Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937 by Joan E. DeJean

Treating Sappho as a creature of translation and interpretation whose features have changed with social mores and aesthetics, Joan DeJean writes a history of the sexual politics of literary reception. Because Sappho is associated with female homosexuality, the way each culture responds to her reveals the standards it imposes on female sexuality. Focusing largely on the French tradition, DeJean traces re-creations of Sappho in translation and fiction from the mid-sixteenth century to the eve of the Second World War, showing how each reflects its writer's fantasies and anxieties and the outlook of the time.