This thesis offers a critical analysis of psychopathological discourses (sexology, psychoanalysis and psychiatry) and feminist writings that contribute to the construction of representations of heterosexual female masochism and submission. Chapter One examines pseudo-scientific ideas about ‘women’ and ‘masochism’ developed in the works of sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. This chapter provides the necessary historical context with which to understand the Anglo-American iterations of discourses of heterosexual female masochism and submission from the 1970s to the present day, which form the case studies in Chapters Two to Four. Chapter Two complexifies and nuances polarised feminist arguments of the 1970s and ’80s (the so-called ‘Sex Wars’) regarding the political status of heterosexual female masochism and submission. This chapter considers the radical and liberal feminist conceptions of fantasy, sexual orientation and sadomasochism (SM), which are examined in relation to two fictional texts: Jenny Diski’s Nothing Natural and Pat Califia’s Macho Sluts. Chapter Three examines the relationship between self-injury and masochism using Steven Shainberg’s film Secretary as a case study. This chapter explores Secretary’s relation to the generic conventions of romantic comedy; demonstrates how the film borrows from normalising and mainstreaming discourses about SM; and finally shows that it engages implicitly and briefly, with notions of SM as a radical challenge to the prevalent cultural narrative of ‘health and harm’. Chapter Four examines the discursive construction of heterosexual female masochism and submission in contemporary sex blogs. This chapter brings together many of the currents that run through the thesis to highlight specific ways that blogging as a medium affects representations of these phenomena. It also examines ways that bloggers have begun to use the medium as a form of ‘confessional’ to co-opt the gay ‘coming out’ narrative for their own ‘kinky’ ends. The thesis concludes by examining some reasons why the complex political position that heterosexual female masochism and submission occupied when they were first coined in Western modernity persists to the present, postmodern day.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:37:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vilcelia Di Pietro.pdf: 402031 bytes, checksum: 3c0d8ecb42e0bad4f148078bbd8ba1d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-26 / This dissertation problematizes the notion of Masochism, opening it up to other meanings beyond its pathological enclosure. We affirm that Sacher-Masoch, as an artist, uses eroticism and sensuality in order to positively transgress a reality that does not satisfy him, thus producing other realities. He uses the contract, law, and humor in order to depersonalize his characters through the composition and shaping of different forms of subjectivity. Sacher-Masoch creates procedures, both in his life and work, whose power dilutes established forms. In order to illustrate the unfolding of Masochism as a creative field, we use Deleuze s theoretical perspective, Sacher- Masoch s biography, and his literary production. Deleuze performs a re-reading of Freudian Masochism and inflects it: he reevaluates the psychological dynamic, brings new understanding to assemblages of desire, and problematizes the complexity of subjective configurations / Essa dissertação problematiza a noção de masoquismo, abrindo-o a outros sentidos para além de sua clausura patológica. Afirmamos Sacher-Masoch como artista que usa o erotismo e sensualidade para transgredir positivamente uma realidade que não o satisfaz, produzindo outras realidades. Utiliza o contrato, a lei, o humor, despersonalizando seus personagens na composição e modelagem de diferentes formas de subjetividade. Sacher-Masoch cria procedimentos, tanto em sua vida como em suas obras, cuja potência dilui formas instituídas. Para ilustrar o desdobramento do masoquismo como campo criativo, utilizamos a perspectiva teórica de Deleuze, a biografia de Sacher-Masoch e sua produção literária. Deleuze faz uma releitura do masoquismo freudiano e o inflete: reavalia a dinâmica psíquica, traz novas compreensões para os agenciamentos de desejo, problematiza a complexidade das configurações subjetivas

« La femme mal accueillie et sa pulsion de mort » est un titre qui interroge au préalable un lieu tant externe qu’interne puis la corrélation des deux espaces. Questionner en quoi l’intérieur psychique individuel se retrouve pris dans une négociation de survie avec un contexte et un environnement extérieurs seul miroir de l’inconscient collectif. En se référant, par cette formulation du titre, aux travaux de S. Ferenczi, la problématique principale sera celle de penser les réverbérations entre l’environnement et l’infantile, entre l’inconscient singulier et celui du social. La mise à l’épreuve des interrogations du genre et de l’universalisme de l’inconscient sera la boussole heuristique par laquelle s’orientera l’écoute analytique des voix des femmes en souffrance, d’où ressortent les résonances contemporaines de l’héritage culturel du Maroc ; un pays qui se démarque par une diversité tout aussi historique, culturelle, que linguistique. Le survol de la terre marocaine permet un retour rétrospectif sur les périodes, califale et coloniale, puis dans le même sillage aiguille la pensée psychanalytique sur ce qui s’exprimerait, jusqu’à ce jour, dans la parole individuelle à travers le lien transférentiel. Cette parole sera donnée aux femmes sur le sol marocain. Leurs voix seront portées par ce travail de recherche afin d’y déceler, dans la chaîne signifiante, les soubassements inconscients de leurs romans familiaux intriqués dans le langage culturel. Des histoires singulières, des femmes de différents milieux sociaux et d’âges distincts, décryptent le rébus socioculturel et religieux par lequel se transportent leurs histoires personnelles et la souffrance psychique qui en découle. L’intersectionnalité qui émerge de l’observation sur le terrain clinique – analphabétisme, seuil de pauvreté accru, favoritisme social ou encore multiplicité des langues autochtones – converge vers un carrefour central où les tentatives de survie prennent une seule voie, une seule langue, à savoir celle du fantasme. Si la psychanalyse s’étend universellement par l’expression de l’inconscient, ce dernier négocie intelligemment dans un mode ubiquitaire d’un lieu à un autre, d’une culture à une autre, spécifiquement quand celle-ci s’enracine dans un passé arabo-musulman archaïque, qui par son interprétation instrumentalisée, réveille au quotidien l’irreprésentable menace du féminin et du sexuel et ravive ce qui relève du traumatisme. De ces faits, l’évolution psychoaffective, de plusieurs femmes rencontrées, se distingue dans une inquiétante étrangeté et réinterroge le lien maternel, la relation au père, aussi bien que des échanges fantasmatiques mettraient en péril une maturité psychique dénoncée en séance par le refus du féminin, la pulsion de mort, le masochisme ou encore des régressions sexuelles infantiles comme l’« envie du pénis ». Autant de résistances défensives qui aiguiseront l’écoute psychanalytique dont la pratique elle-même, au Maroc, sera retravaillée, réexplorée dépendamment d’une articulation entre le psychisme et le social. / « The unwelcomed woman and her death instincts» is a title that questions beforehand a place that is both external and internal, then the correlation of the two spaces. Questioning how the individual psychic interior finds itself caught up in a negotiation for survival, with an external context and environment, only mirror of the collective unconscious. Referring, by this formulation of the title, to the work of S. Ferenczi, the main problematic will be that of thinking the reverberations between the environment and the infantile, between the singular unconscious and that of the social. Putting to the test such questions of the gender and the universalism of the unconscious will be the heuristic compass that will guide the analytical listening of the suffering women’s voices, from which emerge the contemporary resonances of the Moroccan cultural heritage; a country that stands out for its historical, cultural and linguistic diversity. The overflight of the Moroccan land allows a retrospective return on the periods, both califal and colonial, as much as it guides the psychoanalytic thought on what would be expressed, to this day, in the individual speech through the transferential link. Moroccan women will be granted this ability to speak. Their voices will be carried out by this research in order to detect, in the signifying chain, the unconscious bases of their family novels intricated in the cultural language. Singular stories, women of different social backgrounds and distinct ages, decipher the socio-cultural and religious rebus transporting their personal stories, and the psychic suffering ensuing. The intersectionality that emerges from the clinical observations - illiteracy, the increased poverty line, social favoritism or the multiplicity of indigenous languages - converges to a central crossroads where survival attempts take a single path, a single language, that of fantasy. If psychoanalysis extends universally by the expression of the unconscious, the latter negotiates intelligently in a ubiquitous mode, from one place to another, from one culture to another, specifically when this culture is rooted in an archaic Arab-Muslim past, which through its instrumentalized interpretation, awakens every day the irrepresentable threat of the feminine and the sexual, and revives what is traumatic. Of these facts, the psycho-affective evolution of several women encountered is distinguished in a disturbing strangeness and re-questions the maternal connection, the relationship with the father, as many fantasy exchanges that would put in danger a mental maturity denounced in session by the refusal of the feminine, by the death drive, the masochism or the infantile sexual regressions like the "envy of the penis". So many defensive resistances that will sharpen the psychoanalytic listening whose practice itself, in Morocco, will be reworked, re-explored depending on an articulation between the psyche and the social.

The contemporary turn of psychoanalytic film analysis has opened a new mode of understanding cinematic language. However, rejecting classical psychoanalysis would be premature. This thesis will place the two in conjunction, specifically through Sigmund Freud’s conceptualization of moral masochism and Wilfred Bion’s theory of thinking. Through four films: Una, The Tale, The Tribe, and Son of Saul I explore the affective nature of films that depict trauma and why one would gravitate towards such upsetting material. The spectator who seeks to be frustrated is not looking to harm oneself but to process this frustration in order to expand their emotional experience.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-208).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in English, Literatures in." Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-202).

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Denna studie kom till efter att RFSU hade börjat arbeta med frågor om sadomasochism, och efter att Socialstyrelsen tog bort sadomasochism ur sin diagnosmanual. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på vilka diskurser som används när media talar om sadomasochism. Queerteori är det teoretiska fundamentet i studien. Jag utgår även från Michel Foucaults teorier. Min metod är foucauldiansk genealogisk diskursanalys. Analysmaterialet består av 33 tryckta artiklar från svenska dags- och kvällstidningar. Resultatet visar att talet om sadomasochism i media följer olika diskurser. Vissa utgår från att normalisering är godtycklig, att normer är föränderliga och att alla människor bör ha rätt till sin egen sexualitet. Diskurser om kvinnor och barn utgår från att sadomasochism är farligt och att människor måste skyddas från sexuella avvikare. Det talas om sadism som inte sker under samtycke som sjukt. Vissa diskurser framställer sadomasochism som positivt och används i sadomasochisters identitetsskapade. Även när de accepterande artiklarna talar om sadomasochism görs det på ett sätt så att de sexuella normerna inte ifrågasätts. Media lägger fram en nomaliserad variant av sadomaschism som är lättare för allmänheten att acceptera. Sadomasochism fortsätter på grund av normaliseringen att betraktas som avvikande.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O trabalho consiste em um exame da produção poética de Glauco Mattoso, tendo como horizonte a noção de transgressão e utilizando como corpus sua produção de sonetos e o Jornal Dobrabil. Com uma produção iniciada na década de 1970, o autor é um dos escritores mais prolíficos do cenário literário brasileiro contemporâneo, levantando questões referentes à perversão formal, à crítica do poder autoritário e à criação ficcional da persona autoral por meio da escrita de si. Acreditamos que, por sua técnica apurada e sua vasta produção, trata-se de um autor que merece um estudo acadêmico aprofundado, buscando o diálogo entre seus temas e as questões culturais que se apresentam ao pensamento contemporâneo / The work consists of an exam of Glauco Mattosos literary production, based on the idea of transgression and analyzing the authors sonnet production and Jornal Dobrabil. His production started in the 70s and, since them, Glauco has proved to be one of the most prolific writers in contemporary Brazilian literary scenario, raising issues that relate to formal perversion, power critiquing and fictional self construction. We believe that, due to his technique and wide production, Glauco deserves some deep academic study, creating a dialogue between his themes and cultural questions that are presented to contemporary thought