Solving the problem with Plato -- The antitheses of same-sex sexuality in Bruni -- Ficino and the theory of purging same-sex sexuality -- Ficino and the practice of purging same-sex sexuality -- Importing Ficino: gender balance in Champier -- Seducing Socrates: the Silenus in Erasmus and Rabelais -- The gates of Germania: space, place, and sexuality in Cornarius -- Fractured men: feminism and neoplatonism in mid-sixteenth-century France -- Orientations: female-female and male-male eros in dialogue -- Reading sexuality skeptically in Montaigne -- Conclusion: bending Plato
Summary
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
