The Sexual Culture of the French Renaissance

Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-521-76989-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 14, 312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 605 g

Reihe: Cambridge Social and Cultural Histories

When the French invaded Italy in 1494, they were shocked by the frank sexuality expressed in Italian cities. By 1600, the French were widely considered to be the most highly sexualized nation in Christendom. What caused this transformation? This book examines how, as Renaissance textual practices and new forms of knowledge rippled outward from Italy, the sexual landscape and French notions of masculinity, sexual agency, and procreation were fundamentally changed. Exploring the use of astrology, the infusion of Neoplatonism, the critique of Petrarchan love poetry, and the monarchy's sexual reputation, the book reveals that the French encountered conflicting ideas from abroad and from antiquity about the meanings and implications of sexual behavior. Intensely interested in cultural self-definition, humanists, poets, and political figures all contributed to the rapid alteration of sexual ideas to suit French cultural needs. The result was the vibrant sexual reputation that marks French culture to this day.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Crawford, Katherine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: sexual culture? France? Renaissance?; 1. The renaissance of sex: Orpheus, mythography and making sexual meaning; 2. Heavens below: astrology, generation and sexual (un)certainty; 3. Neoplatonism and the making of heterosexuality; 4. Cupid makes you stupid: 'bad' poetry in the French Renaissance; 5. Politics, promiscuity and potency: managing the king's sexual reputation; Conclusion: dirty thoughts; Bibliography.

Über Autor(innen)

Crawford, Katherine
KATHERINE CRAWFORD is Associate Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern France (2004) and European Sexualities, 1400–1800 (2007).