Contemporary discourse seems to provide a choice in the way sexual
identities and sexual difference are described and analyzed. On the
one hand, much current thinking suggests that sexual identity is
fluid--socially constructed and/or performatively enacted. This
discourse is often invoked in the act of overcoming an earlier
patriarchal era of fixed and naturalized identities. On the other
hand, some modern discourses of sexual identity seem to offer a New
Age Jungian re-sexualization of the universe--"Men are from Mars,
and women are from Venus"--according to which there is an
underlying, deeply anchored archetypal identity that provides a
kind of safe haven in the contemporary confusion of roles and
identities.
In this volume, contributors discuss a third way of thinking about
sexual identity and sexual difference--a direction opened by
Jacques Lacan. For Lacan, what we all recognize as sexual
difference is first and foremost representative of a certain
fundamental deadlock inherent in the symbolic order, that is, in
language and in the entire realm of culture conceived as a symbol
system structured on the model of language. For him, the logical
matrix of this deadlock is provided by his own formulas of
sexuation. The essays collected here elaborate on different aspects
of this deadlock of sexual difference. While some examine the role
of semblances in the relation between the sexes or consider sexual
identity not as anatomy but still involving an impasse of the real,
others discuss the difference between sexuation and identification,
the role of symbolic prohibition in the process of the subject's
sexual formation, or the changed role of the father in contemporary
society and the impact of this change on sexual difference. Other
essays address such topics as the role of beating in sexual
fantasies and jouissance in feminine jealousy.
Literary and gender theorists, as well as psychoanalytic scholars
will welcome this insightful collection.
"Contributors." Alain Badiou, Elizabeth Bronfen, Darian Leader,
Jacques Alain Miller, Genevieve Morel, Renata Salecl, Eric L.
Santner, Colette Soler, Paul Verhaeghe, Slavoj Zizek, Alenka
Zupancic
General
Imprint: |
Duke University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
[sic] Series |
Release date: |
July 2000 |
First published: |
July 2000 |
Editors: |
Renata Salecl
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
328 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8223-2473-7 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8223-2473-3 |
Barcode: |
9780822324737 |
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