Reviews for Secret Sexualities: A SourceBook of 17th and 18th Century Writing

The average rating for Secret Sexualities: A SourceBook of 17th and 18th Century Writing based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-07 00:00:00 Dwfsd Weadads That the eighteenth century was a homophobic era shouldn't surprise anyone and these moralizing texts are monotonous in tone even when they're forcing a rhyme trying to amuse their intended audience. Ultimately, the texts are mostly dull tabloid fodder punctuated by Mr. McCormick's introductions. The latter falls into one of two categories: - Superfluous: in which the editor tells you what you are about to read - Obnoxious: In which the editor expounds the theory that homosexuality is a construct of those who would persecute gays and lesbians. This under the guise of providing the "true" history of queer identity. As a sourcebook, the pieces are sometimes divided up for no compelling reason and some of the pieces' presence in their respective sections is questionable. But it's McCormick's unpleasant and unsuccessful attempted to reconstruct a neutered history of queer identities that takes this book into disappointing dialectics. Ignoring the obvious, sometimes fascinating not-quite-sub-text that "alternative" sexualities are the tabulae onto which class anxiety, class resentment, xenophobia, anti-Papist sentiment, and conservatism in general are projected onto a segment of society that was visible enough to be the scapegoats for the rest while hidden enough to provoke a sense of curiosity.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-18 00:00:00 Tammy Dennis 2.5 stars. Good for the original texts, but seemingly narrow in scope and the introductory/explanatory paragraphs weren't particularly useful.