The Bawdy Politic in Stuart England, 1660–1714

Political Pornography and Prostitution

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book The Bawdy Politic in Stuart England, 1660–1714 by Melissa M. Mowry, Taylor and Francis
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Melissa M. Mowry ISBN: 9781351894135
Publisher: Taylor and Francis Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge Language: English
Author: Melissa M. Mowry
ISBN: 9781351894135
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Publication: March 2, 2017
Imprint: Routledge
Language: English

With this original study, Melissa Mowry makes a strong contribution to a provocative interdisciplinary conversation about an important and influential sub genre: seventeenth-century political pornography. This book further advances our understanding of pornography's importance in seventeenth-century England by extending its investigation beyond the realm of cultural rhetoric into the realm of cultural practice. In addition to the satires which previous scholars have discussed in this context, Mowry brings to light hitherto unexamined pornographies as well as archival texts that reveal the ways in which the satires helped shape the social policies endured by prostitutes and bawds. Her study includes substantial archival evidence of prostitution from the Middlesex Sessions and the Bridewell Courtbooks. Mowry argues that Stuart partisans cultivated representations of bawds and prostitutes because polemicists saw the public sale of sex as republicanism's ideological apotheosis. Sex work, partisans repeatedly asserted, inherently disrupted ancestral systems of property transfer and distribution in favour of personal ownership, while the republican belief that all men owned the labour of their body achieved a nightmarish incarnation in the prostitute's understanding that the sexual favours she performed were labour. The prostitute's body thus emerged in the loyalist imagination as the epitome of the democratic body politic. Carefully grounded in original research, The Bawdy Politic in Stuart England, 1660-1714 is a cultural study with broad implications for the way we understand the historical constructions and legal deployments of women's sexuality.

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

With this original study, Melissa Mowry makes a strong contribution to a provocative interdisciplinary conversation about an important and influential sub genre: seventeenth-century political pornography. This book further advances our understanding of pornography's importance in seventeenth-century England by extending its investigation beyond the realm of cultural rhetoric into the realm of cultural practice. In addition to the satires which previous scholars have discussed in this context, Mowry brings to light hitherto unexamined pornographies as well as archival texts that reveal the ways in which the satires helped shape the social policies endured by prostitutes and bawds. Her study includes substantial archival evidence of prostitution from the Middlesex Sessions and the Bridewell Courtbooks. Mowry argues that Stuart partisans cultivated representations of bawds and prostitutes because polemicists saw the public sale of sex as republicanism's ideological apotheosis. Sex work, partisans repeatedly asserted, inherently disrupted ancestral systems of property transfer and distribution in favour of personal ownership, while the republican belief that all men owned the labour of their body achieved a nightmarish incarnation in the prostitute's understanding that the sexual favours she performed were labour. The prostitute's body thus emerged in the loyalist imagination as the epitome of the democratic body politic. Carefully grounded in original research, The Bawdy Politic in Stuart England, 1660-1714 is a cultural study with broad implications for the way we understand the historical constructions and legal deployments of women's sexuality.

More books from Taylor and Francis

Cover of the book Teachers in Control by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book International Migration and Citizenship Today by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book An Introduction to Transformational Syntax by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Revival: Sweden's Right to be Human (1982) by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Playboy of the Western World by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book The Global Emerging Market by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Modernism and the Marketplace by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Global Environmental Politics by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Interpreting and Translating in Public Service Settings by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Grasping the Changing World by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Regulating Marriage Migration into the UK by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Loving Nature by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Communication Yearbook 37 by Melissa M. Mowry
Cover of the book Evangelicals Etcetera by Melissa M. Mowry
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