Masochism: The Art of Power

by Nick Mansfield

Overview

How does the male masochist provide a metaphor for modern and postmodern power? Through a study of the representations of masochism in literature, psychopathology, philosophy, and cultural theory, Mansfield challenges our fundamental assumptions about masculine power in the postmodern era, arguing that masculine power has become masochistic. In the later twentieth century, the author argues, power presents itself as powerlessness but this deconstruction of traditional masculine authority does not result in a diminution of power. This provocative account traces masochism through the writings of Krafft-Ebing, Sacher-Masoch, Freud, Sartre, Proust, Genet, and Foucault.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275957025
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/21/1997
Pages:	126
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

NICK MANSFIELD is Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He has studied at the University of Sydney, Columbia University, and Yale University. His articles on literary and cultural studies have appeared in a number of international jourbanals.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Masochism and Modernity: A Genealogy
Masochism and the Sublime
Masochism and the Total Subject
The Negative Side of Transgression
Masochism as Cultural Meaning
Conclusion
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

A challenge to assumptions about masculine power in the postmodern era arguing that modern power is best understood as a form of masochism where males maintain their power by strategically divesting themselves of it. It sounds complicated (and it is), but Mansfield's thesis holds its own as he traces the genealogy of masochism and reads the works of theorists such as Krafft-Ebing, Proust, Sartre, Genet, and Foucault. The latter, of course, represents the beginning of radical thinking regarding sexual politics and this thesis extends the discourse by observing "how" men operate power by dramatizing its demise and also by offering to annihilate the difference between power and powerlessness while still dictating the direction of the whip (so to speak). Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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