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Fetishism

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Fetishism is the attribution of magical or excessive value to an object, often in a religious or psychological sense. It involves a displacement of desire onto a material thing.

Detailed Definition
Marx and Freud explored fetishism in different contexts. In poetry, it appears as an intense focus on a specific object, which becomes a symbol for larger desires or anxieties. This fixation can critique commodity culture or explore subconscious attachments. The poetic object gains a charged, disproportionate meaning, revealing how humans imbue matter with emotion and power, making the ordinary resonate with hidden significance.
Example
Example in poetry:
The extreme, almost obsessive focus on a material object, like the trousers in a poem by Charles Olson, can be read as a form of fetishism, where the object is charged with social or personal meaning; The Romantic fetish for a natural object, like a flower or a shell in a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, can be seen as a displacement of spiritual or political desire; The depiction of a commodity in a poem by Bertolt Brecht, such as a pair of shoes, can be a critique of commodity fetishism and capitalism; The erotic focus on a part of the body, such as a lover's hair, in a poem by Pablo Neruda, can be a form of fetishism where the part stands for the whole person.
Additional Notes
Fetishism, in its philosophical and psychoanalytic sense, refers to the attribution of disproportionate, even magical, value to an object. Karl Marx used the term "commodity fetishism" to describe how, under capitalism, social relations between people become disguised as relations between commodities, giving objects an almost mystical power. Sigmund Freud, on the other hand, used fetishism to describe a sexual perversion where a substitute object takes the place of a desired sexual object. In poetry, fetishism often appears as an intense, obsessive focus on a particular object, which becomes a symbol for larger desires, anxieties, or social critiques. A poet might write a long, detailed description of a shoe or a piece of jewelry, charging it with complex meaning. This term helps poets and readers analyze how poetry imbues the material world with intense psychological and symbolic significance.
Also Known As
Commodity fetishism Sexual fetishism Magical object Fetichism
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