CRITICISM

Andreadis, Harriette. Sappho in Early Modern England: Female Same-Sex Literary Erotics 1550-1714. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, 254 p.

Invokes the status of Sappho as an icon of female same-sex eroticism to study aspects of this phenomena in sixteenth- through eighteenth-century England.

Bergmann, Emilie L. “Fictions of Sor Juana/Fictions of Sappho.” Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura 9, no. 2 (spring 1994): 9-15.

Applies Joan DeJean's theories of the role of the feminine in male poetic discourse outlined in her Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937 to a study of works by Latin writers Octavio Paz and Sor Juana.

Bigwood, Carol. “Sappho: The She-Greek Heidegger Forgot.” In Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger, edited by Nancy J. Holland and Patricia Huntington, pp. 165-95. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.

Considers unusual affinities between the poetry of Sappho and the thought of Martin Heidegger.

Blank, Paula. “Comparing Sappho to Philaenis: John Donne's ‘Homopoetics.’” PMLA 110, no. 3 (May 1995): 358-68.

Interprets Donne's poem “Sappho to Philaenis” in the context of homoerotic desire.

Bonnet, Marie-Jo. “Sappho, or the Importance of Culture in the Language of Love.” In Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Anna Livia and Kira Hall, pp. 147-66. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Traces the development of the terminology and symbolism of female homosexuality from Sappho to the end of the twentieth century.

Christy, Angela. “The Mary Barnard Translation of Sappho.” Paideuma 23, no. 1 (spring 1994): 25-63.

Evaluates the accuracy and style of Mary Barnard's English translations of Sapphic verse in her Sappho: A New Translation (1958).

Collecott, Diana. H.D. and Sapphic Modernism,. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 350 p.

Uses the Sapphic fragments as evocative intertexts in the study of the poetry of Hilda Doolittle.

DeJean, Joan. Introduction to Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937, pp. 1-28. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Surveys and analyzes the profound influence of Sappho on the French literary tradition.

Goldensohn, Lorrie. “‘The Speech of Her Stringed Shell’: Mary Barnard's Sappho.” Paideuma 23, no. 1 (spring 1994): 13-22.

Praises Barnard's translations of Sapphic verse in her Sappho: A New Translation.

Harvey, Elizabeth D. “Ventriloquizing Sappho: Ovid, Donne, and the Erotics of the Feminine Voice.” Criticism 31, no. 2 (spring 1989): 115-38.

Studies John Donne's adaptation of Sappho's classical, feminine poetic voice in his “Sappho to Philaenis.”

Kaminsky, Amy. “The Construction of Immortality: Sappho, Saint Theresa and Caroline Coronado.” Letras Femeninas 19, no. 1-2 (spring-fall 1993): 1-13.

Highlights the resonance of Sapphic legend in nineteenth-century Spanish literary feminism.

Mason, Hugh J. “The Literature of Classical Lesbos and the Fiction of Stratis Myrivilis.” Classical and Modern Literature 9, no. 4 (summer 1989): 347-57.

Explores echoes of Sapphic verse in the writings of the twentieth-century Greek novelist Stratis Myrivilis.

McGann, Jerome. “Mary Robinson and the Myth of Sappho.” Modern Language Quarterly 56, no. 1 (March 1995): 55-76.

Examines how Mary Robinson's 1796 drama Sappho and Phaon introduces Sappho's writing and myth to the poetics of sensibility.

Moore, Lisa L. Dangerous Intimacies: Toward a Sapphic History of the British Novel. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997, 191 p.

Uses Sappho as a cipher for female homoeroticism in studying fiction by British women writers.

Most, Glenn W. “Reflecting Sappho.” In Re-Reading Sappho: Reception and Transmission, edited by Ellen Greene, pp. 11–35. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Chronicles shifting popular and literary perceptions about Sappho's work from antiquity to the contemporary era.

Naafs-Wilstra, Marianne C. “Indo-European ‘Dichtersprache’ in Sappho and Alcaeus.” Journal of Indo-European Studies 15, no. 3-4 (fall-winter 1987): 273-83.

Probes the poetic diction of Sappho and her contemporary Alcaeus to find evidence of an Aeolian tradition independent of the Ionian epic mode of Homer.

O'Connor, Desmond. “From Venus to Proserpine: ‘Sappho's Last Song.’” Rivista di Studi Italiani 14, no. 2 (December 1998): 438-53.

Investigates the influence of Sapphic poetry and legend on the nineteenth-century Italian writer Giacomo Leopardi.

Petropoulos, J. C. B. “Sappho the Sorceress—Another Look at Fr. 1 (LP).” Zeischrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 97 (1993): 43–56.

Analyzes Sappho's “Hymn to Aphrodite” as a magical prayer or incantation akin to a love spell.

Powell, Jim. “Afterwords.” TriQuarterly 86 (winter 1992–93): 244–58.

Comments on the poet's life, versification, style, and the textual and critical history of her works.

Prins, Yopie. Victorian Sappho. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999, 279 p.

Feminist study of the reception of Sappho's poetry in Victorian England, which claims that “Sappho influenced the gendering of lyric as a feminine genre.”

Race, William H. “Sappho Fr. 16 L-P. and Alkaios Fr. 42 L-P.: Romantic and Classical Strains in Lesbian Poetry.” Classical Journal 85, no. 1 (1989): 16-33.

Contrasts fragments of verse by Sappho and her contemporary Alcaeus (Alkaios), suggesting that Sappho's work prefigures aspects of English Romanticism, while that of Alcaeus evokes echoes of Homer and Pindar.

———. “Some Visual Priamels from Sappho to Richard Wilbur and Raymond Carver.” Classical and Modern Literature 20, no. 4 (fall 2000): 3-17.

Defines the poetic priamel, a series of seemingly unrelated, often paradoxical statements brought together in verse, and mentions its famous use in Sappho's sixteenth fragment.

Reynolds, ed., Margaret. The Sappho Companion, edited by Margaret Reynolds. London: Chatto & Windus, 2000, 422 p.

Collects and investigates some of the myriad legends, references, and metaphors associated with Sappho from throughout the western tradition.

Richards, David. “Swinburne and Sappho.” Notes and Queries 246, no. 2 (June 2001): 155-58.

Documents English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne's reverence for Sappho and her poetry.

Slings, S. R. “Sappho Fr. 1, 8 V.: Golden House or Golden Chariot?” Mnemosyne 44, no. 3-4 (1991): 404-10.

Comments on grammatical ambiguity in Sappho's ancient Greek verse.

Vanita, Ruth. “The Sapphic Sublime and Romantic Lyricism.” In Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination, pp. 37-61. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

Surveys Sappho's influence, as both poet and myth, on English Romantic poetry.

West, William N. “Thinking with the Body: Sappho's ‘Sappho to Philaenis,’ Donne's ‘Sappho to Philaenis.’” Renaissance Papers (1994): 67-83.

Explicates John Donne's poem “Sappho to Philaenis” as part of the tradition of masculine appropriations of Sappho's poetic voice.

Additional coverage of Sappho's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Vol. 3; Concise Dictionary of World Literary Biography, Vol. 1; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 176; Discovering Authors 3.0; Discovering Authors Modules, Poetry Edition; Literature Resource Center; Poetry Criticism, Vol. 5; Reference Guide to World Literature (St. James Press, an imprint of Gale), eds. 2, 3; World Poets (Charles Scribner's Sons, an imprint of Gale).