20th Century Lesbian Literature: An Intro to Modernism

20th Century Lesbian Literature: An Intro to Modernism

As a reader whose experience with classics is mostly limited to the 19th century, I decided to give myself an intro to modernism by reading some 20th century lesbian literature, as many of the well known and influential names of the modernist period were lesbians, women who loved women, or otherwise gender non conforming women. The relaxed sexual morality of the interwar period among the artistic elite coupled with the rejection of victorian rigidity may go part way to explaining this, and after having listened to the podcast The Feminist Present reading The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, the crossover between gender non conformity and modernism drew me in. I hope you enjoy my early early explorations of this genre.

Podcast Mentioned
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...

Books Mentioned
Orlando by Virginia Woolf https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6348/978178...
Love Letters: Vita and Virginia https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6348/978178...
No Modernism Without Lesbians by Diana Souhami https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6348/978178...
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall https://uk.bookshop.org/a/6348/978178...

0:00 - What is Modernism?
02:13 - Virginia Woolf & Vita Sackville-West
17:50 - Cambridge
18:48 - No Modernism Without Lesbians?
27:10 - The Well of Loneliness