Kittredge, Katharine. "Introduction: Contexts for the Consideration of the Transgressive Antitype." Lewd and Notorious: Female Transgression in the Eighteenth Century. Ed. Katharine Kittredge. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2003. 1-15.

Kittredge, after explaining the structure of this anthology, traces the “cultural changes that contributed to the emergence of the gendered concept of female transgression in the eighteenth century” through the metamorphosis of the term “lewd” in the preceding centuries (2). She notes the movement of the locus of punishment for female transgression from the church to the community to the patriarchal household. In the eighteenth century, woman’s function was considered more than ever before to be purely sexual, and thus chastity all the more ideal. Kittredge explains that women’s sexual status was assigned by negatives: their ability not to give in to physical desires and their ability to compell sexual restraint in men. “When a woman achieves the status of a ‘lewd woman’ this obscures all personal characteristics—including variant sexual behavior, economic class, and sexual orientation” (7).

The remainder of Kittredge’s introduction outlines the anthologized articles.

Entered by Sarah on 03 August 2004 at 10:31 AM.