Libertinage in Russian Culture and Literature ─ A Bio-History of Sexualities at the Threshold of Modernity

In his introduction, Lalo (comparative literature, U. of Texas, Austin) explains that the term libertinage "...comes from Georges Nivat, who understands it as a combination of political and sexual freethinking that had been arguably omnipresent in French Tradition since Francois Rabelais but scanty or even missing in Russian literature until the Silver Age." He also explains bio-history "...refers to a period in a national (or even civilizational) history when historical processes become directly impacted by the processes of human life and death." The study examines Russian anxieties of the body from Gogol to Chekhov, pornography, Nabokov's Lolita and precursors, and sexual and erotic themes in Joseph Brodsky's poetry, among other topics. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Alexei Lalo, Ph.D. (2010) in Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin, teaches Russian literature at UT-Austin. He has published extensively on North American and Russian literature and culture, including a book on Thomas Pynchon (Minsk, 2001).