Bibliograph

Through the keyhole, a history of sex, space and public modesty in modern France, Marcela Iacub ; translated by Vinay Swamy

Type

Label

Through the keyhole, a history of sex, space and public modesty in modern France, Marcela Iacub ; translated by Vinay Swamy

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 212-218) and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Through the keyhole

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

921867306

Responsibility statement

Marcela Iacub ; translated by Vinay Swamy

Sub title

a history of sex, space and public modesty in modern France

Summary

In 1857, a group of young people who had participated in an orgy in a private mansion was sentenced for contempt of public decency (outrage public à la pudeur) because a voyeur was able to watch them through a keyhole. For Marcela Iacub, the crux of such cases hinges on where the public ends and the private begins, and what one can reveal, and what one ought to hide. Today, the term pudeur has disappeared from the French penal code to be replaced by Sex. But, far from being an epic story of hard-won freedom, Iacub demonstrates that the transformation techniques used by the State in the last two centuries have rendered sexuality into a spectacle and have conditioned our spaces, our clothes, our comportment and even some of our mental illnesses. In so doing, Iacub offers us a politico-legal history of the gaze.--, Provided by Publisher

Table Of Contents

Part I: Constructing and demolishing the wall of modesty -- Part II: The visual liberation of public spaces -- Part III: The politics of spaces in the era of Sex

Contributor