Black Venus - Sexualized Savages, Primal Fears, and Primitive Narratives in French

"Intellectually rigorous, extremely well written, and solidly arguing against the dated French (and European) conceptualizations of black female sexuality. What a refreshing and much needed addition!"--Marjorie Attignol Salvodon, Connecticut College

List of contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Theorizing Black Venus 1

Writing Sex, Writing DIfference: Creating the Master Text on the Hottentot Venus 16

Representing Sarah- Same Difference or No Difference at All? La Vénus hottentote, ou haine au Françaises 32

"The Other Woman": Reading a Body of Difference in Balzac's La Fille aux Yeux d'or 42

Black Blood, White Masks, and Négresse Sexuality in de Pon's Ourika, l'Africaine 52

Black Is the Difference: Identity, Colonialism, and Fetishism in La Belle Dorothée 62

Desirous and Dangerous Imaginations:: The Black Female Body and the Courtesan in Zola's Thérèse Raquin 71

Can a White Man Love a Black Woman? Perversions of Love beyond the Plae in Maupassant's "Boitelle" 86

Bamboulas, Bacchanals, and Dark Veils over Whtie Memories in Loti's Le Roman d'un spahi 91

Cinematic Venus in the Africanist Orient 105

Epilogue 119

Appendix: The Hottentot Venus, or Hatred of Frenchwomen 127

Notes 165

Works Cited 177

Index 185

Product details

• Authors: T Denean Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Tracey Denean Sharpley-Whiting
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.05.1999
• EAN: 9780822323402
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-2340-2
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 228 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 318 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories