The University of Wisconsin-Madison
VISUAL CULTURE CLUSTER
Valerie Traub
Valerie Traub is the author of Desire & Anxiety: Circulations of Sexuality in Shakespearean Drama (1992), and co-editor of Feminist Readings of Early Modern Culture: Emerging Subjects (1996). Among her many articles, she has published such important essays in early modern visual culture studies as "Mapping the Global Body" in the anthology Early Modern Visual Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000). Most recently Professor Traub's book The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press) has been named the best book published in 2002 by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. In her book, she analyzes the representation of female-female love, desire, and eroticism in a range of early modern discourses, including visual arts. As a contribution to the history of sexuality and to feminist and queer theory, the book addresses current theoretical
preoccupations through the lens of historical inquiry.
"Mapping Embodiment in Early Modern Europe." Lecture by Valerie Traub,
Director of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Michigan.
Tuesday, November 9- 5:00 pm, L140 Elvehjem Museum of Art
In her public lecture, Professor Traub will introduce new
work-in-progress from her latest book project Normalities: Mapping
Embodiment in the Early Modern West. Rather than take contemporary “norms” of embodiment as ahistorical givens, Professor Traub will show
us how a cultural logic of bodily normalization came into being over the
course of the seventeenth century. In looking at how the strands of
race, gender, and sexuality interwove to form a web of social
definition, she explores three areas of discourse—literature, medicine,
and cartography—and approaches race, gender, and sexuality as connected
strands in the web of social definition. Illustrating her lecture with
slides of the anatomical illustrations and actual maps she analyzes, the
lecture will be as important in its demonstration of its
interdisciplinary method as for the original arguments about embodiment
Professor Traub makes.
Wednesday, November 10, 12-2:00 PM, L166 Elvehjem Museum of Art
Workshop with Valerie Traub
The workshop will focus on visual images and historiography with special
attention to issues of race and sexuality. Discussion will include
consideration of questions and implications arising from the
introduction to her award-winning new book The Renaissance of Lesbianism
(Cambridge University Press) and her essay "Mapping the Global Body" (from Early Modern Visual Culture).
As seating is limited, to sign up for the workshop, contact Professor
Jill Casid at jhcasid@wisc.edu
For trouble accessing this page, or for additional information please contact: visualculture@education.wisc.edu.