Date: Tuesday 20 October 2026
Time: 14.00 to 15.00
Location: Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, TCD.
Seminar Title: Disappearing Print: The Queer Body of Russian Literature between Two Regimes of Censorship.
Speaker: Dr Philip Tuxbury-Gleissner (TCD).
Abstract
Traces of what might today be categorised as LGBTQ+ subjectivities can be found throughout the history of Russian literature, from medieval hagiographies and nineteenth-century memoirs to fin-de-siècle modernism and the Soviet underground. Consecutive regimes of censorship, however, prevented the formation of a body of queer literature: a corpus of books and periodicals capable of creating the physical space for the “socialization of texts” (Jerome J. McGann).
The perestroika-era deregulation of print and publishing made it possible for a number of publishers to give queer textual culture a material form, one that claimed a place in private collections, bookshops, and, at times, even public libraries. For nearly thirty-five years, this body of print occupied a visible place in Russian culture before once again disappearing from public view. This lecture examines that interval through the lens of book history, asking how such a distinctive literary formation could emerge forcefully and then vanish with equal abruptness.
For further information on this seminar please email Dr James Hanrahan at HANRAHAJ@tcd.ie.