MARQUIS DE SADE

NOBLEMAN OF FREE WILL AND EVIL ADLIGER DES FREIEN (UN)WILLENS PLEMI SLOBODNE ( NE)VOLJE
2 JUNE 1740 2 DECEMBER 1814

Vortrag von Konstanza Tage der Tantrischen Gruppen, Linjan, April 2012

MARQUIS DE SADE
His Life: sacandals imprisonments sentence to death political engagements

His Writings: fascinating and repellent

Reception and Key Philosophical Ideas satanic or divine de Sade? Why should we deal with de Sade?

MARQUIS DE SADES LIFE

Yes, I am a libertine, I admit it freely. I have dreamed of doing everything that it is possible to dream of in that line. But I have certainly not done all the things I have dreamt of and never shall. Libertine I may be, but I am not a criminal, I am not a murderer. -- The Marquis de Sade

MARQUIS DE SADES LIFE

32 years of the 74 of his life spent in prison Born in Paris, educated Christian, aristrocrat familly 1763 married: 2 sons, 1 daughter His own familly condemned him

Not until 1940 Comte Xavier de Sade initiated investigation

S C A N DA L S A N D I M P R I S O N M E N T S I
1763 (23) several short imprisonments because of sexual mistreatment of prostitutes 1768 (28) exiled to his chateau at Lacoste 1768 first major scandal; case Rose Keller Sades mother in law obtained a lettre de cachet from the king 1772 (32) sentenced to death in absentia for sodomy and poisoning flight to Italy Imprisoned and ecaped

S C A N DA L S A N D I M P R I S O N M E N T S I I 1776 - returned to Lacoste 1777 imprisoned in the Chateau de Vincennes 1778 successfully appealed his death sentence but remained imprisoned escaping and being recaptured 1784 transferred to the Bastille 1786 transferred to the insane asylum at Charenton 1790 (50) released and divorced

IMPRISOMENT
Vincenne

LA BASTILLE

SHORT FREEDOM AND POLITICS 1790 1803: time of freedom Published several books 1790 until death 1814: relationship with Constance Quesent 1790 elected to the National Convention 1793 removed and imprisoned because critics to Robespierre 1794 released after the execution of Robespierre

IMPRISONMENTS FOR HIS WRITINGS

1801 (61) Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the arrest 1803 declared insane and transferred to the asylum at Charenton (Constance lived there with him until his death) Staged several plays with inmates as actors 1809 deprivation of pens and paper (!) Sexual relationship with Madeleine Leclerc (13)

NAOPLEON BONAPARTE

Throwing into fire Marquis des Sades

Justine

PORTRAIT IMAGINAIRE DU XIXE SICLE

Sade soumis aux quatre vents des suggestions diaboliques

PSYCHIATRY

Hospital de Charenton

PORTRAIT IMAGINAIRE

Sade prisonnier

MARQUIS DE SADES WRITINGS

Tagged under many different titles Gothic novel? Stunning issues of sexual violence, sadomasochism and pedophilia Focus on dark side of human nature: With 120 Days, for example, Sade wished to present "the most impure tale that has ever been written since the world exists."

PROSE

(CHOICE)

Dialogue between a priest and a dying man (1782 / 1926) The 120 Days of Sodom or the School of Licentiousness (1785 / 1904)

Justine Les Infortunes de la vertu (1787 /1930)

Aline and valcour or philosophical roman (1788 / 1791) Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

Juliette or vice Amply Rewarded (1797)

The Crimes of Love (1800)

OTHERS
Hitoriettes Essays Plays Political pamphlets Letters and personal notes posthumously published

JUSTINE

OR THE MISFORTUNES OF VIRTUE

Classic novel, no standard version Napoleon called Justine "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination" Destruction of the book ordered 1815 Offenders: monks, judges, bankers raping, tortuing the virtuous Justine, who never gives up in being virtuous

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

BOOK ILLUSTRATION
Justine

BOOK ILLUSTRATION
Juliette

T H E 1 2 0 DAY S O F S O D O M
OR THE SCHOOL OF LIBERTINISM

Novel The work remained unpublished until the 20th century 1904 by the Berlin psychiatrist Iwan Bloch: equated it with Krafft-Ebbings Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) Due to its topics of sexual violence and extreme cruelty it has often been banned; 1955 still French authorities wanted to destroy it Written in the Bastille

T H E 1 2 0 DAY S O F S O D O M
Offenders: aristocrat, bishop, judge, banker Victims: daughters of the offenders; 8 boys and girls 12-15 years old; 4 elderly women; 4 studs

Simple passions complex passions criminal passions murderous passions

The manner in which sexual fetishes are developed; number of recurring figures Film adaptations

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT

Les 120 Journees de Sodome 12m long

11cm wide
Partially readable only with lupe Lost in the Bastille... ...and found again in the Bastille

RECEPTION AND KEY PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS SATANIC OR DIVINE DE SADE ?

Man is governed by his nature Man can only exhibit and enjoy to the full his true nature when he is freed from all moral and social restraints Man's artificial laws dictate what was right and wrong The crime of the Marquis de Sade was not what he did, but that he spoke of it publicly.

PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS IN JUSTINE going against accepted tradition

the subjectivity of virtue and vice

the pursuit of desire and the consequences of it the evils of absolutism for either the purposes of good or evil

Nature, as being the only true ruler of man

the pursuit of virtue, as well as that of vice, are both for the sake of pleasure

The will to power is the will to pleasure

POLITICAL IDEAS IN JUSTINE

the hierarchy and inequalities within a class system the corruption of the church, the justice system and most major institutions

the respective roles of the sexes

the necessity of reliance upon others (appropriate as De Sade advocated a form of utopian socialism, at least later in life)

MODERN RECEPTION
Geoffrey Gorer the first reasoned socialist Simone de Beauvoir radical philosophy of freedom; focus on sexuality as motive force Guillaume Apollinaire the freest spirit that has ever existed Pierre Klossowski precursor of nihilism Jacques Lacan Kant avec Sade Camille Paglia Sade is responding to Rousseau Feminist reading of Sade

ERICH KHLER PROFESSOR OF FRENCH LITERATURE

Sades occupation with MORALITY Sades negative teodicy = justification of an evil God THEODICY: attempt to resolve the evidential problem of evil by reconciling God's traditional characteristics of all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing with the occurrence of evil in the world.

Justine an apothesis of virtue and innocence

If he had written philosophical essays he would not have been condemned

 The GOD of the religions cannot exist

Contradictory positions: individual joy is based on the joy of others the biggest misery of others causes the biggest individual pleasure
Idee du Mal To derive sadism from Sade was a mistake

S TA T E A N D S O C I E T Y

Central problem: the evil Moralty of the atheists is superior to the religious ones Negative utopia: tyranny, despotism, fanatic priests, all historic defects of mankind united Positiv utopia for whole Europe: no class-system, no property, no religion, no prisons, no death-sentence; autarcic economy, no money only barter trade; no luxery; equality of men and women.

 120 Days of Sodom is the Metaphora for the tortuing and burning of witches through Chatholic church and the state 1885 still burning of witches in France

SURREALISM

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

WHY SHOULD WE DEAL WITH DE SADE?

The tyrann, the raper, the murderer in each of us

Sade articulated the dark side of humanity and also the worst fears; he visualised hell
You can only transcendend what you know

Absolute evil and by implication absolute innocence: some readers write about the religious experience of reading de Sade

TA N T R I C - S P I R I T UA L I N T E R P R E TA T I O N BY MAKAJA (120 Days of Sodom)

Sex-hate
- desintegration of the Ego through Pain and Destruction - (short) feeling of unity through destroying the other being and melting with the liberating life force
in contrary to:

Love
- desintegration of the Ego through Love and Creation - (long-lasting) feeling of unity through giving oneself to the other being and melting with the all-pervading life force

TA N T R I C - S P I R I T UA L I N T E R P R E TA T I O N B Y M A K A JA ( Ju s t i n e )

Demon of ascetizm and demon of hedonizm = 2 faces of destruction and death Demon of ascetizm: breaking the flow of Holy Spirit through the physical body human gets weak

Demon of hedonizm: taking so much as possible energy and puting out through sexual organ human kills oneself