Title Sexual restraint and aesthetic experience in Victorian literary decadence / Sarah Green, University of Oxford

Published Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2023 ©2023

Click on the following:
Cambridge Core
ProQuest Ebook Central

Copies

Description 1 online resource (vii, 266 pages) Series Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture Series ; volume 142 Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 142. Contents Loss and gain : the Victorian sexual body -- 'A passionate coldness' : Walter Pater -- 'A holy indifference and tolerant favour' : Lionel Johnson -- 'An ascetic epicureanism' : Vernon Lee -- 'Men have died of love' : George Moore Summary "Can sexual restraint be good for you? Many Victorians thought so. This book explores the surprisingly positive construction of sexual restraint in an unlikely place: late nineteenth-century Decadence. Reading Decadent texts alongside Victorian writing about sexual health, including medical literature, adverts, advice books, and periodical articles, it identifies an intellectual Paterian tradition of sensuous continence, in which 'healthy' pleasure is distinguished from its 'harmful' counterpart. Recent work on Decadent sexuality concentrates on transgression and subversion, with restraint interpreted ahistorically as evidence of repression/sublimation or queer coding. Here Sarah Green examines the work of Walter Pater, Lionel Johnson, Vernon Lee, and George Moore to outline a co-extensive alternative approach to sexuality where restraint figured as a productive part of the 'aesthetic life', or a practical ethics shaped by aesthetic principles. Attending to this tradition reveals neglected connections within and beyond Decadence, bringing fresh perspective to its late nineteenth- and twentieth-century reception"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based upon online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed February 19th, 2024) Subject Decadence (Literary movement) -- Great Britain English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism Sexual abstinence in literature. Sexual ethics in literature. Sex customs in literature. Decadence (Literary movement) English literature. Sex customs in literature. Sexual abstinence in literature. Sexual ethics in literature. Great Britain. Genre/Form Literary criticism Literary criticism. Critiques littéraires. Form Electronic book ISBN 9781108912136 1108912133 9781108917490 1108917496

  Permalink