lundi 18 janvier 2010

Dans l'intimité des Romains...

La vie sexuelle à Rome de Géraldine Puccini-Delbey.

Editions Tallendier, 02/2007, 380 pages.

Résumé : « Les sociétés modernes fondent leur conception de la sexualité sur la distinction biologique et reconnaissent trois catégories de personnes : les hétérosexuels, les homosexuels et les bisexuels. Or ces notions n’ont pas cours dans la Rome antique, où tout est affaire de statut social et de classe d’âge. Pour simplifier, les citoyens mâles pénètrent et ne sont jamais pénétrés, tous les autres sont pénétrables, dans des conditions et des proportions variables selon qu’il s’agit de matrones respectables, de coquettes libérées, de prostitués et d’esclaves des deux sexes.À quoi s’ajoute le cas très particulier des empereurs libidineux, comme Tibère, Caligula ou Néron.Il s’ensuit une morale et des comportements bien différents des nôtres, au reste difficiles à se représenter car, pour les Romains, la sexualité relève de l’intime et doit rester cachée. Géraldine Puccini-Delbey, forte de sa parfaite connaissance de la littérature latine, de Cicéron à Ulpien, parvient à faire parler les textes, et à démêler les possibles rapports entre la pratique sexuelle, le plaisir féminin et le sentiment amoureux.Là encore, rien n’est alors comme aujourd’hui. Ainsi la sexualité en dit long sur la culture et la société romaines, que l’auteur analyse et décrit sans aucune inhibition, mue seulement par la volonté de savoir et de comprendre. »

Mon avis : voici un livre fort intéréssant, sur un sujet intime et universel, où la recherche s’allie à la volonté de perçer le quotidien du citoyen de l’une des plus grandes puissances qui ait foulé cette terre : le Romain. En effet, leur conception de la sexualité, ainsi que leur vision des rapports sexuels, est en totale confrontation avec celle de nos sociétés modernes. Si, de nos jours, nous sommes divisés selon nos orientations et nos goûts sexuels, le citoyen romain, lui, définissait sa sexualité sur un plan purement social et hiérarchique. L’auteur nous propose, par rapport à ce changement radical de mentalité, un tour d’horizon complet de la sexualité à l’époque républicaine et impériale, sous toutes ses coutures. Des chapitres relativement bien documentés et intéréssants se penchent sur le rapport entre l’homme et la femme (et surtout la place de celle-ci dans la société romaine), les amours masculines ou bien les caractéristiques du vir romanum, le citoyen romain en tant qu’homme viril. Ce voyage au coeur de la sexualité d’un temps révolu est déroutant car il remet en cause toute notre conception moderne des relations intimes. Ainsi les termes d’homosexualité ou d’hétérosexualité n’existaient pas dans la langue, mais étaient perçus comme des comportements sexuels légitimes qui prenaient leur source dans la hiérarchie sociale et la confrontation des classes, entre le citoyen libre qui pénètre et les affranchis, esclaves ou prostitué(e)s qui sont pénétrés.

Agrémenté de quelques clichés de mosaïques et statues sur papier glacé, le livre offre un panorama (quoique bref, ce que nous pouvons regretter) concret de la sexualité, notamment avec les positions sexuelles privilégiées à l’époque, ou bien les représentations phalliques d’un Priape qui conjurait le mauvais sort.

En bref, un très bon livre, complet et détaillé, s’appuyant sur les textes de divers auteurs de l’époque mais surtout sur l’oeuvre d’Apulée. Si vous avez la curiosité, l’envie de vous changer les idées sur la question, ou tout simplement d’en apprendre plus sur cette formiable civilisation, n’hésitez pas à vous plonger dans La vie sexuelle à Rome.

33 commentaires:

  1. retenu dans mes tentations...
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  2. Ne l'ai pas encore trouvé car indisponible pour le moment à ma bibliothèque mais je ne désespère pas.

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  3. @ Mazel: j'espère que cet ouvrage vous plaira =D merci de votre passage. J'ai fait un tour dans votre blogosphère et j'ai beaucoup apprécié, je vous note volontier parmi mes contacts =D Bonne soirée.

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