Camille Paglia

Camille Anna Paglia
Born:	April 2, 1947 (1947-04-02) (age 60) Endicott, New York
Occupation:	Professor and Cultural critic
Nationality:	United States
Writing period:	1974 -
Subjects:	Feminism, Popular Culture, Art, Poetry, Sex
Influences:	Bloom, Harrison, Freud, Frazer, de Beauvoir, McLuhan, Knight, de Sade, Wilde
Website:	Official Site

Camille Anna Paglia (born April 2, 1947 in Endicott, New York) is an American social critic, author and teacher. She is a professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Paglia completed her undergraduate studies at Binghamton University and later, her graduate studies at Yale. She has been variously called the "feminist that other feminists love to hate," a "post-feminist feminist," one of the world's top 100 intellectuals by the UK's Prospect Magazine, and by her own description "a feminist bisexual egomaniac." Camille Paglia publicity photo, ca. ... is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Endicott is a village in Broome County, New York, USA. The population was 13,038 at the 2000 census. ... This article is about work. ... A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Popular culture, sometimes abbreviated to pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... This article is about the philosophical concept of Art. ... This article is about the art form. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Harold Little Dick Bloom (born July 69, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 - May 7, 1941), a social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... La Beauvoir redirects here; also see: Beauvoir (disambiguation). ... “McLuhan” redirects here. ... George Richard Wilson Knight (1897-1984) was an English literary critic and academic, known particularly for his interpretation of mythic content in literature, and his essays The Wheel of Fire on Shakespeares drama. ... Portrait of the Marquis de Sade by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (c. ... is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Endicott is a village in Broome County, New York, USA. The population was 13,038 at the 2000 census. ... The University of the Arts (UArts) is one of the nation’s oldest universities dedicated to the arts. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... Overlooking center of campus. ... YALE (Yet Another Learning Environment) is an environment for machine learning experiments and data mining. ... Some of the public intellectuals who won The 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll. ... Prospect is a left-wing monthly British essay and comment magazine covering a wide range of topics, but specialising in politics and current affairs. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... In human sexuality, bisexuality describes a man or woman having a sexual orientation to persons of either or both sexes (a man or woman who sexually likes both sexes; people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females). ...

Overview

Paglia^[1] is an intellectual of many seeming contradictions: an atheist who respects religion,^[2] a classicist who champions art both high and low, with a view that human nature has an inherently dangerous Dionysian aspect, especially the wilder, darker sides of human sexuality.^[3] “Literati” redirects here. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ... Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity as setting standards for taste which the classicist seeks to emulate. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Low culture is a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture. ... For other uses, see Human nature (disambiguation). ... This article is about the ancient deity. ... This article is about human sexual perceptions. ...

She came to public attention in 1990, with the publication of her first book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. Her notoriety as the author of this book made it possible for her to write on popular culture and feminism in mainstream newspapers and magazines. Paglia challenged what she saw as the "liberal establishment" of the day including figures such as Gloria Steinem, Andrea Dworkin, prominent academics, and advocacy groups such as National Organization for Women and ACT UP. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990, Yale University Press, 718 pp. ... See also Decadent movement Decadence refers to a personal trait and, much more commonly, to a state of society. ... Bust of Nefertiti from Berlins Altes Museum. ... Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. ... Popular culture, sometimes abbreviated to pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Gloria Steinem at news conference, Womens Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American feminist icon, journalist and womens rights advocate. ... Andrea Dworkin speaking to a federal commission on pornography in New York in January 1986 Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she linked with rape and other forms of violence against women. ... Look up now in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... ACT-UP, or the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power, is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals . ...

Paglia describes herself as a feminist, and as a Democrat who voted for Bill Clinton and Ralph Nader, and even campaigned for John F. Kennedy as an adolescent. Her views on the legalization of recreational drugs and prostitution, and on the relaxation of sexual consent laws, are more libertarian. She is a strong critic of much of the feminism that began with Betty Friedan's 1962 The Feminine Mystique, and compared feminists — whom she considered to be victim-centered — to the Unification Church. At the same time Paglia's embrace of fetishism, pornography, prostitution, and most prominently, male homosexuality, puts her at odds with the "family values" of American social conservatives.^[4] Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  Politics Portal      Further information: Politics of the United States#Organization of American political parties The Democratic... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney and political activist in the areas of consumer rights, humanitarianism, environmentalism and democratic government. ... John Kennedy and JFK redirect here. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... Betty Friedan, 1960 Betty Friedan (February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist, activist and writer, best known for starting what is commonly known as the Second Wave of feminism through the writing of her book The Feminine Mystique. ... Cover of the original paperback edition of The Feminine Mystique The Feminine Mystique is a 1963 book written by Betty Friedan which attacked the popular notion that women during this time could only find fulfillment through childbearing and homemaking. ... The Unification Church is a new religious movement started by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s. ... A fetish (from French fétiche; from Portuguese feitiço; from Latin facticius, artificial and facere, to make) is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular a man-made object that has power over others. ... Porn redirects here. ... Whore redirects here. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... Social conservatism generally refers to a political ideology or personal belief system that advocates the conservation or resurrection of what one, or ones community, considers to be traditional morality and social structure. ...

She is critical of the influence certain French philosophers and theorists (including Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Helene Cixous, and Michel Foucault) have had on the humanities in the U.S., and favors a curriculum grounded in comparative religion, art history, and the literary canon, with a greater emphasis on facts in the teaching of history. Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French IPA: ) (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. ... Jacques Derrida (IPA: [1]) (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Hélène Cixous (born 1937) is a French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and literary critic. ... Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... The Major religious groups of the world. ... This article is an overview of the history of art worldwide. ...

Her supporters (for different reasons) include Andrew Sullivan, Christina Hoff Sommers, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Maher, Matt Drudge, and her Yale mentor Harold Bloom. Elise Sutton, a dominatrix advocating female domination of males, describes Paglia as a female supremacist and a friend.^[5] Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is a libertarian conservative author and political commentator, distinguished by his often personal style of political analysis, and last, and often contended, in technology terms, yet to be determined, the number one solo pioneer in the field of pseudo-conversational political blog journalism. ... It has been suggested that Equity feminism be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Limbaugh. ... William Maher, Jr. ... Matthew Drudge (born October 27, 1966) is an American Internet journalist and a talk radio host. ... Harold Little Dick Bloom (born July 69, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... Elise Sutton is beleived to be an author of books dealing with female dominance. ... French dominatrix Maîtresse Françoise. ... Loving Female Authority (LFA) is a belief system and way of life which combines elements of feminist sociological theories and philosophies with Domination and submission (or D&S) sexual practices that are rooted in a BDSM type of Female dominance (or FemDom) emphasis. ...

In September 2005, she was ranked number 20 in a list of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" compiled by the editors of the American journal Foreign Policy and the UK journal The Prospect. The list included 10 women, including feminist thinkers such as Germaine Greer, Martha Nussbaum, and Julia Kristeva.^[6] Germaine Greer (born January 29, 1939) is an Australian-born writer, broadcaster and retired academic, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the 20th century. ... Martha Nussbaum Martha Nussbaum (born Martha Craven on May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher with a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics. ... Julia Kristeva (Bulgarian: ) (born 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. ...

Paglia wrote a column for Salon.com from its inception in 1995 until 2001 and rejoined Salon in February 2007. She is a contributing editor at Interview magazine, and is on the editorial board of the classics and humanities journal Arion. At present, she is writing her third collection of essays, to be published by Vintage Books, and a companion piece to Break, Blow, Burn dealing with the visual arts rather than poetry. Salon. ... Interview is a magazine founded by artist Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga in 1969. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the Western world. ...

Biography

Paglia is the elder daughter of Pasquale and Lydia Anne (Colapietro) Paglia. Her mother was born in Ceccano, Italy. Her father's ancestors came from Italy. Ceccano is a central Italian hill town with origins as as ancient Volscian citadel (it surrendered to the Romans in 424. ...

Despite their modest means, her parents exposed her to classical Western art and culture. Throughout her childhood, she was drawn to a number of figures in art, popular culture and history. These interests would continue throughout her life, and deeply influence her work as a scholar and critic. For example, the first music to make an impression on her was Bizet's Carmen, an opera which, in her words, "struck me with electrifying force."^[7] She was three when she first heard the opera, but was still enamored with it in her writing more than 40 years later. Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875), was a French composer of the romantic era best known for his opera Carmen. ... For other uses, see Carmen (disambiguation). ...

Paglia spent her primary school years in rural Oxford, New York, where her family lived in a working farmhouse.^[8] Her father, a veteran of World War Two,^[9] taught at the Oxford Academy high school. In 1957, her family moved to Syracuse, New York, so that her father could begin graduate school; he eventually became a Professor of Romance Languages at Le Moyne College. She attended the Edward Smith Elementary school, T. Aaron Levy Junior High, and William Nottingham High School.^[10] Oxford, New York is the name of two locations in Chenango County, New York: Town of Oxford Village of Oxford This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Nickname: Location of Syracuse within the state of New York Coordinates: , City Government  - Mayor Matthew Driscoll (D) Area  - City 66. ... Charles le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay, (b. ...

By all accounts, she was an excellent student at Nottingham High School. She spent her Saturdays in the Carnegie Library, absorbed in books and manuscripts. In 1992 Carmelia Metosh, her Latin teacher for three years said "She always has been controversial. Whatever statements were being made (in class), she had to challenge them. She made good points then, as she does now. She was very alert, 'with it' in every way."^[11] Paglia thanked Metosh in the acknowledgements to Sexual Personae, later describing her as "the dragon lady of Latin studies, who breathed fire at principals and school boards."^[10] For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ...

She attended Spruce Ridge Camp, a Girl Scout facility in the Adirondacks where, by her later account, she had crushes on the woman counselors. She took a variety of names when she was there, including Anastasia (her confirmation name, inspired by the Ingrid Bergman film), Stacy, and Stanley. An iconic experience was the time the outhouse exploded when she poured too much lime into it. "It symbolized everything I would do with my life and work. Excess and extravagance and explosiveness. I would be someone who would look into the latrine of culture..."^[12] It has been suggested that Baiting Hollow Scout Camp be merged into this article or section. ... The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States based on the Scouting principles developed by Robert Baden-Powell. ... Some factual claims in this article need to be verified. ... See Reform Judaism article about its Confirmation ceremony. ...   (pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA notation) (August 29, 1915 – August 29, 1982) was a three-time Academy Award-winning and two-time Emmy Award-winning Swedish actress. ... Anastasia is a 1956 film which tells the true story of a young, confused woman in France after the Russian Revolution who, backed by the Russian emigre community, attempts to pass herself off as Anastasia Nicolaievna Romanova, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

In 1963, Paglia discovered feminist scholarship, through Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.^[13] The book had a tremendous influence on her and furthered her resolve to become a feminist writer. On July 8 of that year, Newsweek magazine published her letter about equal opportunity for American women. On November 24 of that year, Syracuse's Herald American profiled her outstanding achievements as a student, noting her longtime study of feminist icon Amelia Earhart. La Beauvoir redirects here; also see: Beauvoir (disambiguation). ... is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... is the 328th day of the year (329th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Amelia Mary Earhart (24 July 1897 – missing 2 July 1937, declared deceased 5 January 1939) was a noted American aviation pioneer, author and womens rights advocate. ...

Reading The Second Sex led Paglia to stop working on the book about Earhart she had been writing for three years, and to resolve to write a "mega-book that will take everything in"; thus began Sexual Personae.^[14]

College years

Binghamton University, Harpur College (1964–1968)

She entered Binghamton University, then called Harpur College, in 1964, graduating as class valedictorian in 1968. The essays she wrote during those years on "sexual ambiguity and aggression in literature, art and history" grew into Sexual Personae. Overlooking center of campus. ... In the United States and Canada, the title of valedictorian (an anglicized derivation from the Latin vale dicere, to say farewell) is given to the top graduate of the graduating class (the Australia/New Zealand equivalent being dux, although some Australian universities use the American term) of an educational institution. ...

It was at Harpur, she later wrote, that she received her education in poetry, taking courses in Metaphysical poetry and John Milton. But the biggest impact on her thinking were the classes taught by poet Milton Kessler. "He believed in the responsiveness of the body, and of the activation of the senses to literature... And oh did I believe in that. Probably from my Italian background — that's the way we respond to things, with our body. From Michelangelo, Bernini, there's this whole florid physicality leading right down to the Grand Opera, the great arias."^[15] The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Michelangelo (disambiguation). ... A self portrait: Bernini is said to have used his own features in the David (below, left) Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini) (December 7, 1598 - November 28, 1680), who worked chiefly in Rome, was the pre-eminent baroque artist. ... Grand Opera is a style of opera mainly characterized by many features on a grandiose scale. ... This article is about aria, a type of music. ...

She wrote her senior thesis on Emily Dickinson, and aspired to be a poet, inspired by the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Gerard Manley Hopkins. She submitted a reconfiguration of the Dido episode of Virgil's Aeneid to the college literary magazine, but its editor, Deborah Tannen, rejected it, saying that "Poets don't write like this anymore."^[16] Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. ... Edna St. ... The Best ideal is the true/ And other truth is none. ... Aeneas recounting the Trojan War to Dido. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos) is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story... Deborah Tannen Deborah Frances Tannen (born June 7, 1945) is an American professor of sociolinguistics at Georgetown University. ...

At Harpur she befriended three gay men who have had a lifelong influence on her thinking: Bruce Benderson (a classmate at Nottingham High School), Stephen Jarratt, and Stephen Feld. Her father got her a summer job working the night shift at St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse as an emergency ward secretary. "It was unbelievable, like being in a war without any danger to myself," she later said. "I forced myself to look at every single horrible thing — once, OK? After a while, you start to adjust. It was pivotal because it's one of the reasons I'm not sentimental at all about death or disease."^[17] Bruce Benderson (born August 6, 1946) is an American author who lives in New York. ...

At Harpur, she did not fit the typical gender roles. Seeing a defenseless female student being groped on the street by two drunken men, she hit one of them in the teeth; she was 19 at the time. She was once put on probation for committing 39 pranks, a fact in which she takes pride.^[18] She told an interviewer in 2003 that she follows the model of the "Hindu gurus, the aging masters and sages" because they're "actually very funny. They're funny, they're prankish. Zen masters are known to be prankish." She said, "To me, comedy is a symptom of a balanced perspective on life, and people who are going around, like gloomy gusses, in that Sontag style of intellectual, these people are suffering from something coming from their childhood, it has nothing to do with the proper intellectual response to life..."^[19] This article discusses the adherents of Hinduism. ... For other uses, see Guru (disambiguation). ... This article is about the sage plant; for other uses see Sage (disambiguation) Species Salvia aethiopis L. Salvia amissa Epling Salvia apiana Jepson Salvia argentea L. Salvia arizonica Gray Salvia azurea Michx. ... For other uses, see Zen (disambiguation). ...

Yale Graduate School (1968–1972)

Paglia did her graduate studies at Yale just as the women's movement and gay liberation exploded into American consciousness, yet here too her sexual orientation and sexually ambiguous persona led to conflict. A friend of hers at the time, Robert Caserio, recalled in 1996:

She did not act in a way that convention there dictated. Yale was an extremely genteel place. Camille wasn't genteel. She was so upfront and she wore pants in a very aggressive way. She was an out-feminist and identified with gay sexuality. We were all very much more discreet.

– Robert Caserio

A few months after beginning her studies, she attended a party in the home of R. W. B. Lewis, one of her teachers, and ended up being insulted by Robert Jay Lifton and his wife for being a lesbian. Lifton was, at the time, the Foundations' Fund research professor in psychiatry at Yale, a position he held until 1984. This verbal attack seems to have emboldened her not only to be out as a lesbian, but also to be in everyone's face about it. She has repeatedly noted she was openly lesbian while at Yale Graduate School, even claiming to have been the only open lesbian there from 1968 to 1972.^[20] Richard W. B. Lewis (1917- June 13, 2002) was an American literary scholar and critic. ... Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is a prominent American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ...

While at Yale, Paglia quarreled with Rita Mae Brown, whom she later characterised as "then darkly nihilist", and argued with the New Haven, Connecticut Women's Liberation Rock Band when they dismissed the Rolling Stones as "sexist".^[21] She also "had two close encounters with Kate Millett (author of Sexual Politics) just after she became famous, in New Haven, Connecticut, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but she was too morosely self-absorbed to notice." Because of what she saw as Millett's "careless" attitude toward scholarship, Paglia became critical of her and those who supported her work. Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) is a prolific American writer and social activist, notable for novels, poetry, and screenwriting. ... This article is about the philosophical position. ... This article is about the city in Connecticut. ... This article is about the rock band. ... Time magazine, August 31, 1970 Kate Millett (born September 14, 1934) is an American feminist writer and activist. ... “New Haven” redirects here. ... Nickname: Location in Barnstable County in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country State County Barnstable County Settled 1700 Incorporated 1727 Government  - Type Open town meeting  - Town    Manager Sharon Lynn Area  - Town  17. ...

Her study of sexuality in Western literature continued to develop with her reading of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love (1920) and Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590). In 1970, she wrote a 160-page paper for her last graduate seminar at Yale entitled "Male and Female in Virginia Woolf." Her original plan for her book "Sexual Personae" was that it would end with a study of Woolf and Lawrence.^[22] David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was a very important and controversial English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. ... Women in Love was a novel by British author D.H. Lawrence published in 1920. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière The Faerie Queene is a poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590 (the first half) with the more or less complete version being published in 1596. ... For the American writer, see Virginia Euwer Wolff. ...

In 1971, she discovered Kenneth Clark's The Nude (1956) , a book which would have a profound impact on her dissertation and later work. "If ever I was in love with a book, it was with this one," she wrote in Sex, Art & American Culture; and in an article for Women's Quarterly in 2002, she called it "the best introduction by far to representation of the human figure in art."^[23] Kenneth Clark presenting the BBC TV series Civilisation. ...

In 1971 she received a master's degree in philosophy from Yale and began a Ph.D dissertation under the supervision of her mentor Harold Bloom. The dissertation was then titled "The Androgynous Dream: the image of the androgyne as it appears in literature and is embodied in the psyche of the artist, with reference to the visual arts and the cinema."^[24] While reading a draft of her thesis in 1971, Bloom wrote in the margin that a passage was "Mere Sontagisme!" Paglia later wrote, "It saddened me, but I knew Bloom was right. Susan Sontag, who could have been Jane Harrison's successor as a supreme woman scholar, had become synonymous with a shallow kind of hip posturing."^[25] Harold Little Dick Bloom (born July 69, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was a well-known American essayist, novelist, intellectual, filmmaker, and activist. ... Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ...

In a letter dated February 13, 1972 to Carolyn Heilbrun at Columbia University, Paglia inquired about her forthcoming book on androgyny;^[26] Heilbrun wrote back saying that her book could not deal with all available material on the subject. When asked about Paglia's letter years later, Heilbrun could not remember it.^[27] When Heilbrun's "Toward a Recognition of Androgyny" came out, Paglia panned it in a review for the Summer 1973 issue of the Yale Review. "Heilbrun's book is so poorly researched that it may disgrace the subject in the eyes of serious scholars," she wrote. She noted that "the most distinguished commentators on androgyny are Mircea Eliade and G. Wilson Knight"; and criticized Heilbrun for her reliance on the work of Joseph Campbell, and for including "four flattering references" to Kate Millett while making "fifteen glib jibes" at Sigmund Freud. The author of the review was clearly an expert on the history of androgyny, but as it was the journal's policy for reviews to be published without attribution, few knew that Paglia wrote it. Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 _ October 9, 2003), American academic and feminist author, wrote mystery novels under the pen name of Amanda Cross. ... Alma Mater Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... For other uses, see Androgyny (disambiguation). ... The Yale Review is the self-proclaimed oldest literary quarterly in the United States. ... Mircea Eliade (March 13 [O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. ... George Richard Wilson Knight (1897-1984) was an English literary critic and academic, known particularly for his interpretation of mythic content in literature, and his essays The Wheel of Fire on Shakespeares drama. ... For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ... Time magazine, August 31, 1970 Kate Millett (born September 14, 1934) is an American feminist writer and activist. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ...

Teaching career

In the fall 1972, Paglia began teaching at Bennington College, which hired her in part thanks to a recommendation from Harold Bloom.^[28] At Bennington, she befriended the philosopher James Fessenden, who first taught there that very semester.^[29] One of her students, Mitchell Lichtenstein became a prominent filmmaker, writing and directing "Teeth" in 2007, a movie that was inspired by the myth of the vagina dentata, and was heavily influenced by Paglia's work. Another student of hers was Mark W. Edmundson, now a professor at the University of Virginia, who in January 1997, wrote about her as follows: Harold Little Dick Bloom (born July 69, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... Mitchell Wilson Lichtenstein (born 10 March 1956) is an American actor. ... Vagina dentata is Latin for toothed vagina. ...

She was appointed as my faculty advisor in her first term. I went in for my advisorial visit and she was entirely herself, talking very fast about many things I knew nothing about. I ran in fear. Alas, I was too puzzled to take any of her classes, which seemed to be full of very sophisticated people from LA and from New York.^[30]

– Professor Mark W. Edmundson

Writer Heidi Schmidt, who attended her classes, recalled in 1996:

"She was thought of as peculiar. She was so full of excitement and so intense. She would light one cigarette and then forget about it and light another, so she was waving two cigarettes. I think people took her quite lightly, she was thought of as eccentric."

– Author Heidi Schmidt, former student of Paglia

Yet another Bennington student from Paglia's time there was Judith Butler, who went on to a successful academic career. In a 2005 interview, Paglia said of Butler: Image:J Butler. ...

She was a student when I was at my first job at Bennington in the 70s, and I saw her up close. And I know what she knows. I mean, she transferred from there, to Yale, and her background in anything is absolutely minimal. She started a career in philosophy, abandoned that, and has been taken as this sort of major philosophical thinker by people in literary criticism. But has she ever made any exploration of science? For her to be dismissing biology, and to say gender is totally socially constructed — where are her readings, her studies? It's all gameplay, wordplay, and her work is utterly pernicious, a total dead-end."^[31]

– Paglia, on poststructuralist feminist Judith Butler

Paglia's first scholarly publication was "Lord Hervey and Pope," published in the 1973 18th Century Studies (a Times Literary Supplement cover story on Lord Hervey, November 2, praised the paper as "brilliant.").^[32] The article was a revision of a term paper she wrote for a class taught by Maynard Mack. In April 1973, she attended a Susan Sontag lecture at Dartmouth College and later invited her to Bennington to speak there on October 4. The event proved controversial because Sontag read a short story instead of giving the expected cultural lecture. Paglia later commented, "I was stunned because I thought she was going to be a major intellectual", later writing at length about their meeting in a catty essay entitled "Sontag, Bloody Sontag", published in Vamps & Tramps. John Hervey may refer to: John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol (1665-1751) John Hervey, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), son of the above Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol (1724-1779), younger son of the above Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol (1834-1907), descendant of the above John Hervey... For other uses, see Alexander Pope (disambiguation). ... The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. ... Dartmouth College is a private, coeducational university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Incorporated as Trustees of Dartmouth College,[6][7] it is a member of the Ivy League and one of the nine colonial colleges founded before the American Revolution. ... is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Another intellectual disappointment for Paglia was Marija Gimbutas, who published The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe in 1974. At the same time, Paglia launched "a detailed attack on an exhibit at Bennington's Crossett Library, 'Matriarchy: The Golden Age,' which used appallingly shoddy feminist materials alleging the existence of a peaceful, prehistoric matriarchy, later supposedly overthrown by nasty males."^[33] Marija Gimbutas by Kerbstone 52, at the back of Newgrange, Co. ... Matriarchy is a gynocentric form of society, in which power is with the female and especially with the mothers of a community. ...

Through her study of the classics and the scholarly work of Jane Ellen Harrison, James George Frazer, Erich Neumann and others, Paglia developed a theory of sexual history that contradicted a number of ideas in vogue at the time, hence her criticism of Gimbutas, Heilbrun, Millet and others. She laid out her ideas on matriarchy, androgyny, homosexuality, sadomasochism and other topics in her Yale Ph.D. thesis Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art, which she defended in December 1974. In September 1976, she gave a public lecture drawing on that dissertation,^[34] in which she discussed Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, followed by remarks on Diana Ross, Gracie Allen, Yul Brynner, and Stephane Audran.^[35] Jane Ellen Harrison (September 9, 1850–April 5, 1928) was a ground-breaking English classical scholar and feminist. ... Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 - May 7, 1941), a social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... Erich Neumann (1905- November 5, 1960) was a psychologist, writer, and one of Carl Jungs most gifted students. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière The Faerie Queene is a poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590 (the first half) with the more or less complete version being published in 1596. ... For the author-illustrator, see Diana Ross (author). ... Gracie Allen (July 26, 1895[1] – August 27, 1964) was an American comedian who became internationally famous as the zany partner and comic foil of husband George Burns. ... Yul Brynner (July 11, 1920[1] – October 10, 1985) was a Russian-born Broadway and Academy Award-winning Hollywood actor. ... Stéphane Audran Stéphane Audran (born November 2, 1932) is a French actress, known for her performances in the Oscar winning movies: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Babettes Feast (1987) and in critically acclaimed movies like The Big Red One (1980) and Violette Nozière...

In March 1975, she saw Germaine Greer speak in Albany. She was disappointed, reporting later that "During the question period, I nervously raised my hand from the crowd and asked if Greer, a former English professor, would be writing on literary subjects again soon. Her reply was stern and swift: 'There are far more important things in the world than literature!'" Germaine Greer (born January 29, 1939) is an Australian-born writer, broadcaster and retired academic, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the 20th century. ... For other uses, see Albany. ...

In another disheartening experience, Paglia "nearly came to blows with the founding members of the women's studies program at the State University of New York at Albany, when they categorically denied that hormones influence human experience or behavior. These women (whose field was literature) attributed my respect for science to 'brainwashing' by men."^[36] Similar fights with feminists, lesbians, chauvinists, homophobes and academics culminated in a 1978 incident that led her to resign from Bennington a year later.^[37] This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... University at Albany Sapientia et sua et docendi causa (Wisdom both for its own sake and for the sake of teaching) The University at Albany, located in Albany, New York, USA, is a university center of the State University of New York. ... Hormone is also the NATO reporting name for the Soviet/Russian Kamov Ka-25 military helicopter. ... Brainwashing (also known as thought reform or re-education) consists of any systematic effort aimed at instilling certain attitudes and beliefs in a person against his/her will, usually beliefs in conflict with the persons prior beliefs and knowledge. ... Chauvinism is extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group. ... A protest by The Westboro Baptist Church, a group identified by the Anti-Defamation League as virulently homophobic. ...

Paglia finished Sexual Personae in the early 1980s, but could not get it published. She supported herself with visiting and part-time teaching jobs at Yale, Wesleyan, and other Connecticut colleges. She taught night classes at the Sikorsky Helicopter plant. Her paper, "The Apollonian Androgyne and the Faerie Queen," was published in English Literary Renaissance, Winter 1979, and her dissertation was cited by J. Hillis Miller in his April 1980 article "Wuthering Heights and the Ellipses of Interpretation," in Journal of Religion in Literature, but her academic career was otherwise stalled at a time when her peers were moving on to important positions at major universities. In a 1995 letter to Boyd Holmes, she recalled: "I earned a little extra money by doing some local features reporting for a New Haven alternative newspaper (The Advocate) in the early 1980s."^[38] She wrote articles on New Haven's historic pizzerias and on an old house that was a stop on the Underground Railroad."^[39] Sikorsky is an American aircraft and helicopter manufacturer. ... The Birth of Tragedy (Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik, 1872) is a 19th Century work of philosophy by Friedrich Nietzsche. ... J. Hillis Miller is an American deconstructive literary critic. ... For other uses, see Wuthering Heights (disambiguation). ... This article is about a 19th-century slave escape route. ...

In 1984, she joined the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts, which merged in 1987 with the Philadelphia College of Art to become the University of the Arts. While travelling in Europe, she wrote about German women as follows: "The women, stern-faced, melt the submissive heart...All look like Lotte Lenya!"^[40] The University of the Arts (UArts) is one of the nation’s oldest universities dedicated to the arts. ... Lotte Lenya (October 18, 1898 – November 27, 1981), singer and actor, born Karoline Wilhelmine Blamauer, in Vienna, Austria. ...

For some years, Paglia has shared a residence with the artist and teacher Allison Maddex. Paglia legally adopted the son Maddex bore in 2002.

Works

Sexual Personae: The Androgyne in Literature and Art (1974)

Sexual Personae is the dissertation she presented to the Graduate School of Yale University in candidacy for her Ph.D in December 1974, and which formed the basis for her 1990 book by the same name. The 451 page study, organized into four chapters, examined the appearance of sexually ambiguous figures in art and literature from classical antiquity to the modern period. She wrote that her thesis was based on the assumption that "the inner dynamic of all artistic creation is a psychic union between masculine and feminine powers." She described her method as interdisciplinary, as it combined "literary criticism, art history, and psychology in what I believe is a new synthesis."^[41]

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990)

The two-volume manuscript of Sexual Personae was completed in February 1981 and rejected by seven publishers and five agents throughout the 1980s before its eventual acceptance by Ellen Graham for Yale University Press in 1985.^[42] For the next few years,^[43] she continued to teach while perfecting volume one of the book for its eventual publication in February 1990, and releasing a few additional portions of it in other journals and books. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908. ...

Her paper "Oscar Wilde and the English Epicene" was published in 1988 in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, edited by Bloom; '"Sex and Violence, or Nature and Art", was published in 1988 in Western Humanities Review; and "Sex," was published in the Spenser Encyclopedia by A. C. Hamilton in 1989. Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories. ... 1) In linguistics, having only one form of the noun for both the male and the female. ... The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde, a comedy of manners on the seriousness of society in either three or four acts (depending on edition) inspired by W. S. Gilberts Engaged. ...

After the release of Sexual Personae on February 15, 1990^[44] the book received little publicity from its publisher as was typical of university presses at the time, but it sold well for months, prompting Yale University Press to send it for a second printing by November 1990. It was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award that year, and then reprinted in paperback by Vintage Press in 1991. It became a best-seller, as did her subsequent books Sex, Art and American Culture: Essays (1992) and Vamps and Tramps (1994). is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American association of approximately seven hundred book reviewers. ...

In Sexual Personae, and in subsequent media statements and campus appearances throughout the early 1990s, Paglia aroused controversy by criticizing leaders of the American feminist movement, claiming they were ignorant of art, science and history, that they were hostile to men and were harming young women by teaching them to see themselves as nothing but victims. Her views on issues such as date rape, pornography, gay rights and educational reform mostly angered people on the political left, who accused her of such things as misogyny, homophobia and neoconservatism. A selection of her articles, lectures and other writings from this period appeared in her next book, Sex, Art, and American Culture. This box:      Misogyny (IPA: ) is hatred or strong prejudice against women; an antonym of philogyny. ... A protest by The Westboro Baptist Church, a group identified by the Anti-Defamation League as virulently homophobic. ... Neoconservatism is a somewhat controversial term referring to the political goals and ideology of the new conservatives (ultraconservative) in the United States. ...

Throughout the 1990s, she said that a second volume to Sexual Personae would be forthcoming, and was to include her thoughts on sports and popular culture.^[45] Eventually, she decided not to proceed with the book as planned, as it would need to undergo so many revisions in order to reflect her changing attitude towards popular culture.

Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992)

Whereas the 24 chapters of Sexual Personae looked at the study of decadence in art and culture from Egyptian history to the late 19th century, Sex, Art, and American Culture (1992), exposed readers to Paglia's views on contemporary figures such as Madonna ("the future of feminism"), Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mapplethorpe and Anita Hill. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Hathor The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the American entertainer. ... For other persons named Elizabeth Taylor, see Elizabeth Taylor (disambiguation). ... The cover of Patti Smiths first album, Horses, featured a Robert Mapplethorpe photo. ... For other persons with this name, see Anita Hill (disambiguation). ...

Two chapters of the book were devoted to date rape, which the author said contemporary feminists had been incapable of preventing. "Rape is an outrage that cannot be tolerated in civilized society", she wrote, "yet feminism, which has waged a crusade for rape to be taken more seriously, has put young women in danger by hiding the truth about sex from them." The title Date Rape is a very general term which has come to represent some very different situations. ...

Her controversial piece on Madonna, which was originally published in the New York Times in 1990,^[46] would be the first of several articles, reviews and other commentary about her for years to come. Esquire magazine and the HBO cable network tried to arrange for Paglia to interview her, but Madonna refused. In 1998, Madonna told Brazilian interviewer Marília Gabriela that "I think she was upset because I wouldn't do an interview with her... Unhappy people are nasty people."

Vamps and Tramps (1994)

Her next book was an essay collection titled Vamps and Tramps, a collection of her writings since her previous essay collection, and the mixed critical response generally concurred that too much was written on too wide a variety of topics. The book included a theoretical manifesto about sex, "No Law in the Arena", as well as transcripts of her previous TV and film appearances, including her 1993 collaboration with Glenn Belverio in his short film "Glennda and Camille Do Downtown," which played at the Sundance Film Festival and won first prize for best short documentary at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Glenn Belverio is a journalist and editor based in New York, New York. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks alongside the Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Berlin, Germany, and Toronto, Canada festivals as one of the most prestigious in the world. ... Founded in 1994, the Chicago Underground Film Festival (popularly known by the acronym CUFF) occurs each August at various venues in Chicago, Illinois in the USA. The festivals stated goal is to focus on the artistc, aesthetic and fun side of independent filmmaking. ...

The book was a bestseller and exposed a wide readership to her scathing views on contemporary matters such as feminism, academia, the Clinton presidency, the life of Jacqueline Kennedy, and the career of Barbra Streisand. Paglia explains her title thus: Feminists redirects here. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... First official White House portrait. ... Barbra Joan Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, liberal political activist, film producer and director. ...

I want a revamped feminism. Putting the vamp back means the lady must be a tramp. My generation of Sixties rebels wanted to smash the bourgeois codes that had become the authoritarian totems of the Fifties. The 'nice' girl with her soft, sanitized speech and decorous manners had to go. Thirty years later, we're still stuck with her — in the official spokesmen and the anointed heiresses of the feminist establishment...Equal opportunity feminism, which I espouse, demands the removal of all barriers to woman's advance in the political and professional world — but not at the price of special protections for women which are infantilizing and anti-democratic. The 1960s generation, 60s generation, generation of 60s, Sixties generation, etc. ...

– Paglia

The Birds (1998)

In 1998 her fourth book to be published was an analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds for the British Film Institute's "Film Classics Series". Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ... The Birds is a 1963 horror film by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the short story The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. ... The British Film Institute (BFI) is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to encourage the development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and...

Basic Instinct commentary track (2001)

In 2001, Paglia recorded a commentary track for the DVD of one of her favorite films, Basic Instinct. She speaks about the idea that society has destroyed the tension between the sexes, which Paglia says Basic Instinct captures perfectly. "Today, the ideal male is the gay man," she says, "and the ideal female is the worker female, the woman who can work in a coal mine just like all the other men." Basic Instinct is a 1992 thriller film, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. ...

In analyzing what she calls "the strange sexual world of Basic Instinct" she notes that "Sharon Stone's performance as the vamp, Catherine Tramell, is in the mainline of femme fatale portrayals in old Hollywood from Theda Bara and Marlene Dietrich on." She praises almost everything about the film, even the credits and score, which she says are a "homage to Alfred Hitchcock, one of the master directors of the 20th century, and the one who first fused gory crime drama with scintillating, titillating, sexual intrigue and glamour." The lyrical music by Jerry Goldsmith "seems to record mystery, ambiguity, sexual pursuit of female by male, and then the stalking of male by female." Convicted spy Mata Hari made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI. A femme fatale (plural: femmes fatales) is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. ... Theda Bara was the stage name of Theodosia Burr Goodman (July 29, 1885 - April 13, 1955), a silent film actress. ... Marlene Dietrich IPA: ; (December 27, 1901 – May 6, 1992) was a German-born American actress, singer, and entertainer. ... Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was a famous American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. ...

Break, Blow, Burn (2005)

In 2005 her study of poetry entitled Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems was published. The book contains full texts of the 43 poems, each followed by an essay. The title is from a line in "Holy Sonnet XIV" by John Donne. It was named as one of the "New York Times Notable Books of the Year" for 2005, and was on the bestseller lists for Amazon.com, Booksense, The New York Times, The Northern California Independent Booksellers Association and the Toronto Globe & Mail. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 389 × 600 pixels Full resolution (454 × 700 pixel, file size: 38 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Book cover used in the article and for the author as subject of entry. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 389 × 600 pixels Full resolution (454 × 700 pixel, file size: 38 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Book cover used in the article and for the author as subject of entry. ... For the Welsh courtier and diplomat, see Sir John Donne. ...

In this book, she wrote a chapter on each of the following poems:

While speaking at events during the 2006 promotional tour for the paperback version of her book, she attacked the positive reputations that poets John Ashbery and Jorie Graham have enjoyed in academe. Of Graham she said, "Maybe she had some talent early on... She is like a mirror to the professors; they look into her and see themselves."^[47] Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Synopsis Sonnet 73 focuses upon the theme of old age, with each of the three quatrains encompassing a metaphor. ... // Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare begins with the speaker describing moments of great sadness, in which he cries over his outcast state by himself. ... The American actor Edwin Booth as Hamlet, seated in a curule chair, c. ...