The History of Homosexuality, Part 4

Sir Noel Malcolm concludes his lecture series with a discussion of gay life in the Age of Enlightenment (broadly speaking, 1660-1800), including the differences between Mediterranean cultures and northern European societies.

 

From the video description:

In this lecture, Sir Noel Malcom makes the case that there was not a sudden surge in homosexuality after The Enlightenment, instead it was a continuation of practises which had always existed. Historians should consider the history of Europe and sexual exploration outside of Florence, as the focus on this area to the determent of others has led to many having been misled.

The book upon which these lectures are based, Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750, is available at all major online booksellers.

Sir Noel Malcolm is a British historian and author, known for his work in early modern history and the relationship between Europe and the Islamic world. He is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and has written extensively on Thomas Hobbes, among other subjects. Knighted in 2014, he's also a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature.

-----

The History of Homosexuality, Part 3

In the third of his four lectures on the history of homosexuality in early modern Europe, Sir Noel Malcolm eludcidates the very different patterns of male-male sexual behavior between Southern Europe and Northern Europe.  He also examines the camp behaviors and cross-dressing that occurred in the "molly houses" (somewhat equivalent to gay bars) in early 1700s England. 

Along the way, he demolishes the pernicious assertion of Michel Foucault and other writers that "homosexuals" by whatever name they were called simply did not exist in the pre-modern era. Of course they did. We have always been part of the human race, a natural variation, just as in the animal kingdom.  See my recommended reading list under Sir Noel's first lecture here.

-----

The History of Homosexualty, Part 2

The second of four lectures delivered earlier this year by Sir Noel Malcolm, political journalist, historian, and research fellow at Oxford University.   This one examines homophobia in Christianity and Islam in the early modern period.  These lectures are based on his new book,  Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750.

Sir Noel is soft-spoken, so when I watched it, I turned up the volume, slowed the playback speed to 85%, and turned on the captions - which, however, are often ludicrous when he is quoting a foreign phrase.  I'll be posting the rest of the series once a week. 

You can see last week's episode here, along with my recommended reading list in gay history.

-----

The History of Homosexuality, Part 1

The first of four lectures delivered earlier this year by Sir Noel Malcolm, political journalist, historian, and research fellow at Oxford University.   These lectures are based on his new book, which I've not read yet:  Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750, but it's now on my to-get list.

The subject has always been fascinating to your Head Trucker, for obvious reasons, and I have read quite a bit about it.  Sir Noel looks just as you might expect an Oxbridge professor to look:  old-fashioned haircut, wire-rimmed glasses, and slightly rumpled suit; but he's not stuffy at all, and he really knows his stuff, so what he has to say is well worth your time.  

This lecture gives an overview of same-sex relations in the Mediterranean countries in the early modern period (the era formerly known as the Renaissance).  Sir Noel is soft-spoken, so I turned up the volume, slowed the playback speed to 85%, and turned on the captions - which, however, are often ludicrous when he is quoting a foreign phrase.  I'll be posting the rest of the series once a week. 

Bonus:  Your Head Trucker recommends these books for further reading in gay history.

• Allen Bernstein, Millions of Homos (Our Queer America), 1940 (unpublished typescript available in PDF format).

• Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, 2003.  (A 640-page masterpiece, surveying homosexuality in major cultures from East to West, and from antiquity to the 18th century.)

• Kenneth Dover, Greek Homosexuality, 1978.

• Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History, 1976.

• Rictor Norton, The Myth of the Modern Homosexual, 1997.

• A. L. Rowse, Homosexuals in History, 1977.

However, your Head Trucker does not recommend anything by Michel Foucault, for reasons which will become apparent as this lecture series goes on.

-----