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Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World
Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World explores the implications of sex-for-pay across a broad span of time, from ancient Mesopotamia to the early Christian period. In ancient times, although they were socially marginal, prostitutes connected with almost every aspect of daily life. They sat in brothels and walked the streets; they paid taxes and set up dedications in religious sanctuaries; they appeared as characters—sometimes admirable, sometimes despicable—on the comic stage and in the law courts; they lived lavishly, consorting with famous poets and politicians; and they participated in otherwise all-male banquets and drinking parties, where they aroused jealousy among their anxious lovers.
The chapters in this volume examine a wide variety of genres and sources, from legal and religious tracts to the genres of lyric poetry, love elegy, and comic drama to the graffiti scrawled on the walls of ancient Pompeii. These essays reflect the variety and vitality of the debates engendered by the last three decades of research by confronting the ambiguous terms for prostitution in ancient languages, the difficulty of distinguishing the prostitute from the woman who is merely promiscuous or adulterous, the question of whether sacred or temple prostitution actually existed in the ancient Near East and Greece, and the political and social implications of literary representations of prostitutes and courtesans.
eBook
Death and the Cyprian Society
\"Arabella Beaumont, courtesan, adventuress, and sleuth, romps her way through Regency London into a dangerous affair of blackmail. Arabella Beaumont is the fortunate possessor of one of England's most celebrated bodies--with a formidable business brain to match. Her latest venture: transforming a London hotel into a social club for courtesans. To afford the lavish renovations, Arabella needs her featherbrained friend Constance Worthington to repay the fortune she owes her. And now that Constance has a wealthy protector, Pigeon Pollard, she's finally good for the cash. Alas, the imprudent Constance has also been dallying with Lady Ribbonhat's footman, and a mysterious blackmailer is threatening to tell all. If Constance pays up, there will be no money left for Arabella's renovations;if she doesn't, the cuckolded Pigeon is bound to leave her penniless. But as the case escalates rapidly from extortion to murder, Arabella's life, as well as her fortune, hangs precariously in the balance.\"--Page 4 of cover.
BOOK
Les Courtisanes célèbres
Extrait: \"Ce livre peut-être sérieux, comme il peut être frivole. De toutes façons, il ne saurait être banal. Le public lecteur ne demande au livre qu'il achète que trois choses: 1° Que le titre ne soit pas une supercherie; 2° Qu'il l'instruise, l'amuse ou l'intéresse; 3° Qu'il soit décemment écrit. (Le mot décemment est ici employé au double point de vue de la langue et des mœurs.) L'auteur croit avoir rempli ces trois conditions\". À PROPOS DES ÉDITIONS LIGARAN: Les éditions LIGARAN proposent des versions numériques de grands classiques de la littérature ainsi que des livres rares, dans les domaines suivants: • Fiction: roman, poésie, théâtre, jeunesse, policier, libertin.
• Non fiction: histoire, essais, biographies, pratiques.
eBook
Dancing with the nation : courtesans in Bombay cinema
\"Indian cinema is the only body of world cinema that depicts courtesans as important characters. In early films courtesan characters transmitted Indian classical dance, music and aesthetics to large audiences. They represent the nation's past, tracing their heritage to the fourth-century Kamasutra and to nineteenth-century courtly cultures, but they are also the first group of modern women in Hindi films. They are working professionals living on their own or in matrilineal families. Like male protagonists, they travel widely and develop networks of friends and chosen kin. They have relations with men outside marriage and become single mothers. Courtesan films are heroine-oriented and almost every major female actor has played this role. Challenging received wisdom, Vanita demonstrates that a larger number of courtesans in Bombay cinema are Hindu and indeterminate than are Muslim, and that films depict their culture as hybrid Hindu-Muslim, not Islamicate. Courtesans speak in the ambiguous voice of the modern nation, inviting spectators to seize pleasure here and now but also to search for the meaning of life. Vanita's groundbreaking study of courtesans and courtesan imagery in 235 films brings fresh evidence to show that the courtesan figure shapes the modern Indian erotic, political and religious imagination\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Courtesans, Concubines, and the Cult of Female Fidelity
This book traces changing gender relations in China from the tenth to fourteenth centuries by examining three critical categories of women: courtesans, concubines, and faithful wives. It shows how the intersection and mutual influence of these groups—and of male discourses about them—transformed ideas about family relations and the proper roles of men and women. Courtesan culture had a profound effect on Song social and family life, as entertainment skills became a defining feature of a new model of concubinage, and as entertainer-concubines increasingly became mothers of literati sons. Neo-Confucianism, the new moral learning of the Song, was significantly shaped by this entertainment culture and by the new markets—in women—that it created. Responding to a broad social consensus, Neo-Confucians called for enhanced recognition of concubine mothers in ritual and expressed increasing concern about wifely jealousy. The book also details the surprising origins of the Late Imperial cult of fidelity, showing that from inception, the drive to celebrate female loyalty was rooted in a complex amalgam of political, social, and moral agendas. By taking women—and men’s relationships with women—seriously, this book makes a case for the centrality of gender relations in the social, political, and intellectual life of the Song and Yuan dynasties.
eBook
The Changing Contours of the Indian Public Sphere: Courtesans, Culture, and the British Invasion of Oudh in Kenize Mourad's In the City of Gold and Silver
The article explores the role of women in the Indian freedom struggle, particularly Begam Hazarat Mahal of Lucknow through Kenize Mourad's In the City of Gold and Silver (2010). The text explicitly and implicitly foregrounds the role of tawaifs (courtesans) in the culture and the literature of the public sphere prior to 1857 or the first Indian freedom struggle. Their participation in the freedom struggle was a response to the British attempt to reduce their role to strictly economic and sexual purposes. The article imbricates the issues of nationalism, gender, and sexuality by mining the invisible contributions of various groups of Indian women throughout the freedom movement. We focus specifically on the case of tawaifs whose status fell from being the epitome of cultural manners to the role of a prostitute, partially because they posed a threat to the British expansion and partially because of the patriarchal setup of the Oudh society. The political significance of numerous women who contributed within the domestic sphere was completely neglected and unrecorded, while those who actively participated risking their lives and honor, such as the courtesans, were demeaned or given labels such as prostitutes. The writers, journalists, and historians who were mostly men ignored their sacrifices and struggles resulting in a scarcity of literature concerning them. The article references the theoretical framework of the public sphere, proposed by Jurgen Habermas in his seminal work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, and critiques the imposition of European, patriarchal, monolithic, bourgeois notions on the public sphere. The study concludes that apart from the British intervention, the patriarchal and moral stand of successive leaders of the Indian freedom struggle has also been responsible for the non-representation of women in general and tawaifs in particular as freedom fighters.
Journal Article
The mermaid and Mrs. Hancock : a history in three volumes
\" ... One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah's trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah's ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid. Jonah is stunned--the object the captain presents him is brown and wizened, as small as an infant, with vicious teeth and claws, and a torso that ends in the tail of a fish. It is also dead. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlors and brothels, all of London is curious to see this marvel in Jonah Hancock's possession. Thrust from his ordinary existence, somber Jonah finds himself moving from the city's seedy underbelly to the finest drawing rooms of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of the coquettish Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on--and a shrewd courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting sparks a perilous liaison that steers both their lives onto a dangerous new course as they come to realize that priceless things often come at the greatest cost.\"-- From publisher website.
BOOK
Redrawing the Contours of Nationalist Discourse through the Voices of Courtesans-Turned-Warriors
The last quarter of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of a \"cult of pluralism\" (Chakrabarty) in the writing of Indian history, thus challenging the standardized narrative of the nation. The hegemonic accounts of India's struggle for independence, which have failed to acknowledge the involvement of many significant warriors, make the inextricable links between power, history, and representation quite apparent. One such exclusion is that of the tawaifs (2) of Awadh. (3) This hypocrisy combined with the facade of respectability has eclipsed the contribution of tawaifs, demoting them to singing and dancing girls merely. By looking at the role of Begum Hazrat Mahal in the Revolt of 1857, this paper intends to add another dimension to both the understanding of tawaifs and the historiography of the revolt. It also seeks to question the inclination of historians to focus on the participation of men and ignore women, especially those women from marginalized demographics. The study foregrounds the role of tawaifs in the changing discourses of colonialism and nationalism, with the goal to problematize their invisibility in academic discourse. Kenize Mourad's biographical fiction, The City of Gold and Silver, is taken as a case study to focus on the production of counter-narratives. A thorough examination of the various aspects of Begum's personality calls into question history's selective representations. Furthermore, by focusing on the Begum's political life, the paper seeks to correct the false image of Awadh's tawaifs and kothas (4) and to restore the lost voices of the unsung heroines.
Journal Article