Abstract

The article analyses the literary and cultural layers of Lulu, the album published by Lou Reed in collaboration with Metallica, based on Frank Wedekind’s two modernist dramas: Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora’s Box (1904). In Reed’s reinterpretation, the two plays become his means through which he enters the area of disturbing perversion and graphic pornography. Consequently, Reeds seems to follow Susan Sontag’s diagnosis according to which the goal of pornographic literature is to disorient and to disturb mental balance. In the case of Lulu, it demonstrates Reed’s strategies of crossing the borders between what is commonly accepted and what is rejected because of its non-normative quality. It results in multilayered kinkiness that outreaches the literary frames of the project and makes it possible to view Lulu as a piece of art that is both uncompromising and visionary.

Highlights

  • After the publication of Lulu – his collaborative work with Metallica – Lou Reed stated: “I had this dream of the kind of songs you could do with rock, if you looked at it from the point of view of William Burroughs, or Hubert Selby, or Tennessee Williams, for that matter ..., if you could put together lyrics like that, and have a melody with it”

  • Lulu is the realization of this dream as its plot is loosely based on Frank Wedekind’s two controversial plays of the modernist era: Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora’s Box (1904)

  • Lulu’s – the protagonist’s – story becomes Reed’s portal through which he enters the zone of perverse violence and explicit pornography

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

After the publication of Lulu – his collaborative work with Metallica – Lou Reed stated: “I had this dream of the kind of songs you could do with rock, if you looked at it from the point of view of William Burroughs, or Hubert Selby, or Tennessee Williams, for that matter ..., if you could put together lyrics like that, and have a melody with it” (quoted in Shteamer 2011). Lulu’s – the protagonist’s – story becomes Reed’s portal through which he enters the zone of perverse violence and explicit pornography. He does what is characteristic for his entire oeuvre: referring to the basic instincts of human sexuality, he penetrates the experiences that appear to be the foundations of our culture ( they are frequently marginalized in the mainstream discourse). Another culturally controversial element of his strategy is the decision to Explorations: A Journal of Language and Literature, 8 (2020), pp. The result is a multidimensional kinkiness that outreaches the frames of a literary project, and which makes Lulu an uncompromising, visionary work of art

ALL ROADS LEAD TO LULU
FRANK WEDEKIND SHOCKS
TO GIVE LULU A ROCK LIFE
THE MARRIAGE OF EROS AND THANATOS
HER NAME IS NEMESIS
CONCLUSIONS
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