Sex and Sexuality: 2007 Conference Session 3

Session 3: Theory
Chair: Aneeta Rajendran

Eros and Thanatos: Figurations of Erotic Desire in Psychoanalytic, Freudo-Marxist, Cultural and Post-modern Theory
Serena Petrella
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

In present day society, sexuality and erotic desire are given competing meanings and characterisations. On one hand, liberalising trends have positively “infused” sexual gratification as an important, natural and healthy part of human growth and development. On the other, erotic activity is conceived as dangerous, potentially unhealthy and socially disruptive. Present attitudes on “unbound” sex, be it promiscuous or “deviant”, are often informed by a sense of danger and uneasiness. In eroticism, life and death intermingle: the promise of reproduction of life, of sweet pleasures and communion with another (others), is fused with the fear of incontinence, unbound chaos, and painful death. This vision of the erotic is not new; it can be traced back to classical Greece, and frequently recurs in history.
This present research project is specifically concerned with the discursive figurations of sexual desire. The paper analyses different theorisations of desire that have, on one hand, constructed it as mobilised by consumptive and death giving impulses and, on the other, elevated it as an emancipatory tool for the freeing of body and mind. Specifically, I wish to trace those ideas that have conceived eroticism as “suspended” in a symbolic life/death struggle. The Eros/Thanatos binary recurs in social theorists’ conceptualisations of sexual desire; sometimes it assumes reciprocally “organic” forms, at other times hierarchical ordinance; or, more recently, it is “expunged”, yet remains the hermeneutic tool upon which to theorise anew.
This essay traces a number of significant contributions in social theory that explain desire’s existence and functioning. I selected specific formulations of human erotic desire in different theoretical traditions. I begin with addressing Foucault’s contributions, then I proceed to study psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan), Freudo-Marxism (Marcuse), cultural theory (Bataille), and Postmodernism (Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard). In conclusion, this paper briefly discusses the lacunae as well as the positive aspects of each theoretical contribution, and proposes new directions for the investigation of the problematic of human desire.

Theoretic and Aesthetic Sexualities: An Analysis of D.H. Lawrence’s Non Fictional Prose as Part of a Modern Sex Discourse
Ben Davies
University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

D.H. Lawrence is best known for his explicit portrayal of sexual intercourse in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928). However, it is primarily his role as a sexual theorist that I wish to examine in this paper through an exegesis of his two complex and multifaceted essays on sex – Psychology and the Unconscious (1921) and Fantasia of the Unconscious (1922) – which illustrate Lawrence’s attacks on psychoanalysis, idealism and other contemporary sexual attitudes.
By paying attention to Lawrence as a theorist as well as a novelist, this paper explores the relationship between ‘theory’ and creative ‘praxis’, analysing the inter-relationship, interaction and disjunction between the theorisation of sex and the representation of sexual acts in literature. Central to this is the connection between the differently designated ‘literary’ and ‘theoretic’ text and the role of the critic in traversing them. In the paper I make the claim that both ‘theoretic’ and ‘literary’ texts are to be read as forming an intertextual project of sexual exploration and expression, as both literary ‘modes’ use similar styles, imagery, diction and ideas.
Through a performative reading, which combines the two essays, Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I hope to show how it is possible to deconstruct the supposed ‘theory’/‘literature’ divide, bringing into question the labels ‘theoretic’, ‘aesthetic’ and ‘fiction’. The paper is part of a larger project investigating the nature and role of the theorisation and aestheticisation of sex in modern thought and culture.

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4th Global Conference Monday 19th November - Thursday 22nd November 2007 Salzburg, Austria Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Session 3: Theory Chair: Aneeta Rajendran Eros and Thanatos: Figurations of Erotic Desire in Psychoanalytic, Freudo-Marxist, Cultural and Post-modern Theory Serena Petrella Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada In present day society, sexuality and erotic desire are given competing meanings and characterisations. On one hand, liberalising trends have positively “infused” sexual gratification as an important, natural and healthy part of human growth and development. On the other, erotic activity is conceived as dangerous, potentially unhealthy and socially disruptive. Present attitudes on “unbound” sex, be it promiscuous or “deviant”, are often informed by a sense of danger and uneasiness. In eroticism, life and death intermingle: the promise of reproduction of life, of sweet pleasures and communion with another (others), is fused with the fear of incontinence, unbound chaos, and painful death. This vision of the erotic is not new; it can be traced back to classical Greece, and frequently recurs in history. This present research project is specifically concerned with the discursive figurations of sexual desire. The paper analyses different theorisations of desire that have, on one hand, constructed it as mobilised by consumptive and death giving impulses and, on the other, elevated it as an emancipatory tool for the freeing of body and mind. Specifically, I wish to trace those ideas that have conceived eroticism as “suspended” in a symbolic life/death struggle. The Eros/Thanatos binary recurs in social theorists’ conceptualisations of sexual desire; sometimes it assumes reciprocally “organic” forms, at other times hierarchical ordinance; or, more recently, it is “expunged”, yet remains the hermeneutic tool upon which to theorise anew. This essay traces a number of significant contributions in social theory that explain desire’s existence and functioning. I selected specific formulations of human erotic desire in different theoretical traditions. I begin with addressing Foucault’s contributions, then I proceed to study psychoanalysis (Freud and Lacan), Freudo-Marxism (Marcuse), cultural theory (Bataille), and Postmodernism (Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard). In conclusion, this paper briefly discusses the lacunae as well as the positive aspects of each theoretical contribution, and proposes new directions for the investigation of the problematic of human desire. Theoretic and Aesthetic Sexualities: An Analysis of D.H. Lawrence’s Non Fictional Prose as Part of a Modern Sex Discourse Ben Davies University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland D.H. Lawrence is best known for his explicit portrayal of sexual intercourse in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928). However, it is primarily his role as a sexual theorist that I wish to examine in this paper through an exegesis of his two complex and multifaceted essays on sex – Psychology and the Unconscious (1921) and Fantasia of the Unconscious (1922) – which illustrate Lawrence’s attacks on psychoanalysis, idealism and other contemporary sexual attitudes. By paying attention to Lawrence as a theorist as well as a novelist, this paper explores the relationship between ‘theory’ and creative ‘praxis’, analysing the inter-relationship, interaction and disjunction between the theorisation of sex and the representation of sexual acts in literature. Central to this is the connection between the differently designated ‘literary’ and ‘theoretic’ text and the role of the critic in traversing them. In the paper I make the claim that both ‘theoretic’ and ‘literary’ texts are to be read as forming an intertextual project of sexual exploration and expression, as both literary ‘modes’ use similar styles, imagery, diction and ideas. Through a performative reading, which combines the two essays, Women in Love (1920) and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I hope to show how it is possible to deconstruct the supposed ‘theory’/‘literature’ divide, bringing into question the labels ‘theoretic’, ‘aesthetic’ and ‘fiction’. The paper is part of a larger project investigating the nature and role of the theorisation and aestheticisation of sex in modern thought and culture. Download Conference Paper -
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