Developments in the Histories of Sexualities—In Search of the Normal, 1600?800

Developments in the Histories of Sexualities: In Search of the Normal,1600 1800 explores the oppositions created by the official exclusion of banned sexual practices and the resistance to that exclusion through widespread acceptance of those outlawed practices at an interpersonal level. At different times and in different places, state legislation is seen to set up a normal by rejecting a particular practice or group of practices, a normal that is derogated by popular practice since the very banned acts themselves are thought at grassroots level to be normal. The analysis which these essays disclose derives from the accumulation of new evidence of attitudes towards sexual practice. The essays analyze both the state language of bans and fiats about sexuality, and the grassroots language which marks acceptance of multiplicity in sexual practice.

Chris Mounsey is professor of English at the University of Winchester.