The Autonomy of Pleasure

Libertines, License, and Sexual Revolution

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, French, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Aesthetics
Cover of the book The Autonomy of Pleasure by James Steintrager, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: James Steintrager ISBN: 9780231540872
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: February 16, 2016
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: James Steintrager
ISBN: 9780231540872
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: February 16, 2016
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

What would happen if pleasure were made the organizing principle for social relations and sexual pleasure ruled over all? Radical French libertines experimented clandestinely with this idea during the Enlightenment. In explicit novels, dialogues, poems, and engravings, they wrenched pleasure free from religion and morality, from politics, aesthetics, anatomy, and finally reason itself, and imagined how such a world would be desirable, legitimate, rapturous—and potentially horrific.

Laying out the logic and willful illogic of radical libertinage, this book ties the Enlightenment engagement with sexual license to the expansion of print, empiricism, the revival of skepticism, the fashionable arts and lifestyles of the Ancien Régime, and the rise and decline of absolutism. It examines the consequences of imagining sexual pleasure as sovereign power and a law unto itself across a range of topics, including sodomy, the science of sexual difference, political philosophy, aesthetics, and race. It also analyzes the roots of radical claims for pleasure in earlier licentious satire and their echoes in appeals for sexual liberation in the 1960s and beyond.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What would happen if pleasure were made the organizing principle for social relations and sexual pleasure ruled over all? Radical French libertines experimented clandestinely with this idea during the Enlightenment. In explicit novels, dialogues, poems, and engravings, they wrenched pleasure free from religion and morality, from politics, aesthetics, anatomy, and finally reason itself, and imagined how such a world would be desirable, legitimate, rapturous—and potentially horrific.

Laying out the logic and willful illogic of radical libertinage, this book ties the Enlightenment engagement with sexual license to the expansion of print, empiricism, the revival of skepticism, the fashionable arts and lifestyles of the Ancien Régime, and the rise and decline of absolutism. It examines the consequences of imagining sexual pleasure as sovereign power and a law unto itself across a range of topics, including sodomy, the science of sexual difference, political philosophy, aesthetics, and race. It also analyzes the roots of radical claims for pleasure in earlier licentious satire and their echoes in appeals for sexual liberation in the 1960s and beyond.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book On Sexuality and Power by James Steintrager
Cover of the book The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Faces of Power by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Show Trial by James Steintrager
Cover of the book The Red Guard Generation and Political Activism in China by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Unifying Hinduism by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Extreme Domesticity by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Mind and Life by James Steintrager
Cover of the book The Death Penalty in China by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Speculation, Trading, and Bubbles by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Thai Stick by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Roberto Bolaño's Fiction by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Eat This Book by James Steintrager
Cover of the book The Long War by James Steintrager
Cover of the book Zhuangzi: Basic Writings by James Steintrager
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy