Corporeal imperialism: Textual anti-masturbation in the eighteenth century – and – National negotiation: Toward feminist postnationalism in theory and practice

Essay 1: This essay discusses textual anti-masturbation in the eighteenth century in order to introduce the concept of corporeal imperialism and argue that the history of anti-masturbation prefigures the history of bodily colonialism. Conducting a close reading of Onania; Or, the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution and Samuel Tissot’s Onanism: Or, a Treatise on the Disorders Produced by Masturbation, this essay illustrates the ways in which the authors link acceptable sexuality to acceptable expressions of citizenship. Essay 2: Arguing that nation is the single most important concept in feminist responses to historical and neo-colonialism, this essay reviews the history of feminist nationalisms through their responses to literal and metaphoric uses of the nation. Using Ama Ata Aidoo’s prose poem Our Sister Killjoy as both an example of necessary nationalism and postnationalism in literature, this essay explores postcolonial nationalism and anti-nationalism while arguing for a theoretical and practical ethic of postnationalism.