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The reinvention of obscenity : sex, lies, and tabloids in early modern France / Joan DeJean.
Kislak Center for Special Collections - Furness Shakespeare Library (Van Pelt 628) PQ245 .D38 2002
Available
LIBRA PQ245 .D38 2002
Available from offsite location
LIBRA PQ245 .D38 2002
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- DeJean, Joan E.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- French literature--17th century--History and criticism.
- French literature.
- Erotic literature, French--History and criticism.
- Erotic literature, French.
- Sex in literature.
- Censorship--France.
- Censorship.
- France.
- Physical Description:
- xii, 204 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2002.
- Summary:
- 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, Moliere, who cannily exploited the obscene to revolutionize the conditions of authorship.
- Contents:
- Introduction: "The Words That Shock So Much at First" 1
- 1 Male Practices: Theophile de Viau's "Sodomite Sonnet" 29
- 2 The Heterosexual Turn: L'Ecole des filles or, When (the) Sex Began to Talk 56
- 3 Two-Letter Words: Moliere's L'Ecole des femmes and Obscenity Made Modern 84
- Conclusion: Beyond Obscenity? 122.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-192) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0226141403
- 0226141411
- OCLC:
- 48851252
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