Description
Discover an enlightening journey through gender transition with **Pleasure and Efficacy** by Grace Lavery. This groundbreaking book delves into the representation of gender transition in the modern period, analyzing literary works from George Eliot to psychoanalytic entries by Sigmund Freud, alongside marriage manuals by Marie Stopes. With incisive exploration, Lavery examines the skepticism surrounding the true possibility of changing one's sex, acknowledging how this ambivalence fosters both antitrans oppression and civil rights claims from the trans community. Lavery introduces 'trans pragmatism'—a powerful concept demonstrating how trans individuals navigate societal forces to claim their own joy and autonomy. She argues for the viability of transition and highlights its transformative potential. Through engaging discussions that span poetry, criticism, philosophy, and modern media—from cinema to memes—Lavery also investigates how gender transition intersects with genre transition. Techniques of pleasure, she posits, are paramount for trans feminist flourishing, even as they encounter suppression from prevailing patriarchal norms. Experience this vital contribution to contemporary discourse on gender and identity. Shipping for this item is free, with an anticipated delivery time of up to 6 weeks. Once your order is placed, it cannot be cancelled. Condition: BRAND NEW. ISBN: 9780691243931. Format: Trade paperback (US). Year: 2023. Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Note: Shipping for this item is free. Please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery. Once your order is placed, it cannot be cancelled.
Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9780691243931
Format: Trade paperback (US)
Year: 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Description:
In Pleasure and Efficacy, Grace Lavery investigates gender transition as it has been experienced and represented in the modern period. Considering examples that range from the novels of George Eliot to the psychoanalytic practice of Sigmund Freud to marriage manuals by Marie Stopes, Lavery explores the skepticism found in such works about whether it is truly possible to change one’s sex. This ambivalence, she argues, has contributed to both antitrans oppression and the civil rights claims with which trans people have confronted it. Lavery examines what she terms 'trans pragmatism' – the ways that trans people resist medicalisation and pathologisation to achieve pleasure and freedom. Trans pragmatism, she writes, affirms that transition works, that it is possible, and that it happens.
With Eliot and Freud as the guiding geniuses of the book, Lavery covers a vast range of modern culture — poetry, prose, criticism, philosophy, fiction, cinema, pop music, pornography, and memes. Since transition takes people out of one genre and deposits them in another, she suggests, it should be no surprise that a cultural history of gender transition will also provide, by accident, a history of genre transition. Considering the concept of technique and its associations with feminine craftiness, as opposed to masculine freedom, Lavery argues that techniques of giving and receiving pleasure are essential to the possibility of trans feminist thriving—even as they are suppressed by patriarchal and antitrans feminist philosophies. Contesting claims for the impossibility of transition, she offers a counterhistory of tric
Note: Shipping for this item is free. Please allow up to 6 weeks for delivery. Once your order is placed, it cannot be cancelled.
Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9780691243931
Format: Trade paperback (US)
Year: 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Description:
In Pleasure and Efficacy, Grace Lavery investigates gender transition as it has been experienced and represented in the modern period. Considering examples that range from the novels of George Eliot to the psychoanalytic practice of Sigmund Freud to marriage manuals by Marie Stopes, Lavery explores the skepticism found in such works about whether it is truly possible to change one’s sex. This ambivalence, she argues, has contributed to both antitrans oppression and the civil rights claims with which trans people have confronted it. Lavery examines what she terms 'trans pragmatism' – the ways that trans people resist medicalisation and pathologisation to achieve pleasure and freedom. Trans pragmatism, she writes, affirms that transition works, that it is possible, and that it happens.
With Eliot and Freud as the guiding geniuses of the book, Lavery covers a vast range of modern culture — poetry, prose, criticism, philosophy, fiction, cinema, pop music, pornography, and memes. Since transition takes people out of one genre and deposits them in another, she suggests, it should be no surprise that a cultural history of gender transition will also provide, by accident, a history of genre transition. Considering the concept of technique and its associations with feminine craftiness, as opposed to masculine freedom, Lavery argues that techniques of giving and receiving pleasure are essential to the possibility of trans feminist thriving—even as they are suppressed by patriarchal and antitrans feminist philosophies. Contesting claims for the impossibility of transition, she offers a counterhistory of tric