d) The Issue of "Friendship"

The Issue of how "friendship" is to be understood in ancient and medieval sources is a major one. The relationships denoted by words such as "philia" and "amicitia" have little do with the casual acquaintance which passes for "friendship" in the modern world (where people can talk of having "hundreds of friends"). The classical and medieval discussions of friendship, ofetn picking up on Aristotle's notion of "one soul in two bodies" refer to, at the very least, intense non-bloodkin based, relationships between equals. Such relationships were not, or not meant to be, sexual. Some commentators thus exclude this tradition from the history of homosexuality, preferring to see "homosexuality" as referring to predominantly sexual relationships. Others argue that in understanding the modern "construction" of "homosexual" identity, which is not merely a matter of sexual activity or attraction, the history of "friendship" is vastly significant.

Bray, Alan, "Homosexuality and the Signs of Male Friendship", History Workshop Journal 29 (1990)
Carpenter, Edward. ed., Iolaus - anthology of friendship (London, Swan Sonnenschein/Manchester, S. Clarke, Second edition, 1906. pp. vi. 234. Third Edition 1927) [New York: Mitchell Kennerly, 1917, reprinted, New York: Pagan Press, 1982] (US version available online)
Den Boer W., Eros en Amor. Man en vrouw in Griechenland en Rome, (The Hague: 1962),
Fiske, Adelle, "Alcuin and Mystical Friendship", Studii Medievali series 2, 3 (1961), pp. 551-575
Fiske, Adelle, Friends and Friendship in the Monastic Tradition, (Cuernavaca: 1970)
Fitzgerald, John T., Greco-Roman Perspectives on Friendship. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997)
Gold, Penny Shine, "The Language of cross-sex friendship in The Life of Christine of Marykate", unpublished paper presented to the Midwest Medieval Conference 12 Oct 1984
Gleckner, Robert F.Gray agonistes : Thomas Gray and masculine friendship�(Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
Hafkamp, Hans, Naar vriendshap zulk een mateloos verlangen - bloemlezing uit de Nethelandse homo-erotische poezie, 1880-nu., (Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, 1979)
Halverson, John, "Amour and Eros in the Middle Ages", The Psychoanalytic Review 57 (1970), pp. 245-262
Heckel, Waldemar, "The `Boyhood Friends' of Alexander the Great", Emerita 53:2 (1985), pp. 285-289
Jaeger, Stephen, Enobling Love, forthcoming
Will be a major work - denies homoeroticism of "frienship" texts.
Karras, Ruth M. "Friendship and Love in the lives of two twelfth- century English saints", Journal of Medieval History 14:4 (1988), 305-320 Aelred of Rievaulx and Christina of Markyate
Kupffer, Elisar von, ed.,, Lieblingsminne und Freundesliebe in der Welt-literature, (Berlin, Adolf Brand, 1900)
Konstan, David, Friendship in the Classical World, (Cambridge: CUP, 1997) An excellent bibliography.
Kroll, Wilhelm... Freundschaft und Knabenliebe. (Munich, 1927.)
Leclerq, Jean, "L'Amiti� dans les lettres au moyen age", Revue du moyen age latin 1 (1945), pp. 391-410
Leclerq, Jean, Monks and Love in 12th Century France: Psychohistorical Essays, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979) {Reviewed: AHR (1982), p.377}
McGuire, B., "Love, Friendship and Sex in the 11th Century: The Experience of Anselm", Studia Theologia 28 (1974), pp. 111-155
Looks at spiritual/erotic affections. Finds Anselm unobsessed with male sexuality.
McGuire, B., "Love, Friendship and Sex in the 11th Century: The Experience of Anselm", Studia Theologia 28 (1974), pp. 11-32
Looks at spiritual/erotic affections. Finds Anselm unobsessed with male sexuality.
McGuire, Brian P., "Looking Back on Friendship: Medieval Experience and Modern Context", Cistercian Studies 21:2 (1986), pp. 123-142
McGuire, Brian P., "Monastic Friendship and Toleration in Twelfth Century Cistercian Life", in W. J. Shiels., ed., Monks, Hermits and the Ascetic Tradition, Studies in Church History 22, (London: 1985), 147-160
McGuire, Brian Patrick, Friendship and Community: The Monastic Experience, 350-1250, (Kalamazoo MI: Cistercian Pubs., 1988).
McGuire, Brian P, Brother and Lover: Aelred of Rievaulx, (New York: Crossroad, 1994)
Finally McGuire comes out and says that, from a modern perspective, it is appropriate to say Aelred was "gay" (p.142). Interesting biography and context of Aelred's life, plus recent historigraphy are all discussed. There is an interesting chapter on the modern appeal and cult of Aelred. McGuire has come under intense attack from some conservative Catholic voices fro this book.
Mullet, Margaret, "Byzantium: A Friendly Society?", Past and Present 118 (1988), pp. 3-23
p. 11 on homosexuality. This is an important article: in discussions of the adelphopoiia rites highlighte by John Boswell, there have been many assertions that such rites celebrate "friendship". As Mullet shows, that is a problematic concept in Byzantium.
Stehling, Thomas, trans., Medieval Latin Poems of Male Love and Friendship, (New York: Garland, 1984)
Gay medieval literature from the Roman Empire to 1300. Alcuin, Ausonius, Luxorius, Abelard, Baudri or Bourgueil, Hilderbert of Lauardin.
Sutherland, Alistair and Anderson, Patrick. eds., Eros - an anthology of male friendship, (London: Blond, 1961)
Takes a chronological approach. No index or sources
White, Caroline, Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century, (Cambridge: CUP, 1992)
Scope goes beyond its title.
Woldring, Henk: Vriendschap door de eeuwen heen, (Ambo/Baarn, 1994).
Another good bibliography. You need to read Dutch, of course.