Libertines and radicals in early modern London : sexuality, politics, and literary culture, 1630-1685

Author(s)

• Turner, James

Bibliographic Information

Libertines and radicals in early modern London : sexuality, politics, and literary culture, 1630-1685

James Grantham Turner

Cambridge University Press, 2002

Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-329) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

A 'Deluge of Libertinism' swept through England in the turbulent seventeenth century: class and gender relations went into deep crisis, and sexually explicit literature took the blame. Bridging periods often kept apart, Libertines and Radicals analyses English sexual culture between the Civil Wars and the death of Charles II in great detail. James Grantham Turner examines a broad range of Civil War and Restoration texts, from sex-crime records to Milton's epics and Rochester's 'mannerly obscene' lyrics. Turner places special emphasis on women's writing and on pornographic texts like The Wandering Whore and The Parliament of Women, flavoured with cockney humour or 'Puritan' indignation. Throughout, Turner reads satirical texts, whether political or pornographic, as an attempt to neutralize women's efforts to establish their own institutions and their own voice. This exhaustive study will be of interest to cultural historians as well as literary scholars.

Table of Contents

• List of illustrations
• Preface
• List of abbreviations and frequently cited works
• 1. Pornographia and the markings of prostitution: an introduction
• 2. Ceremonies of abjection: sex, politics and the disorderly subculture
• 3. 'The posture of a free state': political pornography and the 'commonwealth of women', 1640-1660
• 4. The wandering whore's return: the carnivalization of sexuality in the early Restoration
• 5. Monstrous assemblies: bawdy-house riots, 'libertine libels' and the royal mistress
• 6. 'Making yourself a beast': upper-class riot and inversionary wit in the age of Rochester
• Epilogue: 'In Bathsheba's Embraces old': pornographia rediviva at the close of Charles II's reign
• Notes
• Index.

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BA55238854
• ISBN:
  • 0521782791
• Country Code: uk
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Cambridge
• Pages/Volumes: xxii, 343 p.
• Size: 24 cm
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century
  • LCSH : English literature -- England -- London -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century
  • LCSH : Libertinism -- England -- London -- History -- 17th century
  • LCSH : Radicalism -- England -- London -- History -- 17th century
  • LCSH : London (England) -- Intellectual life -- 17th century
  • LCSH : Libertinism in literature
  • LCSH : Radicalism in literature
  • LCSH : Sex in literature