Lot's Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and Women's Quest for AuthorityLot's Daughters explores the relationship of fathers and daughters and of older men and younger females in history, life, art, and culture. This ambitious, daringly original book shows how humanity has remembered and been formed by Lot's daughters—how the shocking biblical text describing the crucial relationship between that patriarch and his daughters has haunted the human imagination and shaped history and behavior right down to the present. Robert Polhemus terms this ongoing human drama—the mutual attraction between young females and older males—the "Lot complex," and illustrates his theory with a wide-ranging series of portraits that analyze and dramatize the lives and work of famous men and women who, in very diverse ways, have made the world care more deeply about the destiny of daughters. In witty, probing chapters on an entertaining selection of daughters that includes women as varied as Lewis Carroll's Alice, Shirley Temple, Mia Farrow, and Monica Lewinsky, Polhemus tells the story of men's ambivalent desire for young women and of women's quest for authority. It is an indispensable work on male-female relations. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 60
Page 124
... role model of virtue and duty . She gives Mary great lines and jokes , even makes her generous , but represents her as mor- ally slack and purges her in the end from the novel's world . For Austen , it must have felt like suicide . Both ...
... role model of virtue and duty . She gives Mary great lines and jokes , even makes her generous , but represents her as mor- ally slack and purges her in the end from the novel's world . For Austen , it must have felt like suicide . Both ...
Page 285
... role of a lifetime for Allen . Like Letty , another girl , his teenage cousin Rita Wishnik , played a last- ing role in the making of his psyche and his films . When he was 13 , Allan lived in the same house and sometimes shared a room ...
... role of a lifetime for Allen . Like Letty , another girl , his teenage cousin Rita Wishnik , played a last- ing role in the making of his psyche and his films . When he was 13 , Allan lived in the same house and sometimes shared a room ...
Page 287
... role of little brother , left at home with females , looking up to those big shapers - through organized violence of the brave new world . try A boy might take another tack and belittle , even mock , domineering people and pretensions ...
... role of little brother , left at home with females , looking up to those big shapers - through organized violence of the brave new world . try A boy might take another tack and belittle , even mock , domineering people and pretensions ...
Contents
Part I | 5 |
Faithful Interpretations | 48 |
A Family Museum | 72 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abuse Austen become cave century chapter Charlotte Brontë child Clinton culture Daddy daugh desire Dora Dora's dream Emily Brontë erotic faith fantasy Farrow father father-daughter feel female figure film Finnegans Wake Frau Freud gender Genesis Heathcliff Herr Herron human husband imagination incest Jane Austen Jane Eyre kiss later Lear Lewinsky Linda Linda Tripp lives look Lot complex Lot story Lot's daughters Lot's wife Louise Lasser male Mansfield Park married Mary Shelley Mathilda mean memory Mia Farrow Mia's modern Monica moral mother move movie myth novel older passion patriarchal picture play preserve psychological relationship role Rosemary's Baby says scene seduce seed seems sexual Shirley Temple Shirley's shows sister social Sodom Soon-Yi star symbolic talk tells Thereafter Johnnie things tion Tripp turn women Woody Allen words writing Wuthering Heights young woman younger