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The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France
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About The Reinvention Of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, And
Product Description The concept of obscenity is an ancient one. But as Joan DeJean suggests, its modern form, the same version that today's politicians decry and savvy artists exploit, was invented in seventeenth-century France. The Reinvention of Obscenity casts a fresh light on the mythical link between sexual impropriety and things French. Exploring the complicity between censorship, print culture, and obscenity, DeJean argues that mass market printing and the first modern censorial machinery came into being at the very moment that obscenity was being reinvented—that is, transformed from a minor literary phenomenon into a threat to society. DeJean's principal case in this study is the career of Moliére, who cannily exploited the new link between indecency and female genitalia to found his career as a print author; the enormous scandal which followed his play L'école des femmes made him the first modern writer to have his sex life dissected in the press. Keenly alert to parallels with the currency of obscenity in contemporary America, The Reinvention of Obscenity will concern not only scholars of French history, but anyone interested in the intertwined histories of sex, publishing, and censorship. From the Inside Flap How and when did obscene words come to be considered obscene? How did the modern definition of "four-letter" words become accepted? These are some of the questions explored in The Reinvention of Obscenity. Joan DeJean shows how radically the modern conception of obscenity differs from that operative in antiquity, when obscene literature was produced exclusively for an elite male audience. Obscenity, DeJean argues, was reinvented when writers began to focus on two subjects previously unimagined: female genitalia and compulsory heterosexuality. The story of obscenity's reinvention is also that of the birth of modern censorship, mass-market print culture, and even tabloid journalism. DeJean's principal example is the career of the first truly modern writer, Molière, who cannily exploited the obscene to revolutionize the conditions of authorship. From the Back Cover How and when did obscene words come to be considered obscene? How did the modern definition of "four-letter" words become accepted? These are some of the questions explored in The Reinvention of Obscenity. Joan DeJean shows how radically the modern conception of obscenity differs from that operative in antiquity, when obscene literature was produced exclusively for an elite male audience. Obscenity, DeJean argues, was reinvented when writers began to focus on two subjects previously unimagined: female genitalia and compulsory heterosexuality. The story of obscenity's reinvention is also that of the birth of modern censorship, mass-market print culture, and even tabloid journalism. DeJean's principal example is the career of the first truly modern writer, Molière, who cannily exploited the obscene to revolutionize the conditions of authorship. About the Author Joan DeJean is a Trustee Professor of French at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of seven books, most recently Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins of the Novel in France and Ancients against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.
