Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500-1900

Dror Ze?evi

ISBN 10: 0520245636 / ISBN 13: 9780520245631

Published by University of California Press, 2006

2006. 0th Edition. Paperback. Based on the premise that people shape their ideas of what is permissible, define boundaries of right and wrong, and imagine sexual worlds through the discourses available, this book explores the Ottoman sexual thought and practices. It deals with the history of the Ottoman Empire, the history of sexuality and gender, and the Islamic Middle East. Series: Studies on the History of Society & Culture. Num Pages: 242 pages, 6 b/w photographs, 6 tables. BIC Classification: 1FB; 1QDT; 3J; HBTB; JHBK5. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 16. Weight in Grams: 458. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780520245631

Synopsis:

This highly original book brings into focus the sexual discourses manifest in a wealth of little-studied source material―medical texts, legal documents, religious literature, dream interpretation manuals, shadow theater, and travelogues―in a nuanced, wide-ranging, and powerfully analytic exploration of Ottoman sexual thought and practices from the heyday of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. Following on the work of Foucault, Gagnon, Laqueur, and others, the premise of the book is that people shape their ideas of what is permissible, define boundaries of right and wrong, and imagine their sexual worlds through the set of discourses available to them. Dror Ze’evi finds that while some of these discourses were restrictive and others more permissive, all treated sex in its many manifestations as a natural human pursuit. And, he further argues that all these discourses were transformed and finally silenced in the last century, leaving very little to inform Middle Eastern societies in sexual matters. With its innovative approach toward the history of sexuality in the Middle East, Producing Desire sheds new light on the history of the Ottoman Empire, on the history of sexuality and gender, and on the Islamic Middle East today.

About the Author: Dror Ze’evi, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Ben Gurion University, is author of An Ottoman Century: The District of Jerusalem in the 1600s (1996).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse ...
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: New