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This book is for students and researchers in the fields of philosophy, sexuality and gender studies, aesthetics, and comparative culture and religious studies. It examines erotic theory in the major pre-modern cultural and religious traditions that shaped our modern views of love and lovemaking.
List of contents
1. Ars Erotica and the question of aesthetics; 2. Dialectics of desire and virtue; 3. The biblical tradition; 4. Chinese Qi erotics; 5. Lovemaking as aesthetic education; 6. Fragrance, veils, and violence; 7. From romantic refinement to courtesan conoisseurship; 8. Commingling, complexity, and conflict.
About the author
Richard Shusterman is the Dorothy F. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in the Humanities at Florida Atlantic University. His books include Pragmatist Aesthetics (published in fifteen languages) as well as Body Consciousness and Thinking through the Body. For his pioneering work in philosophy and somaesthetics the French awarded him as Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.
Summary
This book is for students and researchers in the fields of philosophy, sexuality and gender studies, aesthetics, and comparative culture and religious studies. It examines erotic theory in the major pre-modern cultural and religious traditions that shaped our modern views of love and lovemaking.
Additional text
'The unending struggle to reconcile the 'base' demands of the desiring body with the elevating aspirations of culture defines human history. Drawing on his pioneering work in somaesthetics, Richard Shusterman displays extraordinary erudition in presenting the ways in which seven great civilizations have fashioned an ars erotica seeking to do justice to both.' Martin Jay, University of California, Berkeley
