Schooling Sex: Libertine Literature and Erotic Education in Italy, France, and England 1534-1685 - Hardcover

Turner, James; Turner, James Grantham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199254265 ISBN 13: 9780199254262

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2003

Synopsis

How did Casanova learn the theory of sex? Why did male pornographers write in the characters of women? What happens when philosophers take sexuality seriously and the sex-writers present their outrageous fantasies as an educational, philosophical quest?

Schooling Sex is the first full history of early modern libertine literature and its reception, from Aretino and Tullia d'Aragona in 16th century Italy to Pepys, Rochester, and Behn in late 17th century England. James Turner explores the idea of sexual education, from the simple instructional dialogue to the advanced experiments of the philosophical libertine, analysing the hard-core curiculum that defined sexuality centuries before the Marquis de Sade. He shows how close, nuanced readings of neglected but compelling texts - like the searingly explicit Alcibiade fanciullo, L'escole des filles, and Aloisia Sigea - link them to larger issues of gender politics, aesthetics, literary criticism, sexual history, medical science, mind-body philosophy, and the educational revolution.

About this title

Review:

"Schooling Sex is a magisterial contribution to the study of seventeenth-century libertine literature and its sixteenth-century precursors.... Schooling Sex is clearly a monumental accomplishment, a dense and rich volume whose polemical interpretations of contested texts, trenchant engagements with the work of other critics, and refreshing encounters with lesser-known materials will certainly serve as a catalyst for further inquiry in a range of fields." (Renaissance Quarterly)

"A major work that engages with issues of gender and sexuality in fresh and surprising ways is Turner's Schooling Sex&R. The book is beautifully written, with a serious playfulness that suits its subject. His erudite sense of the critical importance of a range of Continental sources for the development of a discourse of English eroticism gives us the fullest account we have of the ways that sex was put into language and rendered meaningful." (Studies in English Literature 1500-1900)

"Schooling Sex is an impressive achievement in cultural history and in the recovery of important, but relatively neglected literary texts.... Mr. Turner persuasively situates his underground canon of forbidden texts in the context of educational theory, seventeenth-century philosophical debate, and sexual politics. Part II of Schooling Sex includes sensitive, illuminating commentary on Rochester, Oldham, Wycherley, and Behn in creative interaction with libertine tradition." (Scriberlian)

If you are interested in the genre and you are looking for a fresh, comprehensive overview of these themes, this could be the book for you. (Francophonie)

About the Author:

James Grantham Turner is Professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley. His previous appointments have been Associate and Full Professor at the University of Michigan, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia and Lecturer at the Universities of Liverpool and Sussex in the UK.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0199254265
• ISBN 13: 9780199254262
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 440