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"Well-written, richly referenced, and persuasively argued, Sexual Antipodes is compelling both in the sweep of its synthetic arguments and in the bold, original claims it makes."--French Forum
"Spanning a variety of genres such as novelistic language, political pamphlets, clandestine journalism, travel narrative, and scientific treatises on natural history, Cheek's work eloquently shows the richness of the range of discourses on sexuality and politics in early modern Europe, and the Enlightenment's complex approach to the conceptualization of national and racial identity." --Elena Russo, John Hopkins University
About the author
Pamela Cheek is Associate Professor of French at the University of New Mexico.
Summary
Considers how Enlightenment print culture built modern national and racial identity out of images of sexual order and disorder in public life. The title refers to a premise in utopian and exoticist fiction about the southern portion of the globe: sexual order defines the character of the state.
Additional text
"Sexual Antipodes is an important contribution to the ongoing attempts to historicize globalization . . . By demonstrating how a political theory of sex was crucial to the ways in which Enlightenment Europe thought of itself, and by asserting that this consciousness was necessarily global, this provocative study raises questions about the supposed provincialism of the Enlightenment."
