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 nonerotic, 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 coursecorrection—of setting Plato straight.

This talk will also feature responses by Chloé Hogg (French and Italian) and Julie Beaulieu (GSWS). The event is sponsored by the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program. For more information, click here or contact gsws@pitt.edu.