Before the closet

By Allen J. Frantzen

Subjects: Beowulf, History, English literature, history and criticism, old english, ca. 450-1100, Gay men in literature, Lesbians in literature, English literature, LGBTQ history, Love in literature, History and criticism, Anglo-Saxons in literature, Homosexuality and literature

Description: Allen J. Frantzen challenges the long accepted view that the early Middle Ages tolerated and even fostered same-sex relations and that intolerance of homosexuality developed only late in the medieval period. Frantzen shows that in early medieval Europe, the Church did not tolerate same-sex acts, in fact it was an age before people recognized the existence—or the possibility—of the "closet." With its ambitious scope and elegant style, Before the Closet sets same-sex relations in Anglo-Saxon sources in relation to the sexual themes of contemporary opera, dance, and theatre. Frantzen offers a comprehensive analysis of sources from the seventh to the twelfth century and traces Anglo-Saxon same-sex behavior through the age of Chaucer and into the Renaissance.