Labyrinth of desire : women, passion, and romantic obsession / Rosemary Sullivan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sullivan, Rosemary (Canadian author)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sullivan, Rosemary--Relations with men.

Sullivan, Rosemary.

Sullivan, Rosemary, 1947-.

Poets, Canadian--20th century--Biography.

Poets, Canadian.

Relations with men.

Man-woman relationships in literature.

Man-woman relationships.

Women in literature.

Women--Psychology.

Women.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

178 pages ; 20 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Counterpoint, 2002.

Summary:

Think of Torch Songs and the Tango. Think of films such as Casablanca and The English Patient, of novels such as Wuthering Heights and Rebecca. Think of romantic, obsessive love, the hot bed of passion we fall into, the emotion we, mistakenly, think of as true love. This is the subject of Rosemary Sullivan's provocative and fascinating new book Labyrinth of Desire.

Rosemary Sullivan explores the many stories upon which women base their understanding and desire for romantic love, tracing the threads through literature, mythology, film, and personal anecdote. What emerges is a beautifully woven fabric, both intricate and detailed, simple yet resonant.

Beginning with her own telling of a love story, Sullivan describes a young woman who chooses to escape to Mexico from her unfulfilling and mundane life. Ensconced in a run-down hotel, she meets an artist at a local gallery, falling into a passionate love affair that begins well and ends -- as so many do -- badly. Sullivan then deconstructs this fictional story, skillfully peeling back the layers of meaning to look at what is really happening to this woman. Is love really the search for another, or is it the search for the missing half of ourselves? Why do women in love so often become shadow artists -- attaching themselves to a creative male rather than fulfilling their own creative destinies? Why do women so often offer themselves to the kind of love that can only be destructive?

Whether she is exploring the story of French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her lover Jean-Paul Sartre, or the poet and novelist Elizabeth Smart whose life was fuelled by an insatiable love, or Mexican painter Frida Kahlo whose many self-portraits tell of her own entrapment in love, Sullivan's graceful writing and intimate knowledge of the subject bring these stories to life and ask the question: Why do women love as they do?

Contents:

1 Women of the Heart 7

2 The Story Beneath the Story 25

3 The Empty Landscape 27

4 Love at First Sight 31

5 The Dinner Party 38

6 The Shadow Artist 40

7 Erotic Gestures 50

8 The Body 57

9 Passion's Chemistry 59

10 Models 62

11 The Demon Lover 67

12 The First Conversation 83

13 The Gnawing Hunger 87

14 Sex and Desire 91

15 Dreams 97

16 Tantalus Love 102

17 Pleasurable Cruelty 114

18 Don Juan / Dona Juana 117

19 Erotic Diabolism 122

20 Two Solitudes Meet 125

21 Self-Portrait with Mirrors 129

22 The Silver Screen 139

23 Grief 150

24 I Want This 162

Coda: The Story Resumes / Women of the Heart 165.

Notes:

Originally published: Toronto : HarperFlamingo, 2001.

ISBN:

1582431779

OCLC:

47767174