After the Lovedeath Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture

"In this brilliant extended essay, Lawrence Kramer once again brings his formidable skills as a literary critic and musicologist to bear on nineteenth-century culture. . . . As always, Kramer surprises his readers with bold new insights; he compels us to return to poems, stories, and sonatas we thought we knew."--Susan McClary, author ofFeminine Endings "This book makes its readers understand the stakes of a crucial debate while itself raising that debate to a higher stage. Its powerful, original vision of gender informs remarkable readings of individual texts. The style, uniquely personal and invariably effective, often reaches a level of eloquence rare in academic prose. Kramer has a distinctive voice and uses it to dramatic effect."--Sandy Petrey, author ofSpeech Acts and Literary Theory "Enormously important. . . . [This book] takes a crucial next step from previous cultural-critical work. Its determination to speak directly to the problem of sexual violence by way of certain cultural products--rather than the other way around, as countless previous authors have done--is a weird and wonderful gesture. I wouldn't have thought it could be done, but I find quite persuasive Kramer's demonstration that readings like these can authorize such a diagnosis."--Ruth A. Solie, editor ofMusicology and DifferenceKramer, Lawrence is the author of 'After the Lovedeath Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture' with ISBN 9780520224896 and ISBN 0520224892.