Camille Paglia : Camile Paglia
Camille Paglia (born April 2, 1947) is a social critic, author and feminist.Paglia is an intellectual of many apparent contradictions: a classicist who champions art both high and low, with a Hobbesian view that human nature is inherently dangerous, and yet who also celebrates dionysian revelry in the wilder, darker sides of human sexuality.
Her significance in the 1990s intellectual world was two-fold:
- The seventies had seen the rise of a particularly rigid, doctrinaire "feminism" that many were finding stifling but only a few were challenging (e.g., the "sex positive" S&M lesbians, perhaps typified by Susie Bright[?]).
- The left was pushing for a change in the traditional focus of western universities on western culture (sometimes derided as the study of "dead white males"). For example, Stanford University was dropping its well-regarded undergraduate requirement of a year-long course in "Western Culture" in favor of a more broadly-focused study of "Cultures Ideas and Values" or CIV.
Against this backdrop, Camille Paglia appeared on the scene as a female intellectual who enjoyed challenging the left-wing position in these areas, but far from being the usual stodgy conservative, she did so by arguing from an unusual, flashy position that also embraced homosexuality, fetish, and prostitution. Her later writings in her column in Salon often use the word "libertarian," as she speaks out in favor of individual freedom, which may help explain the apparent contradiction, and the consternation she causes in crossing back and forth between the dominant political camps.
Books
- Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
- Sex, Art and American Culture: Essays
- Vamps and Tramps: New Essays
External Links
- Salon Articles by Camille Paglia (http://dir.salon.com/topics/camille_paglia/index.html)
Skyward like swelling waves;
The dead slept in their graves.
And ever as we rode I heard
No voice of man or beast or bird,
Dark Rider, answer me!"
He answered quietly:
"But thou canst turn a face of cheer
Thou needst not care for Pain or Fear --
And said with breaking breath,
Then slay me now, O death.html">Death!"
The veil was from my eyesight drawn --
"I am the Angel of the Dawn!
And there, beside my bed,
And Pain a rose.html">rose of red.html">red.
I rode through the Bush in the burning noon,
The track was rough and the way was long,
He rode along by my side.
A day's march off my Beautiful dwelt,
Lightly lilting a gay love-song
With a blood-red rose on his breast.
"Red, red rose of the Western streams"
Truest comrade in hour of need, --
I had my own good.html">good grey.html">grey.html">grey.
There fell a spark on the upland grass --
And I felt my heart go cold as death,
But I heard him name.html">name.html">name Her name.
Down the hill-side the fire-floods rushed,
neck.html">Neck and neck was the reckless race, --
But the grey horse dropped behind.
He turned in the saddle -- "Let's change, I say!"
He sprang to the ground, -- "Look sharp!" he said
"I ride.html">ride lighter than you!"
Down and up -- it was quickly done --
Swift as a swallow she sped along,
And Bannerman rode the grey.
The hot air scorched like a furnace blast
The blue gums caught and blazed on high
The grey horse staggered and fell.
"Ride, ride, lad, -- ride for her sake!" he cried; --
Were swept, in less than a breathing space
And the lips that named HER name.
She bore me bravely, the good bay mare; --
.
On
wordlookup.net
All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.
|
|