Literature on Uránia

Publishing Triangle Honours Leading LGBTQ+ Books of 2025 in New York

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0400

At the 38th annual Publishing Triangle awards at The New School in New York, the organisation honoured leading LGBTQ+ books published in 2025, along with authors, editors, and cultural institutions working in queer literature. As Gay City News noted, the evening was shaped by the idea that every such book can function as an act of resistance.

“Queer in a Legal Sense”: How US Immigration Law Excluded Homosexuals and What Chicanx Literature Has to Do with It

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0400

In April 2026, the University of Texas Press published a book in English by American researcher José A. de la Garza Valenzuela titled Queer in a Legal Sense: Brown Citizenship and Other Lawful Fictions. In the context of the long history of disputes over border control and racial politics in North America, this monograph demonstrates how legal documents shaped the history of regulating sexuality and migration, using vague language to make the legal existence of LGBT migrants impossible.

“The Law of Gender” – A Book by Laure Murat on How the “Third Sex” Was Invented in 19th-Century France

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0400

In April 2026, Flammarion published a reprint of Laure Murat’s book The Law of Gender: A Cultural History of the Third Sex (La loi du genre: Une histoire culturelle du troisième sexe).

LGBT Chastushkas from 20th-Century Collections

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

At the beginning of the 20th century, many folklorists saw the chastushka (a short Russian folk ditty) as a “low” and secondary genre. One of the first to challenge this view systematically was the ethnographer Dmitry Zelenin. In his work, the chastushka is described as a form of individual expression that responds to real social conflicts, including family pressure and restrictions on choosing a partner.

The Same-Sex Attraction of 15th-Century Turkish Official and Poet Ahmed Pasha to a Sultan's Page

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0300

In the 15th century, poetry and politics were closely intertwined at the Ottoman court. The vizier and poet Ahmed Pasha built a brilliant career under Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror. However, he soon lost his position due to a palace scandal. At the center of the intrigue was an accusation of same-sex attraction to a young page.

Three Ottoman Homosexual Miniatures from the Manuscript of Atâyî's Poems

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0300

For the modern reader, the Ottoman Empire often appears as a strict conservative world. However, surviving documents reveal a much more complex picture. One such piece of evidence is a richly illustrated 18th-century manuscript containing the poems of the Ottoman poet Nev’îzâde Atâyî. This book features miniatures depicting homosexual subjects.

Aleksey Apukhtin: Homosexual, Poet, and Friend of Tchaikovsky

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0300

Aleksey Nikolayevich Apukhtin is known as the author of poems that became popular romances: “Frenzied Nights, Sleepless Nights” (Nochi bezumnye, nochi bessonnye), “A Pair of Bay Horses” (Para gnedykh), “Does the Day Reign?” (Den li tsarit). Set to music, these texts eventually overshadowed the rest of the poet’s work.

The Story of a Medieval Arabic Source in Which the Women of the 'Rus' Were Called the World's First Lesbians

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In English-language academic and popular literature on the history of sexuality in the Middle East, one occasionally encounters the claim that the medieval Arab encyclopedist Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri wrote that the women of the “Rus” practiced same-sex love, and that those women were the first in human history to engage in such practices.

How Duke Xian of Jin Sent a Beautiful Youth to Another Ruler to Weaken His Court and Then Conquer His Country

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:45:37 +0700

In the ancient Chinese text Zhanguo ce, there is a story about the ruler of Jin, Duke Xian-gong, to whom especially cunning diplomatic methods are attributed. One of them was pressure on a rival through the placement of an attractive young man in his inner circle.

“The Bitten Peach”: Duke Ling of Wei and Mizi Xia as One of the Earliest Same-Sex Court Tales in Chinese History

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 22:45:37 +0700

Ling, the ruler of the ancient Chinese state of Wei in the 6th–5th centuries BCE, was married. Yet when he is mentioned, people more often recall his relationship with a young man named Mizi Xia. Their love gave rise to the image – and the expression – “the bitten peach,” (余桃) which came to signify male same-sex love in Chinese culture.

Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Young Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire in the Fables 'The Two Doves' and 'The Two Friends'

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 22:45:37 +0700

Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev entered history as a notable sentimentalist poet of the late 18th–early 19th centuries and as a statesman who rose to the post of minister of justice under Alexander I. In official biographies, he appears as a strict, rational administrator. At the same time, sources and the memoir tradition suggest that young, talented men regularly appeared in his circle. His bachelor life, persistent rumors about the nature of his attachments, and the absence of public scandals create the impression of a figure whose private biography may have been deliberately shielded from publicity, yet remains legible through indirect evidence.

Homoerotic Themes in Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s Ottoman Poem “Shah and the Beggar”

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:45:37 +0700

More than 480 years ago in the Ottoman Empire, the poet Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey wrote a poem about love between two men — a story of a poor man’s passion for a noble, beautiful youth. In the sixteenth century, when people in Europe were persecuted and executed for similar themes, Yahya described male love in an elegant allegorical verse form — and, as far as we know, he was not punished for it.

A Homoerotic Plot in Ancient Egyptian Literature: Pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare and General Sasenet

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 22:45:37 +0700

Ancient Egyptian literature rarely talked about the personal lives of the pharaohs. Pepi II is an exception. Of particular interest is the homoerotic “Tale of Neferkare and the General Sasenet”: in that era, such stories were rarely written down.

Uncensored Russian Folklore: Highlights from Afanasyev’s “Russian Secret Tales”

Sun, 22 Sep 2024 22:45:37 +0700

We chose three adult Russian folk tales to make one point clear: the folklore of our ancestors was far more explicit – and far bolder – than you might expect. Alongside familiar fairy-tale staples like talking animals and magical transformations, these stories openly explore the body, taboo sex (including sex across species), gigantic phalluses, bondage, and even same-sex themes.

The Cross-Dressing Bogatyr: A Russian Bylina About Mikhailo Potyk, Who Disguises Himself as a Woman

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 22:45:37 +0700

Russian byliny (epic songs) contain a rare plot about the bogatyr (epic warrior) Mikhailo Potyk, who twice disguises himself in women’s clothing. Why does he do this? And how does this motif work inside the epic? This article briefly retells the bylina’s plot, then focuses in detail on the two episodes in which cross-dressing appears: once as a way to defeat enemies, once as a way to save the hero’s life.