Unmaking Sex

The Gender Outlaws of Nineteenth-Century France

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

550 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar. Fri frakt över 249 kr.

Beskrivning

During the nineteenth century, words like 'intersex' and 'trans' had not yet been invented to describe individuals whose bodies, or senses of self, conflicted with binary sex. But that does not mean that such people did not exist. In nineteenth-century France, case studies filled medical journals, high-profile trials captured headlines, and doctors staked their reputations on sex determinations only to have them later reversed by colleagues. While medical experts fought over what separated a man from a woman, novelists began to explore debates about binary sex and describe the experiences of gender-ambiguous characters. Anne Linton discusses over 200 newly-uncovered case studies while offering fresh readings of literature by several famous writers of the period, as well as long-overlooked popular fiction. This landmark contribution to the history of sexuality is the first book to examine intersex in both medicine and literature, sensitively relating historical 'hermaphrodism' to contemporary intersex activism and scholarship.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-03-24
Mått:160 x 235 x 19 mm
Vikt:550 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:250
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781316511824

Utforska kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Genusvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Medicinhistoria inom Medicin

Mer om författaren

Anne E. Linton is Associate Professor of French at San Francisco State University. Her research interests and publications span a wide range of interdisciplinary topics in nineteenth-century cultural studies, including gender studies, science, and medicine.

Recensioner i media

'Unmaking Sex is an impeccably researched and original study of the intersex phenomenon in medical and literary discourses of nineteenth-century France. Through expert synthesis of archival research into over 200 medical cases, Linton provides a cultural prehistory to today's widely-debated topic of gender boundaries. This truly interdisciplinary project succeeds in reconstructing a vast and complex network of myth, medicine, anatomy, and rhetoric in relation to the binary-unsettling realities of indeterminate sex. It will become a must-read for serious scholars of gender and the nineteenth century.' Andrea Goulet, University of Pennsylvania

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction: Gender revolution before intersex or transgender; Part I. A Cultural History of 'Hermaphrodism' from the Archives: 1. Prescribed fictions: stories of 'hermaphrodism' vs. true sex; 2. Outlaws from birth: 'doubtful sex' and the civil code; Part II. Contextualizing High and Low Literary Narratives: 3. Is she or isn't he? Plotting ambiguous gender; 4. Inheriting 'hermaphrodism': how degeneration theory changed literature and medicine; Epilogue: The nineteenth-century roots of contemporary resistance to true sex.