Dialogue and Deviance

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Robert S. Sturges

   Pages 1-12

3. Erotics of Friendship: From Plato’s Lysis to Aelred of Rievaulx

   • Robert S. Sturges

   Pages 13-72

4. Spiritual Erotics: From Plato’s Symposium to Sade’s La Philosophie dans le boudoir

   • Robert S. Sturges

   Pages 73-154

5. Erotic Style: From Plato’s Phaedrus to the Modern Novel

   • Robert S. Sturges

   Pages 155-220

6. Conclusion: Deviant Erotics from Plato to the Postmodern

   • Robert S. Sturges

   Pages 221-234

7. Back Matter

   Pages 235-297

   PDF

This book traces the historical relationship between male-male erotic desire and the genre of literary or philosophical dialogue. It describes three literary-philosophical traditions, each of which originates in a different Platonic dialogue whose subsequent influence can be traced, first, through the Roman and medieval periods; second, through the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods; and, finally, through the modern and postmodern periods. Sturges demonstrates that various forms of erotic deviance have been differently valued in these different periods and cultures, and that dialogue has consistently proven to be the genre of choice for expressing these changing values. This study provides a valuable historical perspective on current debates over the place of homosexuality in modern Western culture.

• Age of Enlightenment
• bedroom
• culture
• dialogue
• enlightenment
• genre
• Middle Ages
• novel
• philosophy
• Plato
• present
• Symposium

Robert S. Sturges is Professor of English at Arizona State University, USA.

Policies and ethics