Marquis de Sade  

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[[Simone de Beauvoir]] (in her essay ''[[Must we burn Sade?]]'', published in ''[[Les Temps modernes]]'', December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of [[Freedom (philosophy)|freedom]] in Sade's writings, preceding that of [[existentialism]] by some 150 years. He has also been seen as a precursor of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s [[psychoanalysis]] in his focus on sexuality as a motive force. The [[surrealism|surrealists]] admired him as one of their forerunners, and [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] famously called him "the freest spirit that has yet existed". [[Simone de Beauvoir]] (in her essay ''[[Must we burn Sade?]]'', published in ''[[Les Temps modernes]]'', December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of [[Freedom (philosophy)|freedom]] in Sade's writings, preceding that of [[existentialism]] by some 150 years. He has also been seen as a precursor of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s [[psychoanalysis]] in his focus on sexuality as a motive force. The [[surrealism|surrealists]] admired him as one of their forerunners, and [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] famously called him "the freest spirit that has yet existed".
-[[Pierre Klossowski]], in his 1947 book ''[[Sade Mon Prochain]]'' ("[[Sade My Neighbor]]"), analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]'s [[nihilism]], negating both Christian values and the [[French materialism|materialism]] of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. +[[Pierre Klossowski]], in his 1947 book ''[[Sade mon prochain]]'' ("[[Sade My Neighbor]]"), analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]]'s [[nihilism]], negating both Christian values and the [[French materialism|materialism]] of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]].
One of the essays in [[Max Horkheimer]] and [[Theodor Adorno]]'s ''[[Dialectic of Enlightenment]]'' (1947) is titled "Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality" and interprets the ruthless and calculating behavior of ''[[L'Histoire de Juliette|Juliette]]'' as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment. Similarly, psychoanalyst [[Jacques Lacan]] posited in his 1966 essay "Kant avec Sade" that de Sade's ethic was the complementary completion of the [[categorical imperative]] originally formulated by [[Immanuel Kant]]. One of the essays in [[Max Horkheimer]] and [[Theodor Adorno]]'s ''[[Dialectic of Enlightenment]]'' (1947) is titled "Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality" and interprets the ruthless and calculating behavior of ''[[L'Histoire de Juliette|Juliette]]'' as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment. Similarly, psychoanalyst [[Jacques Lacan]] posited in his 1966 essay "Kant avec Sade" that de Sade's ethic was the complementary completion of the [[categorical imperative]] originally formulated by [[Immanuel Kant]].

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In 1843 French literary critic Sainte-Beuve wrote that Byron and Sade "are perhaps the two greatest inspirations of our moderns, the first openly and visibly, the second clandestinely, but not very.

Marquis de Sade (June 2, 1740December 2, 1814) was a French aristocrat and writer of philosophy-laden and often violent carnography and pornography. His is a philosophy of extreme freedom (or at least licentiousness), unrestrained by morality, religion or law, with the pursuit of personal pleasure being the highest principle. Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life; much of his writing was done during his imprisonment. The term "sadism" is derived from his name.

Contents

Biography

See Marquis de Sade biography

Works

Sade wrote few works under his own name and frequently denied the authorship of the works he did write. A notable piece of non-fiction is Reflections on the Novel.

See Marquis de Sade works

Appraisal and criticism

Numerous writers and artistes, especially those concerned with sexuality, have been both repelled and fascinated by de Sade.

Simone de Beauvoir (in her essay Must we burn Sade?, published in Les Temps modernes, December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of freedom in Sade's writings, preceding that of existentialism by some 150 years. He has also been seen as a precursor of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in his focus on sexuality as a motive force. The surrealists admired him as one of their forerunners, and Guillaume Apollinaire famously called him "the freest spirit that has yet existed".

Pierre Klossowski, in his 1947 book Sade mon prochain ("Sade My Neighbor"), analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of Nietzsche's nihilism, negating both Christian values and the materialism of the Enlightenment.

One of the essays in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) is titled "Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality" and interprets the ruthless and calculating behavior of Juliette as the embodiment of the philosophy of enlightenment. Similarly, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan posited in his 1966 essay "Kant avec Sade" that de Sade's ethic was the complementary completion of the categorical imperative originally formulated by Immanuel Kant.

In The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography (1979), Angela Carter provides a feminist reading of Sade, seeing him as a "moral pornographer" who creates spaces for women. Similarly, Susan Sontag defended both Sade and Georges Bataille's Histoire de l'oeil (Story of the Eye) in her essay, "The Pornographic Imagination" (1967) on the basis their works were transgressive texts, and argued that neither should be censored.

By contrast, Andrea Dworkin saw Sade as the exemplary woman-hating pornographer, supporting her theory that pornography inevitably leads to violence against women. One chapter of her book Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1979) is devoted to an analysis of Sade. Susie Bright claims that Dworkin's first novel Ice and Fire, which is rife with violence and abuse, can be seen as a modern re-telling of Sade's Juliette.

Works about Sade or his books

Nonfiction books

  • Marquis de Sade: his life and works. (1899) by Iwan Bloch (download)
  • Sade Mon Prochain. (1947) by Pierre Klossowski
  • Lautréamont and Sade. (1949) by Maurice Blanchot
  • The Marquis de Sade, a biography. (1961) by Gilbert Lély
  • The life and ideas of the Marquis de Sade. (1963) by Geoffrey Gorer
  • Sade, Fourier, Loyola. (1971) by Roland Barthes (Life of Sade download)
  • The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural Histry. (1979) by Angela Carter
  • Writing and the Experience of Limits. (1982) by Philippe Sollers
  • The Marquis de Sade: the man, his works, and his critics: an annotated bibliography. (1986) by Colette Verger Michael
  • The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders. (1988) by Colin Wilson
  • Sade, his ethics and rhetoric. (1989) collection of essays, edited by Colette Verger Michael
  • Marquis de Sade: A Biography. (1991) by Maurice Lever
  • Dark Eros: The Imagination of Sadism. (1995) by Thomas Moore
  • The philosophy of the Marquis de Sade. (1995) by Timo Airaksinen
  • Sade contre l'Être suprême. (1996) by Philippe Sollers
  • An Erotic Beyond: Sade. (1998) by Octavio Paz (review)
  • Sade: A Biographical Essay. (1998) by Laurence L. Bongie (review)
  • The Marquis de Sade: a life. (1999) by Neil Schaeffer
  • At Home With the Marquis de Sade: A Life. (1999) by Francine du Plessix Gray
  • Sade: from materialism to pornography. (2002) by Caroline Warman
  • Marquis de Sade: the genius of passion. (2003) by Ronald Hayman

Trivia

Fictional works

Sade's life and works have been the subject of numerous fictional plays, films, pornographic or erotic drawings, etchings, etc., and other works. These include Peter Weiss's play Marat/Sade a fantasia extrapolating from the fact that Sade directed plays performed by his fellow inmates at the Charenton asylum. Yukio Mishima, Barry Yzereef, and Doug Wright also wrote plays about Sade; Weiss's and Wright's plays have been made into films. His work is referenced on film at least as early as the Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dalí film L'Age d'Or (1930), the final segment of which provides a coda to Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom, with the four debauched noblemen emerging from their mountain retreat. Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), updating Sade's novel to Fascist Italy; Sade (directed by Benoit Jacquot) and Quills (2000 directed by Philip Kaufman based on Wright's play) both hit the cinemas in 2000; several horror films have used Sade as a major character. He is referenced in several stories by science fiction writer Robert Bloch, and Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem wrote an essay analyzing game-theoretical arguments that appear in Sade's novel Justine.

The 2000 movie 'Quills' gives a fictional account of his last years at Charenton, its cast including Geoffrey Rush as De Sade, Kate Winslet as his chambermaid, Madeleine, and Joaquin Phoenix as the Abbé de Coulmier.

See also




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