Questions About Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale Nota Bene)

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"Paglia argues that the primary conflict in Western culture is between the binary forces of the Apollonian and Dionysian, Apollo being associated with order and symmetry, and Dionysus with chaos, disorder, and nature." Didn't Ayn Rand make this same argument in her 1971 book, "The New Left", the article titled "Apollo and Dionysus"??? Please explain dissent or agreement

Cd0467 Short answer:
Ayn Rand draws her ideas on the Apollonian-vs-Dionysian dichotomy from Nietzsche, while Paglia draws her ideas on the same dichotomy more…moreShort answer:
Ayn Rand draws her ideas on the Apollonian-vs-Dionysian dichotomy from Nietzsche, while Paglia draws her ideas on the same dichotomy more from Jung. The two routes are similar, but there are some differences.

Long answer:
Nietzsche is the modern beginning of the Apollonian-vs-Dionysian dichotomy (though not the first to come up with the idea). To oversimplify, he basically identified two trends in human culture: The emotional (Dionysian) vs the rational (Apollonian). Nietzsche himself identified with the Dionysian/emotional side: He felt that if you are too rational, you end up getting cut off from your roots and lose your cultural and spiritual mooring.

Ayn Rand basically accepted Nietzsche's dichotomy as presented, but she differed from Nietzsche in that she herself favored the Apollonian/rational side. To her, the Dionysian/emotional side was nothing more than hedonistic self-indulgence and partying, whereas the Apollonian/rational side represented technology and progress. As a good capitalist, her sympathies were with the Apollonian/rational side. At least, that's the argument she made in her article "Apollo and Dionysus." Link: https://campus.aynrand.org/works/1969...

In the meantime, Carl Jung was developing a theory that everyone has two sides to their psychology: a male side and a female side (an animus and an anima). In dealing with these two sides of your nature, it's usually considered healthiest to recognize and embrace both sides to some extent. By comparison, if you skew too heavily to one side and attempt to ignore or repress the "opposite" side, you risk creating a situation where the repressed opposite side comes back at you in the form of nightmares and neuroses and mid-life crises.

Over time, Jung and his followers developed this Jungian male-vs-female dichotomy into "archetypes," and they tracked and analyzed these archetypes as they appeared in mythology and religion. Eventually the Dionysian/emotional side of Nietzsche's dichotomy got conflated with the female side of the Jungian dichotomy (Dionysus was a follower of the Great Mother religion), and the Apollonian/rational side got conflated with the male side. The result: Now you have an Apollonian/male-vs-Dionysian/female dichotomy.

Finally, Paglia comes in on the tail end of the Jungian thread. She is a big admirer of one of Jung's students who worked with Jungian archetypes, Erich Neumann. Paglia continues to develop the Apollonian/male-vs-Dionysian/female dichotomy. As explained in the Wikipedia article entitled "Apollonian and Dionysian": In "Sexual Personae," the Dionysian "is associated with females, wild/chaotic nature, and unconstrained sex/procreation. In contrast, the Apollonian is associated with males, clarity, celibacy and/or homosexuality, rationality/reason, and solidity, along with the goal of oriented progress." Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollon...

In fact, that's pretty much the main idea of "Sexual Personae." Similar to the way that Jung and his students tracked development of the male vs. female archetypes in myth and religion, Paglia analyzes the various cultural trends in art and literature throughout human history by showing the degree to which they skewed toward the Apollonian/male side or toward the Dionysian/female side. She also analyzes how much they tended to repress or shut out their "opposite" side, which resulted in appearances of "daemonic" influences in art: Vampires and martyrs and sadomasochism and all that fun stuff--basically the artistic equivalent of Jung's nightmares, neuroses, and mid-life crises.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but there it is, in oversimplified terms.(less)

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Is this book (relatively) easy to read? I understand that Paglia is opposed to post-modern type gibberish so does that mean this won't be a pain to struggle through?

Dylan Relatively, yeah. She says what she means, and packs her sentences well. Though if you still need to read the material she covers (which is recommende…moreRelatively, yeah. She says what she means, and packs her sentences well. Though if you still need to read the material she covers (which is recommended) it will take you awhile to get through SP. And expect to be bombarded with appropriately dense sentences, paragraphs, etc. Her uncompromising energy definitely isn't lost in prose.(less)

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Unanswered Questions (1)

Good evening, I want to read Sexual Personae. If you have this book pdf format, may you send me? Thanks

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