The Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France

Abstract

This book tells how diverting array of pleasures in eighteenth-century libertine fiction gave way, through a process of thematic drift and realignment, to a powerfully linear story that actually defined sex and gender roles pertaining to it. Many of key notions in modern talk about sex are in fact narrative ones: climax, foreplay, and the sex act are all said to lie at heart of human sexuality. But 'The Telling of Act' questions whether these notions deserve to be thought of as timeless, and in fact locates their emergence in second half of eighteenth century.