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Dewey Decimal Number: 820.9382309032 EAN: 9780822321972 ISBN: 0822321971 Label: Duke University Press Manufacturer: Duke University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 208 Publication Date: 1998 Publisher: Duke University Press Studio: Duke University Press Editorial Review: Product Description: Religion and sex, body and soul, sacred and profane: In Closet Devotions, Richard Rambuss traces the relays between these cultural formations by examining the issue of “sacred eroticism,” the literary or artistic expression of devotional feelings in erotic terms that has repeatedly occurred over the centuries. Rather than dismissing such expression as mere convention, Rambuss takes it seriously as a form of erotic discourse, one that gives voice to desires that, outside the sphere of sacred rapture, would otherwise be deemed taboo. Through startling rereadings of works ranging from the devotional verse of the metaphysical poets (Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, and Traherne) to photographer Andres Serrano’s controversial “Piss Christ,” from Renaissance religious iconography to contemporary gay porn, Rambuss uncovers the highly charged erotic imagery that suffuses religious devotional art and literature. And he explores one of Christian culture’s most guarded (and literal) closets—the prayer closet itself, a privileged space where the vectors of same-sex desire can travel privately between the worshiper and his or her God. Elegantly written and theoretically astute, Closet Devotions illuminates the ways in which sacred Christian devotion is homoeroticized, a phenomenon that until now has gone unexplored in current scholarship on religion, the body, and its passions. This book will attract readers across a wide array of disciplines, including gay and lesbian studies, literary theory and criticism, Renaissance studies, and religion. Amazon.com Review: It is a commonplace among gay men that much religious art is, well, sexy: think of paintings of St. Sebastian dressed only in loincloth, torso pierced with arrows, and other (mostly naked) martyrs awaiting their salvation. Occasionally, even Jesus upon the cross would look more at home in a Mapplethorpe print than above an altar. From the metaphysical poets Richard Crashaw and John Donne to Bernini's famous sculpture of St. Theresa to Andres Serrano's controversial photograph Piss Christ, Richard Rambuss examines how sexual desire is often intertwined with religious iconography. While many art historians have argued that what we consider highly sexualized imagery resulted simply from artistic conventions of a more 'innocent' time, Closet Devotions postulates that religious art was the only 'safe' medium through which many forms of sexual desire could be expressed. Rambuss is wide-ranging in his references, which include such 'profane' texts as 18th-century manuals of piety, the erotic novels of Georges Bataille, Stephen King's Carrie, contemporary slasher movies, and ACT UP posters. He brings them all together to make a convincing, fascinating, illuminating, and at times brilliant argument about sex, desire, religion, and rapture. --Michael Bronski Related Items:      see moreAverage Rating:
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