Founded in 1956, Penn State University Press publishes rigorously reviewed, high-quality works of scholarship and books of regional and contemporary interest, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. The publishing arm of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries, the Press promotes the advance of scholarship by disseminating knowledge—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—widely in books, journals, and digital publications.
Scholarly publishing has faced monumental challenges over the past few decades. The Press takes its place among those institutions moving the enterprise forward. Its innovative projects continue to identify and embrace the technological advances and business models that ensure scholarly publishing will remain feasible, and widely accessible, well into the future.
Quevedo and Political Authority in the Age of Print
Examines the political writings of the seventeenth-century Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo within the context of the social and material practices of spectacle culture.
In recent decades, scholars have shown an increasing interest in gossip’s social, psychological, and literary functions. The first book-length study of medieval gossip, Transforming Talk shifts the current debate and argues that gossip functions primarily as a transformative discourse, influencing not only social interactions but ......
In recent decades, scholars have shown an increasing interest in gossip’s social, psychological, and literary functions. The first book-length study of medieval gossip, Transforming Talk shifts the current debate and argues that gossip functions primarily as a transformative discourse, influencing not only social interactions but ......
English translations of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts, including sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals. Includes commentary examining the various Christianities presented to the colonial Aztec (Nahua) and Yucatec Maya, the origins and purpose of the texts, and their authors and the messages they intended to ......
Holbein, the Reformation, and Renaissance Rhetoric
Explores how the Renaissance artist Hans Holbein the Younger came to develop his mature artistic styles through the key historical contexts framing his work: the controversies of the Reformation and Renaissance debates about rhetoric.
Toward a New History of German Literature Around 1800
A narrative of German literary history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Examines the intersection of literary and national imagination through the lens of Germany’s emerging global networks and how they were rendered in two very different German cities: Hamburg and Weimar.
Toward a New History of German Literature Around 1800
In Translating the World, Birgit Tautz offers a new narrative of German literary history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Departing from dominant modes of thought regarding the nexus of literary and national imagination, she examines this intersection through the lens of Germany’s emerging global networks and how ......
Religious Conversion, Media, and Urban Violence in Brazil
Pentecostalism is one of the most rapidly expanding religious-cultural forms in the world. Its rise in popularity is often attributed to its successfully incorporating native cosmologies in new religious frameworks. This volume probes for more complex explanations to this phenomenon in the favelas of Brazil, once one of the most Catholic ......
