Unspeakable : a life beyond sexual morality / by Rachel Hope Cleves

By:

Cleves, Rachel Hope [author]

Material type:

Computer fileLanguage: English Publication details: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2020Description: 1 online resource (369, pages) : color illustrationsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9780226733678 (e-book)

Subject(s):

LOC classification:

PR6007 O88C59 2020

Online resources:

Contents:

Introduction -- I. George Norman Douglass -- 1. Crocodiles -- 2. Lizards -- 3. Annetta and Michele -- 4. Elsa -- 5. Capri -- II. Norman Douglas -- 6. Norman Douglas -- 7. London street games -- 8. Keeping faith -- 9. Alone -- 10. Together -- III. Uncle Norman -- 11. The pederastic congress -- 12. A hymn to copulation -- 13. Diavolo Incarnato -- 14. Epicurus -- 15. Moving along -- IV. Heraclitus -- 16. On the run -- 17. England is a nightmare -- 18. Footnote on capri -- 19. Omnes Eodem Cogimur -- 20. Pinorman versus grand man -- 21. Looking back

Summary: The sexual exploitation of children by adults has a long, fraught history. Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British novelist and travel writer Norman Douglas (1868–1952), who was both a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence—as well as an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves’s careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment—until they didn’t. Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs—including sources by the children Douglas encountered—Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. The resulting biography delineates just how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time, even as it offers insight into how society can confront today’s scandals, celebrity and otherwise.

List(s) this item appears in: NEW Online E-Books 2023

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Materials specified	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode
Online E-Books	Ladislao N. Diwa Memorial Library Multimedia Section	Non-fiction	OEBP PR6007 O88C59 2020 (Browse shelf(Opens below))		Available	PAV		OEBP000218
Compact Discs	Ladislao N. Diwa Memorial Library Multimedia Section	Non-fiction	EB PR6007 O88C59 2020 (Browse shelf(Opens below))		Room use only	PAV		EB000218

https://www.universitypressscholarship.com/

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction -- I. George Norman Douglass -- 1. Crocodiles -- 2. Lizards -- 3. Annetta and Michele -- 4. Elsa -- 5. Capri -- II. Norman Douglas -- 6. Norman Douglas -- 7. London street games -- 8. Keeping faith -- 9. Alone -- 10. Together -- III. Uncle Norman -- 11. The pederastic congress -- 12. A hymn to copulation -- 13. Diavolo Incarnato -- 14. Epicurus -- 15. Moving along -- IV. Heraclitus -- 16. On the run --
17. England is a nightmare -- 18. Footnote on capri -- 19. Omnes Eodem Cogimur -- 20. Pinorman versus grand man -- 21. Looking back

The sexual exploitation of children by adults has a long, fraught history. Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British novelist and travel writer Norman Douglas (1868–1952), who was both a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence—as well as an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves’s careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment—until they didn’t. Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs—including sources by the children Douglas encountered—Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. The resulting biography delineates just how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time, even as it offers insight into how society can confront today’s scandals, celebrity and otherwise.

Fund 164 CE-Logic Purchased Feb 16, 2022 OEBP000218 P. Roderno PHP 9,999.70
2022-02-057 22-1054

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