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2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

The Construction of Gender and Sexuality through Various Discourses on Female Homosexuality in Modern Britain

Research Project

Project/Area Number 15510224
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Gender
Research InstitutionNagoya Keizai University

Principal Investigator

KAWATSU Masae  Nagoya Keizai University, Faculty of Law, Associate Professor, 法学部, 助教授 (30278387)

Project Period (FY) 2003 – 2005
Keywordsgender / sexuality / romantic friendship / modern Britain / Sappho / Lesbian / British women poets / Romanticism
Research Abstract

This research project aimed to examine the ways in which gender was constructed in modern Britain, in relation to the idea of sexuality of the time, female homosexuality in particular. More specifically, this research investigates through various discourses about the Ancient Greek woman poet Sappho and the Ovidian Sappho, discourses on female homesexuality, and the poetic discourses of British women poets called "Sappho."
It has been hitherto argued that the concepts of sexuality and homosexuality had not appeared until late nineteenth century in Europe. The current research, however, ascertained that the terms ‘Sapphism' and ‘Sapphist' had been used in late eighteenth-century Britain similar to their use in modern times, and the lesbian tradition from Sappho to the present had been sarcastically noted. On the other hand, the attachments between two women, however intense, were often rather celebrated as asexual "romantic friendship." Chapter one of the research results analyzes the conflicting discourses of female homesexuality (‘romantic friendship' and ‘Sapphism') concerning the Ladies of Llangollen, who lived together for over fifty years, bringing to light the particular relation of the rise of new gender to the changed view of female sexuality in the Romantic period. Chapter two verifies that Anna Seward, posthumously called "the British Sappho," was a poet in the tradition of Sappho of Lesbos, as her love poetry was, like Sappho's poetry, created by a fervent longing and yearning for the absent female beloved, as well as lost time and lost pleasure. Chapter three highlights Seward's Louisa and examines the ways in which it seemingly presents itself as a heterosexual love story, while setting the heroine's romantic female friendship above her heterosexual romantic love and marriage. This poetic novel also illustrates an aspect of late eighteenth-century lesbianism which was compatible with heterosexual society.

  • Research Products

    (10 results)

All 2006 2005 2003

All Journal Article (8 results) Book (2 results)

  • [Journal Article] Romantic Friendship in Anna Seward's Louisa2006

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae
    • Journal Title

      Studies in English Literature vol.47

      Pages: 45-63

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] ロマン主義時代のセクシュアリティとジェンダー-ランゴーレンの貴婦人たち(1)2005

    • Author(s)
      川津雅江
    • Journal Title

      人文科学論集(名古屋経済大学人文科学研究会) 75

      Pages: 25-38

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] ロマン主義時代のセクシュアリティとジェンダー-ランゴーレンの貴婦人たち(2)2005

    • Author(s)
      川津雅江
    • Journal Title

      人文科学論集(名古屋経済大学人文科学研究会) 76

      Pages: 13-28

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Romantic Friendship in Anna Seward's Louisa2005

    • Author(s)
      川津雅江
    • Journal Title

      日本英文学会英文号Studies in English Literature 47

      Pages: 45-63

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Sexuality and Gender in Romantic Period-Ladies of Llangollen (1)2005

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae
    • Journal Title

      The Journal of Science of Culture and Humanities vol.75

      Pages: 25-38

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Sexuality and Gender in Romantic Period-Ladies of Llangollen (2)2005

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae
    • Journal Title

      The Journal of Science of Culture and Humanities vol.76

      Pages: 13-28

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Journal Article] ロマン主義時代の女性詩人と反奴隷制運動2003

    • Author(s)
      川津雅江
    • Journal Title

      人文科学論集(名古屋経済大学人文科学研究会) 72

      Pages: 1-18

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Journal Article] Romantic Women Poets and the Anti-Slavery Movement2003

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae
    • Journal Title

      The Journal of Science of Culture and Humanities vol.71

      Pages: 1-18

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Book] Voyages of Conception : Essays in English Romanticism2005

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae, et al.Ed.Japan Association of English Romanticism
    • Total Pages
      408
    • Publisher
      Japan Association of English Romanticism/Kirihara Syoten
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Book] Japan Association of English Romanticism, Voyages of Conception : Essays in English Romanticism.2005

    • Author(s)
      Kawatsu, Masae, et al., ed.
    • Total Pages
      408
    • Publisher
      Japan Association of English Romanticism / Kirihara Syoten
    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

URL: 

Published: 2007-12-13  

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