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 and Slovak
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
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 and Flemish
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 and Coptic
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
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.
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