"The "Onanism of Poetry

Walt Whitman, Rob Halpern and the Deconstruction of Masturbation

Bibliographic Data

ID4859564
AuthorsSam Ladkin (0000-0001-6778-5330, University of Sheffield, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume20
Issue4
Pages131-156
Publication date2015-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAngelaki (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-725X • E-ISSN: 1469-2899
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0969725x.2015.1096638
OpenAlexW2189655057
LanguageEN
References cited31

Lyric is onanistic: masturbation is the latent content of lyric poetry. This article counters queer theory with a turn to onanist theory, pointing out the centrality of masturbation to the work of Jacques Derrida, and suggesting that rather than consider masturbation the supplement to sex, we might consider the opposite. Modern man (the gendering is deliberate) has, according to Derrida, been mistaken in his metaphysics by a deluded fidelity to presence, an ontological error to which he has been attached as though to a lover; instead, modern man is guiltily onanistic. This article argues that the apostrophic intimacies of lyric and the longings held therein are masturbatory. To do so it reads Rob Halpern's Music for Porn as a deconstructive reading of Walt Whitman's Civil War poetry

Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Metaphysics · Poetry · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Queer theory · Reading (process · Contemporary Cultural and Social Studies · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access