{"product_id":"sex-and-pleasure-in-western-culture-9780745616711","title":"Sex and Pleasure in Western Culture","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* has a comprehensive sweep, employing material from a wide range of contemporary and historical sources.  * identifies connecting themes between historical periods and therefore clarifies present complexities in sexual culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This volume is convincingly and engagingly written as a whole, [but] Hawkes is at her best when she focuses on the 'Sexual Century', the last hundred years with its apparent explosion of pleasures rapidly channeled into bland consumerism.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eArchives of Sexual Behaviour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e“The book is well written and accessible to the non-expert reader. It contains an extensive bibliography and each chapter has a list of suggested further reading which is useful for those who would like to explore further any of the issues raised. I found it interesting and helpful.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eInsights\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“An accessible volume…a readable journey through self-control in antiquity, sinful sex in the middle ages, guilty sex and courtly love in Renaissance, the body and desire in the Enlightenment and modern period, and the undisciplined desires of today.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eC\u003ci\u003eanadian Journal of History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Hawkes paints a complex portrait of sexuality in the West, one that defies simple narratives of repression and liberation, in which sexual discourses are constantly shifting, and there is no teleological motion ... \u003ci\u003eSex and Pleasure in Western Culture\u003c\/i\u003e is an intriguing survey.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBritish Journal of Sociology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Gail Hawkes’s new book is a fascinating anatomy of the pleasures and dangers that have long swirled around the erotic. From Plato to the present, from early Christian mortifications of flesh to the hedonistic individualism of the millennium, desire and death, joy and fear mingle, but in ever changing patterns. This book explores the kaleidoscope of sexuality across the centuries, and in doing so brings new insights to the understanding of the body and its pleasures in our historic present.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eJeffrey Weeks, \u003ci\u003eLondon South Bank University\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction. \u003cp\u003ePrologue: The sexual landscape of the new millennium.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter 1: Sex Pleasure And Self- Control In Classical Antiquity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter 2: Sinful Sex: Early Christianity And The Problem Of Desire.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter 3: Guilty Sex, Courtly Love And The Unruly Body: Medieval Themes And Practices.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter 4: Sex, The Body And Desire In The Pre-Modern Period.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter Five: Pleasure And Desire In The Age Of Modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChapter 6: Obligatory Pleasures And Undisciplined Desires: The Sexual Century Reviewed.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEpilogue: Themes And Reflections.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReferences and Bibliography.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Polity Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51767972233559,"sku":"9780745616711","price":21.53,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780745616711.jpg?v=1758715744","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/sex-and-pleasure-in-western-culture-9780745616711","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}