History Of Homosexuality In Europe, 1919 1939

History Of Homosexuality In Europe, 1919-1939 | Florence Tamagne

ISBN: 0875863566 | PDF | 492 pages | 4.72 Mb

Just crawling out from under the Victorian

blanket, Europe was devastated by a gruesome

war that consumed the flower of its youth.

Tamagne dissects the strands of euphoria,

rebellion, exploration, nostalgia and yearning,

and the bonds forged at school and on the

battlefront, in a scholarly treatise charting

the early days of the homosexual and lesbian

scene. The period between the two world wars

was crucial in the history of homosexuality in

Europe. It was then that homosexuality first

came out into the light of day. Berlin became

the capital of the new culture, and the center

of a political movement seeking rights and

protections for what we now call gays and

lesbians. In England, the confruntation was

brisk to undermine the structures and

strictures of Victorianism; whereas in France

(which was more tolerant, over all),

homosexuality remained more subtle and

nonmilitant.Tamagne's 2-volume work outlines

the long and arduous journey from the shadows

toward acceptability as the homosexual and

lesbian community sets out to find a new

legitimacy at various levels of society. She

weaves together cultural references from

literature, songs and theater, news stories

and private correspondence, police reports and

government documents to give a rounded picture

of the evolving scene.