Description
To understand why the concept of aesthetic sexuality is important,we must consider the influence of the first volume of Foucault’s seminalThe History of Sexuality. Arguing against Foucault’s assertions that only scientia sexualis has operated in modern Western culture while ars erotica belongs to Eastern and ancient societies, Byrne suggests that modern Western culture has indeed witnessed a form of ars erotica, encompassed in what she calls ‘aesthetic sexuality’.Toargue for the existence of aesthetic sexuality, Byrne examines mainlyworks of literature to show how, within these texts, sexual practice andpleasure are constructed as having aesthetic value, a quality thatmarks these experiences as forms of art. In aesthetic sexuality, valueand meaning are located within sexual practice and pleasure rather thanin their underlying cause; sexuality’s raison d’être is tied toits aesthetic value, at surface level rather than beneath it. Aestheticsexuality, Byrne shows, is a product of choice, a deliberate strategy ofself-creation as well as a mode of social communication.
