After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Review by Ally Muterspaw.
Sappho was a Greek poet who lived around 610-570 BCE, and whose work is preserved in fragments. While scholars have found out some about her background, we know little about her life. A persistent cultural interest about the poet is to not only consider who she was, but who she has become. Unlike other antiquity writers, Sappho’s mere historical presence is an influence more thought about than the poetry and life she left behind. From film to television to music, Sapphism is a very prevalent (and very memed) entity in United States pop culture. We don’t call things “Homeric,” do we? I’m not inferring that her poetry isn’t a preserved miracle, just that her popularity is a testament that women have always desired one another.
Like other Ancient Greek texts, Sappho’s poetry was gatekept in male-exclusive academic institutions. In After Sappho, a Booker Prize longlisted novel from Selby Wynn Schwartz , we start to see this dynamic shift. In a fragmented format, Schwartz chronicles numerous Sapphics through the late 19th - early 20th Century living in Western Europe. She introduces trailblazing women who seek independence, civil rights, and the freedom to love one another. Throughout the novel, she also cleverly references many of Sappho’s fragments, and the direct influence her poetry has on our characters. As we move through the first half of the novel, more and more women come into the fold. Our characters aim to revive Sappho’s spirit through studying her work.
A key component to this is to “become” Sappho. How does one become Sappho? She embarks on a personal renaissance, and experiences an indisputable joy towards the desires and communities of womanhood. Becoming Sappho is to intentionally live outside the confines of patriarchy. Natalie Barney, a central figure in this novel, imitates Sappho in the space of her Parisian salon. She hosts “Fridays”, where incredible intellectuals like Gertrude Stein and Collete gather. The salon is a place where curiosity about women’s love and kinship thrives; it is unapologetically focused on desire. These claims to Sappho are as serious as they sound. We are told that “Becoming Sappho was not play-acting... It was living the rites among the people who had tended the ancient shrines.” Reading Sappho’s work isn’t only liberating, it is an act of legacy.
The novel’s first half, which generally takes place around 1885 - 1900, becomes tedious in its latter parts. Partially due to the introduction of numerous characters, the novel becomes stuck. As many of our characters are granted spaces for their romantic and intellectual pursuits, they begin to metaphorically and physically isolate themselves from oppressive governments. After Sappho references numerous oppressive European laws, like the Article 544 of the Italian Penal Code, where assault is an offense on “morality”, and not the victim. Other laws refer to the criminalization of homosexuality. Who can blame their isolation? Their sexualities and bodies are a political offense.
Ignoring the world around them is a reasonable response, albeit not an intriguing one. The ability to divest from oppressive politics is a privileged position. The intellectual spaces of Barney’s salon, and the formal institutions where many of these women learn Greek are accessed by few women, and through economic stability. The turn of the 19th/20th Century (historically referred to as “Fin de siècle”) challenges their position. While women’s liberties are more promising than ever, fascism begins to rise in Italy, and WWI breaks out. Our characters are given a political choice: do they blatantly ignore the “bellicose idiocy of men”, or do they confront that war’s violence damages all women?
Our leading Sapphics straddle this line; while literature remains a priority, they must forge their own path into a new century. This challenging turn is where the story begins to come together. While the world is going “back into a history that [we] had barely survived the first time,” figures like Radclyffe Hall and Virginia Woolf become more formidable in the story. At one point, our narrator calls Virginia Woolf the “modern Sappho.” Their writings bring up social influence, censorship challenges, and internal community debate. For the first time in a long time, Sapphic readers are given a choice in who they turn to.
There is a reason that the novel begins and ends with Lina Poletti, who is considered Italy’s first out lesbian. A persistent and heroic figure for our characters, she lives a long and shameless life of loving women. Poletti and other women teach our leading Sapphics that they must become their own heroes, be their own Sappho. The final words of this novel come from Sappho’s Fragment 160, “These things now for my companions/I shall sing beautifully.” Sappho should not be the only writer we look towards, but one of many. We all must contribute our stories, and build a vibrant and strong community.
Sappho was a Greek poet who lived around 610-570 BCE, and whose work is preserved in fragments. While scholars have found out some about her background, we know little about her life. A persistent cultural interest about the poet is to not only consider who she was, but who she has become. Unlike other antiquity writers, Sappho’s mere historical presence is an influence more thought about than the poetry and life she left behind. From film to television to music, Sapphism is a very prevalent (and very memed) entity in United States pop culture. We don’t call things “Homeric,” do we? I’m not inferring that her poetry isn’t a preserved miracle, just that her popularity is a testament that women have always desired one another.
Like other Ancient Greek texts, Sappho’s poetry was gatekept in male-exclusive academic institutions. In After Sappho, a Booker Prize longlisted novel from Selby Wynn Schwartz , we start to see this dynamic shift. In a fragmented format, Schwartz chronicles numerous Sapphics through the late 19th - early 20th Century living in Western Europe. She introduces trailblazing women who seek independence, civil rights, and the freedom to love one another. Throughout the novel, she also cleverly references many of Sappho’s fragments, and the direct influence her poetry has on our characters. As we move through the first half of the novel, more and more women come into the fold. Our characters aim to revive Sappho’s spirit through studying her work.
A key component to this is to “become” Sappho. How does one become Sappho? She embarks on a personal renaissance, and experiences an indisputable joy towards the desires and communities of womanhood. Becoming Sappho is to intentionally live outside the confines of patriarchy. Natalie Barney, a central figure in this novel, imitates Sappho in the space of her Parisian salon. She hosts “Fridays”, where incredible intellectuals like Gertrude Stein and Collete gather. The salon is a place where curiosity about women’s love and kinship thrives; it is unapologetically focused on desire. These claims to Sappho are as serious as they sound. We are told that “Becoming Sappho was not play-acting... It was living the rites among the people who had tended the ancient shrines.” Reading Sappho’s work isn’t only liberating, it is an act of legacy.
The novel’s first half, which generally takes place around 1885 - 1900, becomes tedious in its latter parts. Partially due to the introduction of numerous characters, the novel becomes stuck. As many of our characters are granted spaces for their romantic and intellectual pursuits, they begin to metaphorically and physically isolate themselves from oppressive governments. After Sappho references numerous oppressive European laws, like the Article 544 of the Italian Penal Code, where assault is an offense on “morality”, and not the victim. Other laws refer to the criminalization of homosexuality. Who can blame their isolation? Their sexualities and bodies are a political offense.
Ignoring the world around them is a reasonable response, albeit not an intriguing one. The ability to divest from oppressive politics is a privileged position. The intellectual spaces of Barney’s salon, and the formal institutions where many of these women learn Greek are accessed by few women, and through economic stability. The turn of the 19th/20th Century (historically referred to as “Fin de siècle”) challenges their position. While women’s liberties are more promising than ever, fascism begins to rise in Italy, and WWI breaks out. Our characters are given a political choice: do they blatantly ignore the “bellicose idiocy of men”, or do they confront that war’s violence damages all women?
Our leading Sapphics straddle this line; while literature remains a priority, they must forge their own path into a new century. This challenging turn is where the story begins to come together. While the world is going “back into a history that [we] had barely survived the first time,” figures like Radclyffe Hall and Virginia Woolf become more formidable in the story. At one point, our narrator calls Virginia Woolf the “modern Sappho.” Their writings bring up social influence, censorship challenges, and internal community debate. For the first time in a long time, Sapphic readers are given a choice in who they turn to.
There is a reason that the novel begins and ends with Lina Poletti, who is considered Italy’s first out lesbian. A persistent and heroic figure for our characters, she lives a long and shameless life of loving women. Poletti and other women teach our leading Sapphics that they must become their own heroes, be their own Sappho. The final words of this novel come from Sappho’s Fragment 160, “These things now for my companions/I shall sing beautifully.” Sappho should not be the only writer we look towards, but one of many. We all must contribute our stories, and build a vibrant and strong community.
Ally Muterspaw is a librarian based in Indianapolis, IN. She is an active member of her union, and lives with her partner and their cats. Ally’s work has recently been published in The Good Life Review, and has written for Bi Women Quarterly. She focuses her writing on LGBTQIA+ book reviews and pop culture.