen Literatur, 3 volumes, 1905–20) Woods, Articulate Flesh: Male Homo-eroticism and Modern Poetry = *Gregory Woods, Articulate Flesh: Male Homo-eroticism and Modern Poetry, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987 Wright, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature = J. W. Wright Jr. and Everett K. Rowson, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997 Yarshater, Persian Literature = *Ehsan Yarshater, Persian Literature, Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1988 Young, Male Homosexual in Literature, first edition = *Ian Young, *The Male Homosexual in Literature, first edition, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1975 Young, Male Homosexual in Literature, second edition = *Ian Young, The Male Homosexual in Literature, second edition, Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1982 Yüzgün, Türkiye'de Escinsellik = *Arslan Yüzgün, Türkiye'de Escinsellik, Istanbul: Hür-Yüz, 1986 Zvelebil, Lexicon of Tamil Literature = Kamil V. Zvelebil, Lexicon of Tamil Literature, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995
|