SOURCE: “The Literature of Conduct, the Conduct of Literature, and the Politics of Desire: An Introduction,” in The Ideology of Conduct: Essays on Literature and the History of Sexuality, pp. 1-24. New York: Methuen & Company, 1987.

In the following excerpt, Armstrong and Tennenhouse outline the link between the cultural definition of desire and the impact of social conduct books in Europe, especially on the changing definition of gender.

For, the clearer our conceptions in art and science become, the more they will assimilate themselves to the conceptions of duty in conduct, will become practically stringent like rules of conduct, and will invite the same sort of language in dealing with them.

(Matthew Arnold, Literature and Dogma)

This collection of essays grew out of our recognition of a very simple truth: the literature of conduct and the conduct of the writing known as literature share the same history. Both literature...