What is sex exactly? Does everyone agree on a definition? And does
that definition hold when considering literary production in other
times and places? "Sex before Sex" makes clear that we cannot
simply transfer our contemporary notions of what constitutes a sex
act into the past and expect them to be true for the people who
were then reading literature and watching plays. The contributors
confront how our current critical assumptions about definitions of
sex restrict our understanding of representations of sexuality in
early modern England.
Drawing attention to overlooked forms of sexual activity in
early modern culture, from anilingus and interspecies sex to
"chin-chucking" and convivial drinking, "Sex before Sex" offers a
multifaceted view of what sex looked like before the term entered
history. Through incisive interpretations of a wide range of
literary texts, including "Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors,
Paradise Lost," the figure of Lucretia, and pornographic poetry,
this collection queries what might constitute sex in the absence of
a widely accepted definition and how a historicized concept of sex
affects the kinds of arguments that can be made about early modern
sexualities.
Contributors: Holly Dugan, George Washington U; Will Fisher,
CUNY-Lehman College; Stephen Guy-Bray, U of British Columbia;
Melissa J. Jones, Eastern Michigan U; Thomas H. Luxon, Dartmouth
College; Nicholas F. Radel, Furman U; Kathryn Schwarz, Vanderbilt
U; Christine Varnado, U of Buffalo-SUNY.
General
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