Setting Plato Straight

Translating Ancient Sexuality in the Renaissance

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, European, Nonfiction, History, Renaissance
Cover of the book Setting Plato Straight by Todd W. Reeser, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Todd W. Reeser ISBN: 9780226307145
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: December 28, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Todd W. Reeser
ISBN: 9780226307145
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: December 28, 2015
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

When we talk of platonic love or relationships today, we mean something very different from what Plato meant. For this, we have fifteenth and sixteenth-century European humanists to thank. As these scholars—most of them Catholic—read, digested, and translated Plato, they found themselves faced with a fundamental problem: how to be faithful to the text yet not propagate pederasty or homosexuality.

In Setting Plato Straight, Todd W. Reeser undertakes the first sustained and comprehensive study of Renaissance textual responses to Platonic same-sex sexuality. Reeser mines an expansive collection of translations, commentaries, and literary sources to study how Renaissance translators transformed ancient eros into non-erotic, non-homosexual relations. He analyzes the interpretive lenses translators employed and the ways in which they read and reread Plato’s texts. In spite of this cleansing, Reeser finds surviving traces of Platonic same-sex sexuality that imply a complicated, recurring process of course-correction—of setting Plato straight.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

When we talk of platonic love or relationships today, we mean something very different from what Plato meant. For this, we have fifteenth and sixteenth-century European humanists to thank. As these scholars—most of them Catholic—read, digested, and translated Plato, they found themselves faced with a fundamental problem: how to be faithful to the text yet not propagate pederasty or homosexuality.

In Setting Plato Straight, Todd W. Reeser undertakes the first sustained and comprehensive study of Renaissance textual responses to Platonic same-sex sexuality. Reeser mines an expansive collection of translations, commentaries, and literary sources to study how Renaissance translators transformed ancient eros into non-erotic, non-homosexual relations. He analyzes the interpretive lenses translators employed and the ways in which they read and reread Plato’s texts. In spite of this cleansing, Reeser finds surviving traces of Platonic same-sex sexuality that imply a complicated, recurring process of course-correction—of setting Plato straight.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Aristotle by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers, Fifth Edition by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book The Trilobite Book by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Ignoring Nature No More by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Corporate Social Responsibility? by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Capital Culture by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book An Introduction to Legal Reasoning by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Legacies of Losing in American Politics by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book More than Cool Reason by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2015 by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Rootedness by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 33 by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book The Modernity Bluff by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy by Todd W. Reeser
Cover of the book Teachers of the People by Todd W. Reeser
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy