
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Gender and Desire in History Gender and Desire in History
-
Archives of Erotic Experience Archives of Erotic Experience
-
Neither Marriage Nor Death (Other Love Stories) Neither Marriage Nor Death (Other Love Stories)
-
An Erotics of the Mundane An Erotics of the Mundane
-
-
-
-
6 Penetration and Its Discontents: Agency, Touch, and Objects of Desire
Get access-
Published:October 2020
Cite
Abstract
The notion that sexuality in the Greek and Roman periods was predicated on a social-sexual hierarchy that casts relationships in the binary terms of active penetrator and passive, penetrated object has been both influential and controversial over the last 30 years. Both the articulation of this hierarchy and its critique have been haunted by various gendered and identitarian investments, leading to several theoretical and historical impasses. Relatedly, contemporary theories of sexuality—including Freud and Lacan—almost universally imagine penetrative or traumatic wounding as primary models for sex and relational encounters at large. This chapter offers up the Acts of Paul and Thecla—a second century text that has also been associated with martyrdom literature—as an intervention into the continuing predominance of penetrative models as a grid for understanding erotic relations. It reads Thecla’s story (and some of the author’s own resonant personal experiences) as an archive of erotic experiences that fall just outside the grid of legible experiences.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 3 |
January 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 1 |
July 2023 | 5 |
September 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 2 |
December 2023 | 2 |
May 2024 | 5 |
August 2024 | 1 |
September 2024 | 2 |
October 2024 | 1 |
December 2024 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.