UPC: 9781501308697 | Aesthetic Sexuality (Paperback)

UPC lookup results for: 9781501308697 | Aesthetic Sexuality (Paperback)

To understand why the concept of aesthetic sexuality is important we must consider the influence of the first volume of Foucault s seminal The History of Sexuality. Arguing against Foucault s assertions that only scientia sexualis has operated in modern Western culture while ars erotica belongs to Eastern and ancient societies Byrne suggests that modern Western culture has indeed witnessed a form of ars erotica encompassed in what she calls aesthetic sexuality . To argue for the existence of aesthetic sexuality Byrne examines mainly works of literature to show how within these texts sexual practice and pleasure are constructed as having aesthetic value a quality that marks these experiences as forms of art. In aesthetic sexuality value and meaning are located within sexual practice and pleasure rather than in their underlying cause; sexuality s raison d Áatre is tied to its aesthetic value at surface level rather than beneath it. Aesthetic sexuality Byrne shows is a product of choice a deliberate strategy of self-creation as well as a mode of social communication.