Sex and Sexuality: 2006 Conference Programme Session 3

Session 3: Modern Literature and Modern Sex
Chair: Ilana Shiloh

Semiotic Bodies: Love Letters and the Lesbian Erotic
Martha Marianara and Susan McCully
University of Central Florida, USA and University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

We propose a hybrid presentation combining both theoretical analysis and creative writing inspired by the erotic poems and letters written by Emily Dickinson to her sister-in-law intimate, Susan Huntington. The focus of the project is on how language composes the “real world” when social conventions make certain sexual physicalities impossible. We will explore how intimacy between women—and in particular Dickinson and Huntington—exists in language and shared imagery. To describe one way in which lesbian desire operates in literary texts is to attempt to connect the often divergent realities of lesbian words and actions, the textuality and the corporal of lesbian bodies. Love letters between women represent a desire that defers meanings and physical touch, “a delicious frustration of never reached conclusions” (Englebrecht 24).
Beginning with a study of Dickinson’s historical texts, as well as the extensive scholarship surrounding the same, we intend to present a theoretical brief of the erotic relationship between these women and how the conventions of intimacy that exist in language construct their physical and emotional ties. We then use Dickinson’s letters as the launching point for our creative endeavors. Because the letters sent to Dickinson were destroyed, only one side of the correspondence remains. For the second section of our presentation we will read/perform our own correspondence generated as a response to one of Dickinson’s particularly evocative missives. We intend to exchange letters through erotic role-playing as an imagined Huntington and Dickinson using the tropes of 18th century intimate friendship and decidedly "lesbian" extra-erotics of Emily Dickinson's verse as our medium. Through the writing and performing of these texts we intend to show that the erotic language of love letters rejects the asexual isolation hetero-patriarchial society prescribes for lesbians

Beyond Liminality Towards Similarity: Desire in Contemporary Literature
Shani Rousso
School of English, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

How have more permissive attitudes to all sexualities influenced representations of desire within contemporary literature? This paper will discuss how formally taboo same-sex liaisons are making the transition into the socially-accepted and more popular fictional domain; but will also examine how the experience of being on or outside the boundaries of hetero-normative behaviour might be seen as central to sexual identity.
When representing desire in fiction, a writer of any sexuality needs to construct a plot which presents: a subject and an object of desire; an obstacle to their union; and the ultimate fulfilment and/or ebbing away of desire. In order to evoke excitement and longing, a writer therefore has to create a framework where desire is not immediately satisfied, but forbidden or deferred. By doing so, the unobtainable object of desire is also imbued with a higher value, and when or if union is achieved, the sense of satisfaction is greater.
Sarah Waters and Alan Hollinghurst have recently employed historical contexts to explore sexualities and changing mores: Tipping the Velvet (1998) and Fingersmith (2002) are set in the late 19th century; and The Line of Beauty (2004) focuses on the homosexual promiscuity of the 1980s. As well as providing a previously silent, alternative historical voice, to what extent do the writers consciously recreate and reclaim the shock value of illicit relationships in order to heighten and accentuate sexual desire by setting their work within these frameworks? Following the long overdue embrace of sexual diversity, might there paradoxically also be, as Jonathan Dollimore suggests in his Sex, Literature and Censorship (2001), a desire to retain the radical and liminal position of the transgressive? And yet, regardless of the differences in sexual identity and orientation, are there nonetheless fundamental similarities in how sexual desire is experienced and portrayed in fiction?

Importance of Being in Charge: Sexual Initiation and the Discourse of Power in Abha Dawsar’s Babyji
Izabella Kimak
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland

Babyji, a novel by a young South Asian American writer, is a chronicle of the coming-of-age, sexual and otherwise, of a precocious Brahmin teenager living in Delhi, India, in the 1980s. On the threshold of adulthood, Anamika finds herself pondering her sexual identity as she handles three simultaneous same-sex relationships and is additionally captivated by her best friend’s father and the class rouge, a lascivious boy of a lower caste. Unable to accept the paradigm of female subservience, apparently inherent in her society, the main heroine comes to the conclusion that in order to be independent she needs to assume the position of the male in her relationships. She disparages the institution of marriage as oppressive to women (unless, paradoxically, she is the groom and thus the oppressor) and plans to be professionally as successful as any man she is acquainted with. As her sexual experiences multiply, Anamika’s anxiety about her sexual identity increases. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze how, and with what effect, the notions of power are intertwined with those of sexuality in Dawesar’s bold work. The paper is also to examine how the female bodies are presented in the novel and how the portrayals of the body frequently serve as a pretext for the discussion of contemporary political and social events.



3rd Global Conference Wednesday 29th November - Saturday 2nd December 2006 Pugetow Palace, Cracow, Poland Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Session 3: Modern Literature and Modern Sex Chair: Ilana Shiloh Semiotic Bodies: Love Letters and the Lesbian Erotic Martha Marianara and Susan McCully University of Central Florida, USA and University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA We propose a hybrid presentation combining both theoretical analysis and creative writing inspired by the erotic poems and letters written by Emily Dickinson to her sister-in-law intimate, Susan Huntington. The focus of the project is on how language composes the “real world” when social conventions make certain sexual physicalities impossible. We will explore how intimacy between women—and in particular Dickinson and Huntington—exists in language and shared imagery. To describe one way in which lesbian desire operates in literary texts is to attempt to connect the often divergent realities of lesbian words and actions, the textuality and the corporal of lesbian bodies. Love letters between women represent a desire that defers meanings and physical touch, “a delicious frustration of never reached conclusions” (Englebrecht 24). Beginning with a study of Dickinson’s historical texts, as well as the extensive scholarship surrounding the same, we intend to present a theoretical brief of the erotic relationship between these women and how the conventions of intimacy that exist in language construct their physical and emotional ties. We then use Dickinson’s letters as the launching point for our creative endeavors. Because the letters sent to Dickinson were destroyed, only one side of the correspondence remains. For the second section of our presentation we will read/perform our own correspondence generated as a response to one of Dickinson’s particularly evocative missives. We intend to exchange letters through erotic role-playing as an imagined Huntington and Dickinson using the tropes of 18th century intimate friendship and decidedly "lesbian" extra-erotics of Emily Dickinson's verse as our medium. Through the writing and performing of these texts we intend to show that the erotic language of love letters rejects the asexual isolation hetero-patriarchial society prescribes for lesbians Beyond Liminality Towards Similarity: Desire in Contemporary Literature Shani Rousso School of English, University of Exeter, United Kingdom How have more permissive attitudes to all sexualities influenced representations of desire within contemporary literature? This paper will discuss how formally taboo same-sex liaisons are making the transition into the socially-accepted and more popular fictional domain; but will also examine how the experience of being on or outside the boundaries of hetero-normative behaviour might be seen as central to sexual identity. When representing desire in fiction, a writer of any sexuality needs to construct a plot which presents: a subject and an object of desire; an obstacle to their union; and the ultimate fulfilment and/or ebbing away of desire. In order to evoke excitement and longing, a writer therefore has to create a framework where desire is not immediately satisfied, but forbidden or deferred. By doing so, the unobtainable object of desire is also imbued with a higher value, and when or if union is achieved, the sense of satisfaction is greater. Sarah Waters and Alan Hollinghurst have recently employed historical contexts to explore sexualities and changing mores: Tipping the Velvet (1998) and Fingersmith (2002) are set in the late 19th century; and The Line of Beauty (2004) focuses on the homosexual promiscuity of the 1980s. As well as providing a previously silent, alternative historical voice, to what extent do the writers consciously recreate and reclaim the shock value of illicit relationships in order to heighten and accentuate sexual desire by setting their work within these frameworks? Following the long overdue embrace of sexual diversity, might there paradoxically also be, as Jonathan Dollimore suggests in his Sex, Literature and Censorship (2001), a desire to retain the radical and liminal position of the transgressive? And yet, regardless of the differences in sexual identity and orientation, are there nonetheless fundamental similarities in how sexual desire is experienced and portrayed in fiction? Importance of Being in Charge: Sexual Initiation and the Discourse of Power in Abha Dawsar’s Babyji Izabella Kimak Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland Babyji, a novel by a young South Asian American writer, is a chronicle of the coming-of-age, sexual and otherwise, of a precocious Brahmin teenager living in Delhi, India, in the 1980s. On the threshold of adulthood, Anamika finds herself pondering her sexual identity as she handles three simultaneous same-sex relationships and is additionally captivated by her best friend’s father and the class rouge, a lascivious boy of a lower caste. Unable to accept the paradigm of female subservience, apparently inherent in her society, the main heroine comes to the conclusion that in order to be independent she needs to assume the position of the male in her relationships. She disparages the institution of marriage as oppressive to women (unless, paradoxically, she is the groom and thus the oppressor) and plans to be professionally as successful as any man she is acquainted with. As her sexual experiences multiply, Anamika’s anxiety about her sexual identity increases. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze how, and with what effect, the notions of power are intertwined with those of sexuality in Dawesar’s bold work. The paper is also to examine how the female bodies are presented in the novel and how the portrayals of the body frequently serve as a pretext for the discussion of contemporary political and social events.
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