Disgust: The Theory and History of a Strong Sensation

Disgust......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
EXPOSITION......Page 10
SUBJECT MATTER AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY......Page 14
AUREL KOLNAI, “DER EKEL” (DISGUST)......Page 25
DEMOCRACY AS A SOURCE OF DISGUST: WILLIAM IAN MILLER’S THE ANATOMY OF DISGUST......Page 29
1. The Disgust Taboo, and the Omnipresence of Disgust in Aesthetic Theory......Page 34
THE BEAUTIFUL AS VOMITIVE......Page 35
AESTHETIC INFINITY AS ANTIVOMITIVE......Page 40
“MIXED SENSATIONS” AND THE EXCEPTION OF DISGUST......Page 42
PLEASURE AND DISPLEASURE......Page 44
THE “DARKEST OF ALL THE SENSES” AND THE COLLAPSE OF AESTHETIC ILLUSION IN DISGUST......Page 47
SEMANTICIZED AND “CRUDE” DISGUST......Page 54
THE IDEAL SKIN AND DISGUST AT FOLDS AND WRINKLES, LAYERS OF CARTILAGE AND FAT......Page 60
DISGUSTING DEPTHS AND THE BODY’S OPENINGS......Page 63
FOREVER YOUNG......Page 67
THE GAPING MOUTH......Page 69
NOSE-DISGUST AND THE “GREEK PROFILE”......Page 73
THE “FLATTENED EAR”......Page 75
“DISGUSTING BREASTS” AND IDEAL “HILLS”......Page 76
INVISIBILITY, UNSEEN NAKEDNESS, AND “WETTED GARMENTS”......Page 78
THE “SPARE BEHIND”......Page 80
EXCISION, CASTRATION, HERMAPHRODITIZATION: THE PHALLUS IN THE FIELD OF THE BEAUTIFUL......Page 81
THE “HYPERGIGANTIC” SEX OF THE “COLOSSAL WOMAN”......Page 84
WOUNDS, DISMEMBERED LIMBS, FLAYED SKIN: THE BODY AS A “DISGUSTING THING”......Page 87
BEAUTIFUL DEATH AND DISGUSTING DECAY......Page 90
THE UGLY OLD LADY......Page 93
REPRESSION OR DIFFERENTIATION?......Page 100
DISGUST, PURITY, AND IMPURITY IN THE AESTHETIC......Page 105
DISGUST AND PLEASURE......Page 112
DISGUST AS A GOAL OF EDUCATION......Page 117
SMELL, TASTE, AND THE “VITAL SENSATION” OF DISGUST......Page 118
DISGUST, LAUGHTER, AND “DARK CONCEPTIONS”......Page 121
DISGUST AS AN ORGANON OF INTELLECTUAL CRITIQUE......Page 122
DISGUST AS ORGANON OF PRACTICAL ACTION......Page 124
DISGUST, HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS, ENNUI......Page 127
CLASSICAL DISGUST AND THE BASIC ALTERATIONS OF THE AESTHETIC FIELD AROUND 1800......Page 130
THE DISGUSTING AS STIMULUS-INCREASE AND RECIPE OF MODERN “SHOCK”-AESTHETICS......Page 132
THE LICENSE OF “DISGUSTING IMPOTENCE” AND THE DECAY OF THE NEGATIVE PRINCIPLE......Page 134
DISGUSTING SOULS, DISGUSTING TIMES, AND THE ART OF THE DISGUSTING: THE “ROMANTIC” UBIQUITY OF THE ONCE-TABOOD......Page 137
ROSENKRANZ ON THE DISGUSTING (1): PUTREFACTION AS AN “INVERSE BECOMING OF THE ALREADY DEAD”......Page 140
BAUDELAIRE’S POEM “UNE CHAROGNE”......Page 143
ROSENKRANZ ON THE DISGUSTING (2): THE RETURN OF INDIGESTIBILITY IN THE SYSTEM OF DIALECTIC APPROPRIATION......Page 148
5. The “No” of Disgust and Nietzsche’s “Tragedy” of Knowledge......Page 156
PLATO, JESUS, AND MORALS AS WORLD-HISTORICAL AGENTS OF DISGUST......Page 158
“RESSENTIMENT” AND WEAKNESS AS CATALYSTS OF MODERN “MORALIZING”— THE DISGUSTING MIXTURE OF LIES AND INNOCENCE......Page 160
“MOLLYCODDLING” AS DISGUST AT ONE’S OWN CRUELTY......Page 163
THE DISGUSTING BODY AND NIETZSCHE’S PHYSIOLOGY......Page 165
“GREAT DISGUST” AND CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE......Page 167
DISGUST AND COGNITION......Page 169
EDUCATION FOR DISGUST......Page 174
OVERCOMING DISGUST......Page 176
NIETZSCHE VETULA......Page 187
INTERPRETATIONS OF DISGUST IN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY BEFORE FREUD......Page 192
FREUD’S BIRTH......Page 194
DISGUST, AESTHETIC CULTURE, ANTIAESTHETIC LIBIDO......Page 195
THE TRIUMPH OF LIBIDO: THE “PERVERSE” OVERCOMING OF DISGUST......Page 202
PERVERSE FATHER, SERVANT GIRL, AND PROSTITUTE......Page 205
HABEMUS VETULAM......Page 212
DISGUST AND THE CHOICE OF NEUROSIS......Page 217
EXCRETION AS PROTOTYPE OF SOCIAL ACTS, AND THE COPRO-EROTICS OF LANGUAGE......Page 222
“DISGUSTING ABUSES,” “PRIMEVAL DEVIL WORSHIP,” AND THE EQUATION OF ANALYST AND TORTURER......Page 227
ART AS SUSPENSION OF DISGUST AND GUILTLESS “ENJOYMENT” OF THE REJECTED......Page 229
RESEARCH ON DISGUST IN EMPIRICAL PSYCHOLOGY AFTER FREUD......Page 231
7. The Angel of Disgust: Kafka’s Poetics of “Innocent” Enjoyment of “Sulphurous” Pleasures......Page 236
Felice and Other Women with Un-Greek Noses, Skin Defects, and Bad Teeth......Page 237
“Old Maids”......Page 243
“I Want Only the Stout Older Ones”......Page 245
Disgust with Conjugal Sexuality Versus Pleasure in Disgusting Sex Outside of Marriage......Page 250
“Innocence” and “You Must Possess Every Girl!”......Page 257
“Dirty Fellow,” Dancing and Swinging Pigs, Stinking Bitches and Self-Knowledge......Page 258
Kafka the “Flabby Worm”: The Method of Making “Abominable Peculiarities” Invisible through the Form of Their Disclosure......Page 263
7.2 THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ABJECT INTO “GUILTLESS ENJOYMENT”:WRITING AS DEVLISH-ANGELIC “DECEIVING WITHOUT DECEPTION”......Page 265
Amerika, or the Trajectory of Male Innocence in the Realm of “Repellent” Female Practices......Page 270
Loathsome Power and K.’s “Sexual Etiquette” in The Trial and The Castle......Page 281
Broken Engagements and Disgust with Meat, Spoiled Old Food, and Laxatives......Page 290
On Hard Sausages and Filthy Breakfasts: Nutrition and Narration in Kafka’s Amerika......Page 295
Breakfast, Old Woman, and Arrest: The Opening Chapter of The Trial......Page 300
Orgies of Flesh-Eating and Intoxication with Blood in Kafka’s (Hunger) Stories......Page 303
7.5 INCISIONS IN FLESH AND THE KNIFE OF LITERATURE......Page 307
Torture, Truth, and Disembowelled Pigs......Page 316
“Like a Dog”: K.’s Execution as the Summa of Kafka’s Knife-Poetics......Page 319
The “Stupidity” of Torture......Page 325
7.6 THE WOUND IN THE TEXT AND THE TEXT AS WOUND: THE STORY “A COUNTRY DOCTOR”......Page 327
7.7 BEER DRINKING HEARSE DRIVERS AND CHEERFUL GRAVEDIGGERS......Page 341
7.8 “HORRIBLE WORDS” AND KAFKA’S PHYSIOLOGY OF WRITING......Page 343
ANTI-AESTHETIC OF THE “FORMLESS”: MATERIALISM OF THE DEBASED, POLLUTION OF THE BEAUTIFUL, SELF-MUTILATION, AND THE “BLISS” OF ANAL-SADISTIC RAVAGES......Page 352
DISGUST PROHIBITIONS AND THEIR TRANSGRESSION AS SOCIETAL “CORE” AND STIMULATING MEDIUM OF EROTIC VIOLENCE......Page 357
“LA NAUSÉE: C’EST MOI”— SARTRE’S ELEVATION OF DISGUST TO THE SOLE AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE OF EXISTENCE......Page 364
9. Abject Mother (Kristeva), Abject Art, and the Convergence of Disgust, Truth, and the Real......Page 374
REPRESSION, REPUDIATION, ABJECTION......Page 375
ABJECT MOTHER, SYMBOLIC ORDER, DESIRE......Page 379
ABJECTION, DISGUST, AND JOUISSANCE......Page 381
LITERATURE AS (PERVERSE) RECLAMATION OF THE ABANDONED......Page 387
RHYTHM, LAUGHING APOCALYPSE, HAPPY GUILT......Page 390
ABJECT PLEASURE, DISGUST, TRUTH, AND THE REAL......Page 394
GRAND NARRATIVES OF THE HETEROGENEOUS......Page 396
AIDS, DISGUST, AND AFFIRMATIVE ABJECTION: ON THE POLITICAL APPROPRIATION OF KRISTEVA......Page 398
THE ACADEMIC CAREER OF THE “ABJECT”......Page 402
ABJECT ART......Page 404
INTRODUCTION......Page 412
CHAPTER 1......Page 414
CHAPTER 2......Page 418
CHAPTER 3......Page 427
CHAPTER 4......Page 432
CHAPTER 5......Page 434
CHAPTER 6......Page 439
CHAPTER 7......Page 445
CHAPTER 8......Page 452
CHAPTER 9......Page 457
Bibliography......Page 462