Research Catalog

Title

Sexual antipodes : enlightenment globalization and the placing of sex / Pamela Cheek.

Author

Cheek, Pamela.

Publication

Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 246 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"The title refers to a premise in utopian and exoticist fiction about the southern portion of the globe: sexual order defines the character of the state. The book begins by examining how the idea of sexual order operated as the principle for explaining national differences in eighteenth-century contestation between Britain and France. It traces how, following British and French encounters with Tahiti, the comparison of different national sexual orders formed the basis for two theories of race: race as essential character and race as degeneration." "The book's first major argument is that the comparison and definition of national sexual identities underwrote Enlightenment globalization - the novel Western European feeling of knowing one's place in a connected world. Its second major argument is that colonial representations of the Orient and the Antipodes functioned as the proving ground for competing claims about national character in the ongoing contestation between the Enlightenment's internal others, Great Britain and France. It thus proposes that competing claims about the role of sex in British and French public life - claims tested in British and French colonial representations - established the conditions for placing modern Western European sexual identity."--Jacket.

Subjects

• Enlightenment
• Colonies in literature
• Oceania > In literature
• Sex customs in literature
• Imperialism in literature
• Globalization > History > 18th century
• Comparative literature > French and English
• Comparative literature > English and French
• Erotic literature, French > History and criticism
• Travelers' writings, French > History and criticism
• Travelers' writings, English > History and criticism
• French literature > 18th century > History and criticism
• Sex in literature
• Erotic literature, English > History and criticism
• English literature > 18th century > History and criticism

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-236) and index.

Contents

Metropolitan Allegories -- National Character, Publicity and Sex -- Public Women in the French Body Politic -- Public Life in Enlightenment Pornography -- Antipodes -- The Sexual Nature of South Sea Islands -- British Encounter: Recognizing Sensibility -- French Encounter: Crafting Transparency.

ISBN

• 080474663X
• 9780804746632

LCCN

• 2002153929
• 40009002463

OCLC

• ocm51053464
• 51053464
• SCSB-14131618

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library