Libertinage in Russian culture and literature : a bio-history of sexualities at the threshold of modernity / by Alexei Lalo.

Leiden : Brill, 2011.

x, 291 pages ; 25 cm.

Introduction: approaching Russian silences and burlesques -- Carnality and eroticism in the history of Russian literature: toward a genealogy of a discourse of silence -- Golden silences in the golden age: Russian anxieties of the body and sexuality from Gogol to Chekhov -- Silence is golden, speech is silver: corporeality, sensuality, and "pornography" in Russian literature of the silver age -- Exploring the impetus of the silver age: the evolution of discourses of carnality and eroticism in pre-revolutionary Russian literature and in emigre writing -- Nabokov's Lolita and its precursors: silver age roots and sexuality in the novel -- Joseph Brodsky's libertinage: sexual and erotic themes in his poetry -- Conclusion: Russia's "threshold of modernity" and literary representations of sexuality in the era of bio-power.

Includes bibliographical references and index.