Trans Histories of the Medieval Book

An Experiment in Bibliography
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-80270-435-8
Verlag: ARC Humanities Press

Buch, Englisch, 166 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Archival collections are political spaces: the decisions that govern whose histories are preserved, when, and by whom are not neutral. They reflect the communities that make them. For most of western history queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people were excluded from such communities. Premodern trans experiences went largely unreported and reconstructing such histories relies on the piecing together of ephemeral glimpses. Literary scholars developed tactics and tools to read through the traces, with hugely generative results that highlight the richness of non-normative premodern genders. But how do we move beyond the limits of the trace to uncover a more expansive history of premodern gender non-conformity?

This book takes a methodological approach to the question. An experiment in applying trans approaches to the study of the premodern book offers alternatives both for trans histories and for book historical methods.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sargan, J. D.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Antiquitäten, Sammelobjekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction. Trans Methods in Manuscript Studies?

Chapter 1. Why Here? Why Now? Past, Present Future

Chapter 2. Navigating Normative Books

Chapter 3. Manuscript Kinship and Family Trees

Chapter 4. Constellating Trans Legibility

Coda

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Sargan, J. D.
J. D. Sargan is a book historian. He was educated at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Oxford. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Georgia and teaches a course in Queer Bibliographies for California Rare Book School. He researches the social dynamics of book use.