I had another work session with my website designers this weekend and we're one more session away from the Go Live of the new site. This will not yet be the Go Live of the new LHMP interface, since that involves a few complicated technical problems (as well as a lot of clean-up of the existing data), so one of the interim tasks is making sure that nothing gets too broken during the two-part move. (I imagine I'll spend quite some time finding and correcting internal links in the archives so they point to the new LHMP home and not to LJ.)
Part of the new design has involved standardizing the format and content of the entries. Back when I started the Project, of course, I didn't give much thought to standardization. Now that I'm migrating things, I've had to identify the most preferable version of the internal structure that emerged. During this transition period, I've been trying to get in practice by formatting entries according to the new fixed plan.
In designing the structure, I had to consider four types of publications: individual articles, collections of articles where I was covering most or all of the entire collection, books covered in a single entry, and books covered in multiple entries (generally by chapter). The goal was to be able to present the reader with archived material where a whole book or a whole article collection could be read as a single text, or where any article could be listed and read separately. Furthermore, I wanted a way to clearly distinguish between the summary/analysis of the publication itself, my general discussions and personal interaction with the material, and things unrelated to the publication that happened to be discussed in the same blog entry. The bibliography needed to be able to list articles separately as well as listing them as subunits of a collection, but to only list book chapters as subunits of the book and not as separate entries. You can see how this might drive a web designer to drink!
But we seen to have developed a workable plan. So to use today's blog as an example, all the text up to and including this bit would be a separate "blog text" unit that appears only when the publication is initially presented in the blog, but not in the archive of publication-related entries. This is followed by the standard "about the LHMP" link. Then, for a collection of articles or a multi-part book (like the current publication), you get the top-level bibliographic citation, followed by a general introduction to the larger unit. Then you get either the specific article citation or, as in this case, the chapter heading, followed by a brief introduction specific to that item. Finally you get the actual summary/analysis/discussion of the content itself. If you're looking at the archives for a multi-part publication, you get the overall citation/intro at the top, followed by the specific citation, intro, and main-text for each article/chapter in turn. This will all make more sense once it's there to play with.
Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0
This is a massive (over 1000 pages) collection of works and excerpts of literature relevant to lesbian history. I’ve broken my coverage up in fractions of centuries that produce very roughly similar numbers of items, rather than according to the organization in the book itself.
Part 3: 17th Century (second half)
Following the theme of “who tells your story?”, this set of selections diverges strongly between male and female authors. We have three named male authors including lesbian themes in pornography or crude sexual satires. We have five female authors writing poetry of intense romantic friendships, sometimes tinged with an erotic sensibility but never explicit. And we have two anonymous works of varied nature.
Nicholas Chorier from Dialogues on the Arcana of Love and Venus by Luisa Sigea Toletana (1660-78) -- Excerpts from the pornographic Satyra Sotadica that describe sexual activity between two women as part of a wider range of transgressive sexual adventures.
Anonymous from The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith, Commonly Called Moll Cutpurse (1662) -- Excerpts from a biography of a woman who openly cross-dressed and refused to follow expected feminine behavior.
Katherine Philips “To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship”, “Parting with Lucasia: A Song”, “Orinda to Lucasia”, “Friendship’s Mystery: To My Dearest Lucasia”, “Injuria Amici” (1664) -- A selection of homoerotic poetry addressed to Anne Owen by her poetic name Lucasia. The language goes beyond the conventions of romantic friendship but without being overtly sexual.
Pierre de Bourdeilles, Seigneur de Brantôme from Lives of Gallant Ladies (1665-1666) -- (Translated) An extensive collection of anecdotes involving sexual encounters between women.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) “To the Fair Clorinda, Who Made Love to Me Imagin’d More than Woman”, “Verses Design’d by Mrs. A. Behn to be sent to a Fair Lady, that Desir’d She Would Absent Herself to Cure her Love” -- A collection of love poems addressed to women.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz “Accompanying a Ring Bearing the Portrait of la Señora Condesa de Paredes. She Explains”, “Inés, Dear, with your Love I am Enraptuerd” (ca. 1686) -- Poems addressed from Sor Juana to her patroness, using romantic and erotic imagery.
Anne Killigrew “On a Picture Painted by Herself, Representing Two Nymphs of Diana’s, One in a Posture to Hunt, the Other Bathing”, “On the Soft and Gentle Motions of Eudora” (attributed) (1686) -- Two poems that emphasize a sensual appreciation for the recipient’s beauty.
John Dryden from The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis (1693) -- A translation of a Roman satire on women having sexual encounters with each other (although the intended imagery takes a bit of extraction from the text).
Elizabeth Singer Rowe “Love and Friendship: A Pastoral” (1696) -- A poem celebrating female romantic friendship that subtly equates it with heterosexual love.
Anonymous “Venus’s Reply” (1699) -- A ribald poem that was written in answer to the poem “The Women’s Complaint to Venus”, which spoke in the voice of women complaining that the prevalence of male homosexuality was depriving them of lovers. In this poem, Venus tells the women it’s their own fault for turning their desires to other women (described in quite graphic terms). Given the unambiguously sexual context, the poem is valuable for examples of the slang term “game of flats” and use of the word “odd” to imply homosexuality.