A Series of Humiliations

When Sacher-Masoch released Venus in Furs, he gave his name to a notion that must have existed since ancient times: masochism. Subversive in its day, it dealt with humiliation in a closed setting: during sex. The present work posits human existence as humiliation, and deals with a trinity of debasement: mind, body, spirit. The hyperconscious mind is beset not only by anxiety, but by anxiety about anxiety—in an infinite regression. Kafka depicted this sort of consciousness in conflict with varying levels of awareness. Further, there is the body, and the physical discomfort it feels, particularly in contact with other bodies. Writers such as Antonin Artaud and Ryunosuke Akutagawa have traced this sort of body-terror. Finally, because humanity is not content to suffer in body and mind, it erects the notion of spirit—which falls under the aegis of religions, many of which posit the paradoxes of our determination and free will; our liberation through submission; our filth and reverence. The believer is the grand masochist in her/his efforts to be (in three ways) subsumed—to quell the divers terrors. To be assimilated, the believer approaches bodies or notions, but in doing so triggers the humiliation of existence. This work explores how close the believer can come to becoming an object, and how close that object can approach the object-of-worship.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Creative Writing/Fiction

Grantor dc:publisher

Bowling Green State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Hudnell, William Jason

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mayo, Wendell

• Literature
• Religion
• Psychology
• Psychotherapy
• sexuality
• masochism
• obsession
• ritual
• self and other

Statement dc:rights

• restricted--full text not available online
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1364826168

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:bgsu1364826168