Abstract

The dissertation is an exploration of pleasure, particularly in its more intense forms, as a moment of paradox . It is suggested that the paradoxicality of pleasure unfolds particularly in relation to time and to desire. In the case of time, moments of pleasure seem to move between, or to display the paradoxicality of, time as movement and eternity, often considered atemporal. Pleasure likewise seems to move between desire and satisfaction. Theories of pleasure and particular cases of pleasure are examined as exemplifications of pleasure's paradoxes. The contrary-seeming movements are not resolved, which would undo their paradoxicality, but are progressively unfolded