Phallos: Enhanced and Revised Edition

by Samuel R. Delany, Robert F. Reid-Pharr (Editor), Steven Shaviro (Other), Kenneth R. James (Other), Darieck Scott (Other)

Overview

Phallos is a 2004 novel by the acclaimed novelist and critic Samuel R. Delany. Taking the form of a gay pornographic novella, with the explicit sex omitted, Phallos is set during the reign of the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, and circles around the historical account of the murder of the emperor’s favorite, Antinous. The story moves from Syracuse to Egypt, from the Pillars of Hercules to Rome, from Athens to Byzantium, and back. Young Neoptolomus searches after the stolen phallus of the nameless god of Hermopolis, crafted of gold and encrusted with jewels, within which are reputedly the ancient secrets of science and society that will lead to power, knowledge, and wealth. Vivid and clever, the original novella has been expanded by nearly a third. Appended to the text are an afterword by Robert F. Reid-Pharr and three astute speculative essays by Steven Shaviro, Kenneth R. James, and Darieck Scott.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819573568
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	871 KB

About the Author

SAMUEL R. DELANY teaches English and creative writing at Temple University and is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently his novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. ROBERT F. REID-PHARR is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and author of Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual.

Table of Contents

Phallos 1

Critical Essays 125

Afterword Robert F. Reid-Pharr 127

Discourse and Desire, Muddle and Need: Radical Reading In and Around Phallos Kenneth R. James 135

Ars Vitae: Delany's Philosophical Fable Steven Shaviro 159

I Can See Atlantis from My House: Sex, Fantasy, and Phallos Darieck Scott 173

About the Author and Contributors 189

What People are Saying About This

Tavia Nyong'o

"This edition of Phallos returns to print a novella exemplary of Delany's mature aesthetic. The accompanying essays' detailed exegesis works beautifully in tandem with the experience of reading it, extending the pleasure."

Carl Freedman

“An important work of literature by one of the most consequential novelists of our time.”

Tavia Nyong’o

“This edition of Phallos returns to print a novella exemplary of Delany’s mature aesthetic. The accompanying essays’ detailed exegesis works beautifully in tandem with the experience of reading it, extending the pleasure.”