The Explanation For Everything: Essays on Sexual Subjectivity

Paul Morrison

Published by New York University Press 2002

The Explanation For Everything

Essays on Sexual Subjectivity

Paul Morrison

Volume 31 in the series Sexual Cultures

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814759752.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

"The claim 'I'm straight' is the psychosexual analogue of 'The check is in the mail': if you need to say it, your credit or creditability is already in doubt." So begins Paul Morrison's dazzling polemic, which takes as its point of departure Foucault's famous remark that sex is "the explanation for everything."
Combining psychoanalytic, literary, and queer theory, The Explanation for Everything seeks to account for the explanatory power attributed to homosexuality, and its relationship to compulsory heterosexuality. In the process, Morrison presents a scathing indictment of psychoanalysis and its impact on the study of sexuality. In bold but graceful leaps, Morrison applies his critique to a diversity of examples: subjectivity in Oscar Wilde, the cultural construction and reception of AIDS, the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, the practice of bodybuilding, and the contemporary reception of the sexual politics of fascism.
Analytical, witty and astute, The Explanation for Everything will challenge and amuse, establishing Paul Morrison as one of our most exciting cultural critics.

Author / Editor information

Morrison Paul :

Paul Morrison is Associate Professor of English at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Poetics of Fascism: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Paul de Man.

Reviews

Diana Fuss,Princeton University:
Why is it that our culture's explanation for everything is homosexuality? In this judiciously argued and brilliantly conceived study, Morrison offers a compelling explanation of his own. The specter of "the homosexual" provides the perfect political scapegoat for acts of injustice that are, in truth, systemic and social in nature. If there is a culprit in contemporary scientific and cultural explanations of modern villainy, it is the predilection of critics themselves to find latent homosexuality here, there, and everywhere. A shrewd, quick-witted, and penetrating book.

Lee Edelman,Tufts University:
Though the irony of his title refuses the explanatory totalization that would follow from taking it straight, Paul Morrison's dazzlingly ferocious new book explains beyond all doubt why those of us familiar with his wide-ranging work recognize him as the most profoundly and provocatively Wildean critic of his generation.

David M. Halperin,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor:
Paul Morrison brings a refreshing and unique style to the practice of queer theory. With his extravagant attitude, epigrammatic wit, and political drive, he unsettles the complacencies of heterosexual certainty and gay self-congratulation alike, while forcing us to confront the breadth and depth of homophobia in our culture. Whether he is exploding liberal pieties or exhorting us not to allow sex to degenerate into love, Morrison startles and instructs. A challenging and necessary book.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1 The Explanation for Everything (Bad) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Motion Pictures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3 End Pleasure Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
4 Coffee Table Sex Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
5 Muscles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6 Lavender Fascists Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: February 1, 2002
ISBN: 9780814759752