Sexuality and Gender in Early Modern Europe Institutions, Texts, Images [Paperback]

An exploration of sexuality and gender in Renaissance art, literature, and society.This book's exploration of sexuality and gender in Renaissance art and literature starts from an assumption that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago--that the natural phenomena of sex, gender, and subjectivity are constructed rather than essentially biological or fixed.This book's exploration of sexuality and gender in Renaissance art and literature starts from an assumption that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago--that the natural phenomena of sex, gender, and subjectivity are constructed rather than essentially biological or fixed.This exploration of sexuality and gender in Renaissance art and literature starts from an assumption that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago: that the 'natural' phenomena of sex, gender and subjectivity are constructed rather than essentially biological or fixed. The essays rise to the challenge of producing a new post-Foucaultian history of gender and sexuality. All of them have been influenced by feminism, and several deal with women not just as objects of representation, but as subjects and authors in their own right. Among the historical issues examined are the production and suppression of women's voices, the relation between illicit sexuality and social order, the ambiguity of beauty, lesbian erotics, birth-imagery and the birthing ritual, the class status of women, the 'femininity' of masculine dress, and the sexual politics of courtesy.List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Preface and acknowledgements; Introduction: a history of sexuality?; 1. Marriage, love, sex, and Renaissance civic morality; 2. Typology, sexuality and the Renaissance Esther; 3. Artifice as seduction in Titian; 4. Renaissance women and the question of class; 5. Venetian women and their discontents; 6. The ambiguity of beauty in Tasso and Petrarch; 7. George Pettie, Barnaby Rich, and delights for women 'only'; 8. Troping Utopia: Donnlc(