This thesis explores three accounts of male erotic fantasy. In my second chapter, I apply Roland Barthes’ conceptions of bliss and pleasure to John Cleland’s 18th century erotic novel, Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure in order to test Barthes’ theory. In my third chapter, I use D. H. Lawrence’s own erotic theory to analyze his depictions of boredom, tenderness and the mind/body divide in his 20th century novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In my fourth chapter, I rely on the theory of sadomasochism to explore the ways in which pleasure, pain and degradation figure in the Pauline Réage’s 20th century sadomasochistic novel, Story of O. In all three of these novels, erotic pleasure, love and transcendence are central themes and I ultimately elucidate the ways in which Cleland, Lawrence and Réage strategically use them to influence the reader’s reception of their accounts of male erotic fantasy.

The focus of this dissertation is on the dynamics of sensorial pleasure and the relationship between its intensity and subsequent behavior. The aim is to challenge the assumption that the relationship between pleasure intensity and approach behavior remains stable over time and across contexts. Two experiments were performed to test the proposition, consistent with opponent process theory, that different levels of initial pleasure intensity change at different rates over time and produce behavioral manifestations unpredicted by traditional approach-avoidance models. The objectives of Experiment 1 were to model the changes in online ratings (pleasure and desire to consume) associated with pleasures of different intensity, and to study the relationship between pleasure intensity and consumption. Testing was conducted in a naturalistic context and stimuli consisted of different flavors of dark chocolate selected on an idiosyncratic basis to produce a range of pleasure intensity. On separate days, 22 subjects ate at their discretion a different flavor out of a known quantity. Results revealed that online ratings possessed a Markov quality, and that increases in initial pleasure intensity were associated with diminishing marginal pleasure and desire overall. When accounting for contextual and individual-level factors, consumption did not reflect any influence of pleasure intensity. In Experiment 2, contextual variables were manipulated on a between-subject basis to test the possibility of influencing pleasure intensity and its behavioral manifestations. In a controlled environment, prior to consumption, 85 subjects read a booklet containing either the history of chocolate or a vocabulary of its sensory properties, and during consumption their attentional focus was directed toward either their sensations or a word puzzle. Subjects ate a piece of cinnamon-flavored milk chocolate at regular intervals while rating their sensorial pleasure, desire to eat the next piece, an

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1992. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-144). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 60-61.

Thesis (ph. D.)--Kaiser Wilhelms-Universität Strassburg, 1911. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 5).

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My investigation of pleasures involved in an Aristotelian temperate action starts with Aristotle’s account of health presented in Metaphysics, Physics, and his other biological works. Aristotle’s conception of health provides the theoretical backdrop in which two modes of temperate action concerning bodily pleasures involving appetite and pain are made possible. The temperate person is capable of acting temperately because the rational part of the human soul can influence appetite, and the contact between the pleasant and what is good for health allows two possible ways of action. When the pleasure of appetite is within the range of what is good for health or does not harm health, temperate people may pursue it; when the two do not match, a temperate action does not involve any bodily pleasures, and is simply the activity of the rational soul. This thesis emphasizes the second mode of temperate action, since this type of temperate action simply consists in the activity of the rational soul, specifically, acting out the deliberate decision of avoidance. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / In Aristotle’s ethical theory, the virtue of temperance is related to two types of pleasures. One type is the bodily pleasures involving appetite and pain, the other is the pleasure following upon a temperate action. My examination of his conception of health reveals that, in acting temperately, temperate people experience the second type of pleasure in their abstinence from the enjoyment of the first type of pleasures.