University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Modern Languages and Literatures, Department Literatures of March 2003 Intercourse as Discourse: The Calculus of Objectification and Desire in the Novel and Film Versions of Les liaisons dangereuses Russell J. Ganim University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfacpub Part of the Modern Languages Commons Ganim, Russell J., "Intercourse as Discourse: The Calculus of Objectification and Desire in the Novel and Film Versions of Les liaisons dangereuses" (2003). Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures. 3. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/modlangfacpub/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Modern Languages and Literatures by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. NEOHELICON 30:1 (2003), pp. 209–233 RUSSELL GANIM INTERCOURSE AS DISCOURSE: THE CALCULUS OF OBJECTIFICATION AND DESIRE IN THE NOVEL AND FILM VERSIONS OF LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES Th e calculus of objectifi cation and desire in both the novel and fi lm versions of Cho derlos de Laclos’s Liaisons dangereuses is derived in two principal ways. Th e fi rst derivation, that of the Sadean will to objectify the other for erotic and intel- lectual satisfaction, precedes the second, that of the overarching wish to produce a written object announcing the conquest of the human object. Limited by the medium, the fi lm adaptations of the Liaisons dangereuses cannot place as great an emphasis on the composition of letters.