LOT'S DAUGHTERS: Sex, Redemption, and Women's Quest for Authority
Robert M. Polhemus, . . Stanford Univ., $29.95 (456pp) ISBN 978-0-8047-5051-6
Before Humbert had his Lolita, Lot had his daughters. In this provocative volume, Polhemus, chair of Stanford's English department, uses the "disreputable Bible story of father-daughter incest" as a lens to understand family and gender relations through the centuries. He casts a wide net over literature (Joyce and Shakespeare), art (Dürer and Rubens), psychology (Freud and his famous study of Dora), show business (Shirley Temple and Woody Allen) and politics (Bill and Monica) to argue that the power dynamic between younger women and older men—"in which daughters fall in love with their father's lives and older men are tempted by the intoxicating power and promise of youth"—is integral to our society. Traipsing through so many fields of inquiry allows Polhemus (
Reviewed on: 01/03/2005
Genre: Nonfiction