Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Commerce of Peoples provides an unflinching look at the multifaceted power relations enmeshed in the affective history of sadomasochism as it has emerged in practice over the past several decades. Basu boldly argues that, in order to understand the contemporary intertwining of domination, submission, and desire, we must recognize that its history bears the marks of both slavery and colonialism of the last three centuries and that its utopian effort seeks to unfetter that corporeality. His analysis shows that the most daring and illuminating portrayals of race, gender, and sadomasochism may be found in key texts of African American literature. -- Lee Quinby, Macaulay Honors College, CUNY
Table of ContentsChapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: In Theory Chapter Three: Slave Narratives and Sadomasochism Chapter Four: The Genuflected Body of the Masochist Chapter Five: Dominant and Submissive in Protest Literature Chapter Six: Hybrid Embodiment and an Ethics of Masochism Chapter Seven: Perverting Heterosexuality: The Competent Practice of the Object Chapter Eight: Neo-Slave Narratives and Sadomasochism Appendix: A Pragmatics of the Perverse: Nietzsche and Sadomasochism
