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First published in 2004. The world has become cluttered with sexual stories. From child abuse scandals to lesbian and gays coming out; from Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas to the travails of Michael Jackson; from sexual surveys to therapy groups - sexual talk has become more and more evident.
This book explores the rites of a sexual story-telling culture. Taking three major examples - rape stories, coming-out stories, recovery stories - it examines the nature of these newly emerging narratives and the socio-historical conditions which have given rise to them. It looks at the rise of the women's movement, the lesbian and gay movement and the 'recovery' movement as harbingers of significant social change that encourage the telling of new stories. In a powerful concluding section, the book turns to the wider concern of how story telling may be changing in a postmodern culture and how central it may be in the creation of a participatory democratic political culture.
Ken Plummer illustrates how 'the narrative turn' of cultural studies may be taken up within sociology. He suggests that a sociology of stories asks different questions about stories from those posed within cultural studies. Telling Sexual Stories is a major contribution to our understanding of sexuality and the cultures of intimacy.
List of contents
Preface Part I: Entering the Story Zone 1. Prologue: the Culture of Sexual Story Telling 2. An Invitation to a Sociology of Stories 3. Making Sexual Stories Coming Out Everywhere: Modernist Stories of Desire, Danger and Recovery 4. Coming Out, Breaking the Silence and Recovering: Introducing Some Modernist Tales 5. Women's Culture and Rape Stories 6. The Modernisation of Gay and Lesbian Stories 7. Recovery Tales Sexual Stories at Century's End 8. The Tale and Its Time 9. The Shifting Sexual Stories of Late Modernity 10. Intimate Citizenship: the Politics of Sexual Story Telling 11. Epilogue: Beyond Stories: the Pragmatics of Story Telling Bibliography
About the author
Ken Plummer
Summary
This book explores the rites of a sexual story-telling culture and examines the nature of these newly emerging narratives and the socio-historical conditions that have given rise to them.
