Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale Nota Bene) - Softcover

Paglia, Camille

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300091273 ISBN 13: 9780300091274

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Is Emily Dickinson "the female Sade"? Is Donatello's David a bit of paedophile pornography? What is the secret kinship between Byron and Elvis Presley, between the Medusa and Madonna? How do liberals and feminists - as well as conservatives - fatally misread human nature? This audacious and omnivorously learned work of guerilla scholarship offers nothing less than a unified-field theory of Western culture, high and low, since the Egyptians invented beauty - making a persuasive case for all art as a pagan battleground between male and female, form and chaos, civilisation and demonic nature.

About this title

From the Publisher

"A remarkable book, at once outrageous and compelling, fanatical and brilliant....One must be awed by [Paglia's] vast energy, erudition and wit"--Washington Post Book World

From the Inside Flap

Egypt through the nineteenth century, Sexual Personae explores the provocative connections between art and pagan ritual; between Emily Dickinson and the Marquis de Sade; between Lord Byron and Elvis Presley. It ultimately challenges the cultural assumptions of both conservatives and traditional liberals. 47 photographs.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0300091273
• ISBN 13: 9780300091274
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 736