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OXFORD READERS exuality OXFORD READERS Sexuality Robert A. Nye is Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at Oregon State University. He has written widely on the history of social and political theory, the history of medicine, and modern European history. His most recent books are Crime, Madness and Politics in Modern France (1984) and Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France (1993). ‘Robert A. Nye’s Sexuality is an exquisite collection of primary and secondary historical writings on sexuality. Working through the history of scientific and cultural understandings of human sexuality from the ancient world until the present, Nye has judi- ciously chosen from the very best recent scholarship on hysteria, exhibitionism, medical understandings of sex and sexual parts, the discovery of “sex” hormones, trans- sexuality, homosexuality, intersexuality, and other topics. Nye’s introductory essays set these rich materials in a broad context that will provide valuable insights to undergrad- uates, graduate students, and even scholars in the field.’ Londa Schiebinger Department of History Pennsylvania State University ‘Nye’s Sexuality is both fascinating and erudite. He treats the texts with such interest and subtlety that we realize how much the history of sexuality has come of age as a sub- ject. The sophistication of his analyses is matched by the sophistication of the chosen texts. I can think of no better guide for specialist and general reader alike.’ Ruth Harris Faculty of Modern History University of Oxford ‘Sexuality, Robert Nye’s new reader, will be an enormous intellectual and practical aid to scholars and students who study human sexuality. Most notable is its scope: offering a plethora of readings on sexuality from the ancient world to the present. The reader is organized first historically and then analytically. ... 1, for one, will have this book on my shelf and anticipate referring to it frequently, not only in preparation for teaching, but also as I pursue my own research interests in human sexuality.’ Anne Fausto-Sterling Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry Brown University ‘A splendid overview of the current state of the art in the history of sexuality. The se- lected readings excitingly combine a diversity of primary sources with a rich assortment of recent scholarship. Nye’s introduction and linking text provide an illuminating and nuanced account of this relatively new field of historical endeavour, and he makes a compelling case for the importance of history to our understanding of human sexuality.” Lesley A. Hall Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine ‘Students from a host of disciplines—overwhelmed by an avalanche of publications de- voted to particular sexual preoccupations from the “gay scene” to the “sperm wars”— will welcome as a godsend Robert A. Nye’s wonderfully comprehensive and insightful account of western sexuality. ... No scholar is better qualified than Professor Nye— sensitive as he is to changes and continuities, ambivalences and ambiguities—to serve as a guide to this complex literature. Combining a wealth of primary documentation and the editor’s penetrating yet even-handed contextualizing of the key scientific, social and philosophical discussions of western sexuality, this reader is obviously an essential resource for any serious investigation of one of our culture’s central concerns.’ Angus McClaren Department of History University of Victoria, Canada ‘Robert Nye has compiled a fascinating, wide-ranging and thought-provoking anthology. It will provide an important introduction to a notoriously difficult topic. His insis- tence on historicising sexuality is especially significant. The lucid introductory material helps to set the extracts in context, making the reader useful for a wide range of teaching and accessible to the general reader. Nye draws on an impressive variety of times, places and approaches to an elusive human phenomenon in selecting his texts, and he rightly keeps reminding reader how “sexuality” is an invention, moulded afresh in new circumstances. He emphasises the complex ways in which people experience and think about those tricky phenomena that, since the nineteenth century, have been called “sexuality”.’ Ludmilla Jordanova School of World Art Studies and Museology University of East Anglia ‘Foucault, “essentialists”, “constructionists”, the nineteenth-century “discovery” of sex and perversion, the modern sense of sexual identity, and the current understanding of AIDS, along with a host of other topics, all gain a rich and nuanced treatment here that will make this volume invaluable both in the classroom and for a general public that wants to have a deeper understanding of what the current “sex wars” are all about. ... Nye’s extensive and thoughtful introduction provides an excellent “stand alone” introduction to the hottest issues of current debate; it is at once moderate, judicious and challenging—no small feat in an area where debate has been so intense and acrimo- nious.’ Guido Ruggiero Josephine Barry Weiss Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Renaissance History Pennsylvania State University ‘I doubt if any field of study within the Anglo-American academic humanities of the past fifteen years has been livelier, faster growing, more revealing, or had greater con- temporary resonances than the history of sexuality. Robert Nye’s Oxford Reader Sexu- ality is an admirably comprehensive anthology of this work. It gathers together historical texts and scholarly commentaries from the ancient, medieval, and modern periods under chronological and thematic headings while Professor Nye’s selection in- troductions compactly and intelligently place the readings in historical and theoretical context.” Mark S. Micale Department of History University of Manchester OXFORD READERS The Oxford Readers series represents a unique interdisciplinary resource, offering authoritative collections of primary and secondary sources on the core issues which have shaped history and continue to affect current events. Available Forthcoming Aesthetics Anit-Semitism Edited by Patrick Maynard and Edited by Paul Lawrence Rose Susan Feagin The British Empire Class Edited by Jane Samson Edited by Patrick Joyce Consciousness Classical Philosophy Edited by Geoffrey Underwood Edited by Terence Irwin Nazism Ethics Edited by Neil Gregor Edited by Peter Singer Political Thought Ethnicity Edited by Jonathan Wolff and Edited by John Hutchinson and Michael Rosen Anthony D. Smith Racism Evolution Edited by Martin Bulmer and John Edited by Mark Ridley Solomos Faith and Reason Revolution Edited by Paul Helm Edited by Jack Goldstone Fascism Slavery Edited by Roger Griffin Edited by Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, and Robert Feminisms Edited by Sandra Kemp and Paquette Judith Squires The Mind Edited by Daniel Robinson Nationalism Edited by John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith Sexuality Edited by Robert A. Nye War Edited by Lawrence Freedman OXFORD READERS Sexuality Edited by Robert A. Nye OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dares Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Introduction, selection, and editorial matter © Robert A. Nye 1999 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 978-0-19-288019-2 To the Oyster and Other Aphrodisiacs Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/sexualityOOOOunse_i4v8