This review will necessarily be somewhat cursory, as the entire book is relevant to the LHMP project. In general, I will summarize data not covered in detail elsewhere, and include references to the rest.
Literary Crossdressing
Examples from literature of women (or those presented as women) wearing masculine garments, in part or in whole. This group focuses on examples where there are no resulting romantic plot elements.
LHMP entry
Chapters 1-4
The recent history of debate over the question of same-sex marriage has tended to take as a given that the concept did not exist in pre-modern times, but a growing body of evidence suggests that this is not entirely the case. This article begins with the usual review of the problems in identifying what would constitute historic evidence for female homoeroticism before the modern period, though Emma Donoghue's work is cited as establishing early uses of terms like "lesbian" and "sapphist", which are relatively unambiguous.
In the context of the Germanic (and especially Old Norse) motif of the “shield maiden”, Clover studies a specific story-type that she terms the “maiden warrior”, as typified by Hervör in Hervarar saga ok Heidhreks, and identifies a characteristic context for this particular version of the warrior woman motif.
In the context of an increased interest in the cultural role of theatrical cross-dressing in the Renaissance through modern times, these authors extend the analysis backward to look at similar themes in medieval theater.
Like many articles of this era, Bruster begins by explaining that (and why) there is a dearth of academic investigation into the topic of female homoeroticism in [insert topic here]. He asserts that prior work has focused on affirmative and subversive portrayals of female homoeroticism, resulting in an incomplete and idealized picture. So he’s going to be iconoclastic and look at less positive portrayals of female-female eroticism on the stage.
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