An Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of Sexuality

by Gagnon, John H.

• ISBN13: 9780226278605
• ISBN10: 0226278603
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

An Interpretation of Desireoffers a bracing collection of major essays by John Gagnon, one of the leading and most inspiring figures in sexual research. Spanning his work from the 1970s, when he explored the idea that sexuality is mediated through social processes and categoriesthus paving the way for Foucaultand then extending through his turn to issues of desire during the 1990s, these essays constitute an essential entreacute;e to the study of sexuality in the twentieth century. Gagnon may be best known as the coauthor ofSexual Conducta book that introduced the seminal concept of sexual scriptingand as one of the coauthors ofThe Social Organization of Sexuality, a foundational work that is widely considered to be the most important study of human sexual behavior since the Kinsey report. The essays collected here first trace the influence of scripting theory on Gagnon, outlining the radical departure he took from the dominant biological and psychiatric models of sex research. The volume then turns to more recent essays that consider such vexed issues as homosexuality, the theories of Sigmund Freud, HIV, hazardous sex, and the social aspects of sexually transmitted diseases.

Author Biography

John Gagnon is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of numerous works, including Human Sexualities, Life Designs, and The Social Organization of Sexuality, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Foreword, by Jeffrey Escoffier	xiii
Prologue An Unlikely Story (1990)	1	(24)
Part One: Scripts, Conduct, and Science
Sex Research and Social Change (1975)	25	(34)
Scripts and the Coordination of Sexual Conduct (1974)	59	(29)
Reconsiderations: The Kinsey Reports (1978)	88	(7)
Science and the Politics of Pathology (1987)	95	(4)
Gender Preference in Erotic Relations: The Kinsey Scale and Sexual Scripts (1990)	99	(31)
The Explicit and Implicit Use of the Scripting Perspective in Sex Research (1991)	130	(45)
Part Two: The Quest for Desire Disease and Desire (1989)	175	(96)
Theorizing Risky Sex (2000)	201	(27)
Epidemics and Researchers: AIDS and the Practice of Social Studies 1992)	228	(14)
Captain Cook and the Penetration of the Pacific (1997)	242	(17)
Who Was That Girl? (2000)	259	(12)
Epilogue Sexual Conduct Revisited (1998)	271	(16)
References	287	(16)
Index	303