Marquis De Sade

"Baruchello’s Philosophy of Cruelty, the second collection of his essays, turns a difficult and emotionally charged topic into a surprisingly informative and enlightening read. Covering the history of Western philosophy’s treatment of cruelty as a topic, yet relating every point to present-day occasions of violence and injustice, this book is a touchstone for any discussion of cruelty as a philosophical theme. It pulls no punches, yet it leaves you standing taller." (Dr. B. Myers)

(cf. http://www.brendanmyers.net/nwpbooks/baruchello2.html - incl. table of contents; the book can be ordered from Amazon or the publisher)

Please note that all author's royalties are devolved to charity.

Art and Pornography presents a series of essays
which investigate the artistic status and aesthetic
dimension of pornographic pictures, films, and
literature, and explores the distinction, if there is
any, between pornography and erotic art. Is there
any overlap between art and pornography, or are
the two mutually exclusive? If they are, why is
that? If they are not, how might we characterize
pornographic art or artistic pornography, and how
might pornographic art be distinguished, if at all,
from erotic art? Can there be aesthetic experience of
pornography? What are some of the psychological,
social, and political consequences of the creation and
appreciation of erotic art or artistic pornography?
Leading scholars from around the world address these
questions, and more, and bring together different
aesthetic perspectives and approaches to this widely
consumed, increasingly visible, yet aesthetically
underexplored cultural domain. The book, the first
of its kind in philosophical aesthetics, will contribute
to a more accurate and subtle understanding of the
many representations that incorporate explicit sexual
imagery and themes, in both high art and demotic
culture, in Western and non-Western contexts. It is
sure to stir debate, and healthy controversy.

Настоящата статия прави опит да потърси различни от досегаш-
ните тълкувания на ролята на личността и творчеството на печално известния маркиз Дьо Сад. Темата е актуална, защото творчеството на Дьо Сад е важно
и за съвремието ни. Неговото влияние се отпечатва върху идеите на редица
известни философи, писатели и обществени дейци. Тук се обсъжда въпросът
доколко това влияние се базира върху правилното тълкуване на скандалното
творчество на либертинския писател.
This article is an attempt to explore and offer new interpretations of
the personality and works of the notorious Marquis de Sade. A topical matter, de
Sade’s literature is important today, as it was back in the past. His impact has shaped
the ideas of several famous philosophers, writers, and public figures. The question
on debate here is to what extent this impact has been analyzed correctly from the
historical perspective.

"Salò", or 120 minutes of "a fossil". On transgression and its negation in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s last film

The article is an attempt to analyse the problem of transgression in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salò, or the 120 days of Sodom”. The author argues that although at the visual level the film appears as a perverse work of art, its message remains very conservative. “Salò”, being a loose adaptations of Sade’s “The 120 days of Sodom” is not (unlike the source text) praise of permanent transgression. Pasolini actually thematises the latter, showing (coldly) its abysmal dimension. That anti-transgressive overtone of the film (which was to be, first of all, the polemics with the tendencies observable in contemporary, permissive culture and its fascist, exclusive essence, which bothered the director) results in the absence of any non-normativity positively connoted. Its lack – surprising in the context of the Italian director’s artistic output – makes “Salò” (a supposedly “sick”, “appalling” and “nihilistic” work of art) appear as the most prudish in its message of all Pasolini’s films, which also seems to be a subversive defence of the “civilisation of life” (understood in a conservative way).

Artykuł stanowi próbę przyjrzenia się problemowi transgresji w filmie Piera Paola Pasoliniego „Salò, czyli 120 dni Sodomy”. Autor dowodzi, że chociaż film na płaszczyźnie wizualnej jawi się jako dzieło perwersyjne, to jednocześnie jego wymowa pozostaje bardzo zachowawcza. „Salò” będące luźną adaptacją „120 dni Sodmy” Sade’a, nie jest (w przeciwieństwie do powieściowego pierwowzoru) pochwałą permanentnej transgresji. Pasolini raczej tematyzuje tę ostatnią, pokazuje (na chłodno) jej infernalny wymiar. Ów „antytransgresyjny” wydźwięk filmu (mający być przede wszystkim polemiką z niepokojącymi dla reżysera tendencjami współczesnej, permisywnej kultury i jej „faszystowską”, ekskluzywną esencją) powoduje, że w analizowanym dziele nie znajdziemy żadnej, pozytywnie konotowanej, nienormatywności. Jej – zaskakujący na tle całej twórczości Włocha – brak sprawia, że „Salò” (utwór rzekomo „chory”, „bulwersujący” i „nihilistyczny”) okazuje się nie tylko najbardziej pruderyjnym w wymowie obrazem Pasoliniego, ale wydaje się również przewrotną obroną (konserwatywnie rozumianej) „cywilizacji życia”.

La première biographie de Sade écrite par une femme. Un autre regard sur cette trajectoire et la violence qu'on y a lue : et si Sade n'était qu'un homme, avec toute la complexité que cette identité engage ?
Livre à découvrir ici : http://www.folio-lesite.fr/Catalogue/Folio/Folio-biographies/Sade

Finire dentro un vortice e farsene risucchiare, ci sembra una disgrazia, come inciampare su un sasso o ricevere una tegola in testa. Invece è un evento molto quotidiano, non facciamo che incontrare vortici, anche noi siamo vortici. Il vortice allaccia momentaneamente l'uno all'altro flussi che fino a quel momento si ignoravano. Dentro un vortice i flussi si rincorrono, si stringono, si sciolgono. La teoria della complessità ha scoperto nel vortice uno dei comportamenti fondamentali della materia fisica ma il vortice è una struttura energetica che riconosciamo anche nella società e nella vita dello spirito. Per studiare l'articolazione vorticosa dell'esperienza diventa utile ripercorrere con un nuovo sguardo alcune tappe filosofiche, letterarie e artistiche: il binomio volumen-rivoluzione di Sade, la sensazione in Merleau-Ponty, la visione mescalinica di Henri Michaux, gli ideogrammi poetici di Ezra Pound, il cinema zenoniano dei fratelli Safdie. Una corrente fatta di mulinelli attraversa i corpi e le idee, le azioni e le esitazioni, gli slanci e le ricadute, è capace di formare e distruggere mondi, stringere e sciogliere i nodi di cui è fatta l'esperienza, ogni esperienza.

Resumen: El ensayo aborda la paradoja de la fundación de la ley a partir de las reflexiones que Maurice Blanchot elabora respecto del Marqués de Sade, en el ensayo " La razón de Sade ". La figura de Sade expresa, en diferentes dimensiones, la idea de que la ley, en el mismo movimiento en que se funda, se destruye. El establecimiento de un orden determinado no se realiza sin, al mismo tiempo, realizar su propia transgresión, y Sade es una figura ejemplar para hacer ver esta paradoja.

Abstract: The essay addresses the law's foundation paradox through Maurice Blanchot's reflections on the figure of the Marquis de Sade, in the essay " Sade's Reason ". Sade's figure reveals, in different dimensions, the idea that the law, in the same self founded movement, is also self-destructed. The establishment of a determined order does not realize itself without realizing its own transgression, at the same time. Sade's figure is exemplary to highlight this paradox.

Vollständiger bibliographischer Hinweis:
„Erregung an der Erziehung. Sade und die Jakobiner“, in: Bettine Menke, Thomas Glaser (Hgg.), Experimentalanordnungen der Bildung. Exteriorität – Theatralität – Literarizität. München: Fink 2014, S. 89-109
Abstract:
Sowohl Michel Le Peletiers Entwurf eines Plan d’éducation nationale als auch
die fiktive Broschüre innerhalb des Dialogs des Marquis de Sade La Philosophie dans le boudoir ou Les Instituteurs immoraux „Francais, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains“ streben an, die Revolution zu radikalisieren. Doch während Le Peletiers posthum (Sommer 1793) publik gemachter Entwurf einem künftigen Dekret über das Bildungswesen dienen soll und sich damit eindeutig einer Logik der Institution, das heißt des Gründungsakts und der Fortdauer einschreibt, verweigert sich der 1795 veröffentlichte Sade’sche Dialog dieser Logik vehement. Gerade die Sade’sche Haltung zur Institutionalität macht die Schrift in der politischen Landschaft der Revolution einzigartig. Sades Beitrag zur Französischen Revolution als ‚Erneuerung der Menschheit‘ besteht weder nur in der Einführung einer konsequenten Unsittsamkeit, noch lediglich in kühnen, radikaldemokratischen Positionen zur Todesstrafe, zum Insurrektionsrecht und zur Volkssouveränität. Vielmehr wird hier die Arbeitshypothese aufgestellt, wonach Sades philosophischer Dialog die jakobinische, von der Aufklärung geschulte Programmatik mit ihrer eigenen Inkonsequenz konfrontiert: Wenn Sade sich besonders heftig darüber empört, dass unter der Jakobinerherrschaft nicht dem Atheismus, sondern dem Être suprême Feiern gegeben werden, dann aus der pauschalen Überzeugung heraus, dass die Umsetzung einer demokratischen Praxis ein Zusammenspiel der Vernunft und der Sinne erforderlich macht, das den vollen Einsatz der Körper verlangt.

In this essay, the author joins a conversation started by Martin (Reclaiming the conversation: the ideal of the educated woman. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1985) regarding gender and education seeking to extend the conversation to address sexuality. To do so, the author brings a reading of the Marquis de Sade to challenge the emphasis on reproduction in education as it relates to gendered and sexual norms. The author, following Martin’s approach in Reclaiming the Conversation, reads one particular text of Sade’s—Philosophy in the Bedroom—to argue for queer possibilities that Sade brings to the conversation around gender and sexuality within twenty-first century education. The Marquis de Sade may viscerally seem an inappropriate choice to return to and use to join the conversation, but his novelic imagination incites complications in the conversation. Following in the footsteps of Martin’s re-reading of historic philosophical texts the author offers not only another layer of thinking about “female education,” but also opens up space for engaging gender and sexuality in the history and philosophy of education. As issues around gender and sexed bodies become ever more present and contested in educational discourses, does Sade continue the conversation in ways that corrupt the reproductive aims of education?

This paper seeks to address the materialist aspects and the role of apprenticeship in Marquis de Sade’s work Philosophy in the Bedroom. The book deals with the sexual education of a young woman. This education is contrasted between two opposing methodologies based upon religious and libertine views. What Sade makes us reflect upon is the deeper implications of coming to rediscover one’s body as a sexual entity and the problems of denial. The process of apprenticeship is for an individual to identify a blockage (social, cultural, religious, ethical) that has been placed upon their body. This blockage is to be challenged and overcome through sexual experimentation. In doing so, an individual becomes free from inhibitions and recognizes the absurdity of the placing of restrictions upon our bodies. This can be identified through Sade’s apprenticeships for religious women and libertine men and women. For Sade, the religious woman must become free-spirited and not determined by chastity or her duty to familial obligations. Likewise, a libertine must overcome gender and sexual preferences. It will be concluded that Sade’s materialist philosophy of the body enables us to reverse the traditional idea of sadism as pleasure in the suffering of others, because sexual apprenticeship allows us to continually revaluate bodies and challenge boundaries that have been placed upon us.

Référence taboue peu à peu libérée de la censure, Sade a scandalisé, suscité l’admiration, mais surtout stimulé la réflexion et la création. De nombreux regards portés sur sa vie et son écriture illustrent les enjeux propres à la lutte opposant discours institutionnel et subversion. Consacré aux représentations de D.A.F. de Sade et du sadisme dans les pratiques littéraires, de même que dans les discours critiques, cliniques, psychanalytiques et philosophiques, cet ouvrage entreprend de retracer la genèse de l’influence de Sade à partir de la fin du XVIIIe siècle jusqu’à l’avènement de nos sociétés de consommation. La synthèse qui en résulte valorise le potentiel critique de l’acte de lecture. Elle montre comment lire Sade peut devenir une manière de comprendre le rapport entre la représentation de la violence et l’exercice du pouvoir au sein du monde occidental.

Resumen: La primera obra de Osvaldo Lamborghini, El fiord, publicada en 1969, ha sido muy leída por la crítica. Las lecturas se dividen entre la ilegibilidad (el carácter vanguardista del texto) y el exceso de claridad (la alegoría política). Entre la clave autorreferencial (el mito de origen de la obra) y la clave alegórica (las figuras de Perón y de Evita, la izquierda nacionalista los años sesenta), la hermenéutica psicoanalítica opera como mediadora: literatura, política y erotismo constituyen una tríada que divide el texto y fragmenta la lectura. Nuestra conjetura es que no puede separarse el modo alegórico del programa vanguardista. En este sentido, la alegoría no se limitaría a aludir a la coyuntura de la que el texto es contemporáneo, sino que más bien tramitaría una reflexión acerca de una serie de estereotipos sobre el peronismo como experiencia decisiva de una época. Abstract: Osvaldo Lamborghini's first work, El fiord, published in 1969, has been extensively read by critics. The readings are divided between the illegibility (the avant-garde character of the text) and the excess of clarity (the political allegory). Between the self-referential key (the myth of the origin of the work) and the allegorical key (the figures of Perón and of Evita, the nationalist left of the sixties), the psychoanalytic hermeneutics works as a mediator: literature, politics and eroticism constitute a triad that divides the text and fragments the reading. Our conjecture is that the allegorical mode cannot be separated of the avant-garde program. In this sense, the allegory would not be limited to referring to the conjuncture of which the text is contemporary, but rather would process a reflection on a series of stereotypes about Peronism as the decisive experience of an era.

E' il primo capitolo di una tesi su Roland Barthes.
Si affrontano preliminarmente, le maggiori opere di Barthes e la sua vita. L'ambiente culturale segnato dallo Strutturalismo (in parte) e dal gruppo attorno alla rivista Tel Quel.

RELATORE: Adone Brandalise.

Psychopaths seem to be everywhere. They are on the news and at the movies. People who lack empathy, be they ruthless entrepreneurs or crazed ‘spree killers’ are frequently labeled psychopathic; the charming socializer is just as suspect as the awkward anti-social loner. The conception of what defines a psychopath seems to be a morass of contradictions, the only consistency being the supposition of a lack of empathy.

The Psychopath Factory: How Capitalism Organizes Empathy examines how the requirements, stimuli, affects and environments of work condition our empathy. In some cases work calls for no empathy – characters who don’t blink or flinch in the face of danger nor crack under pressure. In other cases capitalism requires empathy in spades – charming, friendly, sensitive and listening managers, customer service agents and carers.

When workers are required to either ignore their empathy to do a job, or dial it up to increase productivity, they are entering a psychopathic modality. The affective blitz of work, flickering screens, emotive content, vibrating alerts and sounding alarms erode our sensitivities whilst we are modulated with attention stimulants, social lubricants and so called anti-anxiety drugs. This is amidst a virulent and exacerbating climate of competition and frenzied quantification. Capitalism pressures us to feign empathy and leverage social relationships on one hand, whilst being cold and pragmatic on the other. We are passionate and enthusiastic whilst keeping a professional distance.

Sympathy, care, compassion and altruism are important; The Psychopath Factory: How Capitalism Organizes Empathy argues that it is a mistake to presuppose that empathy can achieve these. Rather than being subject to the late capitalist organization of our empathy, psychopathy could be a means of escape.

Nous proposons de restituer ici le contexte dans lequel apparaît la critique pasolinienne du nouveau fascisme. Nous mènerons en - suite, à la lumière de cette critique, une analyse poético-politique de Salò qui pointera vers un possible à penser au-delà de ce film. Enfin, nous qualifierons le geste pasolinien, en affirmant plus explicitement ce en quoi consiste la part héré tique de son oeuvre qui passe, entre autres, par l’interrogation de la figure du poète.

Con questo saggio ho intenzione di descrivere  brevemente dispositivi narrativi tipici del linguaggio sadiano in Orgia di Pasolini, a partire dalla lettura della  Philosophie dans le boudoir  di Sade (soprattutto in relazione alla sfera sessuale e corporea dei personaggi). Il confronto è funzionale nella misura in cui si tratta di comprendere qual è la specifica direzione verso la quale Pasolini è intenzionato a far procedere il discorso erotico nell'epoca moderna.