{"product_id":"images-of-bliss-murat-aydemir-9780816648672","title":"Images of Bliss: Ejaculation, Masculinity, Meaning","description":"\u003cp\u003eAristotle believed semen to be the purest of all bodily secretions, a vehicle for the spirit or psyche that gives form to substance. For Proust's narrator in \u003ci\u003eSwann's Way, \u003c\/i\u003e waking to find he has experienced a nocturnal emission, it is the product of \"some misplacing of my thigh.\" The heavy metal band Metallica used it to adorn an album cover. Beyond its biological function, semen has been applied with surprising frequency to metaphorical and narratological purposes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eImages of Bliss, \u003c\/i\u003e Murat Aydemir undertakes an original and extensive analysis of images of male orgasm and semen. In a series of detailed case studies--Aristotle's \u003ci\u003eOn the Generation of Animals;\u003c\/i\u003e Andres Serrano's use of bodily fluids in his art; paintings by Holbein and Leonardo; Proust's \u003ci\u003eIn Search of Lost Time; \u003c\/i\u003ehard-core pornography (both straight and gay); and key texts from the poststructuralist canon, including Lacan on the phallus, Bataille on expenditure, Barthes on bliss, and Derrida on dissemination--Aydemir traces the complex and often contradictory possibilities for imagination, description, and cognition that both the idea and the reality of semen make available. In particular, he foregrounds the significance of male ejaculation for masculine subjectivity. More often than not, Aydemir argues, the event or object of ejaculation emerges as the instance through which identity, meaning, and gender are not so much affirmed as they are relentlessly and productively questioned, complicated, and displaced. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining close readings of diverse works with subtle theoretical elaboration and a keen eye for the cultural ideals and anxieties attached to sexuality, \u003ci\u003eImages of Bliss\u003c\/i\u003e offers a convincing and long overdue critical exploration of ejaculation in Western culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMurat Aydemir is assistant professor of comparative literature at the University of Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Murat Aydemir\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816648670\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816648672\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/08\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.92h x 6.24w x 0.92d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eScitech Book News\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2007 pg. 55","brand":"Murat Aydemir","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48065184727295,"sku":"9780816648672","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_c49da3ba-11c5-4d7e-8291-314387492c77.jpg?v=1768673553","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/images-of-bliss-murat-aydemir-9780816648672","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}