Thinking Sex with the Early Moderns

477 Pages·2016·2.581 MB·English

by  Valerie Traub

Thinking Sex
with the Early Moderns
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Thinking
Sex
with the
Early
Moderns
•
Valerie Traub
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia
AvolumeintheHaneyFoundationSeries,establishedin
1961withthegeneroussupportofDr.JohnLouisHaney.
Copyright(cid:2)2016UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsusedfor
purposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,noneofthisbook
maybereproducedinanyformbyanymeanswithout
writtenpermissionfromthepublisher.
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Traub,Valerie,author.
Thinkingsexwiththeearlymoderns/ValerieTraub.
pagescm.—(HaneyFoundationseries)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-8122-4729-9
1.Sexinliterature.2.Englishliterature—Earlymodern,
1500–1700—Historyandcriticism.3.Sex
(Psychology)—History—16thcentury.4.Sex
(Psychology)—History—17thcentury.5.Gender
identity—England—History—16thcentury.6.Gender
identity—England—History—17thcentury.7.Languageand
sex—History.8.Renaissance—England.I.Title.II.Series:
HaneyFoundationseries.
PR428.S48T73 2016
820.9(cid:2)353809031—dc23
2015017216
(cid:2)o
Gina
Theresa
Maureen
Jennie
Holly
Sabiha
Marjorie
Laura
Gavin
Amy
Chad
Ari
Stephen
Sarah
Tiffany
Emily
Charisse
Lauren
AmandaW
AmandaO
Leah
Jennifer
Jonathan
Andrew
Katie
Angela
Kate
Amrita
Hamit
Eliza
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contents
Preface ix
Chapter1.ThinkingSex:Knowledge,Opacity,History 1
PartI.MakingtheHistoryofSexuality
Chapter2.Friendship’sLoss:AlanBray’sMakingofHistory 37
Chapter3.TheNewUnhistoricisminQueerStudies 57
Chapter4.ThePresentFutureofLesbianHistoriography 82
PartII.ScenesofInstruction;or,EarlyModernSexActs
Chapter5.TheJoysofMarthaJoyless:QueerPedagogy
andthe(EarlyModern)ProductionofSexualKnowledge 103
Chapter6.SexintheInterdisciplines 125
Chapter7.TalkingSex 171
PartIII.TheStakesofGender
Chapter8.Shakespeare’sSex 229
Chapter9.TheSignoftheLesbian 265
Chapter10.SexEd;or,TeachMeTonight 294
viii Contents
Notes 325
Bibliography 407
Index 447
Acknowledgments 459
preface
This book was written during a particular moment in U.S. cultural and po-
litical history—after the initial efflorescence of academic gay/lesbian/queer
studies and during a socially conservative and sex-negative political backlash
thatextendedfromthemediaandmedicinetoschoolsandthearts.Thiswas
a time of severe social and discursive contradiction around sex, with sex
phobia contending in equal measure with the sex saturation of a celebrity-
obsessedculture.Itbegan—althoughIdidnotknowitatthetime—incon-
versations with Mark Schoenfield at Vanderbilt University, who gamely
agreed to read all of Shakespeare’s sonnets with me. A turning point came
when JulieCrawfordsuggested thatanearly versionof‘‘TheJoysofMartha
Joyless’’ allegorized my own scholarly and pedagogical career. Its overall
designbegantocoalesceduringtheBushIIera(2001–2009),aperiodcharac-
terized by governmental disavowals of the existence of anything other than
reproductive marital sexuality, contributing to persistent underfunding of
researchintoandpreventionprogramsforHIV/AIDSandtoabstinence-only
policies of so-called sex education. Over the first decade of the new millen-
nium, politicians in the United States were relieved of office for seeking out
sexworkers,panicsaboutpedophiliamovedfromtheschoolsintotheCatho-
licChurchtothefootballlockerroom,1thefeministcritiqueofsexualharass-
ment was co-opted to prohibit most consensual sexual conduct within the
workplace and schools, and teenagers increasingly were incarcerated for
engaging in consensual erotic acts that their parents’ generation performed
withimpunity. Across the globepolitical conflictsintensified overhomosex-
ualcivilrights,thetreatmentofsexworkers,HIVtransmission,andwomen’s
and girls’ access to sexual information and health care. Women were stoned
todeathforadulteryandmenexecutedforsodomy.Therighttosexualand
otherformsofeducationwasexploitedbytheU.S.governmenttojustifythe
geopolitical incursions of the post-9/11 security state. The book was finished