Not only the French; early modern English writers too (see, for instance,
Nashe) explicitly refer to orgasm as "death."
"Giue me leaue (at last) that I may dye"
pleads the speaker of sonnet 2 of the eighth decad in Henry Constable's
*Diana* (1594)
and continues:
"o I must long, and linger after death"
I believe Di-ana, Di-ella, De-lia and the titles of other such sonnet
sequences have much to do with de-sire and dy-ing and the conceptual links
between them. Shakespeare noticed, with a refined distinction Lacan, if I
am not mistaken, did not make, dying may involve the lacking of teh
gratification of need; see the orgasm (or climax, in Renaissance rhetorical
terms) ending "A Lover's Complaint."
Shirley Sharon-Zisser
At 10:54 20/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Knowing French and possessing some familiarity with the culture made a huge
>difference when I was reading Lacan (and Foucault, and some of the French
>feminists...) and discussing his ideas with others who had not.
>Of specific interest here, the French often refer to orgasm as 'the little
>death', very clearly delineating the moments of desire and passion and the
>memory that results.
>
>V Pitman
>
>
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