Sexual Transcendence in Tsvetaeva's Poems to Pasternak

Slavic Review ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa W. Dinega
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Spiritual Transcendence ◽  
Radical Alterity ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Contradictory Belief

Mutuality, do not create impediments for the Castalian stream! Unity in distance: a more intense reality, lying beyond what the eye can see.In both Marina Tsvetaeva's poetry and her life, sexuality plays an intensely ambiguous role; she vacillates between the belief that the body is merely a “wall” hiding the soul, and the contradictory belief that sexual intimacy is the necessary vehicle to spiritual transcendence. Tsvetaeva's personal sexual adventurousness is by now a well-known fact of her biography; yet this fact is not simply a result of the poet's rebellious nature but is, rather, evidence of a profound philosophical inquiry into the very nature of sex and sexuality that she sustained throughout the course of her life and her writing. Sex is the idiom in which she writes transcendence of her own limiting subjectivity, via an exit into the radical alterity represented by the figure of the beloved.

Body and Desire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael A. Cadenhead
Keyword(s):  
Full Range ◽  
The Body ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethical Discourse ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Diachronic Analysis

Although the reception of the Eastern father Gregory of Nyssa has varied over the centuries, the past few decades have witnessed a profound awakening of interest in his thought, particularly in relation to the contentious issues of gender, sex, and sexuality. The Body and Desire sets out to retrieve the full range of Gregory’s thinking on the challenges of the ascetic life through a diachronic analysis of his oeuvre. Exploring his understanding of the importance of bodily and spiritual maturation in the practices of contemplation and virtue, Raphael Cadenhead recovers the vital relevance of this vision of transformation for contemporary ethical discourse.

scholarly journals Beyond Neoplatonism: Love in the Poetry of Francisco de Aldana

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Joseph Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Lope De Vega ◽  
Spanish Golden Age ◽  
De Rerum Natura ◽  
Spiritual Transcendence ◽  
Unusual Combination ◽  
Happy Marriage ◽  
Love Lyric ◽  
Physical Components

Francisco de Aldana (c. 1540-78) is an oft-neglected warrior-poet of the Spanish Golden Age. His poetry was influenced by his Florentine education in classics and earned him praise from the likes of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Quevedo. Over the course of four chapters I will explore Aldana’s approach to love, which is unique in its synthesis of the seemingly opposing and discordant elements of Neoplatonic spirituality and sensual physicality. This unusual combination is considered in light of Ausiàs March’s incorporation of physicality, as well as Boscán’s reintroduction of aurea mediocritas to ensure a happy marriage, which together help highlight the originality of Aldana’s contribution to love lyric in Renaissance Spain. Aldana is seen to favour a love that recognises the importance of the body in spiritual transcendence, in accordance with Plato’s Symposium. Shared transcendental moments are considered possible but remain fleeting and death is the only way to permanently abandon the physical realm and seek unity with God. Aldana’s Neoplatonic influences are charted from Ficino’s De amore (1484) and extend to those later texts that moved away from the Ficinian model, namely; Bembo’s Gli Asolani (1484), Castiglione’s Il cortegiano (1528), Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’amore (1535), Tullia D’Aragona’s Dialogo dell’infinità d’amore (1547), and Nifo’s De pulchro et amore (1549). Lucretius’ De rerum natura, the elegies of Propertius, and the writings of Ovid on love form the basis of the classical influences from which Aldana, often through their combination with Petrarchan staples, fashions startling examples of sensual physicality that go beyond the limits of contemporary descriptions of the body and the act of love making. The poems selected from Aldana’s corpus are grouped thematically. Chapter One considers fragments of philosophical, religious, and epistolary poetry that frame his approach to love. Chapter Two centres on a rare example of reciprocal love that incorporates the figure ofseafaring. Chapter Three considers how Aldana’s pastoral texts deconstruct their own idealised nature and invite the reader to consider love outside the artificial realm. This is partly achieved by his incorporation of the sonetto dialogato tradition. Chapter Four, on the mythological genre, concerns love as a neutral, universal force shaped by those it affects. This is illustrated via two pairings: one divine, one mortal. The divine couple highlights love’s potential to render both positive and sinister effects, while the mortal one illustrates the successful synthesis of spiritual and physical components to produce a love unique to Aldana’s poetic corpus.

scholarly journals Punk as a Strategy for Body Politicization in the Ljubljana Alternative Scene of the 1980s

2017 ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Jasmina Založnik
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
The Body ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
The Government ◽  
Additional Reason

The paper focuses on the notion of punk understood as a political position and as a strategy by the actors of the Ljubljana alternative scene in the 1980s. With exposing the minor, invisible and hidden subjectivities the actors and agents of the scene created a ground for experimentation with subjectivities, but also for shaking the Yugoslav Grand National narrative of ‘brotherhood and unity’.I am emphasizing mainly the notion of the body with and through the code of sex and sexuality, being still a base and the core investment of the government. No matter that the discourse has been radically changed, the procedures and protocols of power investments in their core have not. This is an additional reason and a need to recall the past and tackle the bodies that have appeared as unwanted, as ‘not right and not quiet’ identities in the past in order to evaluate and compare the position of the marginalized and suppressed today. Additionally, I am claiming that only with creating different genealogies can we fight against growing ‘intellectual redundancy’ and the continuous process of erasure of the subjectivities, which we are confronting today. Article received: June 2, 2017; Article accepted: June 12, 2017; Published online: October 15, 2017; Original scholarly paperHow to cite this article: Založnik, Jasmina. "Punk as a Strategy for Body Politicization in the Ljubljana Alternative Scene of the 1980s." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 14 (2017): 145-156. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i14.217

Profound Sexual and Spiritual Encounters among Practicing Christians: A Phenomenological Analysis

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuck M. Macknee
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
Phenomenological Methodology ◽  
Christian Educators

Existential-phenomenological methodology explored the meaning and experience of profound sexual and spiritual encounters described by five men and five women who were practicing Christians. Through qualitative analysis of these mysterious experiences, eleven common themes that portrayed the wonder, euphoria, bonding, arousal, transcendence, blessing, and sacredness of these peak events emerged. God's presence during sexual intimacy enabled the body, soul, and spirit to celebrate ecstatic union collectively in elevated responsiveness. In addition, the aftereffects of linking sexual and spiritual dimensions for the contributors were revealed as seven transforming, empowering, and affirming themes. Results provide a valid basis for a previously undisclosed phenomenon as well as inform Christian educators, pastors, counselors, and practitioners regarding the potential of biblical “one flesh” connection.

The Allure of Dissolution: Bodies, Forces, and Cyclicity in Schubert's Final Mayrhofer Settings

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-322
Author(s):  
Blake Howe
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
Spiritual Transcendence ◽  
Contemporary Writers ◽  
Aesthetic Ideas ◽  
Shared Narrative

Composed in the early days of March 1824, Schubert's final four settings of the poetry of his friend Johann Mayrhofer (“Der Sieg,” “Abendstern,” “Auflöösung,” and “Gondelfahrer,” D. 805–808) revolve around a shared narrative: corporeal limitation, when ruptured by outward-seeking forces, yields a desirable state of spiritual transcendence. This narrative, common in the philosophical, theological, scientific, and medical texts of several major contemporary writers, treats the body as a disabled limitation which must in turn be “heroically overcome.” In Schubert's settings, energized musical gestures are “released” at poetic moments of corporeal death, and chromatic mediants—particularly the flatted submediant—are used as centrifugal harmonies that breach diatonic limitation. “Auflöösung,” though positioned third within the set of four songs by Otto Erich Deutsch in his chronological catalogue of Schubert's music, was probably composed last. This adjustment has significant ramifications for a cyclical or collective consideration of the four final Mayrhofer settings, because in many ways this virtuosic song acts as a reservoir of the gestural and aesthetic ideas developed in the previous three.

scholarly journals Dance Artists, Dance Education, and Society

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen McKinlay Kurnaedy
Keyword(s):  
Dance Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Body ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Dance Educators ◽  
Education And Society ◽  
Key Questions

In this paper I take an historical look at dance artists and theorists, examining their influence on today’s curriculum in our school system. I argue that dance education should be recognized as of equal importance as other art forms, that it is essential for our society’s well being, and that it should be included and fostered in our school curricula. I further examine a number of key contributors to dance and dance education within the last century in the Western sphere. Key questions I examine are: Who were some of the most influential dance artists and dance educators of the past century? Who were the innovators and key contributors? How has their work affected dance education? How has their work been passed on? Have their bodies of work, their methodologies, or their beliefs about the body changed society? Has their work shaped culture or was it a byproduct or reflection of culture and the forces of the time they lived? As well as an historical look at dance artists and theorists, I also undertake a philosophical inquiry, examining the idea of dance in the curriculum as being misunderstood: as an area to explore feeling, but not intellect. Finally, I look at the essentialness of an integrated dance and movement education as a way of connecting human beings to their bodies, as well as using the body as an essential means of expression.

Trans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinn Eades
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
The Body ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
The Media ◽  
And Gender

Emerging from feminist and queer theory, trans theory asks us to challenge essentialist and heteronormative understandings of gender, sex, and sexuality. Trans theory teaches us to critique essentialist and binary models of embodiment by attending to and centering the body in theory and in the world. In the early 21st century, trans people are more visible than we have ever been. There is an increasing appetite from “mainstream” readers for trans memoir, larger numbers of trans characters on screen and in the media, and out trans people now hold high-ranking political positions, teach in schools and universities, and act on stage and screen. Rather than the demand for trans stories being driven by scopophilia, curiosity, or voyeurism, it appears that there is a desire to genuinely understand trans lives, bodies, and lived experiences. Visibility comes with a price though, and we must be wary of tracing a simplistic progress narrative in relation to trans and gender diverse people and communities. When we appear in public, we gather our own communities, as well as allies and sympathizers, but these appearances also make us vulnerable to those who still fiercely deny our right to exist—the Vatican City’s thirty-one page statement discussing gender theory in education (2019), where we are told that trans people are “annihilating nature,” is a perfect example of this. While the term “trans” (more often than not) refers to transgender people, it is also a prefix that means “across”; trans denotes movement, going from one to the other, and change. Because we can find trans people across all times, places, and populations, we can also trace a complex, rich, and ever-expanding archive of trans writing, histories, and stories. It is through troubling the idea that trans people are a “modern” invention, that we are the living embodiment of political correctness gone mad, that we can begin to find each other in text, gather together, and work toward making significant social, political, and cultural change.

Expérimenter la pensée en schémas-images. Des adolescents s’interrogent « d’où viennent les pensées ? »

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2 supplement) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Anda Fournel ◽  
Jean-Pascal Simon
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
Philosophy For Children ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Image Schemas ◽  
Inquiry Process ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind

"Experimenting Thinking in Image Schemas. Teenagers are Wondering “Where Do Thoughts Come From?” An intellectual view of philosophy as an activity focusing on understanding abstract concepts and their relationships deprives philosophical exercise of the participation of the body and senses. If we reject the mind-body dualism, as Dewey, Johnson, etc. did, then we are constantly engaged in interactions with the world and others, and can thus consider the act of thinking from our own experiences. Inspired by an experimentalist conception of school and life, as well as the method of inquiry developed by Dewey, the Philosophy for Children program provides an inquiry process that invites participants to conceptualize and reason philosophically in a collaborative manner. Do these practices implement an embodied cognition? To find out, we selected a discussion as a case study and analyzed it based on the observation that the issue to be discussed by the participants - “where do thoughts come from?” contains two image schemas: path (come from) and source (where). We have noted a variety and a significant number of expressions (“they come from within”, “they come from what happens outside”, etc.) whose analysis enhances a better understanding of how an experience of understanding the origins of our thoughts fits into the discourse and contributes to a collective conceptualization of “thinking”. Keywords: image schemas, perceptual experience, conceptualisation, community of philosophical inquiry, experimentalism "

scholarly journals In Other Words: Putting Sex and Pornography in Context

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-138
Author(s):  
Allan C. Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Body Politic ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Graphic Representations ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Relationship Of

We cannot ask reason to take us across the gulfs of the absurd. Only the imagination can get us out of the eternal present.—Ursula Le GuinLaw controls sexuality not only by its coercive powers, but also through its discursive constructions. While there are other social forces and influences in play, sexual identities and sexual practices are framed within the ample reach of law’s linguistic domain. As well as enforcing prevailing moral norms and deciding the scope of socially-validated sexual behaviour, law also determines what counts as sex in the tableau of human behaviour. Although the relationship of law, sexuality and sex is always ideologically fraught, it is particularly so in regard to graphic representations of sex and sexuality. The debate around this so-called pornography hits a very sensitive nerve in the body politic. Indeed, in recent years, few social practices have managed to arouse as much intellectual angst and political anger as pornography. In part, this is because the debate seems to cut across traditional political lines; it sets traditional enemies against each other and fosters strange alliances among them. None of this should be too surprising as pornography touches profound issues which strike at the very heart of those dilemmas, difficulties and denials that comprise the human condition.

scholarly journals Against the Ugliness of Age: Towards an Erotics of the Aging Sexual Body

2016 ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Alison Moore ◽  
Paul Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
Sexual Agency ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Sexual Desires ◽  
Sex And Sexuality ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Sexual Body ◽  
Representational Form

Within the heteronormative construction, older people are positioned as asexual, post-sexual or predatory on young bodies. Ageist assumptions deny their sexual desires exist at all or, if they are acknowledged, frame them within pathological medical, sexological and cultural discourses that characterize older sexual agency as grotesque, ugly, unattractive and sexually undesirable. These normative constructions have a negative impact on older sexual subjectivities. This article begins to develop a constructive representational form – or erotics - of aging sex and sexuality. Queer, as a deconstructionist, anti-foundational and anti-essential perspective, would seem the most prominent means by which to challenge pathologies of the ageing body and ageing sexuality. However, this discussion will suggest that there is both scope and limitations with regards to the ability of Queer critiques to undermine ageist erotophobia. Whilst queer proposes that we are free to construct and reconstruct our sexuality in multiple ways, our changing subjectivities are not just experienced emotionally and intra-psychically but are also bounded by our physicality. Our ageing corporeality prevents a constant and continuous reinvention of the sexual self. This does not preclude an erotics of age that -moves away from genito-centric and heteronormative/ homonormative constructions of sexuality and open up the potential for an erotic aged sex and sexual intimacy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document