Benjamin Kahan
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226607818
- eISBN:
- 9780226608006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226608006.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter argues that conceptions of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult have influenced constructions of sex and sexuality to a much greater extent than has been realized in the existing ...
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This chapter argues that conceptions of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult have influenced constructions of sex and sexuality to a much greater extent than has been realized in the existing scholarship. It contends that magia sexualis and its notion of will in particular play an essential role in the construction of sexual subjectivity. The chapter begins by thinking about the possibilities of attraction without desire or sexuality by considering the quasi-magical/quasi-chemical idea of elective affinities in Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein’s The Mysteries of New Orleans (1854/5). In the second section, it traces the afterlife of this sexual subjectivity and its relation to will in George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894) in order to chart a genealogy of aim-based sexuality. The chapter concludes by examining Paschal Beverly Randolph's pioneering sexual magic, arguing that he is one of the earliest theorists and instantiators of sexual subjectivity. In particular, the chapter argues that he constructs his vision of sexual subjectivity in relation to the specter of American slavery.Less
This chapter argues that conceptions of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and the occult have influenced constructions of sex and sexuality to a much greater extent than has been realized in the existing scholarship. It contends that magia sexualis and its notion of will in particular play an essential role in the construction of sexual subjectivity. The chapter begins by thinking about the possibilities of attraction without desire or sexuality by considering the quasi-magical/quasi-chemical idea of elective affinities in Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein’s The Mysteries of New Orleans (1854/5). In the second section, it traces the afterlife of this sexual subjectivity and its relation to will in George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894) in order to chart a genealogy of aim-based sexuality. The chapter concludes by examining Paschal Beverly Randolph's pioneering sexual magic, arguing that he is one of the earliest theorists and instantiators of sexual subjectivity. In particular, the chapter argues that he constructs his vision of sexual subjectivity in relation to the specter of American slavery.
Hugh B. Urban
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247765
- eISBN:
- 9780520932883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247765.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this book, which is about the rise of sexual magic in America and Europe since the mid-nineteenth century. The book traces the transmission of magia ...
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This introductory chapter explains the theme of this book, which is about the rise of sexual magic in America and Europe since the mid-nineteenth century. The book traces the transmission of magia sexualis from the United States to Europe as it was passed on through such authors as Paschal Beverly Randolph, Theodor Reuss, and Aleister Crowley. It examines the impact of Indian traditions like Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, which by the early twentieth century had come to be increasingly fused with Western sexual magic, and analyzes the profound transformation of sexual magic from a terrifying medieval nightmare of heresy and social subversion into a modern ideal of personal empowerment and social liberation. The book argues that the literature on sexual magic has, from its origins, been plagued by a deep tension and ambivalence: The tension between liberation and exploitation.Less
This introductory chapter explains the theme of this book, which is about the rise of sexual magic in America and Europe since the mid-nineteenth century. The book traces the transmission of magia sexualis from the United States to Europe as it was passed on through such authors as Paschal Beverly Randolph, Theodor Reuss, and Aleister Crowley. It examines the impact of Indian traditions like Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, which by the early twentieth century had come to be increasingly fused with Western sexual magic, and analyzes the profound transformation of sexual magic from a terrifying medieval nightmare of heresy and social subversion into a modern ideal of personal empowerment and social liberation. The book argues that the literature on sexual magic has, from its origins, been plagued by a deep tension and ambivalence: The tension between liberation and exploitation.
