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Gender and Culture Series
The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture
In literary images of lesbianism from Defoe and Diderot to Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes, noted author Castle traces the history of the "apparitional lesbian" and the evolution of lesbian sensibility from 1750 to the present, showing that a "real" lesbian can be identified in culture, history, and literature before the modern era. 30 illustrations.
307 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1993
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787 people want to read
About the author
Terry Castle
21 books42 followersTerry Castle was once described by Susan Sontag as "the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today." She is the author of seven books of criticism, including The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture (1993) and Boss Ladies, Watch Out! Essays on Women and Sex (2002). Her antholoy, The Literature of Lesbianism, won the Lambda Literary Editor's Choice Award in 2003. She lives in San Franciso and is Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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March 17, 2022ok writing an actual review for this.
this was actually a really good exploration of the "ghost" of lesbian presence in media, and how historic lesbian "representation" is a reflection of an inherent fear of lesbian relations that has pervaded art and literature for a very long time. the author takes an interesting deep dive into specific examples, though they are notably all western works. this was a very unique read and made me think a lot about how concepts discussed in this book can be applied to contemporary representations as well. overall a slay, although i read this in school and there were titties on the front cover which was an experience.
this was actually a really good exploration of the "ghost" of lesbian presence in media, and how historic lesbian "representation" is a reflection of an inherent fear of lesbian relations that has pervaded art and literature for a very long time. the author takes an interesting deep dive into specific examples, though they are notably all western works. this was a very unique read and made me think a lot about how concepts discussed in this book can be applied to contemporary representations as well. overall a slay, although i read this in school and there were titties on the front cover which was an experience.
January 28, 2008
The summer after I dropped out of college the first time I started dating this guy named Matt Hogg. He was taking a queer theory class and claimed to be overloaded with work, so I read this book and wrote a paper on it for him. It was the first time that I was introduced to that passage in The Well of Loneliness where Radclyffe Hall's doppelganger gives birth to the ghosts of all the congenital inverts of history. I was all, whoa.
November 3, 2011
I read this book last May, and I sort of wish I had written it as my dissertation. Terry Castle's case about the ghostly presence of women who love women is extremely convincing and has helped to inspire my current orals project on exploring the connections between the Gothic and issues of sexuality.
December 13, 2014
The Apparitional Lesbian
bit of torso., Face
twinfires
December 13th, 13:05
This collection of essays by noted literary academic Terry Castle, subtitled "female homosexuality and modern culture" is an absorbing read. Castle believes the lesbian is often invisible - in literature, films and the culture at large - due in part to the residual hostility of those men and women invested in a heterosexist, patriarchal view of society. She contends that, at least until the most recent decades, lesbians have not been noticed, "seen" in fact, even while people are staring straight at them. Hence, biographies of known lesbians are often "sanitized", so that only their liaisons with the opposite sex are even mentioned, let alone taken seriously. She dwells at some length on Greta Garbo, one of the notorious Mercedes de Acosta's great loves, as an example. Garbo had affairs with men but, Castle believes, expressed a preference for women in her overall lifestyle. This qualified her, in Castle's view, to be described and identified as a lesbian, rather than as "bisexual".
The "Polemical Introduction" to the essays must be read first, otherwise such explorations as an obsession on the part of some historical lesbians with Marie Antoinette, or the treatment of lesbians in literature - as far back as the eighteenth century - will be somewhat bewildering. The introduction meticulously defines Castle's terms; what the lesbian is, as well as what she is not. Castle dislikes "umbrella" terms like "gay" and "queer", as these seem to once again render the lesbian semi-invisible: she is lumped in with gay men, bisexuals, transgender, etc, as if she is the same, obscuring her unique identity. She once again, ironically, becomes invisible, an "apparition", not a fully realised being.
Castle includes two autobiographical pieces: "First Ed", about her early fascination with a woman seen undressing in the swimming pool area of the YMCA and "In praise of Brigitte Fassbaender", which has also been reprinted elsewhere. These are fascinating enough, but she also deals with lesbians in fiction, with particular reference to a forgotten novel set in the Spanish Civil War by Sylvia Townsend Warner and the better-known Henry James work, The Bostonians, examining both authors' presentation of relations between women. Other chapters explore the fascination some women had with the rumoured lesbianism of the French queen Marie Antoinette; the now famous and sexually explicit diaries of Anne Lister, the financially independent daughter of eighteenth-century provincial gentry and the world of the Paris-based New Yorker correspondent, Janet Flanner.
This broad scope does not preclude close examination of material, so The Apparitional Lesbian is quite a dense read - worth owning rather than borrowing, so you can revisit the territory at leisure. The work is illustrated and there are extensive notes, a bibliography and index. Highly recommended!
bit of torso., Face
twinfires
December 13th, 13:05
This collection of essays by noted literary academic Terry Castle, subtitled "female homosexuality and modern culture" is an absorbing read. Castle believes the lesbian is often invisible - in literature, films and the culture at large - due in part to the residual hostility of those men and women invested in a heterosexist, patriarchal view of society. She contends that, at least until the most recent decades, lesbians have not been noticed, "seen" in fact, even while people are staring straight at them. Hence, biographies of known lesbians are often "sanitized", so that only their liaisons with the opposite sex are even mentioned, let alone taken seriously. She dwells at some length on Greta Garbo, one of the notorious Mercedes de Acosta's great loves, as an example. Garbo had affairs with men but, Castle believes, expressed a preference for women in her overall lifestyle. This qualified her, in Castle's view, to be described and identified as a lesbian, rather than as "bisexual".
The "Polemical Introduction" to the essays must be read first, otherwise such explorations as an obsession on the part of some historical lesbians with Marie Antoinette, or the treatment of lesbians in literature - as far back as the eighteenth century - will be somewhat bewildering. The introduction meticulously defines Castle's terms; what the lesbian is, as well as what she is not. Castle dislikes "umbrella" terms like "gay" and "queer", as these seem to once again render the lesbian semi-invisible: she is lumped in with gay men, bisexuals, transgender, etc, as if she is the same, obscuring her unique identity. She once again, ironically, becomes invisible, an "apparition", not a fully realised being.
Castle includes two autobiographical pieces: "First Ed", about her early fascination with a woman seen undressing in the swimming pool area of the YMCA and "In praise of Brigitte Fassbaender", which has also been reprinted elsewhere. These are fascinating enough, but she also deals with lesbians in fiction, with particular reference to a forgotten novel set in the Spanish Civil War by Sylvia Townsend Warner and the better-known Henry James work, The Bostonians, examining both authors' presentation of relations between women. Other chapters explore the fascination some women had with the rumoured lesbianism of the French queen Marie Antoinette; the now famous and sexually explicit diaries of Anne Lister, the financially independent daughter of eighteenth-century provincial gentry and the world of the Paris-based New Yorker correspondent, Janet Flanner.
This broad scope does not preclude close examination of material, so The Apparitional Lesbian is quite a dense read - worth owning rather than borrowing, so you can revisit the territory at leisure. The work is illustrated and there are extensive notes, a bibliography and index. Highly recommended!
March 19, 2022
‘Why is it so difficult to see the lesbian – even when she is right there, quite plainly, in front of us? In part, because she has been “ghosted” – or made to seem invisible – by culture itself.’
A sort of foundational text for lesbian studies within literature, I'm using it for my dissertation on Virginia Woolf and I'm finding it very useful. Castle's main point is that lesbian presence exists in much of modern culture (texts and cinema), usually as patriarchal cultural anxiety and so Castle wants to unveil this strong lesbian presence.
It's very relevant to today's culture too, if I'm honest, I see a lot of lesbian headcanons of characters and the response tends to be that this is delusional. But actually, I think such viewers are usually right about picking up a lesbian presence, much like Terry Castle is doing here.
A sort of foundational text for lesbian studies within literature, I'm using it for my dissertation on Virginia Woolf and I'm finding it very useful. Castle's main point is that lesbian presence exists in much of modern culture (texts and cinema), usually as patriarchal cultural anxiety and so Castle wants to unveil this strong lesbian presence.
It's very relevant to today's culture too, if I'm honest, I see a lot of lesbian headcanons of characters and the response tends to be that this is delusional. But actually, I think such viewers are usually right about picking up a lesbian presence, much like Terry Castle is doing here.
February 3, 2024
A well done analysis of identifying lesbian and women's same-sex romantic desires through literary and film/show histories. While I don't necessarily love the application of the term "lesbian" to all these women (reminds me of how David Halperin suggested the term has more continuity than male homosexuality in his book How to do the History of Homosexuality) I can buy into Castle's suggestion that the term queer simply subsumes and makes invisible once more women's same sex relations.
March 29, 2024
parts of it did feel a bit dated and a very 90s approach, but i genuinely really loved this collection of essays. i particularly enjoyed the essay on “the marie antoinette obsession”! new hyper-fixation unlocked 🔓
March 4, 2025
I've done it again! I have once more read, completely, a book of essays where I had no idea what half the essays were talking about. Terry Castle's essay collection, The Apparitional Lesbian, discusses lesbians -- and how often lesbians are tied with ghosts, or apparitions -- in literature and culture throughout history, from the 18th century to the modern day (which is uh... '93, when the book was published). Have I read a single novel that was discussed in this essay collection? No. Am I into opera at all? Also no. Did I still read this whole thing for some reason? Yes. Castle's writing is easy to read and sometimes lovely (and hey, I got a lot of interesting notes for some papers I'm writing this semester, so it's not like it was a complete waste of time).
I should note too that this collection was written in 1993, and that Castle doesn't really seem to acknowledge the existence (or the possibility of existence) of trans men. I've found this a lot in the queer theory that I've been reading recently which was published in the 80s and 90s -- just a lot of queer theorists won't acknowledge the existence of trans people. I do recognize that this is largely because transness just wasn't discussed very openly until recent decades, but it still makes this -- and other books I've been reading lately -- terribly dated.
A Polemical Introduction; or, The Ghost of Greta Garbo
Do I know who Greta Garbo is? Not really, nope. But this introduction was interesting all the same. It discusses, a little, lesbians throughout history. It gets into some personal interpretations of things. It's both easy to read and interesting, even if you've never seen a Greta Garbo movie in your life.
First Ed
This is a personal essay discussing an incident that happened when Castle was a child (which I hope that she's misremembering, given the fact that it involves an adult giving intense eye contact to a child while she's undressing in a swimming pool change room that made me fairly uncomfortable to read)
The Apparitional Lesbian
The essay that gave the rest of the collection its title, and also seems to be the centre thesis for all other essays. It goes through a number of queer, sapphic novels throughout history, showing them all with a common theme linking sapphic women with ghosts. It's super interesting.
Sylvia Townsend Warner and the Counterplot of Lesbian Fiction
I don't remember a lot of this one, except that Castle snaps back against a lot of queer theorists that tend to ignore queer women altogether in their analysis. I've never read any of Sylvia Townsend Warner's stuff, and so a lot of this essay didn't really resonate with me and I don't remember much otherwise.
The Diaries of Anne Lister
And here, Castle claps back against female queer theorists who have, for some reason, decided that women in history didn't have sex with one another even if they were romantically involved, by pointing to the diaries of Anne Lister (which I actually have read, at least in part). I did enjoy this essay quite a lot.
Marie Antoinette Obsession
Did you guys know that there's a whole lot of historical theories about the fact that Marie Antoinette might have been a lover of women? Because I sure didn't. Anyway, all I want now is a sapphic historical romance featuring Marie Antoinette, but apparently this is an entirely untapped market and it makes me sad (maybe someday I'll write it myself).
Haunted by Olive Chancellor
This essay discusses two novels I've never read! One of them is by Henry James, who apparently may have had a lesbian sister (and was apparently gay himself? I had no idea!). Anyway, I still read this despite everything going over my head. Again was interested. Again, it pointed me toward some critical techniques that I may not have considered before and may or may not come in handy at some point.
The Gaiety of Janet Flanner
Who's Janet Flanner? No idea! Okay, well, I do now. I believe she was a journalist of some sort. Again, an interesting essay that likely lost a lot due to the fact that I had no idea what it's talking about.
In Praise of Brigitte Fassbaender (A Musical Emanation)
This is one essay that had the most transphobic phrasing in the entire book of essays which...wasn't great.
I'm not an opera girly, I'll admit. I never have thought too much about how every gay opera is, though pretty much as soon as it was mentioned I was like "Oh yeah, gay women and gay men are super attracted to the opera, aren't they?" This essay didn't really require any real solid understanding of opera though, and is more about fans and diva-worship, which is something I have a little more solid grounding on (who doesn't recognize celebrity worship, after all?).
I should note too that this collection was written in 1993, and that Castle doesn't really seem to acknowledge the existence (or the possibility of existence) of trans men. I've found this a lot in the queer theory that I've been reading recently which was published in the 80s and 90s -- just a lot of queer theorists won't acknowledge the existence of trans people. I do recognize that this is largely because transness just wasn't discussed very openly until recent decades, but it still makes this -- and other books I've been reading lately -- terribly dated.
A Polemical Introduction; or, The Ghost of Greta Garbo
Do I know who Greta Garbo is? Not really, nope. But this introduction was interesting all the same. It discusses, a little, lesbians throughout history. It gets into some personal interpretations of things. It's both easy to read and interesting, even if you've never seen a Greta Garbo movie in your life.
First Ed
This is a personal essay discussing an incident that happened when Castle was a child (which I hope that she's misremembering, given the fact that it involves an adult giving intense eye contact to a child while she's undressing in a swimming pool change room that made me fairly uncomfortable to read)
The Apparitional Lesbian
The essay that gave the rest of the collection its title, and also seems to be the centre thesis for all other essays. It goes through a number of queer, sapphic novels throughout history, showing them all with a common theme linking sapphic women with ghosts. It's super interesting.
Sylvia Townsend Warner and the Counterplot of Lesbian Fiction
I don't remember a lot of this one, except that Castle snaps back against a lot of queer theorists that tend to ignore queer women altogether in their analysis. I've never read any of Sylvia Townsend Warner's stuff, and so a lot of this essay didn't really resonate with me and I don't remember much otherwise.
The Diaries of Anne Lister
And here, Castle claps back against female queer theorists who have, for some reason, decided that women in history didn't have sex with one another even if they were romantically involved, by pointing to the diaries of Anne Lister (which I actually have read, at least in part). I did enjoy this essay quite a lot.
Marie Antoinette Obsession
Did you guys know that there's a whole lot of historical theories about the fact that Marie Antoinette might have been a lover of women? Because I sure didn't. Anyway, all I want now is a sapphic historical romance featuring Marie Antoinette, but apparently this is an entirely untapped market and it makes me sad (maybe someday I'll write it myself).
Haunted by Olive Chancellor
This essay discusses two novels I've never read! One of them is by Henry James, who apparently may have had a lesbian sister (and was apparently gay himself? I had no idea!). Anyway, I still read this despite everything going over my head. Again was interested. Again, it pointed me toward some critical techniques that I may not have considered before and may or may not come in handy at some point.
The Gaiety of Janet Flanner
Who's Janet Flanner? No idea! Okay, well, I do now. I believe she was a journalist of some sort. Again, an interesting essay that likely lost a lot due to the fact that I had no idea what it's talking about.
In Praise of Brigitte Fassbaender (A Musical Emanation)
This is one essay that had the most transphobic phrasing in the entire book of essays which...wasn't great.
I'm not an opera girly, I'll admit. I never have thought too much about how every gay opera is, though pretty much as soon as it was mentioned I was like "Oh yeah, gay women and gay men are super attracted to the opera, aren't they?" This essay didn't really require any real solid understanding of opera though, and is more about fans and diva-worship, which is something I have a little more solid grounding on (who doesn't recognize celebrity worship, after all?).
July 4, 2024
Terry Castle is an extraordinary writer. I learned so much from this book, and it made my heart ache for the lesbians who came before me, all throughout history. My only complaint is that sometimes it’s so dense it strays from its thesis entirely, and the thesis is what I picked it up for. But overall, incredible read.
February 13, 2022
I really really enjoyed this book. Sometime sit felt too dense and was hard to engage but overall incredible. i really like the exploration of the marie antoinette obsession. and olive chancellor my dear!
January 8, 2022
The close-reading novel analysis are masterfully done.
I recommend everyone, also non-academic, to read the Introduction + chapter 3.
I recommend everyone, also non-academic, to read the Introduction + chapter 3.
Want to read
December 27, 2016* Understanding Oppression: Gay Rights
July 23, 2017
Really enjoyed the title essay
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews