Eroticism and the Body Politic

Erscheinungsjahr 1990
ISBN: 978-0-8018-4027-2
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 415 g

Reihe: Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society

By the end of the nineteenth century, women had become an undeniable force both in the public discussion of social life and in politics itself. Yet in art and literature women's bodies continued to be represented—and domesticated—by men. They were still more often the object of the artist's or writer's gaze than they were the subject of their own representing processes. The erotic potential of women's bodies, however, was far from a marginal concern in the elaboration of modern forms of politics, art, literature, and psychology.

In Eroticism and the Body Politic, scholars from art history, history, and literature examine the frequent intersections between the body erotic and the body politic. Focusing on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, they show how eroticized representations of bodies had a multitude of political and cultural meanings. The authors consider the eroticized body in a wide variety of media: from Fragonard's paintings of "erotic mothers," to political pornography attacking Marie Antoinette, to the "new woman" of fin de siècle decorative arts.

Exploring the possibilities of a multidisiplinary approach, the volume shows that eroticism had an impact far beyond the usual confines of libertine or pornographic literature—and that politics included much more than voting, meeting, or demonstrating. At a time of general methodological ferment in the "human sciences," Eroticism and the Body Politic brings fresh approaches to the developing field of cultural studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hunt, Lynn

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Chapter 1. Fragonard's Erotic Mothers and the Politics of Reproduction
Chapter 2. The Political Economy of the Body in the Liaisons dangereuses of Choderlos de Laclos
Chapter 3. The Diamond Nacklace Affair Revisited (1785-1786): The Case of the Missing Queen
Chapter 4. Political Exposures: Sexuality and Caricature in the French Revolution
Chapter 5. The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of the Feminine in the French Revolution
Chapter 6. The Social Body: Disorder and Ritual in Sade's Story of Juliette
Chapter 7. The "New Woman," Feminism, and the Decorative Arts in Fin de Siècle France
Chapter 8. Splitting Hairs: Female Fetishism and Postpartum Sentimentality in the Fin de Siècle
Chapter 9. Rodin's Reputation
Contributors

Über Autor(innen)

Hunt, Lynn
Lynn Hunt is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution and editor of The New Cultural History.

Lynn Hunt is professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution and editor of The New Cultural History.