Eroticism
Eroticism (from
As French novelist Honoré de Balzac stated, eroticism is dependent not just upon an individual's sexual morality, but also the culture and time in which an individual resides.[2][3][4]
Definitions
Because the nature of what is erotic is fluid,[5] early definitions of the term attempted to conceive eroticism as some form of sensual or romantic love or as the human sex drive (libido); for example, the Encyclopédie of 1755 states that the erotic "is an epithet which is applied to everything with a connection to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize...a dissoluteness, an excess".[6] Libertine literature such as those by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester evoked eroticism to the readers.[7]
Because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer's culture and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic,
Audre Lorde recognises eroticism and pornography as “two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual”, defining the erotic as “a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.”[12] In her 1978 essay, Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, Lorde identifies the erotic as a source of creative power that is deeply rooted in a spiritual plane of unrecognised or unexpressed feeling and sensation.
Psychoanalytical approach
Influenced by
French philosophy
Modern French conceptions of eroticism can be traced to the Age of Enlightenment,[16] when "in the eighteenth century, dictionaries defined the erotic as that which concerned love...eroticism was the intrusion into the public sphere of something that was at base private".[17] This theme of intrusion or transgression was taken up in the twentieth century by the French philosopher Georges Bataille, who argued that eroticism performs a function of dissolving boundaries between human subjectivity and humanity, a transgression that dissolves the rational world but is always temporary,[18] as well as that, "Desire in eroticism is the desire that triumphs over the taboo. It presupposes man in conflict with himself".[19] For Bataille, as well as many French theorists, "Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest...eroticism is assenting to life even in death".[20]
Non-heterosexual
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (February 2021) ) |
Theorists like
Audre Lorde, a lesbian Caribbean-American writer and outspoken feminist, called the erotic a source of power specifically identified with the female, often corrupted or distorted by oppression, since it poses the challenge of change. "For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives".[32] In "The Uses of the Erotic" within Sister Outsider, she discusses how the erotic comes from the sharing of joy, "whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual" and provides the basis on which understanding provides a foundation for acknowledging difference.[12] Lorde suggests that if we suppress the erotic rather than recognize its presence, it takes on a different form. Rather than enjoying and sharing with one another, it becomes objectifying, which she says translates into abuse as we attempt to hide and suppress our experiences.[33]
See also
- Beauty
- Erogenous zone
- Eros
- Erotic art
- Erotica
- History of erotic depictions
- History of nude art
- Homoeroticism
- Limit-experience
- Nudity
- Pin-up girl
- Pornography
- Romance
- Sexual intercourse
- Sex-positive movement
References
- ^ a b "eroticism". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
- ^ Balzac, "The Physiology of Marriage" (1826), trans. Sharon Marcus (1997), Aphorism XXVI, 65
- ^ Grande, L., "Laws and Attitudes towards Homosexuality from Antiquity to the Modern Era", Ponte 43:4-5 (1987), pp. 122-129
- ^ Gauthier, Albert, "La sodomie dans le droit canonique medieval" in L'Erotisme au Moyen Age: Etudes presentees au IIe Colloque de l'Institut d'Etudes Medievales, 3-4 Avril 1976, ed. Roy, Bruno (Montreal: Ed. Aurore, 1977), pp. 109-122
- ^ Evans, David T., Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities, (New York: Routledge, 1993)
- ^ Encyclopédie (1755), quoted in Lynn Hunt ed., Eroticism and the Body Politic (London 1991) p. 90
- ISBN 978-1-107-18407-7. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
- ^ Foster. Jeannette H., Sex Variant Women in Literature: A Historical and Quantitative Survey 2nd ed., (New York: Vantage Press, 1956) (repr. Baltimore: Diana Press, 1975)
- ^ Weinberg, M., & A. Bell, Homosexuality: An Annotated Bibliography, (New York: 1972)
- ISBN 978-0-399-12619-2.
- ^ Hunt, "Introduction", in Hunt ed., Eroticism p. 4
- ^ OCLC 1006460992.
- ISBN 9780198112693
- ^ Hunt, "Introduction", in Hunt ed., Eroticism p. 13
- ISBN 9780192588135; and, again, Dollimore (1991).
- ^ Hunt, "Introduction", in Hunt ed., Eroticism p. 3 and p. 5
- ISBN 978-2-7073-0253-3
- ^ George Bataille, Eroticism (Penguin 2001) p. 256
- ^ Bataille, Eroticism p. 11
- ^ Morton, Donald, ed., The Material Queer: A LesBiGay Cultural Studies Reader, (Boulder CO: Westview, 1996)
- ^ Cohen, Ed, Talk on the Wilde Side: Towards a Genealogy of a Discourse on Male Sexualities, (New York: Routledge, 1999)
- ^ Flannigan-Saint-Aubin, Arthur. "'Black Gay Male' Discourse: Reading Race and Sexuality Between the Lines". Journal of the History of Sexuality 3:3 (1993): 468-90.
- ^ Aries, Philippe & Andre Bejin, eds., Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985; orig. pub. as Sexualities Occidentales, Paris: Editions du Seuil/Communications, 1982)
- ^ from Abelove, Henry, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, eds., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, (New York: Routledge: 1993) Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick: Epistemology of the closet, 45
- ^ from Abelove, Henry, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, eds., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, (New York: Routledge: 1993) Gayle S. Rubin: Notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality, 3
- ^ from Abelove, Henry, Michele Aina Barale, and David Halperin, eds., The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, (New York: Routledge: 1993) Marilyn Frye: Some reflections on separatism and power, 91
- ^ Marshall, John, "Pansies, Perverts and Macho Men: Changing Conceptions of Male Homosexuality", in Kenneth Plummer, ed., The Making of the Modern Homosexual, (London: Hutchinson, 1981), 133-54
- ^ Fone, Byrne R.S., "Some Notes Toward a History of Gay People", The Advocate no. 259 (Jan 25, 1979), pp. 17-19 & no. 260 (Feb 28, 1979), pp. 11-13
- ^ Mangan, J. A. "Men, Masculinity, and Sexuality: Some Recent Literature". Journal of the History of Sexuality 3:2 (1992): 303-13
- ISBN 978-1-58091-186-3.
- ^ Lorde, Audre (2007). "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power (1984)". Sister Outsider. NY: Ten Speed Press. pp. 53–58.