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Paul Halsall:
The Experience of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages
Preface
The following is a paper written in 1988. I would change some, perhaps many of the conclusions, and certainly the theoretical approach. In particular I would emphasis the position of large aggregates of human beings [i.e. cities and monasteries] as
a necessary but not sufficient pre-condition for homosexual sub-cultures.
It should also be noted that this paper stands firmly against the social constructionist model of homosexual cultures. It sees, in Western culture at least, the persistent existence of recognizably homosexual sub-cultures which recur whenever
opportunity presents itself. I am now much more open to constructionist arguments, but would insist that the free variation some aspects of constructionism seems to posit, does not exist:- in fact a small number of formulations recur repeatedly.
The bibliography on medieval homosexuality in the ten years since this paper was written has grown enormously. There is an up-to-date online bibliography available. Anyone seriously interested in this topic needs especially to get hold of the
following (full citations in the online bibliography):
Michael J. Rocke: Forbidden Friendship
James Brundage: Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe
John Boswell: Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe
Mark Jordan: The Invention of Sodomy
Bernardette Brooten: Love Between Women
Let me stress this was a term paper by a graduate student. It may still have some interest, but it does not represent my current ideas, or ...