Judith Kegan Gardiner (essay date 1980)
SOURCE: "Aphra Behn: Sexuality and Self-Respect," in Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1-2, 1980, pp. 67-78.
[In the essay below, Kegan Gardiner maintains that Behn's work is imbued with eroticism, reflecting the author's belief that "sexual passion … [is] the root of all social impulse. "]
The ideal seventeenth-century cavalier could not love his "Deare so much," loved he "not Honour more"; in his code of war, art, and love, independent action posed as effortless and loyal...
Source: Literary Criticism (1400-1800), ©1996 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 3909 words.)
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