E-Books →Orgasm and the West A History of Pleasure from the 16th Century to the Present

Free Download Robert Muchembled, "Orgasm and the West: A History of Pleasure from the 16th Century to the Present"
English | ISBN: 0745638767 | 2008 | 224 pages | PDF | 19 MB
Can the orgasm be explained in historical terms? An almost incommunicable individual emotion yet also a cultural reality, the orgasm is part of, but also escapes, collective experience. The history of the orgasm is that of the hidden body, of forbidden desires, of flesh constrained by taboos and morality. Buried deep in archives and libraries, the documents that shed light on this physical, sometimes libertine, life are nevertheless surprisingly plentiful and have a surprisingly evocative charge. Robert Muchembled's book unearths fascinating sources which suggest that we need to look with a fresh eye at the past and realize that the sublimation of the erotic impulse was far more than simple religious asceticism: it was the hidden driving force of the West until the 1960s.