Eroticism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| The word "eroticism" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]]. It is conceived as sensual love or the human sex drive ([[libido]]). Philosophers and theologians discern three kinds of love: eros, [[philia]], and [[agape]]. Of the three, eros is considered the most egocentric, focusing on care for the self. | The word "eroticism" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, [[Eros (mythology)|Eros]]. It is conceived as sensual love or the human sex drive ([[libido]]). Philosophers and theologians discern three kinds of love: eros, [[philia]], and [[agape]]. Of the three, eros is considered the most egocentric, focusing on care for the self. | ||
| - | == In Ancient Greek philosophy == | + | == History: The Classical World == |
| - | [[Ancient Greek philosophy]]’s overturning of mythology defines in many ways our understanding of the heightened aesthetic sense in eroticism and the question of sexuality. Eros was after all the primordial god of unhinged sexual desire in addition to heteroeroticism, which is the yearning of sexual desire from the opposite sex. In the Platonic ordered system of ideal forms, Eros corresponds to the subject's yearning for ideal beauty and finality. It is the harmonious unification not only between bodies, but between knowledge and pleasure. | + | 'It might seem at first that eroticism is a virtually tranhistorical notion, for the erotic has existed at all times and places known to us' (Hunt, ibid). For Western society, however, Ancient Greek philosophy’s overturning of mythology defines in many ways our understanding of the heightened [[aesthetic]] sense in eroticism and the question of sexuality. Eros was after all the primordial god of unhinged sexual desire in addition to heteroeroticism, which is the yearning of sexual desire from the opposite sex. In the [[Platonism|Platonic]] ordered system of ideal forms, Eros corresponds to the subject's yearning for ideal beauty and finality. It is the harmonious unification not only between bodies, but between knowledge and pleasure. Eros takes an almost [[transcendent (philosophy)|transcendent]] manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the objectival other: 'the true order of going...to the things of love, is to use the beauties of earth as steps...to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair actions, and from fair actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty' (Hunt, ibid) |
| == In the work of Georges Bataille == | == In the work of Georges Bataille == | ||
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- "Erotic" redirects here. For the art genre, see Erotica.
- « "Eroticism ... is assenting to life up to the point of death" . »--Erotism: Death and Sensuality
Eroticism is an aesthetic focus on sexual desire, especially the feelings of anticipation of sexual activity. It is not only the state of arousal and anticipation, but also the attempt through whatever means of representation to incite those feelings.
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Etymology
The word "eroticism" is derived from the name of the Greek god of love, Eros. It is conceived as sensual love or the human sex drive (libido). Philosophers and theologians discern three kinds of love: eros, philia, and agape. Of the three, eros is considered the most egocentric, focusing on care for the self.
History: The Classical World
'It might seem at first that eroticism is a virtually tranhistorical notion, for the erotic has existed at all times and places known to us' (Hunt, ibid). For Western society, however, Ancient Greek philosophy’s overturning of mythology defines in many ways our understanding of the heightened aesthetic sense in eroticism and the question of sexuality. Eros was after all the primordial god of unhinged sexual desire in addition to heteroeroticism, which is the yearning of sexual desire from the opposite sex. In the Platonic ordered system of ideal forms, Eros corresponds to the subject's yearning for ideal beauty and finality. It is the harmonious unification not only between bodies, but between knowledge and pleasure. Eros takes an almost transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the objectival other: 'the true order of going...to the things of love, is to use the beauties of earth as steps...to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair actions, and from fair actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty' (Hunt, ibid)
In the work of Georges Bataille
Eros takes an almost transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the objectival other. This corresponds to attaining orgasms in erotic love-making. The French philosopher Georges Bataille (L'Erotisme) believed eroticism was a movement towards the limits of our own subjectivity and humanity, a transgression that dissolves the rational world but is always transitory.
Erotic objectification
An objection to eros and erotic representation is that it fosters a subject/object relationship in which the object of desire is a mere projection of the needs of the desiring subject, so that women 'were still more often the object of the artist's or writer's gaze than they were the subjects of their own representing processes' (Hunt, Eroticism and the Body Politic). Love as eros is considered more base than philia (friendship) or agape (self-sacrificing love). But female complicity in the male gaze cannot be ignored - 'some profound, masochistic will to self-objectification (evident, at a superficial level, in a woman's desire to make herself into a sex object)...doll-like affectations, narcissistic displays of isolated parts of the body, and the faked orgasm are just so many modalities of this essentially artificial sexuality'. Erotic engagement paradoxically individuates and de-individuates the desirer; and 'eroticism itself remains ambiguous: it is at once the domain of women's mastery by men and...the domain of women's mastery over men' (Hunt, ibid).
The third kind of love, physio, is directly related with the amount of sex drive that the brain feels upon encountering an erotic moment.
Problems of definition
Some believe defining eroticism may be difficult since perceptions of what is erotic fluctuate. For example, a voluptuous nude painting by Peter Paul Rubens could have been considered erotic when it was created for a private patron in the 17th century. Similarly in the United Kingdom and United States, and many other nations, D. H. Lawrence's sexually explicit novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was considered obscene and unfit for publication and circulation thirty years after it was completed in 1928, but may now be part of standard literary school texts in some areas. In a different context, a sculpture of a phallus in Africa may be considered a traditional symbol of potency though not overtly erotic. Such examples 'demonstrate the difficulty of drawing...a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the pornographic': indeed arguably 'the history of the separation of pornography from eroticism...remains to be written'(Hunt, ibid).
See also
- History of erotic depictions
- Eros
- Erotica
- Homoeroticism
- Human sexuality
- Paraphilia
- Romance
- Sexual fantasy
