| Description |
188 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
The sublime and the abject -- Sade pro and contra Sade -- Dark enlightenment or barbaric science -- The Auschwitz confessions -- The perverse society |
| Summary |
"The history of perversion in the West is recounted here through a study of the great emblematic figures of the perverse - Gilles de Rais, the mystical saints and the flagellants in the Middle Ages, the Marquis de Sade in the eighteenth century, the masturbating child, the male homosexual and the hysterical woman in the nineteenth century, Nazism in the twentieth century, and the complementary figures of the paedophile and the terrorist in the twenty-first." "The perverse are rarely talked about and, when they are, it is usually only to be condemned. They are commonly viewed as monstrous and cruel, as something alien to the very nature of being human. And yet, perversion can also attest to creativity and self-transcendence, to the refusal of individuals to submit to the rules and prohibitions that govern human life. Perversion fascinates us precisely because it can be both abject and sublime. Whether they are sublime because they turn to art or mysticism, or abject because they surrender to their murderous impulses, the perverse arc part of us because they exhibit something that we always conceal: our own negativity and our dark side."--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Translated from the French |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Deviant behavior -- History.
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Deviant behavior -- Philosophy.
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Men -- Sexual behavior -- History.
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Paraphilias in literature.
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Paraphilias in piterature
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Paraphilias -- History.
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Psychoanalysis and literature.
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Psychosexual disorders -- History.
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Sex (Psychology)
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Sexual disorders -- History.
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Women -- Sexual behavior -- History.
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| LC no. |
2010285549 |
| ISBN |
0745645925 (hbk.) |
|
0745645933 (paperback) |
|
9780745645926 (hbk.) |
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9780745645933 (paperback) |
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