Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson

Here is the fiery, provocative, and unparalleled work of feminist art criticism that launched Camille Paglia`s exceptional career as one of our most important public intellectuals. Is Emily Dickinson "the female Sade"? Is Donatello`s David a bit of pedophile pornography? What is the secret kinship between Byron and Elvis Presley, between Medusa and Madonna? How do liberals and feminists – as well as conservatives – fatally misread human nature? This audacious and omnivorously learned work of guerrilla scholarship offers nothing less than a unified-field theory of Western culture, high and low, since Egyptians invented beauty – making a persuasive case for all art as a pagan battleground between male and female, form and chaos, civilization and daemonic nature. 47 photographs.