A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Enlightenment

In the period between 1650 and 1820 new worlds of sex opened up. This was a pivotal time when old religious beliefs and medical theories about sexuality and the body clashed with innovatory ideas emerging from natural science and philosophy. In addition, a burgeoning print industry fed a rapidly expanding reading public with erotica. With the breakdown of old community networks and increased urbanization, authorities reacted to increased sexual license with a raft of new regulations designed to curtail variations in sexual behaviour.

A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Enlightenment presents an overview of the period with essays on heterosexuality, homosexuality, sexual variations, religious and legal issues, health concerns, popular beliefs about sexuality, prostitution and erotica.

1 Introduction
Julie Peakman (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)

2 Heterosexuality: Europe and North America
Anna Clark (University of Minnesota, USA)

3 Homosexuality
Rictor Norton (Independent Scholar, UK)

4 Sexual Variations
Marianna Muravyeva (University of Helsinki, Finland)

5 Sex, Religion and the Law
Merril D. Smith (Independent Scholar, USA)

6 Sex, Medicine and Disease
George Rousseau (University of Oxford, UK)

7 Sex, Popular Beliefs and Culture
Heike Bauer (Birkbeck Institute of Gender and Sexuality, UK)

8 Prostitution
Randolph Trumbach (City University of New York, USA)

9 Erotica: Representing Sex in the Eighteenth Century
Katherine Crawford (Vanderbilt University, USA)

Notes

Bibliography

Contributors

Index