Sexual Personae: Art & Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson

The fiery, provocative, and unparalleled work of feminist art criticism that launched the exceptional career of one of our most important public intellectuals- a remarkable book, at once outrageous and compelling, fanatical and brilliant…. One must be awed by [Paglia’s] vast energy, erudition and wit (The Washington Post).

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.

With 47 photographs.