Perversion and the Social Relation

Perversion and the Social Relation
Author: Molly Anne Rothenberg
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2003-05-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0822384728

The masochist, the voyeur, the sadist, the sodomite, the fetishist, the pedophile, and the necrophiliac all expose hidden but essential elements of the social relation. Arguing that the concept of perversion, usually stigmatized, ought rather to be understood as a necessary stage in the development of all non-psychotic subjects, the essays in Perversion and the Social Relation consider the usefulness of the category of the perverse for exploring how social relations are formed, maintained, and transformed. By focusing on perversion as a psychic structure rather than as aberrant behavior, the contributors provide an alternative to models of social interpretation based on classical Oedipal models of maturation and desire. At the same time, they critique claims that the perverse is necessarily subversive or liberating. In their lucid introduction, the editors explain that while fixation at the stage of the perverse can result in considerable suffering for the individual and others, perversion motivates social relations by providing pleasure and fulfilling the psychological need to put something in the place of the Father. The contributors draw on a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives—Freudian and Lacanian—as well as anthropology, history, literature, and film. From Slavoj Žižek's meditation on “the politics of masochism” in David Fincher's movie Fight Club through readings of works including William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner, Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and William Burroughs's Cities of the Red Night, the essays collected here illuminate perversion's necessary role in social relations. Contributors. Michael P. Bibler, Dennis A. Foster, Bruce Fink, Octave Mannoni, E. L. McCallum, James Penney, Molly Anne Rothenberg, Nina Schwartz, Slavoj Žižek

Perversion and the Social Relation

Perversion and the Social Relation
Author: Molly Anne Rothenberg
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2003-05-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780822330974

DIVDiscusses the history, representation, and theorization of perversion and shows its relevance for understanding social relations, especially racism, liberalism, class antagonism, abjection, and multiculturalism, as well as considering its role in the esta/div

The Romantic Art of Confession

The Romantic Art of Confession
Author: Susan M. Levin
Publisher: Camden House
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1998
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781571131898

The Romantic Art of Confession is about works specifically entitled "confessions" written during the Romantic period in Britain and France. Reading these similarly conceived texts together illuminates uniquely the Romantic art of confession as it illuminates the written craft of self-recollection and definition.

Troubling Confessions

Troubling Confessions
Author: Peter Brooks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2000-05-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780226075853

Literature has often understood the problematic nature of confession better than the law, as Brooks demonstrates in perceptive readings of legal cases set against works by Roussean, Dostoevsky, Joyce, and Camus, among others."--BOOK JACKET.

Confession and Memory in Early Modern English Literature

Confession and Memory in Early Modern English Literature
Author: Paul D. Stegner
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2016-01-26
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 113755861X

This is the first study to consider the relationship between private confessional rituals and memory across a range of early modern writers, including Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Robert Southwell.