Sexual Freedom in Restoration Literature [Hardcover]

Sexual freedom and ideology explored in the works of seventeenth-century English literature.Sexual freedom and its political and philosophical implications are the themes of this study of seventeenth-century literature. The author explores the tensions inherent in the ideology of individual liberty in sexual relations inside and outside marriage in works by Rochester, Behn and their contemporaries.Sexual freedom and its political and philosophical implications are the themes of this study of seventeenth-century literature. The author explores the tensions inherent in the ideology of individual liberty in sexual relations inside and outside marriage in works by Rochester, Behn and their contemporaries.The pursuit of sexual freedom and its political, philosophical and practical implications are the themes of this wide-ranging new study of seventeenth-century literature. The author examines the writers of the later seventeenth century in their historical context, and focuses particularly on what happens when women, as well as men, desire sexual freedom. In a study of the writings of the Earl of Rochester, notorious for their sexual candor, and of Aphra Behn, most controversial woman of her day, the author explores the tensions inherent in the ideology of individual liberty in the conduct of sexual relations inside and outside marriage.Introduction: the imperfect enjoyment; 1. Hobbes and the libertines; 2. The tyranny of desire: sex and politics in Rochester; 3. Absent from thee; 4. Playing trick for trick: domestic rebellion and the female libertine; 5. My masculine part: Aphra Behn and the androgynous imagination; Index. In considering the role of women in the social contract or, more pointedly, what happens when women as well as men desire sexual freedom, this book raises some important issues about the quest for sexual and social equality in the seventeenth century whilst providing much original and authoritative material on the literature of the period. Sixteentl�