Eroticism and the Body Politic: A Review
Eroticism and the Body Politic; a Review
Lynn Hunt has put together an insightful compilation on the subject of women in 18th and 19th century France. Scholars in history, art history, and literature are brought together in nine essays broken up into three sections of three essays each focused respectively on the 18th century, the Revolution, and the fin de siècle. The nine varying scholars are brought together and edited by Hunt to discuss the body erotic and the body politic of women in France. With a wide variety of authors, scholars in many areas, and essays of varying opinions and experience over a large period of time, Hunt 's Eroticism and the Body Politic gives a multi-faceted look into how women and the roles of their bodies were perceived in 18th and 19th century France. Also discussed are two reviews by Thomas Laqueur and Ruth P. Thomas, used to compare and contrast insights on the argument Hunt forms as to what is a woman and her body, erotically and politically. Proposed is the idea that there is a connection between the erotic and the political and at the very center of it all is the question of women 's place.
Throughout European history when thinking of power one would put it under the domain of men. Though men could not relate to one another without their relationship to women and their bodies, nor could social or political order continue to reproduce without a woman’s body. In this time women were thought of as dangerous when meddling in the public, in political affairs with their fickle thoughts and irrational emotions. In 18th century France women had a very clear role and it was not one of power. For example most peasant or petty bourgeois women’s aspirations were to marry a worthy man and make him proud by running a home and raising his children. Women dare not aim higher because it was not their job to; their duty was to the family, to their men. Even with a woman of royalty, she could marry a king, even birth one, yet they could never be
Lynn Hunt has put together an insightful compilation on the subject of women in 18th and 19th century France. Scholars in history, art history, and literature are brought together in nine essays broken up into three sections of three essays each focused respectively on the 18th century, the Revolution, and the fin de siècle. The nine varying scholars are brought together and edited by Hunt to discuss the body erotic and the body politic of women in France. With a wide variety of authors, scholars in many areas, and essays of varying opinions and experience over a large period of time, Hunt 's Eroticism and the Body Politic gives a multi-faceted look into how women and the roles of their bodies were perceived in 18th and 19th century France. Also discussed are two reviews by Thomas Laqueur and Ruth P. Thomas, used to compare and contrast insights on the argument Hunt forms as to what is a woman and her body, erotically and politically. Proposed is the idea that there is a connection between the erotic and the political and at the very center of it all is the question of women 's place.
Throughout European history when thinking of power one would put it under the domain of men. Though men could not relate to one another without their relationship to women and their bodies, nor could social or political order continue to reproduce without a woman’s body. In this time women were thought of as dangerous when meddling in the public, in political affairs with their fickle thoughts and irrational emotions. In 18th century France women had a very clear role and it was not one of power. For example most peasant or petty bourgeois women’s aspirations were to marry a worthy man and make him proud by running a home and raising his children. Women dare not aim higher because it was not their job to; their duty was to the family, to their men. Even with a woman of royalty, she could marry a king, even birth one, yet they could never be
Cited: Hunt, Lynn. “The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of the Feminine in the French Revolution.” Eroticism and the Body Politic. Lynn Hunt, ed. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 108-130. Book. Laqueur, Thomas. Rev. of Eroticism and the Body Politic, by Lynn Hunt. The American Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 5. Dec., 1993. 1596-1598. PDF. Maza, Sarah. “The Diamond Necklace Affair Revisited.” Eroticism and the Body Politic. Lynn Hunt, ed. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 63-89. Book. Sheriff, Mary. “Fragronard 's Erotic Mothers and the Politics of Reproduction.” Eroticism and the Body Politic. Lynn Hunt, ed. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 14-40. Book. Thomas, Ruth. P. Rev. of Eroticism and the Body Politic, by Lynn Hunt. The French Review, vol. 67, no. 6. May, 1994. 1072-1073. PDF.