Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho. Between Men--Between Women.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - leicht berieben und besto�n, ansonsten tadelloser Zustand / slightly rubbed and bumped, otherwise perfect condition - Sappho of Lesbos lived and wrote poetry some twenty-six centuries ago, but hers remains a persistent and effective voice for the expression of a woman�s desire for a woman. Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho is the first book to examine Sappho�s poetry through the lens of lesbian desire, focusing on the active female gaze in the texts and the narrative voice - one that describes female experience and desires as primary, not secondary to the dominant (male) culture. -- Snyder reads Sappho�s songs against a woman-centered framework in which emotional and/or erotic bonds between and among women take center stage. Her close readings demonstrate the ways in which Sappho�s lyrics focus on women�s emotional lives with one another and on female erotic desire for other females. In Sappho�s poetic world, male figures, when they do appear, stand on the periphery. -- In order to make Sappho accessible to everyone, Snyder presents detailed readings of the one complete existing song and of each of the major fragments of her poetry. She provides a clear English translation and a transliteration into our alphabet; the original Greek text is included in an appendix. R ather than making claims about the specific social contexts out of which the poems may have arisen, Snyder offers a close analysis of the words themselves, with comparative material drawn from other archaic Greek poets where there appear to be appropriate parallels. -- The book concludes with a chapter addressing Sapphos influence on a number of modern American woman poets, particularly Amy Lowell, H.D., and Olga Broumas. Snyder sees in these three poets qualities similar to Sappho s: a strong sense of self-definition; a display of independence within a poetic tradition; a relishing of the erotic and the sensual; and an emphasis on the mutuality of desire; and a blurring of the gaze that disrupts the hierarchy of subject versus object. -- Complemented by an appendix of the original Greek poetry, Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho is a suitable introduction to ancient Greek and homoerotic literature that will also be welcomed by scholars of womens studies and classics. ISBN 9780231099943