A01=Giovanni Vitiello
aesthetics
Author_Giovanni Vitiello
beauty
Category=DSBC
Category=DSBD
Category=DSBF
Category=JBSJ
chivalric hero
desire
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
erotica
eroticism
erotics
friendship
gay
gender
heroes
history
homoeroticism
homosexuality
homosocial
imperial china
lgbt
lgbtq
lgbtqia
libertine scholar
literature
love
lustful monk
male prostitution
masculinity
men
nonfiction
passion
pornography
queer
relationships
romance
same-sex
sex
sexuality
Product details
- ISBN 9780226857923
- Weight: 567g
- Dimensions: 16 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Aug 2011
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Delving into three hundred years of Chinese literature, from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, "The Libertine's Friend" uncovers the complex and fascinating history of male homosexual and homosocial relations in the late imperial era. Drawing particularly on overlooked works of pornographic fiction, Giovanni Vitiello offers a frank exploration of the importance of same-sex love and eroticism to the evolution of masculinity in China. Vitiello's story unfolds chronologically, beginning with the earliest sources on homoeroticism in pre-imperial China and concluding with a look at developments in the twentieth century. Along the way, he identifies a number of recurring characters - for example, the libertine scholar, the chivalric hero, and the lustful monk - and sheds light on a set of key issues, including the social and legal boundaries that regulated sex between men, the rise of male prostitution, and the aesthetics of male beauty. Drawing on this trove of material, Vitiello presents a historical outline of changing notions of male homosexuality in China, revealing the integral part that same-sex desire has played in its culture.
Giovanni Vitiello is associate professor of Chinese at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
