"Moving in a conceptual field characterized by levity, hint, diversion, intentional ambiguity, formal undecidability, and non-directed pleasure, flirtation serves as an alternative to strategies of seduction. As a model of engagement with people, objects, texts, or thoughts, it re-orients not only discourse on the erotic (in the broadest sense) and erotic practices (also in the broadest sense), but epistemological strategies. This beautifully executed volume brings the idea of flirtation to bear on wide-ranging, often delightfully unexpected materials, some well-known, some from the margins. Its authors are scholars dedicated to rigorous theoretical thought in conjunction with close literary reading, representing, to my mind, one of the most valuable traditions in the US humanities." -- -Silke-Maria Weineck University of Michigan "Flirtations makes an everyday practice and pleasure newly available to critical thought. Usually avoided as frivolous, lacking the disruptive grandeur of seduction or the power of the truly erotic, flirtation gets left aside as a minor social form. This volume, by turns deeply erudite and playful, effectively corrects this neglect. Many readers, no doubt, will share the temptation to show the authors the new etchings in their collections." -- -Martin Harries University of California, Irvine