Table Of ContentSEX DRIVES
Fantasies of Fascism in Literary Modernism
Laura Frost
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
ITHACA & LONDON
Copyright© 2002 by Cornell University
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First published 2002 by Cornell University Press
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2002
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frost, Laura Catherine, I967-
Sex drives : fantasies of fascism in literary modernism/Laura
Catherine Frost.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN o-8014-3894-2 (cloth: alk. paper)-ISBN o-8oi4-8764-I (pbk.: alk.
paper)
I. Fascism in literature. 2. Sex in literature. 3- Literature,
Modern-2oth century-History and criticism. I. Title.
PN56.F35 F76 zoo2
Bog' ·93358-dc21 200I003I79
Portions of chapter 6 appeared as" 'Every woman adores a Fascist': Feminist Vi
sions of Fascism from Three Guineas to Fl:ar of Flying" in Women$ Studies 29
(spring 2000). Copyright by OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. with
permission from Gordon and Breach Publishers and Taylor & Francis Ltd. Po
ems from The Collected Poems ofS ylvia Plath, edited by Ted Hughes, copyright (c)
Ig6o, I965, I97I, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath, are reprinted by pennission of
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., and Faber and Faber. Excerpts from Virginia
Woolf's Three Guineas have been reproduced with the kind permission of Har
court, Inc., and The Society of Authors (London) as the Literary Representative
of the Estate of Virginia Woolf. Excerpts from Jean Genet's Funeral Rites, copy
right rg88, are reprinted by permission of Grove/A tlantic, Inc.
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SEX DRIVES
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgments Vll
Introduction "Fascinating Fascism"
Chapter 1 Fascism and Sadomasochism:
The Origins of an Erotics 16
Chapter The Libidinal Politics of D. H. Lawrence's
2
"Leadership Novels" 38
Chapter 3 The Surreal Swastikas of Georges Bataille and
Hans BeHmer 59
Chapter 4 Beauty and the Boche: Propaganda and the Sexualized
Enemy in Vercors's Silence oft he Sea So
Chapter 5 Horizontal Treason: Jean Genet's Funeral Rites 99
Chapter 6 "Every woman adores a Fascist": Marguerite Duras,
Sylvia Plath, and Feminist Visions of Fascism
120
Conclusion "This Cellar of the Present" 151
Notes
Works Cited
Index
v
Illustrations
Liliana Cavani, The Night Porter (1974) 2
William S. Sadler, Long Headr and Round Heads: Or What's the
Matter with Germany (1918) 21
Leonard Woolf, Quack, quack! (1935) 25
Henry Wood, Made in Germany (1914) 27
Hans BeHmer, La poupee (1935-38) 75
Hans BeHmer, La croix garnahuchee (1946) 77
]. Robinet, from Camet de route du soldat Fritz Bosch (1915) 92
F. Touzet, "C c c Chations Les Traitres!" (1940-45) from
Mon alphabet 94
John O'Reilly, Brinner (1995) n8
vi
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the generous institutional and financial support I received
while working on this project. Through the Columbia University Depart
ment of English and Comparative Literature, I received several President's
Fellowships and grants from the Mellon Foundation and the Whiting Foun
dation. While an assistant professor in the English department at Yale Uni
versity, grants from the Whitney Humanities Center, the Fund for Lesbian
and Gay Studies, and the Frederick W. Rilles Publication Fund ofYale Uni
versity enabled the final research for the book and revisions of it.
When I was first formulating this project, I fortuitously began working
with D. A. Miller, whose intellectual audacity and exciting influence changed
the way I think about scholarship. I am especially grateful for his guidance,
in the early stages, in helping me articulate a critical approach that was less
policing and more provocative. David Damrosch's encouragement and hu
mor rendered alienating rites of passage more enjoyable and made it possi
ble for me to take risks with my work. I am grateful to Nancy K. Miller for
her inspiring feminist scholarship and professional generosity. Franco
Moretti's suggestion that I look at Vercors's Silence of the Sea and his illumi
nating reading of a draft of the resulting chapter proved very useful. Andreas
Huyssen, Sylvere Lotringer, and George Stade all read an early version of
the manuscript, and I thank them for their detailed responses. David Kastan
and Michael Seidel helpfully supported my work at Columbia. Conversa
tions with Ursula Heise were formative in defining this project, as was a con
versation with Robert 0. Paxton about Vichy. Carol Siegel has been an en
ergizing friend and mentor whose e-mail calls-to-arms kept me going.
I am most appreciative to Catherine Rice at Cornell University Press for
supporting this project, seeing potential in its early form, and guiding me
through crucial revisions. My anonymous readers provided me with enor
mously useful reports. I thank Karen Hwa for her care with the manuscript
vii
and my expert copyeditor, Jane Marie Todd, who polished my prose and
asked perceptive questions. My thanks to Sandy Welsh and Ruth Yeazell for
their kindness and encouragement while I was revising the book and to
Michael Trask for reading my proposal. Conversations with Nigel Alder
man, Douglas Brooks, Sarah Cole, Elizabeth Dillon, Anke Finger, Amy
Hungerford, Alex Lee, Pericles Lewis, Celia Marshik, Becka McKay, and
Michael Thurston also helped me to refine my thoughts about the project. I
also want to thank the Interlibrary Loan Office at Columbia for tracking
down numerous propaganda texts for me, Erica Sayers in the English office
at Yale, Adam Boxer at Ubu Gallery, and Amy Woods at the Kinsey Institute.
Teri Reynolds, Victoria Rosner, and Miranda Sherwin listened to my ideas
at every stage and have read innumerable drafts. I thank them for their crit
ical acumen, loyalty, and affection. They and Anna Brickhouse, Camille
Cauti, and Nancy Castro have been superb friends over a number of years.
My deepest thanks to Victoria for her sharp readings and giddy humor in the
last stages of this project. Finally, throughout the years I spent writing this
book and long before, I have been buoyed by my parents' unflagging sup
port. Their intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for creative work have al
ways been exemplary to me.
No person has contributed as much to this book as Tim Griffin, with
whom I have imagined and reimagined these ideas. His thoughts on art, phi
losophy, and language have been a constantly productive and pleasurable
challenge to my own. His wit and patience have sustained me. This book is
for him, with love.
viii
SEX DRIVES
