Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture

Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture

Rosenthal, Laura J.

Hardcover

Literary CriticismGeneral SociologyWomen's Studies

ISBN10: 0801444047
ISBN13: 9780801444043
Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr
Published: Jun 8 2006
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.16
Height: 0.92 Width: 6.74 Depth: 9.32
Language: English

In Infamous Commerce, Laura J. Rosenthal uses literary and historical sources to explore the meaning of prostitution from the Restoration through the eighteenth century, showing how both reformers and libertines constructed the modern meaning of sex work during this period. From Grub Street's lurid whore biographies to the period's most acclaimed novels, the prostitute was depicted as facing a choice between abject poverty and some form of sex work.Prostitution, in Rosenthal's view, confronted the core controversies of eighteenth-century capitalism: luxury, desire, global trade, commodification, social mobility, gender identity, imperialism, self-ownership, alienation, and even the nature of work itself. In the context of extensive research into printed accounts of both male and female prostitution--among them sermons, popular prostitute biographies, satire, pornography, brothel guides, reformist writing, and travel narratives--Rosenthal offers in-depth readings of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and Pamela and the responses to the latter novel (including Eliza Haywood's Anti-Pamela), Bernard Mandeville's defenses of prostitution, Daniel Defoe's Roxana, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and travel journals about the voyages of Captain Cook to the South Seas. Throughout, Rosenthal considers representations of the prostitute's own sexuality (desire, revulsion, etc.) to be key parts of the changing meaning of the oldest profession.

1 different editions

Also available

Also in

Literary Criticism

View All