| Description |
1 online resource (288 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Erotic writing in manuscript culture -- Erotic writing, effeminacy, and national identity -- Englishmen Italianated -- "Courtesan politc": the erotic writing and cultural significance of Pietro Aretino -- "The English Arentine": Thomas Nashe -- Ben Jonson and the erotics of a literary career |
| Summary |
"Before Pornography explores the relationship between erotic writing, masculinity, and national identity in Renaissance England. The book argues that pornography is a historical phenomenon, and although representation of sexual activity may well exist in all cultures, pornography does not. While pornography has traditionally tended to present sexuality as a realm of private individual pleasure, early modern erotic writing is often concerned with the public and social, even political, functions of sex. In Renaissance England, erotic writing addressed issues of gender and national identity in ways very different from those typical of pornography." "Before Pornography deals with a wide range of texts, from manuscript commonplace books to polemical prose pamphlets, from popular drama to epic poetry. It provides a detailed discussion of the transmission of erotic poetry in manuscript, including an in-depth analysis of an early modern erotic manuscript owned by a woman. It addresses the social significance of eroticism in canonical texts such as Sidney's Defense of Poesy and Spenser's Faerie Queene. As Well, the book thoroughly re-evaluates the works and career of the Italian satirist Pietro Aretino, a figure of disorderly eroticism who in England symbolized erotic corruption in the same way that Machiavelli did political corruption. The book explores the provocative role Aretino played in English literary culture, in particular the importance of "Aretine" eroticism in the works of Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson. Addressing a broader range of material than any previous study, Before Pornography will interest scholars and students of early modern England, the history of erotic representation, gender and queer studies, and English Renaissance literature."--Jacket |
| Notes |
Originally published: 2000 |
| Subject |
Erotic literature, English -- History and criticism
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Sex in literature.
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Masculinity in literature.
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English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
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English literature -- Early modern
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Erotic literature, English
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Masculinity in literature
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Sex in literature
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
019517982X |
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9780195179828 |
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9780195137095 |
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0195137094 |
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