Historiography of LGBTQH History

Analyzing the Character of Work in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Heterosexual History

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The historiography of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and heterosexual (LGBTQH) history is the self-reflexive study of the processes by which knowledge of LGBTQH history is hypothesized and theorized, empirically researched, and analyzed, interpreted, written, cited, published, and received over time and in different societies.

The historiographer examines the history of LGBTQH history, and analyses the implications of naming and conceptualizing a specifically LGBTQH history, as opposed to, for example, a "homosexual" (and "heterosexual") history, a history of "same-sex and different-sex sexual relations," a history of "same-sex and different-sex "love" or "intimacy," or a history of "queer" and "normal" or "normative" sexuality.

The historiographer examines historians' explicit and implicit starting assumptions, and the implications of those assumptions for their work in LGBTQH history. The historiographer studies how a historian's definition -- in the present, at a specific point in time, in a particular society -- of a specific past object of study affects how that historian understands and presents her/his findings about the LGBTQH past.

The historiographer of LGBTQU history touches on such elements as authorship, sources, evidence, bias, perspective, interpretation, judgment, causation, style, and audience.

Interconnections in LGBTQH history among (alphabetically listed) class, ethnicity, gender, politics, race, religion, and sexuality, have also been major areas of concern to historical researchers, as have connections between the history of sexual and gender terminology and the social-historical organization of power, social structures and institutions, and sexual and gender behaviors and identities.

Historiography is often broken down topically, such as the LGBTQH historiography of a particular nation state (for example, the history of LGBTQH life in the United States, or within the Islamic nations, or in China), or the historiography of particular cities or geographic regions. The rise of globalism and of newly perceived deep interconnections between countries and nations has lead to a stress on international LGBTQH history.

Historiographers study different approaches or genres of history, such as LGBTQH economic history, oral history, political history, or social history. They analyze differences in history written for scholarly readers and popular history written for the general public. They study how history is presented in art, articles, books, movies, popular magazines, scholarly periodicals, on TV and most recently, on the Internet and in other new media.

Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, and the coming out of independent scholars and academy-based historians, a body of writing on on LGBTQH historiography has begun to emerge.^[1]

For specific problems in LGBTQH historiography, see the following list of stub articles, or add new ones. Please help OutHistory begin the process of filling in these stub articles by starting to create a list of articles, books, films, and other works that touch on each of these subjects. And begin to fill in the stubs:

Age-convergent and Age-divergent Relationships in LGBTQH History

Aging and Youth in LGBTQH History

Alienation and Intimacy in LGBTQH History (see also: Sexuality in LGBTQH History)

Bisexual Historiography

Claiming and Denying in LGBTQH History (claiming or denying the homosexuality of creative, famous, or "positive" figures)

Class in LGBTQH History

Ethnicity in LGBTQH History

Essentialism and LGBTQH History (see also Social Construction and LGBTQ History)

Evidence in LGBTQH History

Gay Male Historiography

Gender in LGBTQH History

Heterosexual Historiography