The Reinvention of Obscenity

Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France

By: Joan DeJean

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Hardcover | 2 June 2002 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.29 x 1.56 x 0.21

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The concept of obscenity is an ancient one. But as Joan DeJean suggests, its modern form, the same version that today's politicians decry and savvy artists exploit, was invented in seventeenth-century France.
"The Reinvention of Obscenity" casts a fresh light on the mythical link between sexual impropriety and things French. Exploring the complicity between censorship, print culture, and obscenity, DeJean argues that mass market printing and the first modern censorial machinery came into being at the very moment that obscenity was being reinvented--that is, transformed from a minor literary phenomenon into a threat to society. DeJean's principal case in this study is the career of Moliere, who cannily exploited the new link between indecency and female genitalia to found his career as a print author; the enormous scandal which followed his play "L'ecole des femmes" made him the first modern writer to have his sex life dissected in the press.
Keenly alert to parallels with the currency of obscenity in contemporary America, "The Reinvention of Obscenity" will concern not only scholars of French history, but anyone interested in the intertwined histories of sex, publishing, and censorship.

Industry Reviews

"Joan DeJean's new book is a fascinating study that like so much of her work identifies some of the sources of our own modernity in practices and concepts that emerged and took characteristic form in seventeenth-century France. It is masterfully written, beautifully conceived, convincingly argued, tellingly organized, and a delight to read." - Ross Chambers, author of The Writing of Melancholy: Modes of Opposition in Early French Modernism

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Cultural Studies Ethical Issues & Debates Ethical Issues of Pornography & Obscenity Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature General Literary Studies Biographies & True Stories Diaries, Letters & Journals Language & Linguistics Reference, Dictionaries & Guides

Education

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: "The Words That Shock So Much at First"	p. 1
Male Practices: Theophile de Viau's "Sodomite Sonnet"	p. 29
The Heterosexual Turn: L'Ecole des filles or, When (the) Sex Began to Talk	p. 56
Two-Letter Words: Moliere's L'Ecole des femmes and Obscenity Made Modern	p. 84
Conclusion: Beyond Obscenity?	p. 122
Notes	p. 131
Works Cited	p. 183
Index	p. 193
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

The Reinvention of Obscenity

Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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