Sex, Literature and Communication

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the literary representation of the relationship between sex and communication by focusing on a number of pertinent instances in literature (and in one case cinema) where clues are afforded concerning the generation of meaning in this area of human experience. Various philosophical-theoretical perspectives are employed to shed light on the specificity of communication in a sexual context, guided by the question of whether the communication is more basic than sex or vice versa. It is especially the work of Kristeva that enables one, finally, to grasp sex – as represented in literature or cinema – as being comprehensible in terms of the semiotic, as opposed to the symbolic, mode of signification.

Opsomming
Hierdie artikel ondersoek die literêre voorstelling van die relasie tussen seks en kommunikasie deur op ’n aantal pertinente letterkundige gevalle (asook een in die rolprentkuns) te fokus wat leidrade verskaf oor die skepping van betekenis in hierdie veld van menslike ervaring. Verskeie filosofies-teoretiese perspektiewe word benut om lig te werp op die spesifieke aard van kommunikasie in ’n seksuele konteks, gedagtig aan die fundamentele vraag of kommunikasie meer basies is as seks of omgekeerd. Dit is veral die werk van Kristeva wat ’n mens uiteindelik in staat stel om seks – soos dit in literatuur en die rolprentkuns voorgestel word – aan die hand van die semiotiese, soos onderskeibaar van die simboliese, betekenisregister te begryp.