One or Many Antisexes? Introduction to Andrei Platonov’s “The Anti-Sexus”
Keywords:
Communism, Masturbation, Platonov, Psychoanalysis ,Sex
Abstract
This essay is intended as an introduction to Andrei Platonov’s short satirical brochure for a universal masturbation machine, titled “The Anti-Sexus.” I discuss some of the philosophical issues the pamphlet raises about capitalism and desire, death drive and satisfaction. Part of the trickiness of the text is that it is difficult to discern exactly who or what Platonov is lampooning. Is there a way to think about sexuality that avoids the alternatives of the invisible “handjob” of the market, revolutionary puritanism, and bureaucratic regulation? The essay makes connections between Platonov’s antisexualism and Viktor Shklovsky’s literary formalism, a more recent treatment of the same theme in Stanisław Lem, and Norbert Wiener’s apocalyptic cybernetics.
References
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Banting, Mark, Catriona Kelly and James Riordan (1988). “Sexuality.” In Russian Cul- tural Studies: An Introduction, eds. Catriona Kelly, and David Shepherd, 311–51. Clarendon: Oxford.
Borenstein, Eliot (2000). Men Without Women: Masculinity and Revolution in Russian Fiction, 1917–1929. Durham: Duke University.
Carleton, Gregory (2005). Sexual Revolution in Bolshevik Russia. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Freud, Sigmund (1905). “Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious” [1955]. In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (SE), Vol. 8. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. London: Hogarth.
Freud, Sigmund (1915). “Thought for the Times on War and Death” [1955]. In SE, Vol. 14. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. London: Hogarth.
Freud, Sigmund (1918). “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” [1955]. In SE, Vol. 18. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. London: Hogarth.
Freud, Sigmund (1955). “Civilization and Its Discontents” [1930]. In SE, Vol. 21. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. London: Hogarth.
Jameson, Fredric (1994). The Seeds of Time. Irvine, CA: University of California.
Kollontai, Alexandra (1972). Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle & Love and the New Morality. Trans. Alix Holt. Bristol: The Falling Wall Press.
Kollontai, Alexandra (1977). “Make Way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth.” In Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Writings, trans. Alix Holt. New York: W. W. Norton.
Lacan, Jacques (1966). Seminar XIII L’objet de la psychanalyse, session of June 8, 1966 (unpublished). English translation by Cormac Gallagher available at http://www. lacaninireland.com/web/wpcontent/uploads/2010/06/13TheObjectofPsy-choanalysis1.pdf
Lacan, Jacques (1971). Seminar XIX Le savoir du psychanalyste, session of December 2, 1971 (unpublished). English translation by Cormac Gallagher available at http:// www.lacaninireland.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Book-19a-The- Knowledge-of-the-Psychoanalyst-1971-1972.pdf
Lacan, Jacques (1993). The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book III. The Psychoses 1955–1956, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Russell Grigg. New York: Norton.
Lem, Stanisław (1979). A Perfect Vacuum. Trans. Michael Kandel. Evanston: Northwestern University
Naiman, Eric (1988). “Andrej Platonov and the Inadmissibility of Desire.” Russian Lit- erature 23: 321–22.
Pierre, José (1992), ed. Investigating Sex: Surrealist Research 1928–1932. Trans. Malcolm Imrie. London: Verso.
Plato (1997). “Republic.” In Plato Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper, trans. G. M. A. Gr- ube, rev. C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Platonov, Andrei (2008). “The River Potudan.” In Soul and Other Stories, trans. Robert and Elizabeth Chandler and Angela Livingstone, 213–46. New York: New York Review Books Classics.
Platonov, Andrei (2012). Happy Moscow. Trans. Robert and Elizabeth Chandler. New York: New York Review Books Classics.
Platonov, Andrey (2013). “The AntiSexus.” Trans. Anne. O. Fisher. Cabinet 51: 48–53.
Sartre, JeanPaul (1956). Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel Barnes. New York: Philosophical Library.
Shklovsky, Viktor (2002). Third Factory. Trans. Richard Sheldon. Chicago: Dalkey Press Archive.
Steiner, Peter (1984). Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
Wiener, Norbert (1948). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Zetkin, Clara (1929). Reminiscences of Lenin. London: Modern Books.
Žižek, Slavoj (2012). “From Animal to ‘Stamina Training Unit’.” In Timofeeva, Oxana, History of Animals: An Essay on Negativity, Immanence and Freedom, 6–12. Maas- tricht: Jan van Eck Academie.
Published
2016-07-20
How to Cite
Schuster, A. (2016). One or Many Antisexes? Introduction to Andrei Platonov’s “The Anti-Sexus”. Stasis, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.33280/2310-3817-2016-4-1-20-35
Section
Articles
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