Sex and Desire Essay -- Literary Analysis

Sex and desire. Few words burn down such complexity of meaning. For some, it is a sexual work on. Whereas one might hunt it as the sensual pleasure of two bodies fused into one being, some other may define it as the fulfillment of animalistic desire, an unleashing of the beast, if you will. But, beyond an act charged with various meaning, it can also serve as an identity operatorheterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual. Whether act or identity, societal dictates define the norm and the deviant. Because of this, the artificer who departs from the acceptable and embraces the aberrant, arouses the consciousness of self and society. In doing so, sex and desire get under ones skin a vehicle, a means of communication between artist and audience, and an inclination that demands our attention. Whether it is the subtle and sensual language of Anas Nin in The Diary of Anas Nin (1966), the coarse and explicit vocabulary of Henry Miller in tropical of Cancer (1934), or the poet ic and surrealistic prose of Djuna Barnes in Nightwood (1934), sex and desire, as a vehicle in the literature of these authors, exposes the pandemonium and confusion inside their world and suggests the establishment of a new order for self and society. indite between 1931 and 1934, The Diary of Anas Nin chronicles one artists mental journey. Deserted by her father as a young girl, Anas experiences an initial shock that leaves her like a shattered mirror (103). The shards of glass, individually developing a life of their own, come to be the several selves of Anas (103). Through the pages of The Diary, reflecting upon and dissecting these various selves, she concludes, one does not need to remain in bondage to the first wax imprint made on puerility sensibilities. One need not be brande... ...thly father, a man she adore from her youth. This is further supported by a reference to the child as a fragment of the past (341). Finally, while giving birth she remarks, These legs I ope ned to joy, this honey that flowed out in the joynow these legs argon twisted in pain and the honey flows with the blood (344, emphasis added). totally things considered, it seems reasonable to conclude the child was a result of incestuous union. Nevertheless, from the chaos and confusion, emerges the birth of the real Anas and while she may not exit a saint she is very full and very rich (360). whole kit and caboodle CitedBarnes, Djuna. Nightwood. New York New Directions Books, 2006. Print.Miller, Henry. Tropic of Cancer. New York Grove Press, 1961. Print.Nin, Anas. The Diary of Anas Nin Volume One 1931-1934. San Diego Swallow Press and Harcourt, 1966. Print.