Invasions of Privacy: The Body in the Novel (part 2) Peter Brooks Presented by: Joseph Hall & Michelle dePozsgay Edited By: Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay Picart

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Private Bodies __________________________________ Body => semiotic Semiotic is __________________________________ __________________________________

Body Signage Rousseau’s body had been signed by the spanking; this signage is designated as the erotic signifier the “branding” of his body by the erotic signifier determined his sexual orientation Rousseau becomes timid, silent and does not express his wants to the persons he loved the most “To be at the knees of an imperial mistress, to obey her orders, to ask her forgiveness, were for me sweet pleasures, and the more my lovely imagination inflamed my blood, the more I had the look of a lover transfixed.” (17)

Class Discussion Questions Why do you think that Rousseau was so enchanted by fantasies of a woman exerting dominance over him? Moreover, what do you think triggered Rousseau’s timid behavior to those that he loved the most?

Class Discussion….again What do you think induces “streakers” to perform such hideous acts of nudity at sporting events? Do you think that this “expression” is telling a story?

The Body as an Inscription __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ Do you agree that the body or a part of it, becomes a place for messages that are transmitted through scenarios of desire?

Privacy, the Law, and the Body “Modern sense of the body and its private meanings has its proximate origins in the Enlightenment” (49) The abortion debate….. “The right of privacy…..broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Roe vs. Wade, 410 US, at 153)

Works Cited Peter Brooks. Body Work. “Invasions of Privacy.” Harvard University Press, 1993.