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People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook
Homosexuality and Catholicism Bibliography:
Section XIII: Lesbian and Gay Catholic Novels, Short
Stories and Plays
© Paul Halsall
Argis, Henri D', Sodome, (Paris, Piaget, 1888)
Argis, Henri D', Gomorrhe, (Paris, Charles,
1889)
Bell, Amy., Sodom and Gomorrah. (New York,
1971 20, Typescript, rev. and annotated in ms. Promptbook;
includes light cues and stage directions. Produced at Dramatis
Personae, N. Y. C., Oct. 1, 1971)
Benard, Robert, A Catholic Education, (New
York: Laurel Leaf/Dell, 1982)
Young pious Catholic goes to seminary and falls
in love with another student. What should he do?
Bloxam, John Francis, The Chameleon, (1894),
partly reprinted as "The Priest and the Acolyte" in
Brian Reade, ed., Sexual Heretics: Male Homosexuality in English
Literature from 1850-1900, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1970), 349-60
An extraordinary story of love between a homosexual
priest and an acolyte which is discovered and ends with both dying
in a suicide pact, the death being administered via an intinction
of poison in a consecrated Chalice used at a final mass said together.
Bouldry, Brian, Genius of Desire, (New York:
Ballantine, 1994)
Coming out story of a gay Catholic boy.
Burgess, Anthony, Earthly Powers
Begins with a scene in which "the archbishop
is in bed with his catamite" and contiinues from there.
Carson, Michael, Brothers in Arms, (New York:
Pantheon, 1988; now pub by Plume. British version called Sucking
Sherbet Lemons)
Story of a Liverpool Catholic teenager with two
desires - the Church and other men. Well written, both funny and
poignant at times. First of a triology follwoing the same character.
Clarke, Peg, Potted Love, (Sydney: Crescent
Press, 1980)
Story of a relationship between a nun and a senior
student at an Australian boarding school
Cowell, Stephanie, Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier,
Physician, Priest, (1993)
Crown, Judston, The Search for Sebastian,
(San Diego CA: Los Himbres Press, 1991)
A camp mix of transsexual pentecostal bishops, Latin
mass Catholics and a travel narrative.
Disch, Thomas, The Priest: a Gothic Romance,
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995)
The novel is not about homosexuality, but has as
its central character a "rehabilitated" pedophile priest,
who is subjected to various forms of blackmail.
Diderot, Denis, The Nun, (original La Religeuse,
various editions)
Novel by a great Enlightenment thinker, with a sister
who was a nun, depicts pathological lesbianism in a religious
atmosphere. A deeply anti-Catholic novel.
Firbank, Ronald, Concerning the Eccentricities
of Cardinal Pirelli, (in five novels) (New York: New Directions,
19??)
Fraser, Antonia, Quiet as a Nun: A Tale of Murder,
(New York: Viking, 1977)
Much speculation about past and present "particular
friendships"
Gide, Andre, Saul, (Paris: Editions de la
Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1922)
Based on the Biblical story. Gide considered it
his great contribution to homosexual literature.
Glubka, Shirely, "Bless me Sister....", Conditions 9 (1983) 46-55
Short story by a lesbian ex-nun about her sexual
relationship with another nun.
Godden, Rumer, In This House of Brede, (New
York: Viking, 1969)
Novel about a middle aged women who enters a Benedictine
convent. Includes a stoy of a particualr friendship between a
professed sister and a novice. Made into a film with Diana Rigg.
Hernandex Cata, Alfonso, El Angel de Sodoma,
(Madrid: Mundo Latino, 1928)
Hesse, Hermann, Narziss und Goldmund, Berlini:
S. Fischer, 1931; various english translations)
Two medieval monks, with a homosexual undertheme.
Considered one of Hesse's finest works.
Hulme, Kathryn, The Nun's Story, (Boston:
Little, Brown. 1956)
Classic novel. Not explicitly lesbian but described
intense same-sex relationships. later made into a film.
Johnson, Greg, Pagan Babies, (New York: Dutton,
1993; pb. New York: Plume, 1994)
Two Catholic 'outsiders,' one of them a straight
women and the other a gay man. Catholicism pervades this book,
which raises a number of issues about the nature of "meaning"
in life. Johnson suggests that Catholicism may be oppressive,
but a Catholic upbringing/schooling induces the sense that there
is, or should be, meaning.
Kazantzakes, Nikos, Sodoma kai Gomora. English.
Two plays, trans. Kimon Friar, (St. Paul, Minn. : North Central
Pub. Co., 1982)
Lersch, Susan, Sisters, Stonewall Repertory
Theater, New York City, 1983
Play about convent life, including lesbian freindship
and sexual experience. Reviews by Theresa Mancus, Images 1:3 9 (December 1983)
Lodge, David, How Far Can You Go, (London:
1980)
Comic novel which follows a group of 1950s London
Catholic students through the changes of the 1960s and 1970s.
Has a fairly stereotypical gay character who becomes an Episcopalian
because of liturgical reasons.
Macaulay, Rose, The Towers of Trebizond, (London:
Collins, 1956)
The story of a trip to Turkey to convert Turkish
Muslim women to High-Anglicanism so as to liberate them from the
oppression of patriarchy. It is not always clear what the gender
of the narrator is, or what the sexual sins involved are. The
book is simply fabulous!
Marlowe, Jane R., "Hail Mary", in Focus;
A Journal for Lesbians Nov-Dec 1979, 3-9
Story of a nun meeting her convent lover, now an
ex-nun.
Maupin, Armistead, Tales of the City (series)
This series of six soap-operish novels is completely
entrancing. Maupin is hostile to religion in general, but there
is much here for the Catholic reader - Michael's fundamentalist
parents, the sisters of perpetual indulgence, an entire plot set
in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral - and a gayish Catholic
television priest.
Michaels, Joanna, Nun in the Closet, (Norwich
VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1994)
A lesbian detective story.
Montley, Patricia, Sister-Rites, 1983
Play about a reunion of a convent class with their
novice mistress. Church pressure on one nun to give up her work
in gay ministry creates a crisis.
Murdoch, Iris, The Bell, (London: Chatto &
Windus, 1958)
The Bell is the story of an Anglican lay
monastery, awash with issues of homosexuality and passion. Virtually
all of Murdoch's novel's have strong non-stereotyped gay characters.
O'Brien, Edna, "Sister Imelda", The
New Yorker, Nov 9 1981, 48-58
Intense relationship between a nun and high school
senior through the student's eyes.
Ricardo, Jack, Death with Dignity, (Austin
TX: Banned Books, 1991)
A murder mystery novel set in a Dignity chapter in south Florida!
Plante David, The Catholic, (New York: Atheneum,
1986, c.1985: now pub. by Plume)
Story of a very uneasy Catholic gay man, written
in the "gay lyrical" style seen in authors like Andrew
Holleran and Edmund White.
Rees, David, In the Tent, (Boston: Alyson,
1979)
Concerns a young gay man - who is also a strict
Catholic - and his experiences in a fantasy adventure set during
the English Civil War.
Renault, Mary, The Charioteer, (New York:
Pantheon: 1959)
Story of a male love affair in World War II. Neither
partner is Catholic, but one is a Quaker and issues familair to
gay Catholics are raised by one of the best modern lesbian authors
Rodi, Robert, Closet Case, (New York: Dutton,
1993: pb Plume, 1994)
A very funny comic novel, not very concerned with
gay Catholic issues, but the hero, Lionel, was raised Catholic
and the collapse of his closet begins while he is in a gay go-go
dancing bar during which a go-go dancer dressed as a priest is
performing. The dancer entrances Lionel, bringing up memories
of his youthful fantasies about priests.
Rolfe, Frederick (Baron Corvo), Hadrian VII,
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1904: many later reissues)
Rolfe was a Roman Catholic convert who lived on
a gondola in Venice seducing Italian men. He was also obsessed
with the Church. This novel is a fantasy, written in the super-intellectual
language of late Victorian educated English converts, in which
the narrator - a layman - is elected pope, and what he does in
that position.
Schmitt, Gladys, David the King, (repr. New
York: Dial Press, 1973)
Lookst at David's love affairs with both Jonathan
and Bathsheba.
Spark, Muriel, The Abbess of Crewe, (New York:
Vikiing, 1974)
Novel about Watergate. Lesbian hints pp. 21, 33,
62
Vidal, Gore, Live From Golgotha: The Gospel According
To Gore Vidal
Thanks to a breakthrough in computers, an NBC crew races into
the past to capture live the crucifixion, guaranteed to boost
ratings. Meanwhile a hacker is trying to destroy the tapes. One
tape, that of St. Timothy is saved, and he struggles against dark
forces to complete his gospel, including his travels with St.
Paul, his date rape with Nero, followed by martyrdom, fire and
the big show at Golgotha.
Warren, Patricia Nell, The Fancy Dancer, (1976;
now pub. by Plume)
Story of a gay Catholic priest in Montana, and his
love affair with a Native American.
Warren, Patricia Nell, The Beauty Queen, (197?)
Novel about a beauty queen who begins an anti-gay
crusade based on her Christian religious convictions.. Could have
some connection to Anita Bryant!
Waugh, Evelyn, Brideshead Revisted, (London:
Chapman & Hall, 1945; now pub by Penguin)
Catholic aristocrat at 1930's Oxford University,
and his relationship with a middle class Protestant who is eventually
overtaken by grace! [TV series of the book also worth seeing.]
Weiner, Steve, Museum of Love, (?: Overlook
Press, 1994)
Traces the story of a French-Canadian gay man from
an intensely Catholic home - his mother is a mystic and his brother
a saint.
West, Morris, The Devil's Advocate, (London:
19??)
The novel focuses on a priest with cancer who is
sent to investigate a possible new saint's cult in Southern Italy.
Homosexuality plays a large part in the plot, but West's attitude
is condemnatory.
White, Antonia, Frost in May, (London: 1933;
repub. London: Virago, 1978, also New York: Dial, 1980)
A work of art. Set in a Catholic girls school in
the interwar years, it describes the resistence and overcoming
of a student by the closed minds and crabbed attitudes thrust
on her that nearly kill her soul. Four of the girls defy the rules
and form loving "couples". [TV series made.]
Winterton, Jeannette, Oranges Are Not The Only
Fruit, (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1985)
The story of a young lesbian being brought up by
an outrageously evangelical aunt in postwar Lancashire. Wonderful
observant writing from one of the stars of modern British literature.
[TV series almost as good as the book.]
Zubro, Mark R., The Only Good Priest, (New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1991)
From the back cover: "Father Sebastian, the
only good priest everbody knows, is dead. Pastor of a parish outside
Chicago, Father Sebastian was also involved in the gay community
through his work with _Faith_, the gay Catholic organization the
diocese is trying to drive out of the church. High school teacher
Tom Mason, who has gained some local notoriety from his involvement
in a couple of murder cases, is asked to look into the priest's
death; was it murder? Along with his lover Scott Carpenter, a
professional baseball player, Tom plunges into ecclesiastical
intrigues, the hidden underground of gay Chicago, and the tragedies
caused by a hypocritical church."
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 12 April 2024 [CV]
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