Sexual Personae Audiobook By Camille Paglia cover art

Sexual Personae

Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson

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Sexual Personae

By: Camille Paglia
Narrated by: Emily Durante
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In this brilliantly original book, Camille Paglia identifies some of the major patterns that have endured in western culture from ancient Egypt and Greece to the present. According to Paglia, one source of continuity is paganism, which, undefeated by Judeo-Christianity, continues to flourish in art, eroticism, astrology, and pop culture. Others, she says, are androgyny, sadism, and the aggressive western eye, which has created our art and cinema.

Paglia follows these and other themes, from Nefertiti and the Venus of Willendorf to Apollo and Dionysus, from Botticelli and Michaelangelo to Shakespeare and Blake and finally to Emily Dickinson, who, along with other major 19th-century authors, becomes a remarkable example of Romanticism turned into Decadence.

©1990 Yale University (P)2017 Tantor Gender Studies Literary History & Criticism Ancient History Social Sciences Personal Development
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Critic reviews

"'Pagan' in its own pictorialism, sprawl, and unstopped prose, [Paglia's] unusual book creates its brilliant effect from an explosive fusing of scholarship and theater." ( Kirkus)

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Mind expanding, a golden stitch work to become wrapped in! The authors accomplishments in this book are inspired and inspiring.

Necessary Reading

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A great amount of Paglia's personal and presumably internally consistent interpretations of the artists in historical poetry and literature. Especially as that art could be relayed as sexuality, or expressions of "Sexual personae".

Very interesting literary thematic criticism

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Even if you disagree with some of the conclusions that result from her perspective, you've been taken on an amazing, consciousness-expanding ride. Some of her sentences approach poetry in the way they draw disparate objects together. I have not read or seen all the works she talks about, but it is testament to her mesmerizing writing that it is unnecessary.

Amazing

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Paglia is one of the greatest minds of the century, and this book has never been more relevant.

Best book of the 21st century.

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The firebrand feminist critic brings her cleverly incisive and rollickingly refreshing look at the Western canon. She shows a granular knowledge of cultural archetypes and employs a justified boldness to challenge conventional criticism. One may disagree with facets of her critique or certain conclusions, but they nevertheless make for an interesting listen and encourage a deeper look and appreciation for the West’s cultural patrimony.

Paglia’s magnum opus casts an Apollonian eye on the Western Canon

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