Desire, Performance, and Classification: Critical Perspectives on the Erotic

Book excerpt: This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2013. In November 2011, artists, professors, students, and scholars from around the world gathered in Prague, Czech Republic, to attempt to define what could be considered the erotic. The conference sought submissions that addressed interactions of the erotic with history, art, literature, practices, performances, pedagogy, and sexuality, among many others. This wide focus brought together an intellectually rich meeting that interrogated the boundaries between eroticism, sex, and desire. This volume represents a sampling of papers presented at the conference, and the diverse focuses within these papers are indicative of the inter- and trans-disciplinary work that was presented. Each work within this collection brings a fresh and unique approach to the erotic and, in its own way, tries to answer the question, ‘What is erotic?’