February is LGBT+ History Month, so we’ve put together a display a range of books from our collection which explore LGBT+ history.
The theme for LGBT+ History Month 2020 is Poetry, Prose, and Plays. Included in our display, you’ll find books covering the topic of homosexuality and literature, focusing on different periods in history. Among them, we have Passions between women : British lesbian culture 1668-1801 by Emma Donoghue which looks at representations of lesbian culture in British print, from classic works of literature to legal and medical publications. Also included is Naomi Wolf’s most recent book, Outrages, which studies the Obscene Publications Act and the censorship of books. In addition, we have 1956 and all that : the making of modern British drama by Dan Reballato in which the author studies the influence of homosexuality on 1940s and 50s British theatre.
LGBT History Month in the UK have highlighted the following four writers in particular: Dawn Langley Simmons, E.M. Forster, Lorraine Hansberry, William Shakespeare. Of course, you’ll find plenty more books on poetry, prose and plays at the English Faculty Library. However, the following e-books are available online to University members, wherever you happen to be- just make sure you’re signed on with your single sign-on. Click on the book cover below to access the SOLO record.
Further to this, the Bodleian are trialling the following 3 e-resources during February:
Archives of Sexuality and Gender: Gale Cengage. Primary source materials from the 16th- 20th century. This is the biggest digital collection of primary source materials on sexuality and gender history.
LGBT Magazine Archive: Proquest LLC. Contains the archives of 26 leading LGBT magazines, including The Advocate which has not been available digitally before. Also included are Gay News and its successor Gay Times.
LGBT Life Full Text from EBSCO LGBT studies database, providing historically significant primary sources, including books, newspapers and magazines. A subject-specific thesaurus, containing thousands of terms, is also included.
LGBT+ Events happening in Oxford
On Sunday afternoon, the History Faculty has a number of talks on LGBT+ history, more on which you can find out here.
Later on in the month, you can hear about the latest research in LGBT+ history with a keynote lecture from Dr Jill Liddington on ‘Writing Anne Lister. More information can be found here.