The Seduction Of The Mediterranean: Writing, Art And The Homosexual Fantasy

The Mediterranean was the central theme in homoerotic writing and art from the 1750s to the 1950s. Writers and artists delved into classical mythology and history for figures - such as Ganymede and Achilles - through which they could portray a sexuality considered by society as a sin, an illness and a crime. Many journeyed to the south of Europe, particularly Italy, to admire the ruins of Antiquity and the paintings of the Renaissance, escape the social censure of their home countries and find sexual partners. The lives and works of forty writers are examined, from the art historian Winckelmann in the 1700s, through Romantic poets such as Byron and Platen, to Wilde, Isherwood and Forster. Attention is given to the works of such painters as Girodet and von Marees and the photographs of von Gloeden and List. Robert Aldrich sets the phenomenon of homosexual interest in the Mediterranean in its social and historical context. He suggests that different myths replaced that of the homoerotic Mediterranean by the 1960s, as gay liberation diminished the need for the legitimation of homosexuality which the classics provided, and law reform lessened the need for exile. This book brings together for the first time a study of seminal figures in homosexual culture and explains the link - fascination with the Mediterranean - which bound them together.

"The Seduction of the Mediterranean" argues that the Mediterranean was the central theme in homoerotic writing and art from the 1750s to the 1950s. Artists delved into classical mythology and history for figures--Ganymede, Antinous, Achilles and Patroclus--through which they could portray a sexuality labelled elsewhere as sickness or criminal. The author examines the works of forty writers and artists who used these myths . The author examines the works of forty writers and artists who used these myths of the Mediterranean to portray gay male sexuality, and to live in a less hidden way, apart from the censure of their countries.
The period covered by the author, from the 1750s to the 1950s, includes men such as Wincklemann, Byron, Wilde, Isherwood and Forster, as well as the painters Girodet and van Marees, and photographers von Gloeden and List, who made the Mediterranean a focus of their work. Their personal and artistic involvment with the region, its inhabitants and mythology are looked at through tourism, economic disparities and sexual mores of residents and visitors.