Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T18:53:51.558Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bersani's Freudian Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Jane Gallop
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1986 Leo Bersani published a book entitled The Freudian Body. I love that title. From the first time I heard it, over two decades ago, up through this very moment, I have continued to love that title. To be honest, I wish it were mine—which is why I borrowed it for my essay here. I'm not exactly sure what I take this title to mean—probably something like a definitive delineation of a Freudian theory of the body. I'm not exactly sure what I take it to promise—probably something like a reconceptualization of the body beyond positivism, beyond Christian views of nature, beyond biologistic ideology. It sounds like something I really want. One thing is for sure: the title made me want to read the book.

And so the first time I read this book, I was disappointed, frustrated, and even a little angry. I did not find “the Freudian body” promised by the title. “Bait and switch,” I thought bitterly. “You fucking tease!”

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 125 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 393 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Bersani, Leo. The Freudian Body. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. Print.Google Scholar
Bersani, Leo. Intimacies. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Print.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bersani, Leo. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” AIDS: Cultural Analysis / Cultural Activism. Spec. issue of October 43 (1987): 197–222. Print.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Group Psychology and Other Works. Trans. and ed. Strachey, James. London: Hogarth, 1955. 7–64. Print. Vol. 18 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. The Future of an Illusion, Civilization and Its Discontents and Other Works. Trans. and ed. Strachey, James. London: Hogarth, 1961. 64–145. Print. Vol. 21 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. A Case of Hysteria, Three Essays on Sexuality and Other Works. Trans. and ed. Strachey, James. London: Hogarth, 1953. 130–243. Print. Vol. 7 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.Google Scholar
“Recapitulate.” American Heritage Dictionary. 1969. Print.Google Scholar