Perversion and the Social Relation - sic IV

"The only true awareness of our subjection is the awareness of the obscene, excessive pleasure (surplus enjoyment) we get from it. This is why the first gesture of liberation is not to get rid of this excessive pleasure, but to assume it actively."--Slavoj Zizek, from his chapter, "The Ambiguity of the Masochist Social Link"

List of contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction. Beneath the Skin: Perversion and Social Analysis / Molly Anne Rothenberg and Dennis Foster 1

Fatal West: W. S. Burrough's Perverse Destiny / Dennis Foster 15

Perversion / Bruce Fink 38

“I Know Well, But All the Same . . .” / Octave Mannoni 68

Exotic Rituals and Family Values in Exotica / Nina Schwartz 93

The Ambiguity of the Masochist Social Link / Slavoj Zizek 112

Confessions of a Medieval Sodomite / James Penney 126

“As If Set Free into Another Land”: Homosexuality, Rebellion, and Community in William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner / Michael P. Bibler 159

Contamination's Germinations / E. L. McCallum 187

Works Cited 211

Contributors 217

Index 219

Summary

Considers the usefulness of the category of the perverse for exploring how social relations are formed, maintained, and transformed. This book focuses on perversion as a psychic structure and provides an alternative to models of social interpretation based on classical Oedipal models of maturation and desire.

Product details

• Authors: Rothenberg
• Assisted by: Dennis A Foster (Editor), Dennis A. Foster (Editor), Molly Anne Rothenberg (Editor), Slavoj Zizek (Editor)
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 21.05.2003
• EAN: 9780822330851
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-3085-1
• No. of pages: 240
• Weight: 544 g
• Illustrations: 2 charts
• Series: Sic (Duke University Press); [SIC] Series; [SIC] Series; Sic (Duke University Press); [Sic]
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general)