Resources for Writing Historical Lesbian Fiction

hrj

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It occurs to me that I haven't shared my latest blogging project on this forum yet. For the last couple of decades I've been collecting up a lot of materials for background research on lesbians (or "lesbian-like" people, to use Judith Bennett's phrase) in pre-modern Europe in support of my various fiction projects. I've always meant to share my research in some way (and have done a couple of topic-specific survey articles in my LiveJournal) but kept putting it off because I couldn't figure out the "perfect" presentation.

Recently I decided the heck with it and have started posting it as an annotated bibliography: publication citation, summary of the contents, and some discussion on usefulness for historic research. A more detailed statement of purpose can be found here and the individual entries are all tagged "LHMP" for Lesbian Historic Motif Project.

When researching relatively obscure historic topics -- from Viking cuisine to Bronze Age weaving techniques -- I've found that the biggest step is simply knowing what the existing scholarship is in the field. After that, tracking it down is (relatively) simple. So my goal here is not so much to be a one-stop shop for lesbian history but to provide a tasting buffet of the work that has been done and a basic context for understanding it.
 

hrj

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Wow, I've been made sticky! Thanks!
 

Kasubi

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Covering more recent times, Clare Summerskill's Gateway to Heaven is worth a read.

Lesbians and gay men reflect on their lives and their place in society from the 1940s to the turn of the century.

It would be nice to have a resource list. I'm currently retelling an Irish legend, trying to give it some depth and colour. You find snippets about the warrior clans, much like Greece, but women are another matter. Writing about women on most topics is scarce, yet alone an in-depth study of sexuality.

Haven't read this yet, but looks interesting: ‘Terrible queer creatures’: a history of homosexuality in Ireland.
 
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hrj

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Just thought I'd drop a note that my Lesbian Historic Motif Project blog has a new home at the Alpennia.com website. My web gurus and I are still fiddling with the bells and whistles, but it has more searchability now and I've done a complete overhaul on the tags and keywords.