The Sexual Culture of the French Renaissance

KATHERINE CRAWFORD is Associate Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern France (2004) and European Sexualities, 1400–1800 (2007).

• Introduction: sexual culture? France? Renaissance?; 1. The renaissance of sex: Orpheus, mythography and making sexual meaning; 2. Heavens below: astrology, generation and sexual (un)certainty; 3. Neoplatonism and the making of heterosexuality; 4. Cupid makes you stupid: 'bad' poetry in the French Renaissance; 5. Politics, promiscuity and potency: managing the king's sexual reputation; Conclusion: dirty thoughts; Bibliography.

'Beautifully written, lively, and original, Katherine Crawford's study of French Renaissance sexual culture makes a compelling case for reading sexuality through poetry, poetic theory, astrology, and philosophy in unusual ways. Providing an anatomy of some of the lesser-examined elements that contribute to the development of sexual ideology in a given culture, The Sexual Culture of the French Renaissance makes an important contribution, not only to the study of sexuality in Renaissance France, but to sexuality studies more generally.' Carla Freccero, University of California, Santa Cruz