The Newberry Library’s Center for Renaissance Studies is hosting the annual History of the Book Lecture.

Jeffrey Masten (Northwestern University), “Toward Queerer Book History”

History of the Book Lecture

The Center for Renaissance Studies offers this description of the lecture:

“How can the history of the book engage more fully with recent developments in the history of Renaissance sexualities? Professor Masten will consider a range of examples to think about same-sex male eroticism in and around early printed books, from the perspective of production as well as reception. What meanings emerge from historiated capitals, so-called “children initials”?  Where might we look for signs of “queer readerships” in early modern books? How are the critical rhetorics of book history and textual criticism implicated in languages of sex and gender?”