Homoerotic Space: the Poetics of Loss in Renaissance Literature.(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-APR-04

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 Modern Humanities Research Association

Homoerotic Space: The Poetics of Loss in Renaissance Literature. By STEPHEN GUYBRAY. Toronto, Buffalo, NY, and London: University of Toronto Press. 2002. x+265 pp. $60; 40 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-8020-3677-5.

This interesting but flawed book analyses the problems and possibilities that the homoeroticism of classical writings presented to Renaissance authors. As such, it offers a new way of thinking about the relationship between the two periods, and forms an important adjunct to work on humanism and the reception of classical literature. Essentially Guy-Bray's point is that Renaissance writers used the models provided them by their classical forebears to 'construct their own homoerotic discourses' (p. 5). Guy-Bray deploys Michel de Certeau's formulation of particularized...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.