Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937

by Dejean, Joan E.

• ISBN13: 9780226141367
• ISBN10: 0226141365
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-10-18
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Considering Sappho as a creature of translation and interpretation, a figment whose features have changed with social mores and aesthetics, Joan DeJean constructs a fascinating history of the sexual politics of literary reception. The association of Sappho with female homosexuality has made her a particularly compelling and yet problematic subject of literary speculation; and in the responses of different cultures to the challenge the poet presents, DeJean finds evidence of the standards imposed on female sexuality through the ages. She focuses largely though not exclusively on the French tradition, where the Sapphic presence is especially pervasive. Tracing re-creations of Sappho through translation and fiction from the mid-sixteenth century to the period just prior to World War II, DeJean shows how these renderings reflect the fantasies and anxieties of each writer as well as the mentaliteacute; of his or her day.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Series Editor's

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction Saphon, Sappho, Sapho, Sappho, Sapphocirc;, Psappha Preliminaries: The Sapphic Renaissance (1546-1573)

Female Desire and the Foundation of the Novelistic Order (1612-1694) Sappho Lost and Found The Birth of ""Sapho""

""The Secretary of Ill-fated Heroines""

""Ovid's Disciples"" Sapho and/in the

""Great French Classics""

Recovering a Mother Tongue

The Other Epistolary Heroinism Recovering a Mother Tongue

The New Heroic Novel Rit

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