Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2026
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
English
Advisor
Talia Schaffer
Committee Members
Mario DiGangi
Steven Kruger
Keywords
sodomy, queer history, the history of race
Abstract
The Other Sodomites traces the "racial logic of sodomy" from the medieval to modern periods. Reading across a wide range of literary and cultural texts, including medieval tales, theological treatises, travel narratives, stage plays, topographical poems, and prose fiction, the current study explores the structural relationship between discourses of sodomy and pivotal moments of racialization in western history, from the Judaization of sodomy in the Middle Ages, through its Islamization and Catholicization during the global Renaissance, to the continentalization and orientalization of sodomy in the nineteenth century. Despite the shifting zones of sodomitic significance, there existed a persistent racial logic. As the current study will show, sodomy had been a central site where Christian Europeans understood, translated, and negotiated conflicting forms of racial otherness in order to define themselves. At the same time, because they often embodied these racialized qualities, sodomy worked to unsettle, instead of consolidating, their very self-definition. The racial history of sodomy thus foregrounded the dialectical relationship between Christian Europeans and racial others, as well as the inherently unstable subjectivity of the so-called homo europaeus.
Recommended Citation
Shih, Paris, "The Other Sodomites: A History of Racial Queerness" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6741
