1st Edition

The Routledge History of Sex and the Body 1500 to the Present

Edited By Sarah Toulalan, Kate Fisher Copyright 2013
    608 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    604 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Routledge History of Sex and the Body provides an overview of the main themes surrounding the history of sexuality from 1500 to the present day. The history of sex and the body is an expanding field in which vibrant debate on, for instance, the history of homosexuality, is developing. This book examines the current scholarship and looks towards future directions across the field.

    The volume is divided into fourteen thematic chapters, which are split into two chronological sections 1500 – 1750 and 1750 to present day. Focusing on the history of sexuality and the body in the West but also interactions with a broader globe, these thematic chapters survey the major areas of debate and discussion. Covering themes such as science, identity, the gaze, courtship, reproduction, sexual violence and the importance of race, the volume offers a comprehensive view of the history of sex and the body. The book concludes with an afterword in which the reader is invited to consider some of the ‘tensions, problems and areas deserving further scrutiny’.

    Including contributors renowned in their field of expertise, this ground-breaking collection is essential reading for all those interested in the history of sexuality and the body.

    Introduction. 1. Studying the Body and Sexuality. The Good, the Bad, and the Textual: Approaches to the Study of the Body and Sexuality, 1500-1750 Katherine Crawford Approaches to the History of Sexuality Since 1750 H. G. Cocks 2. Sexual Science: Medical Understandings of the Body c. 1500-1750 Lauren Kassell 1750 to the Present Richard Cleminson 3. Examining the Body: Science, Technology and Explorations of the Body Examining the Body c. 1500-1750 Michael Stolberg Examining the Body, Post 1750 Malcolm Nicolson 4. Body and Mind: Sexuality and Identity From Age to Gender, 1500-1750: from the Adolescent Male to the Adult Effeminate Body Randolph Trumbach (De-)Constructing Sexual Kinds c. 1750 to the present Ivan Crozier 5. Clothing and Nakedness From the Cradle to the Grave: Clothing the Early Modern Body Susan Vincent Exposing, Adorning, and Dressing the Body in the Modern Era Paul R. Deslandes 6. Pornography and Erotica Erotic Representation 1500-1750 Ian Frederick Moulton Pornography and Erotica c. 1750 to the Present Lisa Z. Sigel 7. Knowledge and Experience 1500-1750 Laura Gowing Knowledge and Experience from 1750 to the 1960s Tanya Evans 8. Life Cycles ‘Age to Great, or to Little, Doeth let Conception’: Bodies, Sex and the Life Cycle, 1500-1750 Sarah Toulalan Fairy Tales of Fertility: Bodies, Sex and the Life cycle, c. 1750-2000 Julie-Marie Strange 9. Courtship and Marriage 1500–1750 Martin Ingram Marriage and Companionate Ideals Since 1750 Kate Fisher 10. Reproduction 1500-1750 Lianne McTavish 1750 to the Present Helen Blackman 11. Prostitution The Body of the Prostitute, Medieval to Modern Kathryn Norberg Prostitution from 1800 Maria Luddy 12. Sexual Violence and Rape Sexual violence and rape in Europe, 1500–1750 Garthine Walker Sexual violence from c.1750 Shani D’Cruze 13. Sexual Disease ‘The Venereal Disease’, 1500-1800 Kevin P. Siena Sexual Diseases post-1750 Lesley A. Hall 14. Bodies, Sex and Race Western Encounters with Sex and Bodies in Non-European Cultures 1500 – 1750 Jonathan Burton ‘The Roots That Clutch’: Bodies, Sex and Race from 1750 Antoinette Burton 15. Afterword On ‘Compulsory Sexuality’, Sexualization, and History Lisa Downing. Bibliographies. Index.

    Biography

    Sarah Toulalan is a senior lecture of the history of the body at the University of Exeter, UK. Her previous publications include, Bodies, sex and desire from the Renaissance to the Present co-edited with Kate Fisher (2011) and Imagining Sex: Pornography and Bodies in Seventeenth-Century England (2007).

    Kate Fisher is a professor of the history of sexuality at the University of Exeter, UK. Her previous publications include, Bodies, sex and desire from the Renaissance to the Present co-edited with Sarah Toulalan (2011), Sex before the Sexual Revolution. Intimate Life in England 1918-1963 co-authored with Simon Szreter (2010) and Birth control, sex and marriage in Britain 1918-60 (2006).

     'Comprehensive and impressive. Toulalan and Fisher have assembled essays by a wide range of experts in this rapidly evolving field, making for a volume that will be valued by students and researchers alike.' - Prof. William M. Reddy, Duke University, USA

    'With careful balance between the early modern and modern periods, these superb essays consider the science of sex and medical understandings of the body, sexuality and psychology, clothing and nakedness, pornography, age and life cycle, courtship and marriage, reproduction, prostitution, sexual violence and rape, sexual disease, and race. Introductory essays by Katherine Crawford and Harry G. Cocks nicely overview current approaches to the study of the body and sexuality from 1500 to 1750 and since 1750, respectively. With abundant and appropriate citations and a rich bibliography, this volume will be indispensable for students and scholars interested in the history of sexuality and the body. Summing Up: Essential.' - S. L. Harp, University of Akron, CHOICE