Utopian desire can invest a comic grotesque body without ironic distance

Evidence

The peculiarity of a Utopian libidinal investment of this kind can be underscored by shifting from the landed manifestation of this desire to its actantial personification in the figure of Mademoiselle Cormon her­ self, the old maid of the title. What is significant here is that, as with the house itself, no reconstruction of this character in a properly ironic perspective is possible. M,ademoiselle Cormo:p. is comic, grotesque, and desirable all at once (or in succession) : her big feet, the “beauty” of her “force and abundance, ” her “embonpoint, ” her massive hips, “which made her seem cast in a single mould,” her triple chin, with its “folds” rather than “wrinkles”-none of these features is inconsistent with the Utopian desire that takes her person as its focus. — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 3734

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how ‘Utopian libidinal investment’ works against ordinary irony — a conceptual tool for reading desire in fiction.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s ‘Small acts of decorum toward corpses’ focus on concrete embodied investment — desire here is a form of care/investment in a body. — connects to: Mass cultural manipulation depends on genuine Utopian longings — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 6911; Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 66; Seemingly harmless entertainment can normalize grotesque caricature — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1109 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass cultural manipulation depends on genuine Utopian longings #expands (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, 6911
• Seemingly harmless entertainment can normalize grotesque caricature #expands (0.78) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1109
• Art is trapped between utopian longing and the charge of false comfort #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 66