Passions Between Women
Passions Between Women by Emma Donoghue, published by Bello on August 28, 2014, is a comprehensive exploration of lesbian desires, acts, and identities from the Restoration to the early nineteenth century. This 362-page work delves into the complexities surrounding women who loved women during this period, revealing how they were often misunderstood and misrepresented in society. Through a careful examination of various medical, legal, and erotic sources, as well as re-readings of significant English literature, Donoghue sheds light on the diverse identities that emerged in British texts between 1668 and 1801.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of narratives featuring female pirates, spiritual mentors, chambermaids, and queens, all contributing to a broader understanding of lesbian lives and loves. The book presents an intriguing panorama that includes both the celebrated and the marginalized figures of the time, highlighting the contradictions and challenges they faced. By uncovering these stories, Passions Between Women offers insights into the historical context of LGBTQ identities and the social history of women, making it a significant contribution to literary criticism and historical discourse.
Official synopsis Publisher
Passions Between Women looks at stories of lesbian desires, acts and identities from the Restoration to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Far from being invisible, the figure of the woman who felt passion for women in this period was a subject of confusion and contradiction: she could be put in a freak show as a ‘hermaphrodite’, denounced as a ‘tribade’ or ‘lesbian’, revered as a ‘romantic friend’, jailed as a ‘female husband’ or gossiped about as a ‘woman-lover’, ‘tommy’ or ‘Sapphist’. Through an examination of a wealth of new medical, legal and erotic source material, together with re-readings of classics of English literature, Emma Donoghue uncovers the astonishing range of lesbian and bisexual identities described in British texts between 1668 and 1801. Female pirates and spiritual mentors, chambermaids and queens, poets and prostitutes, country idylls and whipping clubs all take their place in an intriguing panorama of lesbian lives and loves. ‘Controversial, erotic and radical, Emma Donoghue’s lesbian voyage of exploration outlines an astonishing spectrum of gender rebellion which creates a new map of eighteenth-century sexual territories and identities.’ Patricia Duncker
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