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The Archive, the Phallus, and the Future

The Archive, the Phallus, and the Future A R C H I V E F O R T H E F U T U R E Karen Beckman I was delighted to read ’s call for submissions to an archive for the future and was especially interested to see “the phallus (a dead object?)” on the list of possible contributions. I was caught by the potential for comedy and flights of fancy that the archived (dead) phallus suggested, as well as by the difficulty of finding an appropriate form in which to submit this unwieldy concept (as an attachment, perhaps?). Although aware that the phallus is, in the words of Jane Gallop, “loaded down with the seriousness of ideological meaning and sexual history,”1 I wanted first to create a catalog of the bad (and good) jokes to which the phallus has given rise across generations of feminist theorists unable to resist the temptation to materialize, even anthropomorphize, this slippery concept, to pun on its proximity to the penis and imagine what they would do with this unwieldy thing if only they could get their hands on it. Gallop’s dry yet vivid assertion that “Lacan’s system is explicitly phallocentric, and feminists find that central, transcendental phallus http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Camera Obscura Duke University Press

The Archive, the Phallus, and the Future

Camera Obscura , Volume 22 (1 64) – Jan 1, 2007

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2007 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0270-5346
eISSN
0270-5346
DOI
10.1215/02705346-2006-025
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A R C H I V E F O R T H E F U T U R E Karen Beckman I was delighted to read ’s call for submissions to an archive for the future and was especially interested to see “the phallus (a dead object?)” on the list of possible contributions. I was caught by the potential for comedy and flights of fancy that the archived (dead) phallus suggested, as well as by the difficulty of finding an appropriate form in which to submit this unwieldy concept (as an attachment, perhaps?). Although aware that the phallus is, in the words of Jane Gallop, “loaded down with the seriousness of ideological meaning and sexual history,”1 I wanted first to create a catalog of the bad (and good) jokes to which the phallus has given rise across generations of feminist theorists unable to resist the temptation to materialize, even anthropomorphize, this slippery concept, to pun on its proximity to the penis and imagine what they would do with this unwieldy thing if only they could get their hands on it. Gallop’s dry yet vivid assertion that “Lacan’s system is explicitly phallocentric, and feminists find that central, transcendental phallus

Journal

Camera ObscuraDuke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2007

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