Abstract
ABSTRACT This essay examines depictions of modernity in two novels from the peripheral European nations of Spain and Greece through the lens of lesbian sociability. I am interested in the social anxieties that stem from positioning the figure of the homosexual woman in the frame of historical and ideological unrest. I showcase the novels Zezé (Ángeles Vicente, 1909) and Η ϵρωμένη της (The Two Lovers, Dora Rosetti, 1929). In the context of major debacles (Spain,1898; Greece, 1922), the protagonists of the novels make apparent the changes dissident sexuality triggers in the social realm, from culture to economy and the constitution of the labor force, from family to political participation. Using sapphic desire as her vantage point, Vicente examines women's presence in entertainment and traveling, while Rosetti accounts for the academic advancement and professionalization of lesbians in the sciences and the industrial sector. The texts challenge common assumptions of belonging, for their protagonists physically separate from the national body to test and taste the full extension of their freedom. Both Vicente and Rosetti defy social institutions such as marriage and reproduction, and obliquely reveal the deep connections between intimacy among lesbians and the history of modernization in leisure, traveling, and immigration.
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