'Tis Nature's Fault: Unauthorized Sexuality during the Enlightenment

by Robert Purks Maccubbin (Editor)

Overview

The essays in this volume address sexual phenomena in eighteenth-century Europe that were for one reason or another outside the legal or sanctified systems of acceptability: most notably, unwed heterosexual domesticity, masturbation, prostitution, libertinism, homosexuality, and erotic literature. The contributors' essays make an important first step toward integrating sexuality into our general understanding of eighteenth century culture. Contributors: Roy Porter; Jean-Marie Goulemot with Odile Wagner and Arthur Greenspan, translators; John R. Gillis; Theodore Tarczylo with James Coke and Michael Murray, translators; Vern L. Bullough; James G. Turner; Jean-Pierre Guicciardi with Michael Murray, translator; David Coward; Randolph Trumbach; Michel Delon, with Nelly Stephane, translator; G. S. Rousseau; Arend H. Huussen, Jr.; Michael Rey with Robert A. Day and Robert Welch, translators; Peter Sabor; Paul-Gabriel Bouce Robert J. Ellrich; Robert L. Dawson; Armando Marchi with James Cook and David Marsh, translators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521347686
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/29/1988
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Robert P. Maccubbin; 2. 'The secrets of generation display'd': Aristotle's masterpiece in eighteenth-century England Roy Porter; 3. Sexual imagination as revealed in the Traité des superstitions of Abbé Jean-Baptiste Theirs Jean Marie Goulemot, translated by Odile Wagner and Arthur Greenspan; 4. Married but not churched: plebeian sexual relations and marital nonconformity in eighteenth-century Britain John R. Gillis; 5. Moral values in 'la suite de l'entretien' Théodore Tarczylo, translated by James Coke and Michael Murray; 6. Prostitution and reform in eighteenth-century England Vern L. Bullough; 7. The properties of libertinism James G. Turner; 8. Between the licit and the illicit: the sexuality of the king Jean-Pierre Guicciardi, translated by Michael Murray; 9. The sublimations of a fetishist: restif de la bretonne (1734–1806) David Coward; 10. Sodomitical subcultures, sodomitical roles, and the gender revolution of the eighteenth century: the recent historiography Randolph Trumbach; 11. The priest, the philosopher, and the homosexuality in enlightenment France Michael Delon, translated by Nelly Stéphane; 12. The pursuit of homosexuality in the eighteenth century: 'utterly confused category' and/or rich repository? G. S. Rousseau; 13. Sodomy in the Dutch Depublic during the eighteenth century Arend H. Hudson, Jr.; 14. Parisian homosexuals create a lifestyle, 1700–50: the police archives Michel Rey, translated by Robert A. Day and Robert Welsh; 15. The censor censured: expurgating Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Peter Sabor; 16. Chathonic and pelagic metaphorization in eighteenth-century English erotica Paul-Gabriel Boucé; 17. Modes of discourse and the language of sexual reference in eighteenth-century French fiction Robert J. Ellrich; 18. The Mélange de poésies diverses (1781) and the diffusion of manuscript pornography in eighteenth-century France Robert L. Dawson; 19. Obscence literature in eighteenth-century Italy: an historical and bibliographical note Armando Marchi, translated by James Coke and David Marsh.

Editorial Reviews

"The work is well documented and indispensable for an understanding of the development of sexual, political and social attitudes and behavior during the enlightenment." The Eighteenth Century

From the Publisher