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Words and phrases that are to do with sex in literary and spoken English - Responses to offending language from the eighteenth and nineteenth century (Paperback)
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Words and phrases that are to do with sex in literary and spoken English - Responses to offending language from the eighteenth and nineteenth century (Paperback)
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Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language
and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, Bielefeld
University, 12 entries in the bibliography, language: English,
abstract: In his book "Dr. Bowdler's Legacy" Noel Perrin tells us
in the first chapter that a big change of morality took place with
the turn of the nineteenth century in England. He puts it as
follows: ..". the first new generation of the nineteenth century
(grew) up more strait-laced, inhibited, and conventional than its
parents, so that sons discussed their fathers' wild oaths, and
daughters worried about their mothers' loose sexual behaviour."
According to Perrin one of the cornerstones of this new way of
thinking was that the people began to acquire a more reserved
attitude towards sexuality. The chief cause of this tendency was
what can be called the rise of the idea of delicacy, or "the new
prudery." From the middle of the eighteenth century onwards,
delicacy came to be regarded as a special and precious
characteristic - especially among women. Basically, it means that
people felt offended as soon as they were confronted with sexuality
in whatever form. Blushing and fainting were outward indicators of
this new propriety. Another consequence was that people began to
keep away from anything that might be a burden on their conscience.
An important result of this trend was the emergence of the idea of
expurgation in literature. That is people simply started to remove
"words or scenes that were considered likely to offend or shock."
The pioneering work in this field was Dr. Bowdler's "Family
Shakespeare," which was published in 1807. Dr. Bowdler's aim was -
according to the fashion of his time - "to exclude from this
publication whatever is unfit to be read aloud by a gentleman to a
company of ladies." In another passage he says that he wants to
enable a father to read one of Shakespeare's plays to his family
circle "without incurring the danger of falling unawares among
words an
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