Sexuality in Extremity: Trauma Literature, Violence and Counter-Erotics
In: Sexual Politics of Desire and Belonging
Author:
Marie-Luise Kohlke
Marie-Luise Kohlke
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Representations of sexuality in trauma literature risk the collapse of ethical witnessing into pornographic voyeurism and spectacle. Nevertheless writers repeatedly locate desire in the midst of public and private horrors, including the Holocaust, slavery, civil war, disease and domestic violence. This paper explores sexuality’s complex narrative functions vis-à-vis trauma, ranging from escapism and consolation to the construction of a powerful counter-erotics via re-humanisation, sociopolitical critique and a sexual sublime.