ABSTRACT

Within research into the early modern maritime world and the contemporary treatment of sex and sexual expression in both Europe and America two terms continuously emerge and often appear linked: seamen and semen. It is impossible to encounter these terms without recognising them first as clear homophones and then secondly as terms that, when compared, might share more connections than solely their similar sounds. This paper investigates this homophone more deeply and argues that semen and seamen might be collapsed together through thinking about their attachment to liquid metaphors, their shared link to life and death, and finally in attending to the ways in which medical and religious groups sought to control them both through targeted programmes predicated on religion. This interdisciplinary investigation contends that semen and seamen are both related through particular cultural readings that evoke notions of fluidity, baptism, religion, life and death, and moral panic.

摘要

在对早期现代海洋世界的研究以及欧洲和美洲对性和性表达的当代处理中，两个术语不断出现并经常出现联系：海员和精液。如果不首先将它们识别为清晰的同音词，然后将它们识别为在比较时可能共享更多联系的术语，而不仅仅是它们的相似发音，就不可能遇到这些术语。本文更深入地研究了这个同音词，并认为精液和海员可能会通过思考他们对液体隐喻的依恋、他们与生死的共同联系以及最终关注医学和宗教团体试图控制的方式而崩溃在一起。他们都通过以宗教为基础的有针对性的计划。