Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls - 9780812246704

Fragile Minds and Vulnerable SoulsThe Matter of Obscenity in Nineteenth-Century Germany\nAuthor(s): Sarah L. Leonard\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, United States\nImprint: University of Pennsylvania Press\nISBN-13: 9780812246704, 978-0812246704\nSynopsis\nFragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls investigates the creation of \""obscene writings and images\"" as a category of print in nineteenth-century Germany. Sarah L. Leonard charts the process through which texts of many kinds-from popular medical works to stereoscope cards-were deemed dangerous to the intellectual and emotional lives of vulnerable consumers. She shows that these definitions often hinged as much on the content of texts as on their perceived capacity to distort the intellect and inflame the imagination.\n Leonard tracks the legal and mercantile channels through which sexually explicit material traveled as Prussian expansion opened new routes for the movement of culture and ideas. Official co.