ABSTRACT
The history of modern sexuality is about sexual behaviour but not only that. It also deals with the changing way that sexuality is constituted as a field of knowledge and a set of power relations. It therefore sets itself the complex task of trying to examine the way in which dominant conceptions of sexuality interact with personal identity and the self. It asks two key questions: first, is there something distinctive about the way bodies and desires are thought about and experienced in the modern period, and second, does the way that sexuality is represented, thought about and described affect the way it is experienced, and if so, how? There are several answers to this question, the broad outlines of which I will set out below. Perhaps the dominant response of historians is to assume that there is a direct link between moral and social rules and the actual experience of the body. However, there are many others who dispute this, and suggest that there is something constant about sexual behaviour and identity across cultures and time periods. There are also a number of viewpoints in between and refinements of these broad positions. In general, though, the idea that there is something distinctive about modern sexuality has survived decades of critical scrutiny.
