Todorovic, Dragan (2014) Avatars at an Orgy: Sexual Representations in Modern Literature. In: Beyond the sheets: Sexualities in the Age of Digital Reproduction, 4 Apr 2014, Goldsmiths, University of London. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:78177)
The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. | |
Official URL: https://talesbehindtheclassroomdoor.com/2014/03/05... |
Abstract
All representations of sex found in the early artefacts were celebrations of fertility. Sex was by gods and for gods, and as such didn't require verbalisation. The façade of Khajuraho is as eloquent as Kama Sutra.
However, words are an extension of our existence. We tend to verbalise every molecule of reality, because narratives are our larders: we preserve life in narratives, and into narratives we reach to find life. The natural place for sex in the constellations of the humankind had to be in words: sex is a narrative and orgasm is just an idea by other means.
In the first tome of his History of Sexuality (1976), Michel Foucault coined the term desexualization of pleasure. Less than two decades later, the Internet has irrevocably changed the public and private sexual space. Pleasure is now primarily the domain of avatars. How has the Internet been embodying and re-defining desexualisation of pleasure? How has it disembodied verbalised sex? Have we reached the point of saturation where porn has become nostrified, while writing about sex is viewed as a malfunction of fiction (i.e. the Bad Sex in Fiction award)?
This paper argues that in the age of post-corporal, disembodied sex, textual pornography has been eliminated as an option, because the element of intentional excitement has evaporated. Writing about sex means not writing about an act, but about a device. As such, it cannot carry the weight of the nave and must be relegated.
Item Type: | Conference or workshop item (Paper) |
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Uncontrolled keywords: | representation of sex in modern literature; Michel Foucault; Annie Leibowitz; Susan Sontag; |
Subjects: |
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ21 Sexual behavior and attitudes P Language and Literature |
Divisions: | Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English |
Depositing User: | Dragan Todorovic |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2019 12:35 UTC |
Last Modified: | 17 Aug 2022 11:02 UTC |
Resource URI: | https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/78177 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes) |
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