Figures of Ill Repute - Representing Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century France

"[A]n important work. . . . Shifting nimbly from close textual analysis to biographical or scientific information, from psychoanalytic speculation to anecdotes of social history, this original, exciting study offers . . . a truly liberal view of the seriousness and importance of all our representational activities."--Leo Bersani

List of contents

Preface to the Duke Edition vii

Acknowledgments xi

List of Illustrations xiii

Abbreviations xvii

Introduction 1

1. Parent-Duchâtelet: Engineer of Abjection 8

2. Cashing in on Hearts of Gold: Balzac and Sue 34

3. Barbey's Dandy Narratives 69

4. Manet's Olympia: The Figuration of Scandal 89

5. The Idea of Prostitution in Flaubert 129

6. Degas's Brothels: Voyeurism and Ideology 157

7. Decomposing Venus: The Corpse of Naturalism 200

8. Huysmans: Syphilis, Hysteria, and Sublimation 234

Conclusion 266

Notes 277

Credits 321

Index 323

About the author

Charles Bernheimer is Professor of Romance Languages and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Flaubert and Kafka and coeditor of In Dora’s Case.

Summary

Ubiquitous in the streets and brothels of nineteenth-century Paris, the prostitute was even present in the novels and paintings of the time. This book discusses how these representations of the sexually available woman express male ambivalence about desire, money, class, and the body.

Product details

• Authors: BERNHEIMER, Charles Bernheimer
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9780822319474
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-1947-4
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 235 mm x 159 mm x 32 mm
• Weight: 616 g
• Illustrations: 44 illustrations
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Romance linguistics / literary studies; 19. Jahrhundert (1800 bis 1899 n. Chr.), Sex und Sexualität, soziale Aspekte, Ethische Themen und Debatten