Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West

Gordon DesBrisay is an assistant professor of history at the University
of Saskatchewan.

This feisty collection of essays captures the sense of scholarly
adventure that was on display at a landmark conference on the history of
medieval and early modern sexuality that was hosted by the editors at
the University of Toronto in 1991. With broad strokes and rapierlike
thrusts, the 16 historians and literary scholars whose work is gathered
between these covers cut fresh trails even as they skewer old and new
orthodoxies.

Past tendencies to ignore, efface, and erase historical evidence of sex
and sexuality—especially homosexuality and other practices and
orientations that were offensive to or simply beyond the ken of earlier
scholars—are, predictably enough, found wanting. But so too are more
recent ideas, particularly those associated with the late Michel
Foucault, whose shadow looms large over this collection. Foucault’s
vital association of sexuality with relations of power in historical
context is (somewhat ungratefully, perhaps) taken largely for granted
here, but his cavalier generalizations about premodern sexuality and his
insistence on the uniqueness of the modern sense of self (seemingly
disregarding psychological or physical continuities) helped spur several
of this volume’s contributors to provide evidence and arguments to the
contrary.

Jacqueline Murray’s introduction skilfully connects the wide range of
theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches on offer, from
legal history to art history, from textual analysis to psychoanalysis.
As in any collection, some contributions are stronger than others. Some
will make heavy reading for nonspecialists. And the lack of an index is
very much to be regretted, especially in a book that offers so many
points of connection, so much scope for fruitful cross-pollination. It
would be churlish, however, to end on this note. Collectively, these
essays embody a generosity of spirit and an expansiveness of approach
that are characteristic of the best interdisciplinary work. Several are
suitable for undergraduate syllabi, including my own favorite, Nancy
Partner’s sharp and amusing concluding chapter, “Did Mystics Have
Sex?” This book belongs in every university library and on the shelves
of anyone who is interested in medieval and early modern culture.