Raw for intimacy (like raw for sex) or the limits of protection

ABSTRACT

This is a written version of a largely performed and improvised piece given at the event Intimacy Unguarded at CSM (2014) in a collaborative contribution with Diana Caine. It is reimagined from memory as a sequence of staged moments of the breaking of the guards around intimacy and of intimacy without limits; moments taken from literature and in my own life. The objective was to dissolve the boundaries between myself and characters from novels, Cheri, Hans Castorp, between their narratives and mine. The intimacy and its unguardedness are therefore matters of style in writing as a practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Melancholy
• description
• novels
• voice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Adrian Rifkin is a Visiting Professor at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.