Unauthorized Pleasures: Accounts of Victorian Erotic Experience
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.25 (921 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0801488567 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-09-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The most rewarding parts of this highly astute book are perhaps her dashingly entertaining accounts of the Yelverton marriage case (chapter 4) and of My Secret Life (chapter 5). It seems that the more we understand about the Victorians, the more we understand about ourselves."Julianne White, English Studies Forum"Rosenman's book conveys an unfailing enthusiasm for often ignored varieties of Victorian sexual expression. No other culture has ever had so many neurotic anxieties with sex (except possibly their own). I think it will be greeted, both in and out of academia, as an exciting and important contribution to an area of tremendous current interest."James Eli Adams, Cornell University"In this engaging book, Ellen Rosenman takes us on a lively tour o
She is the author of The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship and A Room of One’s Own: Women Writers and the Politics of Creativity. Ellen Bayuk Rosenman is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky.
Rosenman's exploration of masculinity and femininity in Victorian sexual storytelling includes an account of the "spermatorrhea panic" that terrified the men of Britain, tells of Theresa Longworth's erotic revisions of the romance plot, and takes up the exhaustive, even exhausting, pornographic epic My Secret Life.Drawing on social history, court cases, medical literature, popular novels, and the diaries and letters of everyday life, Rosenman looks beyond the usual sexual suspectshomosexuals and prostitutes, for exampleto address a range of pleasures that emerged from the ideological structures meant to contain them. Recent books and exhibitions have shown that Victorians were not so straitlaced about sexual matters as has been popularly assumed. Ellen Bayuk Rosenman's engrossing and enlightening book proves that the Victorians were extraordinarily articulate and resourceful when it came to expressing their sexual desires. Narratives of erotic experience were written, justified to the conservative culture, and circulated for the pleasure of
Stalkingtree said Disappointed. The title is misleading. This book is more a history of erotica than anything else. If that's what you want its a good book. If you want something similar to Autobiography of a Flea etc then you will be dissapointed.. A critical examination of the myths about Victorian sexuality The Victorian era has long been a favorite milieu for authors of erotica, due to the juxtaposition of oppressive public morality with private lechery. In any setting, the breaking of taboos and undertaking of forbidden actions elevate the level of sexual excitement. With so many restrictions on sexual expression, it is hardly surprising that the Victorian period offers many opportunities for creating a sexy story.Unfortunately, erotic novels that trade on this aspect of Victoriana risk becoming stereotyped and formulaic. The Victorian world is often portrayed as split between the righteous prudes who defend con. Maria L said Five Stars. Everything went great! No general complaints.