Sappho in Early Modern England: Female Same-Sex Literary Erotics, 1550-1714In Sappho in Early Modern England, Harriette Andreadis examines public and private expressions of female same-sex sexuality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Before the language of modern sexual identities developed, a variety of discourses in both literary and extraliterary texts began to form a lexicon of female intimacy. Looking at accounts of non-normative female sexualities in travel narratives, anatomies, and even marital advice books, Andreadis outlines the vernacular through which a female same-sex erotics first entered verbal consciousness. She finds that "respectable" women of the middle classes and aristocracy who did not wish to identify themselves as sexually transgressive developed new vocabularies to describe their desires; women that we might call bisexual or lesbian, referred to in their day as tribades, fricatrices, or "rubsters," emerged in erotic discourses that allowed them to acknowledge their sexuality and still evade disapproval. |
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ambiguities Anne Lister Aphra Behn Barash Barker behaviors Cabal Calisto Calisto myth Cavendish chaste chastity circulated classical clitoris contemporary conventional court cross-dressing cultural Delarivier Manley describe desire Diana discourse Donne duchess early modern England edition eighteenth century emotional English Ephelia erotic ellipsis erotic relations eroticism example expression female friendship female same-sex erotics female same-sex relations female sexual Finch fricatrice friends Gender heterosexual Heywood historical Homosexuality identity intimacy Jane Barker Katherine Philips Killigrew Lady language Latin Lesbian letters literary London lover Lucasia male friendship Manley manuscript Margaret Cavendish marriage Mary of Modena masculinity narrative nymphs Orinda Ovid's Ovidian passion pastoral Phaon Philaenis Philips's platonic play pleasures poems poet poetic Press Princess Queen Anne Renaissance representations romantic friendship same-sex sexuality Sappho Sarah Jennings seventeenth century sixteenth social souls speaker subculture suggests texts Thomas thou tion tradition translation tribadism vernacular Verse woman women writers writing