An Introduction to Lesbian History

An Introduction to Lesbian History

With Jane Traies
6-week module 7pm- 9pm Wednesdays from 24 February to 31 March

LGBTQ+ historians look for themselves, or people like themselves, in the past; we want to write ourselves back into history, to prove that people like us existed before us. But how far are we justified in retro-fitting modern identities onto historical figures? The past was a very different sexual place; historical contexts require us always to interrogate not only the ways our predecessors were like us, but also the ways in which they were not. In this six-week module, we will consider concepts in lesbian history such as ‘female‘ husbands’; cross-dressing women; romantic friendships and Boston marriages; and changing attitudes to lesbianism in the twentieth century.