Promiscuity in Western Literature PDF
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Promiscuity in Western Literature Poet and novelist Charles Bukowski described promiscuity as “feast and feast and feast.” The promiscuous person is having fun, getting away with it, and showing no signs of stopping. More often, though, promis- cuity has been seen as demonic, as the sign of an uncivilised race, or as a symptom of mental disorder. Promiscuity in Western Literature capitalises on the fact that litera- ture gives us deep and varied resources for reflecting on this controver- sial aspect of human behaviour. Drawing on authors from Homer to Margaret Atwood, it explores recurrent ideas and scenarios: Why does the literature of promiscuity evoke ideas of the animal? Why does it so often turn upon the image of the “excessive” woman? How and why does promiscuity feature in comic writing? How does the emergence of the modern city change representations of promiscuity? And, in the pres- ent day, what impact have ecological concerns had on the way writers depict promiscuity? Peter Stoneley has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Texas, and Queen’s Belfast. He is currently Professor of English and Head of De- partment at the University of Reading, U.K. His previous books have been on US literature and culture, and on dance. Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels Exiled from Eden Katarzyna Nowak-McNeice Narrative Reliability, Racial Conflicts and Ideology in the Modern Novel Marta Puxan-Oliva Agamben’s Political Ontology of Nudity in Literature and Art Frances Restuccia Conceptualisation and Exposition A Theory of Character Construction Lina Varotsi Knots Post-Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Literature and Film Jean-Michel Rabaté Double Trouble The Doppelgänger from Romanticism to Postmodernism Eran Dorfman Literary Twinship from Shakespeare to the Age of Cloning Wieland Schwanebeck Promiscuity in Western Literature Peter Stoneley For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/literature/series/LITCRITANDCULT Promiscuity in Western Literature Peter Stoneley First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Peter Stoneley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stoneley, Peter, author. Title: Promiscuity in western literature / Peter Stoneley. Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Literary criticism and cultural theory | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Promiscuity in Western Literature capitalises on the fact that literature gives us deep and varied resources for reflecting on this controversial aspect of human behaviour. Drawing on authors from Homer to Margaret Atwood, it explores recurrent ideas and scenarios: Why does the literature of promiscuity evoke ideas of the animal? Why does it so often turn upon the image of the “excessive” woman? How and why does promiscuity feature in comic writing? How does the emergence of the modern city change representations of promiscuity? And, in the present day, what impact have ecological concerns had on the way writers depict promiscuity?”— Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019058853 | ISBN 9780367228347 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367228361 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Promiscuity in literature. | Sex in literature. Classification: LCC PN56.P7425 S76 2020 | DDC 809/.933538—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058853 ISBN: 978-0-367-22834-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-22836-1 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra To my brothers, Johnny and Ben Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Animals 23 2 The Excessive Woman 51 3 Sex Objects and Comic Objects 75 4 Libertine Ethics 101 5 The “Swarming City” 135 Conclusion: Used Up 161 Index 173 Acknowledgements My thanks to colleagues and friends in the Department of English at Reading for encouragement and ideas, and especially to Michelle O’Cal- laghan, David Brauner, Steven Matthews, Gail Marshall, Yasmine Shamma, Kia Michalopoulou, Carla Scarano D’Antonio, and the “Iden- tities” group. Beyond the Department, Katherine Harloe gave me a lot of help with ancient materials, Clare MacManus with the early modern, and Nigel Harkness with the French. Jennifer FitzGerald, as always, was a great critical listener. I am grateful to library staff at Reading, and at the British Library, for their kind support. The anonymous readers commissioned by Routledge really helped me to improve the manuscript, and it has been a pleasure to work with the editorial team in the New York office: Michelle Salyga, Mitchell Manners, and Bryony Reece. For all that the help received has been significant, I don’t know that I have always made the best use of it; certainly all remaining errors and short- comings are entirely my responsibility.
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