Literary sexualities

Sexuality is not the product of fiction, but literary and philosophical works can lay claim to having inspired the terms and concepts in which we think about modern sexuality. This chapter examines how the modern concept of sexuality - and related ideas about identity and the body – were articulated around 1900. It argues that attention to the literary aspects of sexuality deepens understanding of why, and how, the body and its desires became so influential for defining the modern subject, both individually and in collective terms