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Tensions in Deleuzian Desire Critical An PDF
Tensions in Deleuzian Desire Critical An PDF
Angelaki
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To cite this Article Beckman, Frida(2010) 'Tensions in Deleuzian Desire', Angelaki, 15: 1, 93 — 108
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/0969725X.2010.496172
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2010.496172
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ANGEL AK I
journal of the theoretical humanities
volume 15 number 1 april 2010
93
tensions in deleuzian desire
help us rethink the problem of time and desire in matter of content as a matter of structure. For
Deleuze? Deleuze, it is the literary strategies of repetition
It is in his work on Sacher-Masoch, Daniel W. and postponement that reveal the nature of sadism
Smith notes, that Deleuze first connects the and masochism. It is by paying close attention to
critical and the clinical.1 Deleuze, Smith points these textual strategies that enables Deleuze to
out, saw his ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ as a first in a revise both Krafft-Ebing’s dual view and the
project of studies in the relation between the psychoanalytic symptomatology that, because it
critical and the clinical, a project that would had neglected the nature of the texts themselves,
make it possible to extract concepts from literary had made it possible to conflate sadism and
works.2 The critical and the clinical, Deleuze masochism in the complementary unity of
argues, converge at the particular point of sadomasochism. In other words, it is the very
symptomatology. Medicine, he suggests, com- structure of Sacher-Masoch’s work that allows
prises three activities: symptomatology or ‘‘the Deleuze to move from more clinical, psycho-
study of signs’’; aetiology, that is, ‘‘the search for analytical approaches to perversion to an analysis
causes’’; and therapy, ‘‘the development and that relies on the structure of the literary text.
application of a treatment.’’3 The first part, the This means that while Deleuze is thus not the
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study of signs, Deleuze argues, can just as well be first to recognize the link between sadism and
a subject for art as of medicine. Symptomatology masochism and literary texts, something new
is about identifying a point of convergence happens when he reads Sade and Sacher-Masoch
between different symptoms and naming it. The and extracts from their literary texts a sympto-
signs that give rise to a particular concept, or mology. In complementing and reassessing
‘‘illness,’’ may emerge from a human body but clinical approaches to sadism and masochism
they may just as well be recognized through a with a critical inquiry into the very nature of the
work of art, or a piece of literature. Already literary works that have named them, literary
Sigmund Freud, as Smith notes, used this critical language and descriptive functions become not
strategy when he turned to Sophocles in his symbols or representations of sadism and maso-
creation of the Oedipus complex.4 At the end of chism but the very means of determining their
the nineteenth century, Richard von Krafft-Ebing differential structures. Deleuze builds on Krafft-
used the particular agendas and aesthetics of the Ebing’s acknowledgement of the literary in the
literary texts by the Marquis de Sade and Leopold shaping of sadism and masochism but by
von Masoch to identify sadism and masochism as returning once more, and more critically, to
two particular sexual pathologies. As Barbara Sacher-Masoch’s literary works he makes it
Mennel puts it, Krafft-Ebing ‘‘turned aesthetics possible to posit masochism as an economy that
[ . . . ] into sexual science.’’5 is different from sadism rather than its comple-
While Krafft-Ebing’s much-disputed approach mentary opposite. The demonstrative function of
was later largely overridden by the clinical language in Sade and the dialectical in Sacher-
approaches of Freud, Theodor Reik and Marie Masoch produce narratives based on accelerated
Bonaparte, Deleuze, when introducing his own repetition and deferral respectively which, in
symptomatology of masochism, finds reason to Deleuze’s view affects, or even effects, the spatio-
return to the critical approach and thereby to temporal coordinates of sadism and masochism.
Sacher-Masoch’s (as well as Sade’s) own work. The return to the work of Sacher-Masoch and
Krafft-Ebing’s symptomatology relied largely on Sade, then, not only enables Deleuze to make a
the contents of the literary texts, which led him to strong case for his critical symptomatology by
distinguish between sadism and masochism on the demonstrating how it enables him to launch his
grounds that the sadist evinces the desire to influential differentiation between masochism
‘‘cause pain and use force’’ while the masochist and sadism. This literary approach also allows
harbours ‘‘the wish to suffer pain and be subjected him to identify what he sees as the crucial
to force.’’6 Deleuze’s symptomatology of maso- temporal form of masochism. There are ways, he
chism, on the other hand, becomes not so much a shows, in which the different functions of
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narrative and temporality in literature can be we can draw a sense of temporal continuity,
linked to economies of masochism and sadism reasoning brings the narrative to a halt only to
respectively. Their respective and irreducible point to its own function. When Sade’s libertines
economies depend on the function of desire and stop the persecution of their victims to deliver
how it can be drawn from the structure of the speeches about Enlightenment ideals and ration-
narrative. alism, they disrupt the narrative in two ways. To
begin with, there is the obvious way in which the
narrative and time in sade and action is deferred by them. Also, and more
intricately, the speeches double the violation of
sacher-masoch the victims; they are not only exposed to physical
That the symptomatology of Deleuze’s critical violence but also to the violence of reason.
enterprise encourages and even relies on a close Deleuze shows how the reasoning, by not being
interrogation of the literary text can be clearly shared but rather demonstrated to the listener/
demonstrated by taking a closer look at his victim, reflects the fact that pleasure does not
arguments for the separation of masochism and have to be shared by the person from whom it is
sadism. In Sade, Deleuze writes, ‘‘the imperative derived.10 Like the sexual violence it doubles it is
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and descriptive function of language transcends in fact desirable that the victim/listener does not
itself toward pure demonstrative, instituting derive pleasure from the speeches. Accordingly,
function.’’7 This is a demonstration not of the demonstrative reason of Sade’s stories func-
knowledge but of power. The libertines in tions to double the narrative of physical violence.
Sade’s work, as Deleuze shows, reason with From a narrative point of view, the doubling
their victims, not to persuade or educate, but reinforces the endless descriptions of transgres-
simply to demonstrate that ‘‘reasoning itself is a sive and violent acts and endows Sade’s narratives
form of violence.’’8 An awareness of Sade’s with a rhythm of repetition rather than a
critical strategies also suggests that the recurrent dialectical development.
libertine speeches are not meant to instruct the In Sacher-Masoch, Deleuze shows, the ‘‘pure
fictional listeners so much as the reader. Sade’s demonstrative, instituting function’’ of Sade is
project, as Theodor W. Adorno and Max exchanged for a ‘‘dialectical, mythical and
Horkheimer show, was to illustrate and take to persuasive function.’’11 Masochism is ‘‘neither
the extreme the implications of Enlightenment, material nor moral, but essentially formal.’’12
and in this way it is a very moral project in the The hesitant woman has to be coerced into her
midst of its blatant immorality.9 This way, one dominating function and made to perform
might say that it is the physical violence that according to the erotic fantasy of the masochist
doubles the reasoning rather than the other way subject. She has to be transformed to correspond
around. It is the speeches that are the main with the chilly beauty of a Venus statue. This
narrative. In this view, the sexualized torture is takes time. ‘‘But Severin,’’ Wanda exclaims in
just an illustration of the implications of the Venus in Furs, ‘‘do you believe me capable of
Enlightenment model of subjectivity and ration- maltreating a man who loves me as you do, and
ality. It is here, as many critics have shown, that whom I love?’’13 The increasing violence of the
we see most clearly Sade’s work as a critique of narrative is possible on the conditions of a causal
the contemporary belief in the nature of man and narrative through which reality is made to
its link to practical reason. correspond to the masochist fantasy and the
What happens in Sade, one may say, is that the woman to the dominatrix ideal. One might say,
narrative transforms reasoning as a dialectic then, that while the Sadean narrative depends on
process into an atemporal doubling of the repetition and doubling, the classic masochist
narrative action. Narratively, reasoning aims not narrative relies on temporal causality and
toward an argument and ultimately a synthesis linearity.
but rather it aims back only at itself. Rather than If Sade’s narratives function according to an
supporting and promoting a narrative from which economy of repetition and demonstrative reason,
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tensions in deleuzian desire
Sacher-Masoch’s novels centre on deferral and of energies, a connectivity that does not try to
agreement. But unlike the endless repetition of cover up what is missing but is always in the
the body in Sade, there is something inescapably process of creation. It is this conception of desire
temporal and linear about the desire of the that makes it possible for them to question
masochistic body. The masochistic body is predetermined borders of the body, the subject,
suspended in time because the pain it experiences and, indeed, being itself, without ending up with
does not in itself constitute an immediate dissolution or absence. Instead of drawing the
gratification but is rather a promise of what is contours of the individual body and explaining its
yet to come. It is because pleasure is deferred that desire to connect with other bodies in terms of a
it becomes possible for Deleuze and Guattari to compensation for an inner lack, they point to
argue that the masochist remains within the realm desiring machines; assemblages created by a
of desire.14 The acts of waiting and suspension, as creative capacity to connect.
Sacher-Masoch’s work shows, are expressed In A Thousand Plateaus, the masochist is
through a coherent narrative that can incorporate used as a way of explaining this open-endedness
the temporal form of indefinite delay. Even if the of desire. For Deleuze and Guattari, the maso-
goal is suspended there is nevertheless a goal; it chist enables new openings for thought that are
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is, to speak in terms of the literary that Deleuze central not only to how we think about a
himself finds so central to masochism, a state of particular perversion but also to how we approach
suspension that relies on a narrative ontological questions of becoming, bodies, and
development. desire. Desire based on lack and the subject
predetermines being according to social, familial,
and political categories and thereby closes down
masochism and desire
the creative potential inherent in all life.
Assuming that Deleuze is right about the Psychoanalysis, it is argued, ‘‘confines every
centrality of the formal in masochism, and desire and statement to a genetic axis or
assuming that his critical approach is valid, overcoding structure, and makes infinite, mono-
then the structure of the narrative is central to tonous tracings of the stages on that axis or the
how we may understand masochism and the constituents of that structure.’’15 The masochist
desire it transfigures. To be able to appreciate the body, on the other hand, opens up the possibility
philosophical problems that arise with Deleuze’s of replacing psychoanalytic desire with open-
critical reliance on the narrative and hence the ended and productive desire based on connectiv-
formal construction of masochistic desire in ity and suspension. As such, the masochist
‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ we need to understand becomes a way of rethinking the delimiting
how the narrative economy outlined in this text notion of a unified body determined by a
chafes against the economy as well as the unidirectional desire with a body and desire in
implications of desire in Deleuze and Guattari’s a continual and non-limitative process of creation.
philosophy. Deleuze and Guattari free desire One of the central characteristics of masochism
from its psychoanalytical links with goals and according to Reik, one of its earliest theorists, is
lack and instead position desire as open ended the ‘‘suspense factor,’’ that is, a postponement of
and productive. Reconsidering the focus on the release that is intimately linked with the anxiety
goal, and thereby on a specific directionality of raised by the ‘‘end-pleasure.’’16 Making use of
desire, makes it possible for them to rethink the this theory to suggest that masochism formally is
notion that desire is based on lack. It also enables a state of waiting, Deleuze finds in the masochist
them to free desire from a particular subject a desire that has no limit in that it is located in
position for whom this lack would be perceived as time itself rather than in the particular moment
reality. Rethinking desire thus becomes a way of of fulfilment.17 Desire is not limited to personal
rethinking the notions of subjectivity as well as desire but is a positive force of all creation.18
the body. Rather than presenting a desire based Pleasure, on the other hand, is ‘‘an affection of a
on lack, they offer desire as a productive coupling person or a subject.’’ Pleasure, in fact, ‘‘is the
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only way for persons to ‘find themselves’ in the helps to free thought from the subject and desire
process of desire that exceeds them.’’19 Thereby, from its teleological endpoint.
pleasure becomes the termination of desire; it The possibility of thinking open-ended pro-
effects what Deleuze and Guattari call a ‘‘reterri- ductive desire through the figure of the masochist
torialization,’’ a closing down of desire by is complicated, however, by the temporal form of
subjectification. As Deleuze writes in Two masochism that Deleuze identifies in ‘‘Coldness
Regimes of Madness: and Cruelty.’’ In fact, between ‘‘Coldness and
Cruelty’’ and A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze’s
I cannot give any positive value to pleasure use of masochism seems to point to two different
because it seems to interrupt the immanent
kinds of temporalities with two different sets of
process of desire. Pleasure seems to me to be
implications for the concept of desire. In
on the side of strata and organization . . . I tell
myself that it is no coincidence if Michel ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty,’’ he argues that the pain
[Foucault] emphasizes Sade, and I, on the and humiliation of the masochist is incompre-
contrary, Masoch.20 hensible if we do not relate it to ‘‘the temporal
form that makes it possible.’’23 This temporal
If pleasure puts an end to desire, then the form is about the immediate experience of pain,
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postponement of pleasure in the singular waiting not as pleasure in itself, but pain as a sign of the
of the masochist is thus an ideal instantiation of indefinite arrival of pleasure. Even if the waiting
desire as untied from pleasure. As Deleuze and of the masochist thus by definition postpones the
Guattari put it, ‘‘the masochist’s suffering is the pleasure that would put an end to desire, does not
price he must pay, not to achieve pleasure, but to this ‘‘temporal form’’ nonetheless suggest a
untie the pseudobond between desire and teleology of desire?
pleasure as an extrinsic measure.’’21 In A If we take a closer look at the temporal form of
Thousand Plateaus, one of the most essential the masochist in ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ it
characteristics of desire is not only that it is open- suggests a desire that, although it may not have
ended but also that it is all over. As such, the a definitive end, is nonetheless unidirectional.
masochistic body is used to discuss the Body This proposition is underscored by the recurrent
without Organs (BwO). The BwO is the argument that the male masochist does not, in
Artaudian concept that Deleuze and Guattari fact, relent his organizing power but evinces,
evoke to question the notion of the body as rather, a very strong sense of subjectivity. The
determined according to its internal and pre- link between masochism and subjectivity has
determined organization in terms of organs rather been explored by a number of modern critics. As
than in its connective potential. The BwO does Marianne Noble notes, theorists such as George
not pre-exist experience but is made up only of Bataille, Roy Baumeister, Leo Bersani, Nick
the intensities that pass through it.22 In Deleuze Mansfield, and Julia Kristeva have in different
and Guattari’s writing, the body of the masochist ways pointed to a masochist shattering of the self
is activated to think the BwO because the pain of as a striving toward ecstatic merging with the
the masochist, they argue, creates a body of pure other, with totality, or death.24 A perceived
intensities. Negotiated into a flow of pure pain, imprisonment in structures of the modern self
the masochist body becomes a desiring machine. causes a violent attack on this self in order to
The idea of lack is suspended along with the expand beyond it, a longing, in the case of
body – through this desire, the body escapes Kristeva, ‘‘to shatter the boundaries of the self in
subjectification (or facialization as they call it) order to remerge with totality in a state of ecstatic
and becomes pure event. The role of the non-identity.’’25 Mansfield suggests that this
masochist in A Thousand Plateaus thus clearly transgression of borders between self and other
functions to effect the notion of a multidirectional makes the masochist strive to incorporate self and
desire. Arguably, then, the masochist serves not other ‘‘as the structural logic of a sort of total
only as a means to illustrate a philosophical subject.’’26 Mansfield builds on the notion that
argument but the economy of this perversion the masochist is in one sense annexing the
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tensions in deleuzian desire
subjectivity of his torturer. In this understanding, to the open-ended multidirectional desire in the
the (male) masochist in no way surrenders his masochist of A Thousand Plateaus? There are
power to the person who dominates, tortures, and ways, it seems, in which the masochism outlined
humiliates him but, quite the contrary, he in Deleuze’s essay on Sacher-Masoch is not the
manifests the power of his subjectivity by dissolution of the body into the BwO as much as
teaching, and sometimes coercing, the dominant it is the complete failure of escaping the subject
how to treat him. Power is thus only seemingly position. The notion of masochism as developed
placed with the figure of dominance while all the by Deleuze thus creates problems for his notion
while remaining with the masochist. As Mansfield of desire and the rethinking of the body and
puts it, the masochist ‘‘cajoles and manipulates subjectivity. This is clearly linked to the tensions
his partner into expressing a desire he himself has between unidirectional and multidirectional
constructed for her.’’27 Similarly, Deleuze notes desire and how they are structured through the
how the masochist contract points not only to the temporal structure suggested in the literary
consent of the masochist but ‘‘his pedagogical narrative. But what happens to our understanding
and judicial efforts to train his torturer.’’28 This is of masochism if we accept Deleuze’s premises of
most famously exemplified in Venus in Furs the symptomology of masochism as a critical
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where Severin instructs the initially confounded practice but look rather at literary works about
Wanda according to his demands for her female masochism?
dominance and makes her into the cold Venus
of his dreams and desire. ‘‘I shall try,’’ she a critical approach to female
surrenders, ‘‘to be Venus in Furs.’’29 In this
shape, then, the masochist asserts rather than
masochism
abandons his subject position. Mansfield notes While male masochism has been addressed as a
how this masochist does not simply dominate and theoretical challenge to temporality and being,
control the desire of the other. Even on its own, female masochism has travelled less far from the
the power of the masochist over his torturer, his clinical, and primarily Freudian, link between
training and even annexation of the torturer’s masochism and female passivity and sexual
desire suggests an extraordinarily powerful sub- submissiveness. Between them, the writings of
jectivity. Moulding this forceful subjectivity in Krafft-Ebing, Reik, Freud, and Deleuze have
the temporal form of masochism suggested by caused a different symptomatology between male
Deleuze, a strong, and unidirectional subject and female masochism. Kaja Silverman notes the
position appears. The subjective determination curious fact that Freud follows up his famous
and strictly structured temporality of the male comment on the accessibility of female maso-
masochist reveals masochism as ‘‘an art of chism with a discussion limited to male patients.
power,’’ as Mansfield puts it. Even if the desire Krafft-Ebing’s, Reik’s, and Deleuze’s later stu-
of the masochist, most famously positioned under dies of masochism have all focused on male
the boot of the woman in furs and under the masochism. Silverman suggests that this privile-
shadow of the whip, is postponed, it is not, in ging of male masochism is indicative of how only
fact, liberated through this act since it still finds masochism has been seen as pathological while it
its answer in the whip or the heel of the boot; the has been taken as a ‘‘normal’’ element of female
trajectory of the whip is already decided just as subjectivity.30 For Reik, for example, a maso-
the masochist himself has selected the sharpness chistic woman does not really surpass her regular
of the heel. subjective limits while a male masochist moves
We can now begin to see the tensions that arise into the ‘‘‘enemy terrain’ of femininity.’’31 Most
when we try to make use of the masochist to subsequent critical interrogations of masochism
rethink desire and its intimate association with have also been gendered and separated. In an
temporality through Deleuze’s critical project. Is article that was to greatly influence Freud, Helene
the open-ended but ‘‘temporal form’’ of the Deutsch discusses femininity as ‘‘the feminine,
masochist in ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ comparable passive-masochistic disposition in the mental life
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of women.’’32 Making the important distinction Paula Caplan suggests that the idea of
between the feminine and the female, Freud’s masochism as a natural part of the female
argument that the masochistic phantasy puts the psyche and sexuality is based on two misunder-
subject ‘‘in a characteristically female situation’’ standings. The first is the biological and later
and that this female situation is passive and based psychoanalytical view that stems from Krafft-
on lack, it is about castration and ‘‘being Ebing’s idea of an ‘‘instinctive inclination’’ and
copulated with’’ has arguably engendered an voluntary subjection of the female physiological
association between female passivity and the and sexual set-up. The second is the misreading
passivity commonly ascribed the masochist that whereby women’s adaptation to unequal social
later studies have had problems shaking.33 conditions is taken as natural behaviour.37
Although Deutsch’s as well as Freud’s associa- Belonging to a second-wave feminism that
tions between femininity and masochism have strongly questioned the idea of masochism as a
been questioned, there seems to linger a tension natural female condition, Caplan points to
in how we think about female masochism. On the numerous readings that consider female maso-
one hand, arguments that women are somehow chism as an extension of normative female
masochistic as part of their sexuality or even behaviour. Judith Bardwick and Clara
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psyche are no longer very persuasive. In fact, Thompson in different ways consider masochism
already in 1957, Rudolph M. Loewenstein argued as a way for women to adapt to pain and the
that, although masochism is much more common restriction of their aggression and sexuality, and
in women than in men, the equation between Jessie Bernard and Nancy Chodorow theorize
female sexuality and masochism is problematic how society shapes women’s acceptance of self-
and does not solve any problems in how we think negation and sacrifice. A ‘‘learned behaviour,’’
about masochism.34 Caplan writes, is thereby taken as proof of
On the other hand, the act of passivity and ‘‘‘natural masochism’’’ in women.38 The notion
surrender of subjectivity has continued to be of female masochism, Caplan concludes, does
perceived as highly problematical in the case of women an immense disservice as it constitutes a
female masochism. The considerable variation in misreading of the female condition and a
critical approaches is suggestive of the difficulties misplacement of political agency. Similarly,
of coming to terms with the idea of female Frigga Haug suggests that women’s masochism
submissiveness in modernity. As Rita Felski ‘‘simply describes their efforts to accept [their]
points out, the critical response to female situation, and the fairytale which transforms such
masochism includes propositions such as ‘‘maso- efforts into an essential quality of women is
chism is a natural urge in women: epitomizes intended to have the function of reassuring us
women’s oppression under patriarchy; is an that defects in society can be resolved in women’s
empowering form of sexual experimentation; characters.’’39 Jessica Benjamin agrees with
does not exist.’’35 The uncomfortable association Caplan in the cultural determination of the
of the traits of the masochist and traditional association of femininity and masochism but
definitions of the feminine has strongly influ- points out that she completely fails to take
enced the fact that approaches to female maso- account of the pleasurable and erotic dimensions
chism have tended toward the psychoanalytical of masochism. Arguing from her psychoanalytical
and clinical. Feminist scholars, Felski notes, have perspective, Benjamin notes that ‘‘Cultural myths
largely relied on psychoanalytical theory. The and labels still do not explain how the ‘essence of
gendered symptomatology of masochism finds its trained femininity’ gets into women’s heads and
most famous and arguably most influential source is there converted into pleasurable fantasies of
in Freud’s famous declaration in ‘‘The Economic erotic submission.’’40
Problem of Masochism’’ that feminine maso- These critical responses to masochism consti-
chism is both the most accessible as well as the tute a prime example of how the thematic and the
least problematical; ‘‘it can be surveyed in all its clinical have been linked in responses to female
relations.’’36 masochism and how both the social and
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tensions in deleuzian desire
submission and humiliation in women’s fiction web in which the issues of dependency and
from Charlotte Brontë to Alice Munro. Arguably, domination are inextricably intertwined.’’49 The
Réage’s Story of O is the most famous literary masochistic temporality of deferment that is so
text about female masochism. In her review of the important to Deleuze has different implications if
novel, which took the shape of an enraged attack we accept the sadomasochistic argument. Here
on its gendered implications, Andrea Dworkin Benjamin offers a Hegelian understanding of the
writes that ‘‘the sado-masochistic complexion of temporal development in Story of O. Hegel’s
O is not trivial – it is formulated as a cosmic famous master–slave dialectic shows how the
principle which articulates, absolutely, the fem- hierarchal roles of dominance and submission are
inine.’’42 O, she argues, is ‘‘a clear mythological under constant threat of reversal. The slave’s
figure: she is a woman, and to name her O, zero, surrender to the master in the struggle for
emptiness, says it all.’’43 Story of O is more than domination is ultimately making him the stronger
simply pornography, Dworkin insists, because it one; not only has he stared death in the face, his
‘‘claims to define epistemologically what a woman service to the master gradually makes the master
is.’’44 The passivity linked with masochism has depend on him. The master, furthermore, is
been seen to correspond more to a ‘‘classic’’ weakened by his awareness of the fact that the
female problem of giving up subjectivity to rest recognition he demands from the slave is based
in the stronger one of the dominant gender. This on power rather than genuine recognition.
way, the masochism of O would appear as a Benjamin shows how the narrative of Story of O
symptomatology of the female inaccessibility to is developed in line with this logic. The dialectic
the subject position in the first place. Benjamin, shows how a slave who is completely vanquished
for example, suggests that O gives her self up in is no longer able to give the master the
order to gain access to the more powerful recognition he craves. According to this logic,
subjectivity of the man. Her sacrifice, Benjamin the possession of O must be, and is, prolonged.
argues, ‘‘creates the master’s power, produces his The story, Benjamin writes, ‘‘is driven forward by
coherent self, in which she can take refuge.’’45 At the dialectic of control.’’50 The importance of the
the same time, Benjamin has been criticized for masochistic prolongation and deferment acquires
reconfirming the Freudian link between maso- a slightly different meaning if we discuss it in
chism and women. Noble argues that Benjamin’s terms of such dialectic. The temporal deferral
psychoanalytic reading of masochism ‘‘virtually that enables the open-ended desire that in turn
fuses masochistic desire with the female subject harbours the potential of escaping the subject
position in modern Western society.’’46 The position in Deleuze and Guattari’s figure of the
intellectual debate over the question of female masochist becomes, in its dialectical
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interpretation, a reinforcement in the Hegelian only under the lash or beneath the heavy body of
power struggle over subjectivity itself. an unknown man that she finds herself, that she
From this Hegelian perspective, both the becomes someone who can be loved. This love
thematics and the temporal structure of Story of that she craves is not the love of any man – her
O threaten to collapse Deleuze’s distinction love is exclusively bestowed first on René and
between sadism and masochism. I would argue, then Sir Stephen. Accordingly, she is not simply
however, that Réage’s story could equally be a masochistic, objectified body but a subject who
understood as following the temporal structure of chooses abuse and objectification as part of a
masochistic waiting that Deleuze ascribes to game of love. This becomes obvious when she is
Sacher-Masoch’s writing, and thus masochism, shocked to discover that her lover fulfils his
specifically. Like Severin in Venus in Furs, objectification of her and actually treats her ‘‘like
Réage’s protagonist is left chained up, she is a piece of furniture.’’53 She realizes that she had
left in darkness, in various humiliating positions, not quite believed him, that she had placed his
waiting indefinitely. Story of O begins when the acts of degradation within the realm of mutual
independent fashion photographer O is taken in a love. This means that even if it ultimately fails,
taxi by her lover toward an unknown destination. O’s masochism has an agenda. She works to
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She is taken to a chateau at Roissy to become a maintain the love of the men she herself desires.
sexual slave. O is told to wait naked for her lover, The crucial point here is that there is a narrative
she is kept locked up in dark cellars, she is kept and a subject according to which pain and
chained in her room and told always to expect pleasure make sense, albeit in a perverted way.
pain. The awaited pleasure for O – the gratifica- Even if O’s desire cannot be assuaged even with
tion which makes her pain meaningful – is the the increasing intensity of her torture and
returned love, first of René and later of Sir degradation, the pain constitutes for her proof
Stephen. Even if O’s pleasure is deferred – and of her own, admittedly problematic, agency.
indeed, it is postponed indefinitely when the I would like to suggest that because O is part of
novel ends with O being left at Roissy in the a narrative, a narrative that places her in a position
uncertainty of Sir Stephen ever returning – where her masochism does have a purpose
pleasure is there to structure her desire. This (to please René and Sir Stephen), it is possible
means that even if desire is maintained, it is to see O as a subject and her pain as pleasure. In
channelled in a specific direction and kept within other words, O can be seen as a subject because
the realm of the subject. Even if it is open ended, the narrative identifies and describes a pleasure in
the pain, the waiting and the pleasure to come her pain. On her first night at Roissy, and after her
produce a unidirectional temporal arch in which a first whipping, she ponders ‘‘why there was so
coherent subject and body can be maintained. much sweetness mingled with the terror in her or
The masochist narrative that confirms the why her terror seemed itself so sweet.’’54 What
temporality of deferment as explicated by Reik troubles her more than the whipping is that she
and Deleuze is thus present in Story of O. has not been able to identify her lover among the
The masochistic body of O in Réage’s novel many men that had taken her earlier in the
experiences pain as pleasure because it constitutes evening.55 Her feelings centre completely on René
a deceptive and temporary relief of desire. In line and she wants her pain to be part of her expression
with Reik’s earlier note that it is not the pain that of love for him. Accordingly, the narrative
is pleasurable to the masochist but the anxiety of conducts a twofold identification of O. Not only
its possible execution,51 Deleuze and Guattari does it construct her as a subject through the
argue that the notion that the masochist unfolding of her character through her thoughts
experiences pain as pleasure is inaccurate. The and actions but also it constructs her as an
point for the masochist, they maintain, is to embodied subject by accounting for her pain
consistently defer pleasure.52 The pleasure that O within a narrative framework.
seems to find in her pain is a proof that her lover It seems, then, that three possible models of
René, and later Sir Stephen, still wants her. It is female masochism emerge with Réage’s novel.
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tensions in deleuzian desire
The first one reads O as a sign of womanhood, be theory. In Venus in Furs, Sacher-Masoch’s
it based on a ‘‘natural inclination’’ or societal Severin is ultimately ‘‘cured’’ of his masochistic
pressures. This model relates O to historical inclinations.58 Furthermore, the final paragraphs
behavioural patterns of female sexuality and are suggestive of the reversal of sadism and
subjectivity. According to this model, Story of masochism that Deleuze so vehemently denies in
O can be read either as proof or as a critique of his theory of masochism. ‘‘I was a fool,’’ Severin
the subordination of female sexuality and states, ‘‘If only I had whipped her instead.’’59
subjectivity. Dworkin’s indignation, as we have Réage’s novel, however, suggests neither cure nor
seen, was based on her experiencing Réage’s reversal. Furthermore, with an ending that leaves
novel as laying claim to a universal principle of both O and the reader in a state of suspension –
what constitutes a woman. Sontag, on the other does O stay at Roissy? Does she die? Does she go
hand, finds in Story of O an element of parody; home? Does Sir Stephen ever return? – Réage’s
Story of O fits almost too well with the novel more appropriately stages the infinite
symptomatology that equates female sexuality deferral of an endpoint or pleasure.
and subjectivity with masochism. Like Dworkin, In response to these three models, I would like
she reads Story of O as portraying the gradual to suggest that whether we understand Story of O
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temporality are brought out by the directionality story while robbing it of the teleology of pleasure.
and open-endedness of masochistic desire respec- Acker’s novel thereby offers a way of exploding
tively. As I have tried to show so far, the the limitations of a unidirectional temporality.
postponement of desire that is integral to Great Expectations is hardly ever mentioned in
Deleuze’s understanding of masochism in relation to its masochist theme, and yet this is the
‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ is suggestive of a novel in which Acker’s portrayal of masochism
directionality of desire and a strong subjectivity. has its greatest revolutionary potential.
This model is thus at odds with the open-ended As if to prove the strong link between
desire of the masochist as a BwO in Deleuze and masochism and temporally coherent narrative,
Guattari. The BwO is a productive desiring the pervasive theme of masochism in Acker’s
machine that multiplies connections and that, work is noted mainly in relation to her more
while not in opposition to subjectivity, functions coherent narratives (see, for example, Redding
by means of experimentation, it is a practice of and Ward). Critics have recognized that maso-
removing ‘‘the phantasy, significances and sub- chism recurs in nearly all Acker’s protagonists
jectifications’’ that keeps the subject in place and and ‘‘courses through her prose like a virus’’62 and
desire in check.60 even that ‘‘Acker’s fictions are always about
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According to Deleuze and Guattari, the virtue masochism.’’63 Most interpretations of the theme
of the masochist lies in a deferral of pleasure and of masochism in Acker focus on novels such as
thereby a retention of desire. Pleasure is a Don Quixote, Empire of the Senseless, and Blood
termination of desire that effects a reterritoriali- and Guts in High School, that is, on texts that,
zation, a closing down of desire by subjectifica- although they are frequently fragmented, none-
tion, but the masochist’s deferral of pleasure theless offer the presence of a narrative framework
through suspension and indefinite waiting, in that makes it possible to interpret bodies and their
their view, effects a deterritorialization of the desires in time. There is, in other words, some
subject. As I suggested above, the deferral of kind of temporal development of masochistic
desire as part of a temporal narrative retains the desire. In both Blood and Guts in High School
idea of pleasure, or the ‘‘end-pleasure’’ as Reik and Empire of the Senseless the masochism of the
puts it, as an ultimate goal. It would seem, then, female protagonists is linked back to their
that in order for masochism to really become the incestuous and violent childhoods and masochism
figure that liberates the subject and the body, one becomes a way for them to control their pain.
needs not just to defer pleasure but to remove it Arthur Redding argues that masochism in Acker
as a possibility. One needs to remove the ‘‘goal’’ is familial and is caused by the internalization of
which would make desire temporal. an abject image of the self.64 His concise summary
Using her famous strategy of what has been of Acker’s masochistic thematic evinces this quite
called everything from intertextuality to pirating clearly: ‘‘Rape by the father, the mother’s suicide,
to plagiarism, Kathy Acker includes parts of the structural limits of the oedipal triangle
Réage’s text in her novel Great Expectations. In overdetermine the masochistic nature of Acker’s
this novel, Acker moves through Story of O and protagonists.’’65 While obviously critical in the
its sequel Return to the Château over the course sense of its literary symptomatology, Redding’s
of sixteen pages.61 Repeating the taxi ride that analysis is suggestive of how female masochism
takes O to Roissy in the opening of Réage’s novel, tends to be framed by clinical interpretation in the
the section ends with the very last words of sense that masochism is explored as a thematic,
Réage’s second book. Acker lifts single sentences psychoanalytic narrative.
and paragraphs from Réage’s story and rejects These previous psychoanalytic readings of
but leaves out the coherence of the original Acker’s works have put too narrow a focus on
narrative. Almost exclusively, it is the fragments the clinical much in the same way as such
of the text that describe perverse and impersona- readings of Sacher-Masoch’s and Sade’s work
lized sexual activities that are repeated. Acker have done, according to Deleuze. Deleuze argues
thereby takes on the masochistic body of Réage’s that it is exactly the disregard of the literary, that
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tensions in deleuzian desire
is, the narrative techniques and the role of for the movement beyond the limitations of the
descriptive functions, that makes it possible for body and beyond the ‘‘I,’’ which posits the
psychoanalytic theory to invent the faulty notion masochist as a more radical liberation offered
of sadomasochism. In demonstrating how this through Acker’s text. When Acker takes sections
entity can be questioned by a literary approach, from Story of O but leaves out the description of
Deleuze not only points to the irreducible natures thoughts and feelings that make Réage’s O into a
of sadism and masochism but also makes a strong clearly defined – if deteriorating – subject,
case for his critical and clinical project: ‘‘The Acker’s characters remain largely unidentifiable
critical (in the literary sense) and the clinical (in and destabilized in terms of identity as well as
the medical sense) may be destined to enter into a gender. In Story of O, one of the rules meant to
new relationship of mutual learning.’’66 But while de-subjectify the women at Roissy is a prohibition
Deleuze’s reading enforces an important revision to look the men in the eye. In Acker, this is
of the sadomasochistic entity, and introduces a expressed differently:
critical revision of symptomatology, his reading
of Sacher-Masoch’s narratives in terms of tempor- He is saying that it no longer matters what she
ality and desire, as I have already noted, leaves thinks and what her choices are.
He is saying that he is the perfect mirror of her
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Réage’s novel. Pain is not made to make sense Expectations thus offers a masochist thematic
through narrative justifications. Pain is left but withholds the narrative framework that would
insensible, outside subjectivity. This, I would disenable the possibility of pleasure even as an
suggest, is also what the text conveys when it asks indefinite element of the masochistic striving. In
‘‘[i]f there are an infinite number of non-relating this way, desire is not only kept indefinite but is
events, where’s the relation that enables pain?’’70 kept open as a possibility beyond the temporal
‘‘As opposed to subjectivity,’’ Deleuze writes, subject.
desire is ‘‘an event, not a thing or a person.’’71 In I have suggested in this article that the figure
Acker’s text, events are ‘‘non-relating’’ because of the masochist reveals some tensions in the
there is no narrative to tie them together. Deleuzian conception of desire. Although Deleuze
Without narrative, there can be no pleasure and and Guattari’s project is very much a move away
no definitive subject. The masochistic pain from the conventional notion of subjectivity, it
emerges from the very exposure to the event seems that Deleuze’s earlier reading of maso-
that has no narrative justification. The ‘‘phantasy, chism in ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ relies quite
significances and subjectifications’’ that keep heavily on the idea of a conventional subject.
desire imprisoned are thereby exchanged for Even if the masochistic body is a rejection of the
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multiple connections and a masochistic subject is permanent identification and signification of the
exchanged for a productive and multidirectional body – the standstill that pleasure would entail –
desiring machine; a BwO. the temporality which according to Deleuze is a
The masochist, Deleuze argues, ‘‘does not requirement for the retention of masochistic
believe in negating or destroying the world: what desire suggests a masochistic subject. There
he does is to disavow and thus to suspend it, in must be a subject, and I would even venture to
order to secure an ideal which is itself suspended say a fairly coherent, temporal subject, to
in fantasy.’’72 In Great Expectations, two perceive and also determinedly organize the
detached sentences follow one another – ‘‘I’m a waiting and the suspension of pleasure. This is
masochist’’ and ‘‘This is a real revolution.’’73 The confirmed in Sacher-Masoch’s work as well as in
‘‘real’’ revolution of masochism in Acker’s text is Story of O. Because the masochist is part of a
the notion of a masochism that it not working to coherent narrative of gradual development,
negate or destroy the world, but is neither the masochism is placed within the temporality of
creation of a fantasy that ‘‘suspends’’ reality. It is the suspension of pleasure and thus, I have
the abandonment of coherent narrative that suggested, in a trajectory that originates in a
makes either of these possible. Acker is not subject. Both Severin and O can be seen as
creating a fantasy either for her characters or for temporal subjects because they choose pain as a
her readers to indulge in. She is separating means, a prerequisite to attain pleasure. This
masochism from fantasy, from subjectivity and means that not only do these narratives construct
she is informing it with the eroticism of a body masochist subjects but they also construct them
that is not objectified so much as it is freed from as embodied and unified subjects by accounting
subjectification. Her fragmented sections do not for their pain and suspension within a ‘‘temporal
provide any narrative justification of the maso- form.’’ There is a sense, then, in which the
chistic relations they describe. There is no masochist economy of waiting seems to anticipate
‘‘agenda,’’ so to speak, according to which the or even depend upon a narrative of temporal
pain attains a purpose. Who is waiting for continuity.
pleasure and what would that pleasure be? In Great Expectations, on the other hand,
Without a clear subject and the idea of a future there is no narrative according to which the pain
pleasure, the linear temporality in which waiting could be seen as part of the pleasure of the
would make sense is annulled. Because maso- masochistic body. This impersonalized desire
chism is portrayed through repetition and does not relate back to the subject or pleasure.
disjunction, both subject and body are opened Great Expectations thus offers an impersonal
toward difference and indetermination. Great desire that does not relate back to a specific body
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tensions in deleuzian desire
and its (anticipated) pleasure. It seems, therefore, 7 Gilles Deleuze, ‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ in
as if a critical symptomatology of Acker’s female Masochism, trans. J. McNeil (New York: Zone,
masochism allows for the liberating of desire that 1991) 23.
Deleuze and Guattari seek in A Thousand 8 Ibid.18.
Plateaus. Although their explication of the
9 Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer,
masochist body as a deterritorialization of the
Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. Edmund Jephcott
body makes sense, the connective desire that
(Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002) xvi.
explodes the limits of the stratified body and
subject risks being deterritorialized by the 10 Ibid.19.
temporal form which Deleuze ascribes to it. It 11 Deleuze 23.
is, as we have seen, the goal that has to be
deferred, both in Reik’s and Deleuze’s under- 12 Ibid. 74.
standing of masochism. Acker’s text opens for a 13 Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs, in
BwO by constructing a masochism for which Masochism, trans. J. McNeil (New York: Zone,
desire truly moves without goal. At the same 1991) 172.
time, it also opens for new readings of female 14 Gilles Deleuze and Fe¤lix Guattari, A Thousand
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beckman
28 Ibid. 75. 45 Benjamin 61.
29 Sacher-Masoch 195. 46 Noble 16.
30 Kaja Silverman, Male Subjectivity at the 47 Michell Ward, ‘‘Empowerment in Chains:
Margins (New York and London: Routledge, 1992) Exploring the Liberatory Potential of Masochism,’’
189. eSharp 6.1 (2005): 3.
31 Ibid.190. 48 Quoted in ibid. 2.
32 Helene Deutsch, ‘‘The Significance of 49 Benjamin 55.
Masochism in the Mental Life of Women’’ in
50 Ibid. 58.
Essential Papers on Masochism, ed. Margaret Ann
Fitzpatrick Hanly (New York and London: 51 Reik 326.
New York UP,1995) 412.
52 Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus
33 Sigmund Freud, ‘‘The Economic Problem of 171^72.
Masochism,’’ trans. James Strachey, in Essential
53 Pauline Re¤age, Story of O, trans. Sabine d’Estree
Papers on Masochism, ed. Margaret Ann
(New York: Ballantine,1965) 81.
Fitzpatrick Hanly (New York and London:
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tensions in deleuzian desire
70 Acker 67.
71 Deleuze, Two Regimes of Madness 130 ^31.
72 Deleuze,‘‘Coldness and Cruelty’’ in Masochism
32^33.
73 Acker 52.
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Frida Beckman
Department of English
Uppsala University
Box 527
SE-751 20 Uppsala
Sweden
E-mail: frida.beckman@engelska.uu.se