This is the second of the articles that drove me to track down this collection (though, as it happens, I suspect the last two articles will also be of interest). Andreadis has written on this theme before and you can see the concept develop accross several publications. (But, of course, I'm not reading them in the order they were produced, so I get some of the ideas out of order.) While it's dangerous to try to understand historic attitudes by analogy to modern ones, it might be useful to consider the wide range of approaches to "respectability" within modern LGBTQ communities.
LHMP
Blog entry
One of the most fraught endeavors of literary analysis is the attempt to suss out the gender of an anonymous or pseudonymous author. Everything we assume, believe, and project about gendered writing gets applied in ways that cannot help but confirm our biases, absent a "reveal" from the living author, or from previously unknown evidence.
There is a long association of women-run girls's schools with homosocial bonding (among both students and faculty) that often shades over into romance. Although this article isn't examining the romantic potential of Mary Ward's organization, there are some interesting symbolic parallels in the "closeted" nature of their work in 17th c England as a Catholic organization.
OK, this time I'm aiming for the "brief summary" approach. This is hard.
OK, so honestly? When I decide to "blog the whole thing" for some of these collections, it may be hard to see the relevance to the Project, as such. And the real answer is that I like symmetry and follow-through. So if I've decided to "blog the whole collection" I prefer not to change my mind in the middle, even if -- in retrospect -- I probably should have just stuck to the two papers of obvious relevance. Another part of this is that it's hard to do anything between a one-sentence topic statement and a more detailed content summary.
Another paper that explores aspects of the informal--but vitally important--webs of connection between women in pre-modern societies in which they lacked formal power.
Back in the saddle, after inadvertently taking a month off. I'm not sure that this article convinced me of the comparability of ladies in waiting in Shakespeare's plays versus Queen Elizabeth's court. But it does provide a useful reminder that the personal household of a reigning queen provided a context for interesting forms of female power and influence -- as well as an environment where remaining unmarried (and having primary connections with other women) might be advantageous to one's status and success.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 229 - On the Shelf for May 2022 - Transcript
(Originally aired 2022/05/07 - listen here)
Welcome to On the Shelf for May 2022.
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 228 - The Spirits of Cabassus by Ursula Whitcher - transcript
(Originally aired 2022/04/30 - listen here)
Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 227 – Charlotte Charke - transcript
(Originally aired 2022/04/16 - listen here)
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