Vita Sexualis: Karl Ulrichs and the Origins of Sexual Science

Description

Karl Ulrichs's studies of sexual diversity galvanized the burgeoning field of sexual science in the nineteenth century. But in the years since, his groundbreaking activism for the emancipation of homosexuality has overshadowed his scholarly achievements.Ralph M. Leck returns Ulrichs to his place as the inventor of the science of sexual heterogeneity. Leck's analysis situates sexual science in thematic contexts that include political history, aesthetics, amatory studies, and the language of science. Although he was the greatest nineteenth-century scholar of sexual heterogeneity, Ulrichs retained certain traditional conjectures about gender. Leck recognizes these subtleties and employs the analytical concepts of modernist vita sexualis and traditional psychopathia sexualis to articulate philosophical and cultural differences among sexologists.Original and audacious, Vita Sexualis uses a bedrock figure's scientific and political innovations to open new insights into the history of sexual science, legal systems, and Western amatory codes. Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface. Post-Victorians and Sexual Science Acknowledgments 1. Motifs in Sexual Science 2. Inventing Sexual Liberalism 3. The Epistemic Politics of Nature 4. The Science of Agape 5. Sexual Degeneration and Bourgeois Culture 6. Normalizing the Marquis de Sade Afterword. Ulrichs Street and Epistemic Politics Notes Bibliography Index