Savage Sex and Dangerous Desire: Metanarrative in the Construction of Western Sexual Meaning

Abstract

While recognizing that social life is heterogeneous and constantly transforming, it is possible to identify key discursive formations in our midst. Historically formulated metanarratives of savage sexuality circulate in seemingly disparate areas of Western sexual discourse and practice, forming the bedrock of sexual knowledge and giving shape to complex experience. Examination of the metaphors, tropes and representations that enter unique but interdependent fields of sexual discourse provokes key questions as to the nature of the relationship between episteme, knowledge practices and political economy in the production of sexual meaning and in turn, necessitates an examination of how structured discourse is complexly related to the broad dynamics of cultural process and the fundaments of lived human experience.