Sex and pleasure in western culture / Gail Hawkes.

Cambridge ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2004.

vii, 207 pages ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-197) and index.

Prologue: the sexual landscape of the new millennium -- Sex pleasure and self-control in classical antiquity -- Sinful sex: early Christianity and the problem of desire -- Guilty sex, courtly love and the unruly body: medieval themes and practices -- Sex, the body and desire in the pre-modern period -- Pleasure and desire in the age of modernity -- Obligatory pleasures and undisciplined desires: the sexual century reviewed.