A01=Robert Muchembled
Author_Robert Muchembled
body
book
Category=JBFW
Category=JHB
Category=NHTB
constrained
cultural
emotion
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
experience
fascinating history
flesh
forbidden
hidden
history
incommunicable individual
major
new
orgasm
part
pleasure
reality
repression
robert
separate
sexual
something
taboos
Product details
- ISBN 9780745638751
- Weight: 617g
- Dimensions: 159 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 17 Oct 2008
- Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Can the orgasm be explained in historical terms? An almost incommunicable individual emotion yet also a cultural reality, the orgasm is part of, but also escapes, collective experience. The history of the orgasm is that of the hidden body, of forbidden desires, of flesh constrained by taboos and morality. Buried deep in archives and libraries, the documents that shed light on this physical, sometimes libertine, life are nevertheless surprisingly plentiful and have a surprisingly evocative charge. Robert Muchembled's book unearths fascinating sources which suggest that we need to look with a fresh eye at the past and realize that the sublimation of the erotic impulse was far more than simple religious asceticism: it was the hidden driving force of the West until the 1960s.
In the sphere of sexual pleasure, England and France have followed parallel paths. The United States remains deeply influenced by this common repressive model, which hedonist Europe has recently abandoned in favour of a malleable sexuality of which woman are the chief beneficiaries. Liberated by the pill from the dangers and anxieties associated with the obligations of reproduction, they can now claim equality with men and uninhibitedly claim pleasure and the orgasm for themselves.
Robert Muchembled is Professor of Modern History at the University of Paris XIII.
Translated by Jean Birrell.
