Download or read book Sodomy in Early Modern Europe written by Thomas Betteridge and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-11 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sodomy in Early Modern Europe is a collection of essays that reflect closely the main areas of debate within gay historiography. In particular, for the last twenty years scholars have questioned the nature of early modern sodomy. The contributors have responded to these questions in a number of different and often apparently contradictory ways, and the essays which make up this collection reflect this diversity of approach. The volume includes essays on sodomy in English Protestant history writing, and sodomy in Calvin’s Geneva and early modern Venice.
Download or read book The Sciences of Homosexuality in Early Modern Europe written by Kenneth Borris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sciences of Homosexuality in Early Modern Europe investigates early modern scientific accounts of same-sex desires and the shapes they assumed in everyday life. It explores the significance of those representations and interpretations from around 1450 to 1750, long before the term homosexuality was coined and accrued its current range of cultural meanings. This collection establishes that efforts to produce scientific explanations for same-sex desires and sexual behaviours are not a modern invention, but have long been characteristic of European thought. The sciences of antiquity had posited various types of same-sexual affinities rooted in singular natures. These concepts were renewed, elaborated, and reassessed from the late medieval scientific revival to the early Enlightenment. The deviance of such persons seemed outwardly inscribed upon their bodies, documented in treatises and case studies. It was attributed to diverse inborn causes such as distinctive anatomies or physiologies, and embryological, astrological, or temperamental factors. This original book freshly illuminates many of the questions that are current today about the nature of homosexual activity and reveals how the early modern period and its scientific interpretations of same-sex relationships are fundamental to understanding the conceptual development of contemporary sexuality.
Download or read book Same Sex Unions in Premodern Europe written by John Boswell and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-08-28 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.
Download or read book Homosexuality in Renaissance England written by Alan Bray and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1982 by Gay Men's Press. Reissued in 1995 with a new afterword and updated bibliography.
Download or read book The Pursuit of Sodomy written by Kent Gerard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1989 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians Kent Gerard and Gert Hekma make available--for the first time to an English-speaking audience--the best, most recent work on the history of male homosexuality in Early Modern Europe. The role of the male homosexual--during the pivotal era of 1400 to 1800--is thoroughly explored. A wide-ranging group of authors offers relevant and fascinating material on sexual history and sexuality, in general, and on homosexuality and European history, in particular.
Download or read book Same Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome written by Gary Ferguson and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-09 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the tenor of contemporary discussions, it would be easy to conclude that the idea of marriage between two people of the same sex is a uniquely contemporary phenomenon. Not so, argues Gary Ferguson in Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome. Making use of substantial fragments of trial transcripts Gary Ferguson brings the story of a same-sex marriage to life in striking detail. He unearths an incredible amount of detail about the men, their sex lives, and how others responded to this information, which allows him to explore attitudes toward marriage, sex, and gender at the time. Emphasizing the instability of marriage in premodern Europe, Ferguson argues that same-sex unions should be considered part of the institution's complex and contested history.
Download or read book Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe written by Marianna Muravyeva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book attempts to challenge the canonical gender concept while trying to specify what gender was in the medieval and early modern world. It tests, verifies, and challenges the methodology and use the concept(s) of gender specifically applicable to the period of great change and transition. The volume contains theoretical discussion supplemented by case studies of specific practices such as mysticism, witchcraft, crime, and sexual behavior.
Download or read book Homosexuality and Civilization written by Louis Crompton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? In a narrative tour de force, Louis Crompton chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution, as he compares the Christian West with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab Spain, imperial China, and pre-Meiji Japan. Ancient Greek culture celebrated same-sex love in history, literature, and art, making high claims for its moral influence. By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World. Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of sodomites in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters--Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio--often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great. Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece. Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, Homosexuality and Civilization is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past.
Download or read book History of Homosexuality in Europe and America written by Wayne R. Dynes and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1992 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book re-prints various essays on gay history from around Europe and America. Includes one essay in German and one in Italian.
Download or read book Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-25 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forbidden Desire is a pioneering study of the history of male-male sex in the whole of Early Modern Europe, including the European colonies and the Ottoman world.
Download or read book Gay Berlin written by Robert Beachy and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of Randy Shilts Award In the half century before the Nazis rose to power, Berlin became the undisputed gay capital of the world. Activists and medical professionals made it a city of firsts—the first gay journal, the first homosexual rights organization, the first Institute for Sexual Science, the first sex reassignment surgeries—exploring and educating themselves and the rest of the world about new ways of understanding the human condition. In this fascinating examination of how the uninhibited urban culture of Berlin helped create our categories of sexual orientation and gender identity, Robert Beachy guides readers through the past events and developments that continue to shape and influence our thinking about sex and gender to this day.
Download or read book Closeted Writing and Lesbian and Gay Literature written by David M. Robinson and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing for renewed attention to covert same-sex-oriented writing (and to authorial intention more generally), this study explores the representation of female and male homosexuality in late sixteenth- through mid-eighteenth-century British and French literature. The author also uncovers and analyzes long-term continuities in the representation of same-sex love, sex, and desire. Covering multiple genres (poems, plays, novels) and modes (such as satire, scandal, and pornography), this study engages with the historiography of sexuality as a whole.
Download or read book Male Male Intimacy in Early America written by William E Benemann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previously hard-to-find information on homosexuality in early America—now in a convenient single volume! Few of us are familiar with the gay men on General Washington’s staff or among the leaders of the new republic. Now, in the same way that Alex Haley’s Roots provided a generation of African Americans with an appreciation of their history, Male-Male Intimacy in Early America: Beyond Romantic Friendships will give many gay readers their first glimpse of homosexuality as a theme in early American history. Honored as a 2007 Stonewall Book Award nonfiction selection, Male-Male Intimacy in Early America is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of homosexual activity among American men in the early years of American history. This single source brings together information that has until now been widely scattered in journals and distant archives. The book draws on personal letters, diaries, court records, and contemporary publications to examine the role of homosexual activity in the lives of American men in the Colonial period and in the early years of the new republic. The author scoured research that was published in contemporary journals and also conducted his own research in over a dozen US archives, ranging from the Library of Congress to the Huntington Library, from the United Military Academy Archives to the Missouri Historical Society. Male-Male Intimacy in Early America explores: the role of the open frontier and the unregulated seas as places of refuge for men who would not enter into heterosexual relationships the sexual lives of American Indians—particularly the berdache tradition—and how the stereotypes associated with American Indian sexuality molded white America’s attitudes toward homosexuality homosexuality in slave narratives—and the homosexual subtexts of racist minstrel show lyrics the formation of European gay communities during American colonial times, with an emphasis on Berlin, Paris, and London—with English translations of material previously available only in German or French! homosexuality as presented in eighteenth-century novels popular with American readers, plus information on homosexuality that was published in medical treatises of the period United States Army and Navy courts-martial that focused on sodomy the sublimation of homosexuality by religious revival movements of the early nineteenth century, particularly among Quakers, Mormons, and Oneida Perfectionists social groups as a perceived cover for homosexual activity, with an emphasis on the Masonic Order non-procreative sexuality as a theme and as a threat during the American revolution the West in American literary tradition—and the role of popular writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and Davy Crockett in creating the myth of individual sexual freedom on the margins of American society Author William Benemann rejects Foucault’s contention that homosexuality is an artificial construct created by medico-legal authorities in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He recognizes that men have been sexually attracted to other men throughout American history, and in this book, examines their historical options for expressing that attraction. He also addresses related issues surrounding race and gender expectations, population and migration patterns, vocational choice, and information exchange. Written in a straightforward style that can easily be understood by lay readers, Male-Male Intimacy in Early America is an ideal choice for educators, students, and individuals interested in this unexplored area of American history and sexuality studies.
Download or read book Homosexuality in Italian Literature Society and Culture 1789 1919 written by Elisa Bianco and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-11 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestitism, and trans-genders represented new ideas, customs, and mentalities which shattered nineteenth-century Italy. At this time, Italy was a state in the making, with a growing population, a fading aristocracy, and new urban classes entering the scene. While still an extremely Catholic country, atheism and secularization slowly undermined the old, traditional morality, with literature and poetry endorsing innovative fashions coming from abroad. Laxity mixed with perversion, while new forms of sexuality mirrored the immense changes taking place in a society that, since time immemorial, was dominated by the Church and by a rigid class system. This was a revolution, parallel to the political movements that brought about the Unification of Italy in 1861, and was tormented, intense, and occasionally tragic. This collection of essays offers a rather comprehensive overview of this phenomenon. Personalities and places, ideas and novels, poetry and tragedy, law and customs, are the subject of ten essays, written by leading international experts in Italian history, the history of sexuality, literature and poetry. The Italian nineteenth century is a time of a number of rapid changes, visible and invisible revolutions, often given less attention than the unification process. This book makes a substantial contribution to Italian studies and modern European history.
Download or read book Sex and the Weimar Republic written by Laurie Marhoefer and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberated, licentious, or merely liberal, the sexual freedoms of Germany’s Weimar Republic have become legendary. The home of the world’s first gay rights movement, the republic embodied a progressive, secular vision of sexual liberation. Immortalized – however misleadingly – in Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories and the musical Cabaret, Weimar’s freedoms have become a touchstone for the politics of sexual emancipation. Yet, as Laurie Marhoefer shows in Sex and Weimar Republic, those sexual freedoms were only obtained at the expense of a minority who were deemed sexually disordered. In Weimar Germany, the citizen’s right to sexual freedom came with a duty to keep sexuality private, non-commercial, and respectable. Sex and the Weimar Republic examines the rise of sexual tolerance through the debates which surrounded “immoral” sexuality: obscenity, male homosexuality, lesbianism, transgender identity, heterosexual promiscuity, and prostitution. It follows the sexual politics of a swath of Weimar society ranging from sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld to Nazi stormtrooper Ernst Röhm. Tracing the connections between toleration and regulation, Marhoefer’s observations remain relevant to the politics of sexuality today.
Download or read book Queer City written by Peter Ackroyd and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the development of London as a European epicenter of queer life. In Queer City, the acclaimed Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way–through the complete history and experiences of its gay and lesbian population. In Roman Londinium, the city was dotted with lupanaria (“wolf dens” or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks, and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure. Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music, and the horror of AIDS. Ackroyd reveals the hidden story of London, with its diversity, thrills, and energy, as well as its terrors, dangers, and risks, and in doing so, explains the origins of all English-speaking gay culture. Praise for Queer City “Spanning centuries, the book is a fantastically researched project that is obviously close to the author’s heart.... An exciting look at London’s queer history and a tribute to the “various human worlds maintained in [the city’s] diversity despite persecution, condemnation, and affliction.””—Kirkus Reviews “[Ackroyd’s] work is highly anecdotal and near encyclopedic . . . the book is fascinating in its careful exposition of the singularities—and commonalities—of gay life, both male and female. Ultimately it is, as he concludes, a celebration as well as a history,” —Booklist “A witty history-cum-tribute to gay London, from the Roman “wolf dens” through Oscar Wilde and Gay Pride marches to the present day,” —ShelfAwareness
Download or read book King James and the History of Homosexuality written by Michael Young and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James VI & I, the namesake of the King James Version of the Bible, had a series of notorious male favorites. No one denies that these relationships were amorous, but were they sexual? Michael B. Young merges political history with recent scholarship in the history of sexuality to answer that question. More broadly, he shows that James s favorites had a negative impact within the royal family, at court, in Parliament, and in the nation at large. Contemporaries raised the specter of a sodomitical court and an effeminized nation; some urged James to engage in a more virile foreign policy by embarking on war. Queen Anne encouraged a martial spirit and molded her oldest son to be more manly than his father. Repercussions continued after James s death, detracting from the majesty of the monarchy and contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War. Persons acquainted with the history of sexuality will find surprising premonitions here of modern homosexuality and homophobia. General readers will find a world of political intrigue colored by sodomy, pederasty, and gender instability. For readers new to the subject, the book begins with a helpful overview of King James s life."