[<<] September 2005 Jahsonic (07) [>>]
about - art - culture - dance - erotica - fiction - film - gallery - genre - history - human - home - index - lifestyle - links - music - list of qualities - search - list of sensibilities - theory - underground - world
"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show." (Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2005, Sep 22; 21:39 ::: Princess of Cleves (1678) - Madame de La Fayette
Princess of Cleves (1678) - Madame de La Fayette [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
You may be surprised to learn that the very first novel, Tale of Genji, was written by a woman, Lady Murasaki of Japan, around A.D.1008, and it is over 1100 pages long (a bit long for our course). The first French novel, Princess of Cleves, was also written by a woman, Madame de La Fayette, in 1678. These two important firsts are followed by a rich and varied collection of novels written by women. In this course you will have the opportunity to read five of these novels, which focus on young women, women your age, as they grow up.--http://laika.pop.indiana.edu/abstracts/ENG/33Lw/2001-09-04/intro.php [Sept 2005]
La Princesse de Clèves
La Princesse de Clèves is a French novel, regarded by many as one of the first European novels and a classic of its era. Its writer is most often held to be Madame de La Fayette.Published anonymously in March 1678, and set in the high court of Henry II of France, it concerns the eponymous Madame de Clèves who is married to the Prince de Clèves, whom she does not love but respects and cares for. However, she falls passionately in love with the Duc de Nemours, and tries desperately to keep her virtue and check the affair amidst court intrigues, the Duc's pursuit of her, and her own feelings.
One of the earliest psychological novels which is also the first roman d'analyse (novel of analysis), La Princesse de Clèves has been extremely influential both in its time and since. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Princesse_de_Cl%C3%A8ves [Sept 2005]
See also: France - novel - 1600s
2005, Sep 22; 17:30 ::: Robinson Crusoe (1719) - Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe (1719) - Daniel Defoe
Image sourced here.Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of Crusoe, the eponymous hero, a castaway on a remote island. Its full title is The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates. Written by Himself. This device, presenting an account of supposedly factual events, is known as a "false document", and gives a realistic frame to the fiction. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe [Sept 2005]
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was everything but a novel, as the term was understood at the time. It was neither short, nor did it focus on an intrigue, nor was it told for the sake of a clear cut point. Neither was Crusoe an anti-hero of a satirical romance, though he spoke the first person singular and had stumbled into all kinds of miseries. He did not really invite laughter (though readers of taste would read, of course, all his proclamations about being a real man as made in good humour). The feigned author was serious: Against his will his life had brought him into this series of most romantic adventures. He had fallen into the hands of pirates and survived years on an uninhabited island. He had survived all this—a mere sailor from York—with exemplary heroism. If readers read his work as a romance, full of sheer invention, he could not blame them. He and his publisher knew that all he had to tell was strictly unbelievable, and yet they would claim it was true (and if not, still readable as good allegory)—the complex game which puts this work into the fourth column of the pattern above. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel#The_Second_Rise_of_the_Novel_or_the_New_Romance.2C_1700-1800 [Sept 2005]
The publication of Robinson Crusoe did not lead into the mid-18th century market reform. Crusoe's books were published as a dubious histories; they played the game of the scandalous early 18th century market, with the novel fully integrated into the realm of histories. They even appeared reprinted by one of the London newspapers as a possibly true relation of facts. Philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau turned Robinson Crusoe into a classic decades later, and it took another century before one could see Defoe's book as the first English "novel"—published, as Ian Watt saw it in 1957, as an answer to the market of French romances. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel#To_be_Discussed:_The_Novel_turning_into_Literature.2C_1740-1800 [Sept 2005]
2005, Sep 22; 17:30 ::: Merryland (1740) - Thomas Stretzer
Merryland (1740) - Thomas Stretzer
Image sourced here.
Edition shown: NY: Robin Hood House (1932)Her valleys are like Eden, her hills like Lebanon, she is a paradise of pleasure and a garden of delightThis poetic praise by the pseudonymous Thomas Stretzer may sound like any other earth-troping colonization of womanhood similar to John Donne’s well-known characterization of his mistress; Oh "my America, my new-found-land!" Those familiar with Merryland (published in 1740) and indeed, with a whole tradition of what Darby Lewes has dubbed somatopias (texts composed of, or designed for the body), will recognize in these words the embarrassingly facile puns of female landscaping metaphors that treat woman as so much ground to till, as so much earth to exploit. Certainly, Stretzer’s Merryland—both composed of and designed for bodies—offers up a fertile pornocopia for male corporeal pleasures based on exposed, accessible female body parts. --http://www.specmind.com/vixen/geography_of_desire.htm [Sept 2005]
The geographical metaphor is represented by among others Thomas Stretzers New Description of Merryland (1740). Such works discuss the harbours, bays, creeks, roads, clothing and, when the metaphor is exhausted, the ‘history of the gallantries’ of ‘Bettyland’ and ‘Merryland’. The botanical metaphor is represented by The Arbor Vitæ, or, Tree of Life (1732), The Frutex Vulvaria or Flowering Shrub (1732); and The Teague-Root Botanically Considered (1745). --http://www.pickeringchatto.com/erotica.htm [Sept 2005]
See also: metaphor - early erotica - 1740s
2005, Sep 21; 23:45 ::: Histoire de Dom Bougre, Portier des Chartreux (1741) - Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche
Histoire de Dom Bougre, Portier des Chartreux (1741) - Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Tongue-in-cheek retellings and burlesque exegeses of the Sodom story continued during the seventeenth century in plays such as Sodom or the Quintessance of Debauchery (1684), attributed to John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. These retellings became extremely common in French livres philosophiques (that is, erotic, bawdy, and anti-clerical books) of the eighteenth century.
The most famous of all such works, Histoire de Dom Bougre, Portier des Chartreux (1741), contains a particularly funny scene in which the biblical story is denounced as slander and homosexuality is fiercely defended as having been gloriously practiced by great men of all times. --http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/sodom.html [Sept 2005]
These (coloured) engravings are taken from the 1748 edition of Histoire de Dom Bougre, one of the most famous books in erotic literature. In it, the author Jean Charles Gervaise de Latouche (1715-1782) made Saturnin look back on his love adventures, often situated in a convent.
In those pre-revolutionary days pornography was often the vehicle to criticize religious and political authorities. This work therefore belonged to the category of 'philosophical books' and was banned not so much in the name of decency but rather because of the threat it represented to religion. Despite all the scandal Dom B created, the illustrator has remained anonymous. --http://www.ameanet.org/memberz/divine/ [Sept 2005]
Inspired by The Invention of Pornography, 1500-1800: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity (1993) - Lynn Hunt
See also: buggery - pornography - subversion - 1740s
2005, Sep 21; 23:12 ::: Thérèse Philosophe (1748) by Jean-Baptiste Argens
Thérèse Philosophe (1748) by Jean-Baptiste Argens [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
I am currently beginning a project on the highly-publicized trial involving Cathérine Cadière and the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard that was tried before the parlement of Aix in 1731. Accusations against Girard included those of seduction, heresy, and abortion while the Jesuits sought to tar Cadière's reputation beyond repair. As many contemporaries noted, this affair was about more than the individuals but was flashpoint for the tensions between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, between elites and the popular classes. The notoriety of the case was such that a large excerpt of Thérèse philosophe was devoted to recounting the bizarre relationship between Cadière and Girard. My objective is to write a microhistory of the affair that is especially tailored to undergraduates. The Girard/Cadière scandal will provide students with access to some of the current trends in early modern French history: the religious controversies of the eighteenth century, especially those involving the Jansenists and the Jesuits, the link between sexuality, pornography, and politics, and the relationships between elites and non-elites. --Mita Choudhury, PhD (1997) via http://www.history.emory.edu/BEIK/C-H.htm [Sept 2005]
Inspired by The Invention of Pornography, 1500-1800: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity (1993) - Lynn Hunt
See also: philosophy - 1740s
2005, Sep 21; 14:08 ::: The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977) - Jess Franco
The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977) - Jess Franco [Amazon UK]
Nun
In general, a nun is a female ascetic who chooses to voluntarily leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent. The term "nun" is applicable to Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Buddhists, for example. The male equivalent of a nun is a monk. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nun [Sept 2005]Nunsploitation
Nunsploitation is a subgenre of exploitation films. The term was probably coined in the 1970s or 1980s, but the practice of depicting the clergy in explicit sexual situations is documented at least since Histoire de Dom Bougre, portier des Chartreux (1741) and Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796).See also: Jess Franco - monk - nun - religion
2005, Sep 21; 14:08 ::: The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1669) - Vicomte De Guilleragues, Gabriel De Lavergne
The Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1669) - Vicomte De Guilleragues, Gabriel De Lavergne [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Ingram
The "Portuguese Letters" were published anonymously in 1669, alleged translations into French of letters written by a Portuguese nun to a French officer who had loved and left her. Recent scholarship suggests Guilleragues was their author. Reminiscent of the exchanges between Heloise and Abelard of an earlier time, the letters display a remarkable acuity of psychological insight into the mind of a woman in love and on the edge of hysteria. --via Amazon.comThe Letters of a Portuguese Nun were written by the 17th century Franciscan nun, Marianna Alcoforado, to Noel Bouton, later Marquis de Chamilly. The letters to her lover which have earned her renown in literature were written between December 1667 and June 1668, and they described the successive stages of faith, doubt and despair through which she passed. The letters could also be considered pieces of unconscious psychological self-analysis. The five short letters written by Marianna to "expostulate her desertion" form one of the few documents of extreme human experience, and reveal a passion which in the course of two centuries has lost nothing of its heat. Perhaps their dominant note is reality, and, sad reading as they are from the moral standpoint, their absolute candour, exquisite tenderness and entire self-abandonment have excited the wonder and admiration of great men and women in every age, from Madame de Sévigné to Gladstone. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_a_Portuguese_Nun [Sept 2005]
See also: epistolary novel - love - nun - 1600s - novel
2005, Sep 20; 23:54 ::: The Reinvention of Obscenity : Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France (2002) - Joan DeJean
The Reinvention of Obscenity : Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France (2002) - Joan DeJean [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
First sentence: "The trial of the poet Theophile de Viau in 1623 is a milestone both in the reinvention of obscenity and in the history of censorship..."
SIPs: transgressive literature, modern obscenity, modern obscene, secular censorship, primary obscenities (more)
Book Description
The concept of obscenity is an ancient one. But as Joan DeJean suggests, its modern form, the same version that today's politicians decry and savvy artists exploit, was invented in seventeenth-century France.The Reinvention of Obscenity casts a fresh light on the mythical link between sexual impropriety and things French. Exploring the complicity between censorship, print culture, and obscenity, DeJean argues that mass market printing and the first modern censorial machinery came into being at the very moment that obscenity was being reinvented--that is, transformed from a minor literary phenomenon into a threat to society. DeJean's principal case in this study is the career of Moliére, who cannily exploited the new link between indecency and female genitalia to found his career as a print author; the enormous scandal which followed his play L'école des femmes made him the first modern writer to have his sex life dissected in the press.
Keenly alert to parallels with the currency of obscenity in contemporary America, The Reinvention of Obscenity will concern not only scholars of French history, but anyone interested in the intertwined histories of sex, publishing, and censorship. --via Amazon.com
From the Inside Flap
How and when did obscene words come to be considered obscene? How did the modern definition of "four-letter" words become accepted? These are some of the questions explored in The Reinvention of Obscenity. Joan DeJean shows how radically the modern conception of obscenity differs from that operative in antiquity, when obscene literature was produced exclusively for an elite male audience. Obscenity, DeJean argues, was reinvented when writers began to focus on two subjects previously unimagined: female genitalia and compulsory heterosexuality. The story of obscenity's reinvention is also that of the birth of modern censorship, mass-market print culture, and even tabloid journalism. DeJean's principal example is the career of the first truly modern writer, Molière, who cannily exploited the obscene to revolutionize the conditions of authorship.See also: obscenity - transgression
2005, Sep 20; 22:56 ::: The Business of Prints in Rome 1500-1650This conference explored the innovations in the production and consumption of prints in Rome that led to an intensely creative diversity of practice over the period 1500-1650. The importance of Rome in the history of European printmaking in this period can barely be exaggerated. Beginning with the success of Marcantonio Raimondi’s collaboration with Raphael in the second decade of the sixteenth century, the print business in the city saw many innovations in production and selling leading to intensely creative diversity of practice. The leading position that Rome had achieved in the field by the end of the century was the result of its international importance, both as the centre of the Catholic Church and as the most significant European centre for the study of the visual arts. Artists from all over Europe came to reside in Rome. The presence of Netherlandish and German printmakers and designers, together with Italians from every part of the Peninsula, resulted in an unparalleled concentration of talent and skill. Contacts with other centres of printmaking, especially Venice and Antwerp, were close. Roman prints were distributed throughout Europe; they helped to focus attention on the city in ways that had considerable religious and political significance, while reinforcing the idea of Rome as a major centre of visual culture. --The Business of Prints in Rome 1500-1650 24-25 March 2003, University of Edinburgh, Scotland via http://www.arthistory.ed.ac.uk/rome/printsabstract.htm [Sept 2005]
See also: printmaking - 1500s - 1600s
2005, Sep 20; 22:14 ::: L'Ecole des filles ou la Philosophie des dames (1655) - Anonymous
L'Ecole des filles ou la Philosophie des dames (1655) - Anonymous [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
[T]he first classic of modern erotic literature, L'Ecole des filles of 1655. Highlighting a dialogue in which a mature woman initiates a younger one in the language of sexual pleasure, L'Ecole des filles set the standard that made Paris the capital not only of European taste, but also of European smut. --http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3612/is_200407/ai_n9457474 [Sept 2005]
March 5, 1688 – In England, Joseph Streater is arrested for printing "divers obscene and lasivious bookes, one called The School of Venus, another...a Dialogue between a Marridd Lady and a Maide." Benjamin Crayle is also arrested at the same time for selling "several obscene and lascivious bookes". Streater and Crayle are found guility only for The School of Venus. Streater is fined 40 shillings and Crayle is fined 20 shillings.
The School of Venus is an English translation of L'École des Filles, ou la Philosophie des dames (Paris: 1655) 'par A.D.P.'.....not to be confused with The School of Venus by Capt Alexander Smith (Morphew, 1715) or Edmund Curll's The School of Venus (second edition, 1739). --http://www.eroticabibliophile.com/censorship_history.html [Sept 2005]
See also: erotic fiction - L'Ecole des filles ou la Philosophie des dames - 1600s
2005, Sep 20; 22:14 ::: Print revolutionDuring the Restoration period in England, the print revolution began to change every aspect of society. It became possible for anyone to spend a small amount of money and have his or her opinions published as a broadsheet. It also became possible for nearly anyone to gain access to the latest discoveries in science, literature, and political theory, as books became less expensive and digests and "indexes" of the sciences grew more numerous. The change in British society brought about by the print revolution was roughly analogous to our own experiences with the Internet. Just as now a silly person may spend a small amount of money and publish silly opinions, so it was then. Just as now we are confronted with a staggering array of conspiracy theories, "secret" histories, signs of the apocalypse, "secrets" of politicians, "revelations" of prophets, alarms about household products, hoaxes, and outright fraud, so it was then. The problem for them, as for us, was telling true from false, credible from impossible. Swift writes A Tale of a Tub in the guise of someone who is excited and gullible about all the things the new world has to offer. This narrator is in love with the modern age and feels that he is quite the equal (or superior) of any author who ever lived because he, unlike them, possesses 'technology' and opinions that are just plain newer. Swift seemingly asks the question of what a person with no discernment but with a thirst for knowledge would be like, and the answer is the narrator of A Tale of a Tub.
Swift was annoyed by people who were so eager to possess the newest knowledge that they failed to pose skeptical questions. If he was not a particular fan of the aristocracy, he was a sincere opponent of democracy (which was often viewed then as the sort of "mob rule" that led to the worst abuses of the Interregnum.) The cultural stakes were high, and Swift's satire was intended to provide a genuine service by painting the portrait of conspiracy minded and injudicious writers. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub#Cultural_setting [Sept 2005]
See also: print - publishing - revolution
2005, Sep 20; 21:56 ::: Print culture‘So much that we think of as characteristic of the modern world economic, social, religious, political is built on the foundation provided by print as a medium of communication’ (Finnegan 1978, page 96). From the sixteenth century it became impossible for the illiterate to obtain either wealth or influence, and this has largely occurred due to the invention of print as a medium of communication in the fifteenth century. This had widespread consequences, allowing large numbers of copies of a work to be made rapidly. This further availability of information provided enabled greater scientific advancement as it meant that other people’s ideas were more readily available. Similarly the development of the printing press encouraged religious reform, as it was a major factor in allowing the writings of Erasmus, Luther and later Calvin to achieve high levels of circulation. --Daniela Lesley Evans, 1998, A Critical Examination of Claims Concerning the ‘Impact’ of Print via http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/dle9701.html [Sept 2005] [Sept 2005]
Neil Postman, another major authority on communications, agreed with McLuhan that the “growth of a print culture” gave way for the Age of Reason (Postman 1986, 52). The Age of Reason, also known as the Enlightenment, was characterized by belief in man’s ability to reason. German philosopher Immanuel Kant said the motto of that age should be “Dare to know” (Encarta). The works of scientists and philosophers thrived under the Enlightenment, and this was largely due to the ability to print manuscripts rapidly and make them available to all. To sum up, Gutenberg’s press was a stepping stone towards creating a larger system of communication where knowledge was available to all Westerners. --http://home.utm.utoronto.ca/~lana_als/main5.htm [Sept 2005]
2005, Sep 20; 15:11 ::: Strangesisters.com
Carnal Captive (1965) - Tony Calvano
Nightstand Book NB1767
image sourced here.These are some of the publishers I'm interested in:
Adult Book — After Hours — All Star — Beacon — Bedside — Bee Line Belmont — Boudoir Classics — Brandon House — Candid Reader Companion — Corsair — Dollar Double — Ember Library — Evening Reader First Niter — Idle Hour — Kozy — Late Hour Library — Leisure — Midwood Monarch — New Chariot Library — Newsstand Library — Nightstand Pad Library — Publisher's Export Company (PEC) — Phantom — Playtime Pleasure Reader — Private Edition — Rapture — Raven — Royal Line Saber — Sundown Reader — Unique — Vega — Wee Hours
any of the Corinth/Greenleaf or Parliament family of imprints --http://www.strangesisters.com/strangesisters_buy.htm [Sept 2005]
See also: Strangesisters.com Google gallery
See also: 1950s - 1960s - lesbian - paperback
2005, Sep 19; 22:54 ::: Surrealism and the Politics of Eros: 1938-1968 (2005) - Alyce Mahon
Surrealism and the Politics of Eros: 1938-1968 (2005) - Alyce Mahon [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Synopsis
A core text for the study of modern art and an intellectual tour de force, this radically new history of French Surrealism explodes the orthodox notion that Surrealism went into terminal decline after the 1930s. Illustrated throughout not only with artworks but with rare contemporary photographs and documents, this book will become a classic work on one of the most popular and controversial art movements of the 20th century.See also: Eros - Surrealism
2005, Sep 19; 23:06 ::: Eros denied; sex in western society (1964) - Wayland Young
Eros denied; sex in western society (1964) - Wayland Young [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Wayland Hilton Young
Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Baron Kennet (born August 2, 1923) is a British writer and SDP and Labour Party politician.Works
Young has published on a wide range of mostly political topics, especially on the politics of Italy, on disarmament and arms control, on the churches of London, and on various political scandals, notably the Profumo Affair and the Montesi scandal. His 1964 work Eros Denied was a groundbreaking manifesto of the sexual revolution. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_Young [Sept 2005]See also: 1964 - Eros - forbidden - sex - West - society - Grove Press - Wayland Young
2005, Sep 19; 22:06 ::: Candy (1958) - Terry Southern
Candy (1958) - Terry Southern [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Brandon House Library Editions cover sourced here.Candy is a 1958 novel written by Maxwell Kenton (pseudonym of Terry Southern) in collaboration with Mason Hoffenberg published by Olympia Press. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_%28novel%29 [Sept 2005]
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bestselling_novels_in_the_United_States
A Catalogue of the Publications of Brandon House Library Editions
California-based Brandon House Library Editions were, along with the Olympia Press at New York, one of the best of the many erotica publishers which sprang up in the United States following the effective collapse of censorship there in 1967. It was one of several subsidiaries of a larger, umbrella organisation called Parliament News, run by a man named Milton Luros.The success of the Library Editions, and also of another subsidiary called Essex House, was due primarily to the labours of their editor Brian Kirby, a young musician and science fiction fan. Kirby's choice of material, as will be seen from the listing, was adventurous, and included specially commissioned translations of French and German erotica, reprints of a number of important erotic classics, and new editions of some of the Paris Olympia Press titles with original 'Afterwords' by their authors. In addition, the books were often printed on good paper, and the choice of cover art included work by artists such as Rops, Labisse, and Munch. --http://www.sonic.net/~patk/Brandon_House.html [Sept 2005]
See also: 1958 - Olympia Press - Brandon House
2005, Sep 19; 16:34 ::: Libertines and Radicals in Early Modern London : Sexuality, Politics and Literary Culture, 1630-1685 (2001) - James Grantham Turner
Libertines and Radicals in Early Modern London : Sexuality, Politics and Literary Culture, 1630-1685 (2001) - James Grantham Turner [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Review
"Libertines and Radicals is unquestionably a major contribution to our understanding of libertinism in the age of Milton..." Milton Quarterly "An ambitious and innovative book." Seventeeth-Century News "The mass and diversity of materials Turner covers is awesome....Turner's scholarship will be mined by students and scholars in any number of fields...and those readers will also discover here a model of brilliance and intellectual tact." Choice "Libertines and Radicals is an impressive, suggestive, and elegant work that makes an important contribution to political, cultural, and literary studies." Albion "The writing is racy and polished, leaping from anecdote to text to archive, and back again...required reading for any student of Restoration literature." Renaissance Quarterly "Learned and lubricious, the book is witty, exceedingly well informed, and a little bit obscene." Studies in English Literature --via AmazonSynopsis
A 'Deluge of Libertinism' swept through England in the turbulent seventeenth century: class and gender relations went into deep crisis, and sexually explicit literature took the blame. Bridging periods often kept apart, Libertines and Radicals analyses English sexual culture between the Civil Wars and the death of Charles II in unprecedented detail. James Grantham Turner examines a broad range of Civil War and Restoration texts, from sex-crime records to Milton's epics and Rochester's 'mannerly obscene' lyrics. Turner places special emphasis on women's writing and on pornographic texts like The Wandering Whore and The Parliament of Women, flavoured with cockney humour or 'Puritan' indignation. Throughout, Turner reads satirical texts, whether political or pornographic, as an attempt to neutralise women's efforts to establish their own institutions and their own voice. This exhaustive study will be of interest to cultural historians as well as literary scholars. --via AmazonSee also: 1600s - libertinism - radical
2005, Sep 19; 15:34 ::: Giftschrank and Remota (German)Remember the British Private case and the French L'Enfer? It appears that in German, the equivalent term is Giftschrank or Remota.
Der Giftschrank hält gesetzlich eingestufte Gifte (T+ und T in Deutschland, Gifte der Klasse 1 und 2 in der Schweiz) in Apotheken, Schulen und chemischen Laboratorien unter Verschluss.
Mit "Giftschrank" wird umgangssprachlich auch allgemein ein Ort bezeichnet, an dem Dinge aufbewahrt werden, die nicht für jedermann zugänglich sein sollen, weil sie auf eine gewisse Art gefährlich oder unerlaubt sind.
In Museen, Bibliotheken und Archiven werden auch inhaltlich heikle oder (zeitlich) gesperrte Objekte (Aktensperre) in dem s.g. Giftschrank (im Fall inhaltlich heikler Werke auch Remota genannt) aufbewahrt, weniger um diese Objekte zu schützen, sondern, weil die Information nicht jedermann zugänglich gemacht werden darf oder soll, aus welchen Grund auch immer; so zum Beispiel viele Dokumente, Bücher, Objekte und "Kunstwerke" aus der Nazizeit. Während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus war seinerseits "linken" und "entarteten" Werken das gleiche Schicksal widerfahren.
Der Inhalt der Giftschränke wird immer wieder ergänzt und überprüft, nach Änderungen von politischen Gegebenheiten oder nach Ablauf von Sperrfristen werden bestimmte Objekte aus der Sperre entlassen. So zeigte zum Beispiel die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in München vom 2. Oktober bis 17. Dezember 2002 in einer Sonderausstellung: "Der Giftschrank. Remota: Die weggesperrten Bücher der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek" einige Objekte, die im dortigen Hause bisher der Öffentlichkeit vorenthalten wurden. --http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giftschrank [Sept 2005]
See also: The Private Case - secret
2005, Sep 19; 15:34 ::: Etymology of libertine1382, "an emancipated slave," from L. libertinus "member of a class of freedmen," from libertus "one's freedmen," from liber "free" (see liberal). Sense of "freethinker" is first recorded 1563, from Fr. libertin (1542) originally the name given to certain Protestant sects in France and the Low Countries. Meaning "dissolute or licentious person" first recorded 1593; the darkening of meaning being perhaps due to misunderstanding of L. libertinus in Acts vi.9. --http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=libertine [Sept 2005]
See also: libertinism - sex education
2005, Sep 19; 15:24 ::: Schooling Sex: Libertine Literature and Erotic Education in Italy, France, and England 1534-1685 (2003) James Turner
Schooling Sex: Libertine Literature and Erotic Education in Italy, France, and England 1534-1685 (2003) James Turner [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
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. --via Amazon
See also: 1500s - 1600s - libertinism - sex education
2005, Sep 19; 15:01 ::: Quer durch Europas Betten. Der erste aktuelle Sittenroman (1951)
Quer durch Europas Betten. Der erste aktuelle Sittenroman (1951)
Image sourced here.Printed works which at certain times have been withdrawn from the general collection are shown to the public for the first time. Represented are erotic literature, sexological works, politically undesirable literature or publications classified as strictly confidential, such as files of persons wanted by the police.
See also: Sitten - erotic fiction - German erotica
2005, Sep 19; 15:01 ::: Académie des dames ou le meursius francais (1659) - Nicolas Chorier
Académie des dames ou le meursius francais (1659) - Nicolas Chorier
This edition: 1793
Image sourced here.L'Académie des dames, written by Nicolas Chorier, was first published in Latin in c.1659 as Satyra Sotadica. The first French translation appeared in 1680 (À Ville-Franche, chez Michel Blanchet) and later in 1749 as Nouvelle Traduction de Meursius. The first English translation may have appeared in 1682 as The School of Women but definitely in 1684 as A Dialogue Between a Married Lady and a Maid; for which William Cademan was prosecuted for "exposing, selling, uttering and publishing the pernicious, wicked, scandalous vicious and illicit book". --http://www.eroticabibliophile.com/banned_France_a_c.html [Sept 2005]
Le roman libertin du XVIIIe siècle
Difficile de parler d'écriture libertine sans évoquer Crébillon, Sade ou Laclos, autant d'auteurs appartenant au siècle dit "des Lumières". Pourtant des auteurs considérés comme "libertins" semblent se faire connaître dès le XVIe siècle, mais moins pour leurs œuvres que pour l'esprit frondeur qu'ils y instillaient. Ainsi, des historiens humanistes étaient taxés de "libertinage" de par leurs travaux qui remettaient en cause l'histoire officielle souvent complaisante envers la Monarchie et ses représentants les plus influents.C'est donc bien au XVIIIe siècle que l’écriture libertine à proprement parler prend une toute autre dimension. Elle met en scène, à travers le roman, une liberté de penser et d’agir qui se caractérise le plus souvent par une dépravation morale, une quête égoïste du plaisir. Des œuvres majeures comme celle de Laclos, ou encore Les Égarements du cœur et de l’esprit de Crébillon fils, ont introduit de nouveaux codes, une nouvelle façon de penser, d’écrire et de décrire le libertinage. La vie en société est présentée comme un jeu de dupe dont les libertins maîtrisent à la perfection les codes et enjeux. La séduction y est un art complexe que l’on entreprend par défi, désir ou amour-propre. La femme est identifiée comme une proie à « entreprendre », qui finit plus ou moins rapidement par céder devant son « chasseur ». On retrouve bien souvent, prodiguée par un libertin, une initiation au sexuel, à la morale, au comportement à adopter en société, destinée à celui ou celle qui devra lui succéder dans ses préceptes. L’expression choisie est fine, raffinée, souvent allusive, tranchant avec une littérature dite licencieuse. --http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertin [Sept 2005]
See also: libertinism - erotic fiction - literature
2005, Sep 19; 14:06 ::: The Great American Novel (1923) - William Carlos Williams
The Great American Novel (1923) - William Carlos Williams [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
First published in 1923 in Paris in an edition of three hundred copies, this satiric novel by the great American poet is "a satire on the novel form in which a little -(female) Ford car falls more or less in love with a Mack truck." For the most part, however, this work is a serious attempt to write a novel with the recognition that such a work is impossible to write within established conventions. Although long available from New Directions, this edition, by presenting it alone, puts the work into new focus, and reveals its importance in Williams_ career.
Great American Novel
The "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that perfectly represents the spirit of life in the United States at the time of its publication. It is presumed to be written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state, culture, and perspective of the common American citizen. Although the title is not a formal award, it is considered to be a prestigious title for a novel, and is thus seen as a worthwhile goal for writers to attempt to achieve. The phrase derives from the title of an essay by nineteenth-century novelist John William DeForest.Though the term is singular, many novels have been given this title over time. In fact, few will claim there is one single Great American Novel. Two of the earliest contenders for this title are Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Several 20th century works have also emerged as worthwhile subjects for this discussion, including such highly respected novels such as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Even controversial novels ranging from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye to Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero have sometimes also received this title from critics and scholars.
When referring to first-time writers, many people state that their ultimate goal is to write "the Great American novel," illustrating the somewhat idealistic nature of the phrase. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Novel [Sept 2005]
See also: 1923 - USA - literature - New Directions (publisher)
blog archive - previous blog - other blogs and sites