Description
Book SynopsisDesigned for students, academics and the general reader alike, Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging provides theoretical and empirical insights into the linkages between sexualities and forms of desire, and ways of belonging and relating to others in specific contexts and moments in time. Opening with a substantial introduction by one of the editors, this collection of thirteen essays is organised into three parts, each section making important contributions to contemporary debates regarding the sexual politics of citizenship, marriage, friendship, pornography, intimacies, eroticism and desire. As such, the essays introduce fresh perspectives for thinking about how individuals construct senses of belonging and modes of relating to others in their everyday lives, within the disciplinary frameworks of sociology, organisational analysis and cultural studies. As well, the volume analyses representations of desire and eroticism in British Pop Art, trauma and feminist fiction, polyamory self-help literature, Hollywood films, and sociological and psychoanalytic theory. Analytical insights offered within these essays will do much to stimulate debate about aspects of the socially and historically constituted relationship between desire and sexuality. Because of the diverse approaches and conclusions it contains, the volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in engaging with inter- and multidisciplinary perspectives in order to understand the dynamics between constructions of desire and belonging, and discourses of gender, sex and sexuality.
Table of ContentsList of Figures Nick RUMENS: Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging: An Introduction PART I Citizenship and Sexual Politics Nancy A. NAPLES: Sexual Citizenship in International Context: Towards a Comparative Intersectional Analysis of Social Regulation Katie L. ACOSTA: “Everything Would be Solved if Only We Could Marry:” Queer Marriages and U.S. Immigration Policy Kateřina LIŠKOVÁ: Pornography as Language: From Discourse of Domination to Heretical Subversion PART II Connecting with Others Christian KLESSE: On the Road to Equality? Gender, Sexuality and Race in Sociological Meta-Narratives on Transformation of Intimacy Ruth MARTIN: Love at a Distance: Kafka and the Sirens Nick RUMENS: In the Company of Friends: Insights into Gay Men’s Friendships at Work Jodi O’BRIEN: Queer Tensions: The Cultural Politics of Belonging and Exclusion in Same Gender Marriage Debates Serena PETRELLA: Ethical Sluts and Closet Polyamorists: Dissident Eroticism, Abject Subjects and the Normative Cycle in Self-Help Books on Free Love PART III States of Desire and the Erotic Fiona PETERS: There is no Sexual Relation Diane NEGRA: Eroticism, Postfeminist Melancholia and the Cross-Generational Romance Sue TATE: Re-occupying the Erotic Body: The Paintings and “Performance” of Pauline Boty, British Pop Artist (1938-66) Marie-Luise KOHLKE: Sexuality in Extremity: Trauma Literature, Violence and Counter-Erotics Jules STURM: Reading for Monsters: Transgressive Corporeality in Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood Notes on Contributors
