Introduction.
Prologue: The sexual landscape of the new millennium.
Chapter 1: Sex Pleasure And Self- Control In Classical Antiquity.
Chapter 2: Sinful Sex: Early Christianity And The Problem Of Desire.
Chapter 3: Guilty Sex, Courtly Love And The Unruly Body: Medieval Themes And Practices.
Chapter 4: Sex, The Body And Desire In The Pre-Modern Period.
Chapter Five: Pleasure And Desire In The Age Of Modernity.
Chapter 6: Obligatory Pleasures And Undisciplined Desires: The Sexual Century Reviewed.
Epilogue: Themes And Reflections.
References and Bibliography.
Index
Gail Hawkes is Lecturer in Sociology at University of New England, Armidale, Australia
“This volume is convincingly and engagingly written as a whole,
[but] Hawkes is at her best when she focuses on the 'Sexual
Century', the last hundred years with its apparent explosion of
pleasures rapidly channeled into bland consumerism.”
Archives of Sexual Behaviour “The book is well written and
accessible to the non-expert reader. It contains an extensive
bibliography and each chapter has a list of suggested further
reading which is useful for those who would like to explore further
any of the issues raised. I found it interesting and helpful.”
Insights “An accessible volume…a readable journey through
self-control in antiquity, sinful sex in the middle ages, guilty
sex and courtly love in Renaissance, the body and desire in the
Enlightenment and modern period, and the undisciplined desires of
today.”
Canadian Journal of History
“Hawkes paints a complex portrait of sexuality in the West, one
that defies simple narratives of repression and liberation, in
which sexual discourses are constantly shifting, and there is no
teleological motion ... Sex and Pleasure in Western Culture is an
intriguing survey.”
British Journal of Sociology “Gail Hawkes’s new book is a
fascinating anatomy of the pleasures and dangers that have long
swirled around the erotic. From Plato to the present, from early
Christian mortifications of flesh to the hedonistic individualism
of the millennium, desire and death, joy and fear mingle, but in
ever changing patterns. This book explores the kaleidoscope of
sexuality across the centuries, and in doing so brings new insights
to the understanding of the body and its pleasures in our historic
present.”
Jeffrey Weeks, London South Bank University
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