Is the Rectum a Grave?

by Bersani, Leo

• ISBN13: 9780226043548
• ISBN10: 0226043541
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Over the course of a distinguished career, critic Leo Bersani has tackled a range of issues in his writing, and this collection gathers together some of his finest work. Beginning with one of the foundations of queer theoryhis famous meditation on how sex leads to a shattering of the self, "Is the Rectum a Grave?"this volume charts the inspired connections Bersani has made between sexuality, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. Over the course of these essays, Bersani grapples with thinkers ranging from Plato to Descartes to Georg Simmel. Foucault and Freud recur as key figures, and although Foucault rejected psychoanalysis, Bersani contends that by considering his ideas alongside Freud's, one gains a clearer understanding of human identity and how we relate to one another. For Bersani, art represents a crucial guide for conceiving new ways of connecting to the world, and so, in many of these essays, he stresses the importance of aesthetics, analyzing works by Genet, Caravaggio, Proust, Almodovar, and Godard. Documenting over two decades in the life of one of the best minds working in the humanities today, Is the Rectum a Grave? and Other Essays is a unique opportunity to explore the fruitful career of a formidable intellect.

Author Biography

Leo Bersani is professor emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Homos and coauthor, with Adam Phillips, of Intimacies, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Sexual Subject
Is the Rectum a Grave?	p. 3
Is There a Gay Art?	p. 31
Gay Betrayals	p. 36
Sociability and Cruising	p. 45
Aggression, Gay Shame, and Almodóvar's Art	p. 63
Toward an Aesthetic Subject
Against Monogamy	p. 85
Sociality and Sexuality	p. 102
Can Sex Make Us Happy?	p. 120
Fr-oucault and the End of Sex	p. 133
Psychoanalysis and the Aesthetic Subject	p. 139
The Will to Know	p. 154
Two Interviews
A Conversation with Leo Bersani	p. 171
Beyond Redemption: An Interview with Leo Bersani	p. 187
Index	p. 203
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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