An interpretation of desire : Essays in the study of sexuality

J. Gagnon

A collection of major essays by John Gagnon. Spanning his work from the 1970s, when he explored the idea that sexuality is mediated through social processes and categories--thus paving the way for Foucault--and then extending through his turn to issues of desire during the 1990s, these essays constitute an essential entréé to the study of sexuality in the twentieth century. 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.