Jealousy, Femininity and Desire


Book Description

Drawing on Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, this book intervenes into debates concerning the relation between jealousy and envy on the one hand, and sexual difference on the other. The author presents an original distinction between what is termed “feminine” and “phallic” forms of jealousy while mapping and theorizing other types of jealousy that she finds in the writings of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. The discussion performs literary-critical readings of texts by Olivia Shakespear and Marguerite Duras as a means of shedding light on the topic and the distinction. Further, it discusses the challenge posed by jealousy’s particular mode of jouissance and its possible vicissitudes. Though the experience of jealousy can be ravaging, the author claims, it also provides the subject an opportunity to reorient its relation to jouissance and thereby experience significant psychical change. In doing so, it provides a new outlook on jealousy as being connected to both femininity and desire, unveiling its complex character, features, and vitality within a Lacanian psychoanalytic framework. It will appeal in particular to those with an interest in psychoanalysis, literary theory and critical theory.




Love Factually


Book Description

After a break-up Little Debbies, chocolate, and the charity of friends could not console, Dr. Duana Welch had the epiphany that transformed the way she lived her love life, leading to verifiable, objective answers to her questions-and yours. The only fact-based book to take men and women from before-you-meet until you commit, Love Factually blends heart, soul--and evidence. In a genre long on opinion and short on proof, Love Factually puts all the evidence in your corner for the most important and daunting task of our lives: finding and keeping The One.




Anxious Masculinity in Early Modern England


Book Description

Explores the importance of heterosexual masculine identity in Renaissance literature and culture.




Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings


Book Description

Mari Ruti combines theoretical reflection, cultural critique, feminist politics, and personal experience to analyze the prevalence of bad feelings in contemporary everyday life. Proceeding from a playful engagement with Freud’s idea of penis envy, Ruti’s autotheoretical commentary fans out to a broader consideration of neoliberal pragmatism. She focuses on the emphasis on good performance, high productivity, constant self-improvement, and relentless cheerfulness that characterizes present-day Western society. Revealing the treacherousness of our fantasies of the good life, particularly the idea that our efforts will eventually be rewarded—that things will eventually get better—Ruti demystifies the false hope that often causes us to tolerate an unbearable present. Theoretically rigorous and lucidly written, Penis Envy and Other Bad Feelings is a trenchant critique of contemporary gender relations. Refuting the idea that we live in a postfeminist world where gender inequalities have been transcended, Ruti describes how neoliberal heteropatriarchy has transformed itself in subtle and stealthy, and therefore all the more insidious, ways. Mobilizing Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, Jacques Lacan’s account of desire, and Lauren Berlant’s notion of cruel optimism, she analyzes the rationalization of intimacy, the persistence of gender stereotypes, and the pornification of heterosexual culture. Ruti shines a spotlight on the depression, anxiety, frustration, and disenchantment that frequently lie beneath our society’s sugarcoated mythologies of self-fulfillment, romantic satisfaction, and professional success, speaking to all who are concerned about the emotional costs of the pressure-cooker ethos of our age.




Passing


Book Description

Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen (1891 –1964) published just two novels and three short stories in her lifetime, but achieved lasting literary acclaim. Her classic novel Passing first appeared in 1926.




Mean Girls at Work: How to Stay Professional When Things Get Personal


Book Description

One of the New York Post's Top 10 Career Books of 2012 and a Booklist Top 10 Business Book DO YOU WORK WITH A MEAN GIRL? A woman’s field guide to the new frontier of professional development—working with other women Women-to-women relationships in the workplace are . . . complicated. When they’re good, they’re great. But when they’re bad, they can ruin your day, your week—even your year. Packed with proven advice from two of today’s leading experts in workplace relationships, this one-of-a-kind guide gives women the tools they need to navigate difficult situations unique to women-to-women relationships—whether with a boss, a colleague, a client, or an employee. Have you dealt with a woman in the workplace who: “Accidentally” excludes you from important meetings? Seems intent on taking you down professionally? Gossips about you with other coworkers? Makes you look bad by missing deadlines? Forms a “pack” of mean girls to make your life miserable? Mean Girls at Work isn’t just about surviving difficult situations. It’s about transforming a toxic relationship into one that benefits and supports both of you. This book is also for women who engage in mean behavior . . . but don’t know it. After all, who hasn’t gossiped about a female coworker? Who hasn’t rolled her eyes in the presence of a woman she doesn’t like? Who hasn’t scanned another woman head to toe—which is just a nonverbal way of saying, “You’ve just been judged”? The authors provide invaluable advice to the more subtle ways of being mean—even if they’re not intended. With a workforce composed of a higher percentage of women than ever, workplace dynamics have changed. Crowley and Elster cover every conceivable scenario, providing critical advice on how to rise above the fray and move forward professionally. Mean Girls at Work is your map to dodging the mines and moving forward in today’s transformed workplace. Praise for Mean Girls at Work “An invaluable suit of armor for surviving nine to five!” —Leil Lowndes, bestselling author of How to Talk to Anyone “If you think the emotional cruelty of comedies like Mean Girls and Heathers doesn’t exist in the real world workplace, think again. In Mean Girls at Work, Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster valuably chronicle female vs. female predators and offer solid defensive strategies.” —Ann Kreamer, author of It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace “Whether you are in your twenties and just starting your professional career, your midcareer forties, when you are supposed to have figured it out already, or a woman in her fifties or sixties who’s seen it all—this book is a must-read. . . . The authors have finally given women the tools and the sound advice necessary to deal with . . . conflicts that keep us all from succeeding. . . . Carry this book with you to work every day!” —Carolyn Cassin, President, Michigan Women’s Foundation “A must-read for women of all ages in today’s workforce. This book offers what we all need to develop the capacities to endure this ever-changing workplace. We know it is all about relationships and you need the skills outlined in this book to survive and thrive when the Mean Girls attack.” —Kim Harrington, Coordinator, Professional Development and Training, Office of Human Resources, California State University, Sacramento




Between Women


Book Description

As women today pursue new professional and personal goals, they often find that the support they need from their women friends has been undermined by feelings of envy, competition, and anger. This book is an attempt to provide a feminist psychoanalytic understanding of the emotional and psychological processes that are set in train when women perceive differences in each other. It is about the difficulties women face in coming to terms with those differences. We hope it will enable women to handle those differences more productively and less destructively than is often the case at present.




The Feminine Mystique


Book Description

This novel was the major inspiration for the Women's Movement and continues to be a powerful and illuminating analysis of the position of women in Western society___




Envy, Competition and Gender


Book Description

Envy, Competition and Gender provides a unique perspective on gender difference in relation to envy and competitiveness, reframing and de-demonizing these difficult emotions and revealing their potentially creative power. Incorporating perspectives from psychology, psychiatry, social work, sociology and education, this book provides a comprehensive overview of theories and ideas on the links between gender, envy and competition. The book is divided into three sections, covering the individual and development, therapeutic implications and therapeutic applications in broader social and cultural contexts. Individual and group case stories are included throughout to illuminate discussion of crucial issues such as: men, masculinity, and competition gender differences in envying and being envied the evolution of the female self envy and generativity: owning our inner resources envy in body transference and countertransference envy and desire revenge and retaliation. This interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspective on envy and competition in relation to gender will be of great interest to all psychotherapists and related mental health professionals interested in investigating the positive potential of these powerful emotions.




Desire Between Women in Caribbean Literature


Book Description

Relations between women - like the branches and roots of the mangrove - twist around, across, and within others as they pervade Caribbean letters. Desire between Women in Caribbean Literature elucidates the place of desire between women in Caribbean letters, compelling readers to rethink how to read the structures and practices of sexuality.