This course is designed to provide less a grand historical survey than a focused examination of a particular group of seminal texts of same-sex themes in the Western world. Instead of “homosexual,” the designation “same-sex” is used not to aim at historical accuracy (as the concept of the former did not appear until late nineteenth century) but to broaden our conceptualization of what transpires between people of the same sex by putting it back into its original and various social contexts. Although the contents of the course still span a rather long period of time and looks like a historical survey course, in practice a particular group (based on genre, motif, or any other core concern) will be chosen each time the course is offered so as to facilitate a more close-up reading of literary texts. For instance, this semester, as the contents of the course show, will focus on the lyric genre that spans from the ancient Greek through the Medieval and the Renaissance to the nineteenth/twentieth century, with the purpose of examining how same-sex feelings were expressed in the first-person mode, whether publicly or privately.