Love for Sale: Representing Prostitution in Imperial Russia

Love for Sale explores the prevalence of commercial sex in Russian literary and artistic production from the nineteenth century to the fin de siècle, highlighting how it captivated the public's imagination and how imperial Russians grappled with the issue of sexual commerce. It focuses on a range of media, including engravings, canonical fiction, and feminist theory, and argues that prostitution became a focal point for imperial Russians because it signaled both the promises of modernity and the anxieties associated with Westernization.

Format: Hardback
Length: 270 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2021
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Love for Sale is a groundbreaking study that delves into the pervasive presence of commercial sex in Russian literary and artistic production from the nineteenth century to the fin de siècle. Colleen Lucey provides a captivating account of how the figure of the sex worker captured the public's imagination through depictions in fiction and fine art, shedding light on how imperial Russians grappled with the issue of sexual commerce. Through a comprehensive examination of a diverse range of media, including little-known engravings that circulated in newspapers and canonical fiction, Lucey demonstrates how writers and artists employed the topic of prostitution to comment on women's shifting social roles at the end of tsarist rule and to express concerns about the encroachment of capitalist transactions in intimate relationships.

The book is organized into chapters that focus on specific types of commercial sex, exploring how street walkers, brothel workers, demimondaines, kept women, impoverished brides, and madams traded sex as a means to acquire capital. Lucey argues that prostitution became a focal point for imperial Russians because it symbolized both the promises of modernity and the anxieties associated with Westernization.

Love for Sale seamlessly integrates historical analysis, literary criticism, and feminist theory, offering insights into how nineteenth-century beliefs about the fallen woman drew from medical, judicial, and religious discourse on female sexuality. Lucey invites readers to draw connections between the rhetoric of the nineteenth century and the contemporary debate on sex workers' rights, highlighting recent controversies concerning Russian sex workers to demonstrate how imperial discourse is recycled in the twenty-first century.

This study is a significant contribution to the field of Russian studies, shedding light on the complex and multifaceted relationship between sex, commerce, and culture in nineteenth-century Russia. It challenges traditional narratives and provides a fresh perspective on the historical and social significance of prostitution in this period. Love for Sale is an essential read for scholars, students, and anyone interested in exploring the intersections of gender, sexuality, and power in nineteenth-century Russia.

Weight: 572g
Dimension: 160 x 240 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501758867