Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Dr Douglas Pretsell's Outputs (15)

A Baltic Antinous : queer affirmation in Carl Robert Egells’ Rubi, 1879 (2026)
Book Chapter
Pretsell, D. (in press). A Baltic Antinous : queer affirmation in Carl Robert Egells’ Rubi, 1879. In Rewriting Gender in an Age of Transition, 1880-1940. London: Routledge

This chapter discusses Rubi, by Carl Robert Egells, a historically important novella published in 1879. Rubi contains a self-affirming narrative of same-sex attraction, ahead of its time in German literature. Set on the Baltic coast, the novella expl... Read More about A Baltic Antinous : queer affirmation in Carl Robert Egells’ Rubi, 1879.

The Crucible of Sexual Orientation: Sexual theories and identities in nineteenth-century Germany’ (2025)
Book Chapter
Pretsell, D. (in press). The Crucible of Sexual Orientation: Sexual theories and identities in nineteenth-century Germany’. In The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity 1869-1939. New York: Phaidon Press

Late-nineteenth-century Germany was a powerhouse of modern sexual theorization. It was then and there that the various terminologies and parameters of the sexual categories we have today started to be negotiated and described. In the 1860s, the Hano... Read More about The Crucible of Sexual Orientation: Sexual theories and identities in nineteenth-century Germany’.

How Human Rights Became Gay Rights (2024)
Journal Article
Pretsell, D., & Willem Jones, T. (2024). How Human Rights Became Gay Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 46(3), 437-460. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2024.a933872

When the Legislative Council of the Australian island state of Tasmania rejected gay law reform in July 1991, a group of enterprising activists took their case to the United Nations. In April 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in t... Read More about How Human Rights Became Gay Rights.

Urning: Queer Identity in the German Nineteenth Century (2024)
Book
Pretsell, D. (2024). Urning: Queer Identity in the German Nineteenth Century. (1). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487555603

In 1864, the German jurist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs coined the term "urning" as a word for same-sex attracted men. Over the next few years, first anonymously and then publicly, he campaigned against the public persecution of these men. "Urnings" engaged... Read More about Urning: Queer Identity in the German Nineteenth Century.

Queer Voices in the Works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, 1883–1901 (2023)
Book
Pretsell, D. (2023). Queer Voices in the Works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, 1883–1901. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17331-8

This book is a critical edition of the autobiographical case studies used by the Austro-German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing between 1883 and 1901. Forty-one individual case studies of same-sex attracted men and women, in their own words, mad... Read More about Queer Voices in the Works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, 1883–1901.

The Correspondence of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, 1846-1894 (2020)
Book
Pretsell, D. O. (2020). The Correspondence of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, 1846-1894. (1). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39763-0

This book is the first critical edition of all the surviving correspondence to, from and about Karl Heinrich Ulrichs between 1846 and 1894. Ulrichs, a former Hanoverian lawyer, was the first to articulate a personal identity of sexuality that defined... Read More about The Correspondence of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, 1846-1894.

The evolution of the questionnaire in German sexual science: A methodological narrative (2019)
Journal Article
Pretsell, D. (2020). The evolution of the questionnaire in German sexual science: A methodological narrative. History of Science, 58(3), 326-349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0073275319881014

The sexological research questionnaire, which became a central research tool in twentieth-century sexology, has a methodological-developmental history stretching back into mid-nineteenth century Germany.
It was the product of a prolonged, disruptive... Read More about The evolution of the questionnaire in German sexual science: A methodological narrative.

Eine Urning-Charaktertypologie [An 'urning' typology]
Book Chapter
Pretsell, D. (2025). Eine Urning-Charaktertypologie [An 'urning' typology]. In Invictus – Unbesiegt: Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs zum 200. Geburtstag [Invictus - Unconquered: Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs on his 200th birthday] (59-89). (1). Berlin: Männerschwarm Verlag

Book abstract: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, lawyer, sexologist, poet and breeder of silkworms, was an exceptional person of the 19th century. At a time when the church considered "sodomy" a sin and the state considered "unnatural fornication" a crime, he m... Read More about Eine Urning-Charaktertypologie [An 'urning' typology].