One hundred years of masochism : literary texts, social and cultural contexts / edited by Michael C. Finke and Carl Niekerk.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Finke, Michael C., 1957- editor.

Niekerk, Carl, editor.

Series:

Psychoanalysis and Culture ; 10.

Psychoanalysis and Culture ; 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Masochism.

Masochism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (227 pages)

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Atlanta, Georgia : Editions Rodopi B.V., [2000]

Summary:

Just over a century has passed since the sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined the term "masochism" in a revised edition of his Psychopathia Sexualis (1890). Put into circulation as part of the fin-de-siècle process through which sexuality and sexual practices considered deviant became medicalized, this suspicious concept grew in significance and explanatory power in the expanding new context of psychoanalytic discourse. Today the study of masochism shows signs of becoming a discipline in its own right, the political, social, and cultural ramifications of which exceed and, indeed, render problematic, traditional psychoanalytic perspectives on the phenomenon. The essays in this volume demonstrate, however, that the concept of masochism still offers a point of entry into psychoanalytic theory that, while revealing a number of its most vexing insufficiencies and problematic constructions, evokes also a sometimes surprising illuminative potential and capacity to adapt to changing social realities. And as the volume's title is meant to suggest, the authors represented here tend to agree that the continued rich viability of psychoanalytic theory in cultural analysis is best appreciated and ensured through engaging the theory's own social-historical and cultural contexts. The volume includes clinical perspectives on masochism, and articles on medieval romance, Goethe, Sacher-Masoch, Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Multatuli, Fassbinder, and masochism and postmodernism.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Sander L. GILMAN: Preface

Michael C. FINKE: Introduction

Otto F. KERNBERG: Clinical Dimensions of Masochism

Robert TOBIN: Masochism and Identity

Victor E. TAYLOR: Contracting Masochism: Pain, Pleasure, and the Language of Power

Madeleine BRAINERD: Stolen Pain: Romance and the Redistribution of Suffering

Roland DOLLINGER: The Self-Inflicted Suffering of Young Werther: An Example of Masochism in the 18th Century

Joachim PFEIFFER: Promethean Renunciation: On the Relationship between Artistry, Creativity, and Masochism in Goethe

Michael C. FINKE: Sacher-Masoch, Turgenev, and Other Russians

Barbara HYAMS: Causal Connections: The Case of Sacher-Masoch

Daniel RANCOUR-LAFERRIERE: Lev Tolstoy's Moral Masochism in the Late 1880s

Carl NIEKERK: Race and Gender in Multatuli's Max Havelaar and Love Letters

Barbara MENNEL: Masochistic Fantasy and Racialized Fetish in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Finke, Michael One Hundred Years of Masochism

ISBN:

90-04-50293-9

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004502932 DOI