Jennifer Ingleheart, A Shropshire Lad in Ancient Rome: A. E. Housman and Ancient ‘Homosexuality’

Studies of A. E. Housman assume a strong divide between his life as a poet – whose verses suggest his homoerotic desire – and as a well-respected Professor of Latin. Professor Ingleheart explodes this myth by exploring in detail Housman’s longest and most frank writing on homosexuality: his Praefanda, an article aimed at scholars, written in Latin and translated by Prof Ingleheart herself. Praefanda is a study of ancient sexuality, but Housman’s playful and witty Latin also suggests his intimate knowledge of the pleasures of homosexual sex and identity. Even more importantly, Praefanda makes clear Housman’s anger at society’s treatment of those holding homosexual desires. As such, she believes, it deserves to be more widely known.

Professor Jennifer Ingleheart is a world-leading scholar of ancient sexualities, based in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham. Her main research interests are in the study, reception and translation of Latin poetry in its political and social contexts, and in the history of how later cultures have responded to ‘Roman homosexuality’. This lecture on A.E. Housman is part of a wider project which looks at the importance of Roman sexualities to modern LGBT and queer identities.

Part of the History Research Seminar Series at Manchester Met

Co-hosted with the Manchester Classical Association