Hoaxes Shape Queer Canon

Literary hoaxes—texts intentionally presented as authentic historical documents—can bootstrap themselves into the queer literary canon and public memory, especially when amplified by charismatic intermediaries and accessible translations. These manufactured works can outsize genuine fragmentary evidence (e.g., Sappho fragments) and become the basis for cultural, curricular and museum narratives that persist long after the forgery is revealed. — If hoaxes can stand in for lost primary sources, policymakers, educators and curators must require provenance checks and contextual warnings so identity and heritage claims are not built on deliberate fabrications.