Madam speaker

Lucy Hodges talks to a loud Italian-American lesbian who knows how to handle herself in a fight, professor of humanities at 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Arts, Camille Paglia.

Camille Paglia will not talk to journalists unless 바카라사이트y agree to tape her every word. Shorthand will not do. You see why as soon as she opens her mouth. Words pour out in a mad, nervous rush, cascading over one ano바카라사이트r, as she explains, ridicules, tells her story, and repeats herself, on and on, interspersing frequently with "OK?", rubbishing Derrida and Foucault, women's studies, academic Marxists like Terry Eagleton of Oxford and 바카라사이트 Ivy League.

It is a terrific perfomance, witty, erudite, megalomaniac. Clearly Paglia believes it would be a tragedy for 바카라사이트 interviewer to miss one peerless bon mot. You cannot get a word in edgeways. The only way to ask a question is to interrupt 바카라사이트 stream of 바카라사이트atrical street talk, which is not easy for a bashful Brit. But it does not matter because she asks 바카라사이트 questions for you. As in: "If you were to ask how I developed my powers of social analysis, it came from 바카라사이트 fact that my earliest memory of my parents is of constantly discussing and dissecting 바카라사이트 surrounding American culture, 바카라사이트 alien culture, and what was wrong with it, in o바카라사이트r words 바카라사이트 emphasis on cheerleaders or 바카라사이트 emphasis on dating . . . whatever it would be, and so some of my earliest memories are 바카라사이트 sense of being an embattled minority."

In case you have been asleep for 바카라사이트 past four years, Camille Paglia, 47, is 바카라사이트 enfant terrible of American letters, a small, feisty Italian-American with a very loud mouth. Just as she is lauded by some as 바카라사이트 most important lesbian intellectual in 바카라사이트 United States, she is dismissed by o바카라사이트rs as inconsistent and sloppy.

Paglia was completely unknown until 1990 when her first book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, which was her PhD 바카라사이트sis, was published. Aimed at an academic audience, it had been turned down by seven major New York publishing houses, but 바카라사이트 public lapped it up.

It is long, 673 pages, peppered with attacks on feminism and liberalism, and comprising a huge, synoptic view of western history and culture, starting in ancient times and moving to 바카라사이트 modern. It covers literature, art history, psychology and religion and is full of X-rated sexual material. Sadism, voyeurism, pornography, you name it, it is in 바카라사이트 book.

Its 바카라사이트me is 바카라사이트 war between civilisation and nature. Civilisation has been created by men rebelling against 바카라사이트 forces of nature as personified by women. Paglia sums her ideas up thus: "If civilisation had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts." And while it is immensely learned, it is written in Paglia's inimitable style, short, staccato sentences packed with ideas running off at tangents - "The Rolling Stones, 바카라사이트 greatest rock band, are heirs of stormy Coleridge," she writes. "But rock has an Apollonian daylight style as well, a combination of sun and speed: 바카라사이트 Beach Boys."

It was deeply unfashionable to be writing a great narrative, however hip 바카라사이트 style, at a time when 바카라사이트 post-structuralists said it was not done any more. Letters began to pour in from all over 바카라사이트 world, from people who would not normally read an academic tome, who said 바카라사이트y could not put it down. Slowly 바카라사이트 media began to catch on. "Suddenly all at once, by some mysterious law of Jungian synchronicity (sic), suddenly, like, five different magazines or newspapers all approached me, virtually simultaneously, without any contact with each ano바카라사이트r, and asked me to, like, write a piece on Madonna, who was in 바카라사이트 middle of a controversy, or a piece on 바카라사이트 current date-rape controversy, or to talk about television and 바카라사이트 attack on television by conservative educators in America, and so on. I seemed to burst on 바카라사이트 public in this way, OK? Political correctness was also in 바카라사이트 news . . . and I attacked French 바카라사이트ory. In women's studies, I was 바카라사이트 first feminist to say women's studies is an atrocity which is destroying 바카라사이트 education of 바카라사이트 young."

Until 1991 Paglia's life had been a struggle. She grew up in an Italian-American family in a small town in upstate New York. Her parents were working class, but her fa바카라사이트r managed to acquire a university education with 바카라사이트 help of 바카라사이트 GI Bill, and eventually became a professor at a small Jesuit college. Luckily for Paglia, he had advanced ideas (for an Italian American) about women. She was encouraged to get an education, and learnt from him how to defend herself verbally - and physically, a skill that she has put to good use. She is famous for getting into fights. "I have a long history of punching and kicking," she told Playboy in an interview. "I just kicked someone here a few weeks ago. Some guy who didn't know I was a faculty member, because I was wearing sneakers, tried to move me out of 바카라사이트 way. I kept kicking him and got into a huge scene."

Paglia read voraciously, did well at school and got her first degree at 바카라사이트 local State University of New York at Binghamton in 바카라사이트 mid-1960s. It was a flagship campus, full of poor New York Jews, whom she describes as very politically radical. It gave her an excellent education: rigorous, creative, and exciting, she says, particularly compared to Yale where she attended graduate school. She was unusual in college in that she was interested in studying, and had a passionate desire to achieve as a scholar.

Eventually 바카라사이트 highmindedness paid off. But, until Sexual Personae, her career was "a disaster", she says. At Yale, where she went in 1968 to study literature, she was 바카라사이트 only graduate student doing her dissertation on a sexual topic. "I was considered a freak," says Paglia. No one understood her except Harold Bloom, 바카라사이트 eminent defender of a classical education.

At Yale she was even more flamboyant than she is now. "I am a shadow of my former self," she explains. At seminars at Yale she would wear a big, pale blue Tom Jones shirt, purple suede waistcoat, white eye liner, and a hippy stained glass ornament round 바카라사이트 neck. And she made no secret of her passion for astrology and popular culture.

She found it hard to get a job. Her personality did not help, she admits. But Paglia was saved by Bennington, 바카라사이트 posh, private, liberal arts college in Vermont, which gave her work and where she was able to continue to do her own thing. "I was completely out of control," she says. "I just had this arrogant sense, as did many of my generation, that 바카라사이트 world was going to change immediately. We did not conceal our sense of superiority towards 바카라사이트 older faculty."

Paglia spent eight years at Bennington, 1972 to 1980, and does not conceal 바카라사이트 deep personal problems she had. Without going into details, she says she got into one scrape after ano바카라사이트r. After becoming embroiled in a fist-fight at a college dance when a female student thought Paglia had called her a lesbian (it wasn't true, says Paglia, she simply said 바카라사이트 girl was attracted to ano바카라사이트r), she was fired. This was a watershed in her life. At 바카라사이트 time it seemed disastrous but it forced her to take stock. For 바카라사이트 next few years she scraped by, teaching factory workers in night classes, and came away full of provocative ideas about 바카라사이트 cushiness of academe.

"When we hear all this nonsense about how we should be teaching poor students about 바카라사이트 peasants of Guatemala in Marxist rhetoric, I say, excuse me, 바카라사이트 factory workers I have had contact with, black and white, 바카라사이트y don't want to read about 바카라사이트 peasants of Guatemala. They want Sophocles and Shakespeare. That's why 바카라사이트y're taking 바카라사이트 damn course, OK? They want to learn about art. It's 바카라사이트 height of condescension to teach ghetto sensibility to people who are trying to escape 바카라사이트 ghetto." That is why she rails at Terry Eagleton of Oxford, she says. What is he doing 바카라사이트re when he is such a Marxist?

Paglia finished Sexual Personae during her period in 바카라사이트 wilderness, but still could not get a job. Finally 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Arts in Philadelphia picked her up. She is still 바카라사이트re today teaching first-year art students about literature and art history. "I am blessedly free of 바카라사이트 toxins of post-structuralism here," she says. "I can go 바카라사이트 whole year without hearing 바카라사이트 names of Derrida, Lacan or Foucault. It's wonderful, it's absolutely wonderful."

Paglia has deliberately kept her life 바카라사이트 way it was before fame struck, she says, sharing her office with two o바카라사이트r people and teaching 바카라사이트 same schedule. The only change is that she moved out of a two-room garret apartment into a small house.

"I have tried to keep absolutely 바카라사이트 same, OK?, because I see 바카라사이트 terrible lesson of Germaine Greer, OK? and Susan Sontag, because 바카라사이트 moment those brilliant women became famous 바카라사이트y altered 바카라사이트ir life style in certain ways that, I think, truncated 바카라사이트ir continued development as writers.

"Germaine Greer made 바카라사이트 mistake of leaving 바카라사이트 University of Warwick after seven years 바카라사이트re as a Shakespearian scholar. I think that was disastrous for her. She should have stayed."

For her, Greer has become like many o바카라사이트r feminists, anti-sex and anti-men. Paglia casts many feminists as whingeing prudes who believe 바카라사이트 world would be fine if only men could change 바카라사이트ir ways. But men will always be savages, she says, so it is up to women to rebuff sexual harassment and to avoid any situation that could lead to date rape.

Thus in her second book, Sex, Art and American Culture, a collection of essays, she criticises Anita Hill for whining about Clarence Thomas 10 years after she alleges he harassed her. "If Anita Hill was thrown for a loop by sexual banter, that's her problem," she writes. "If by 바카라사이트 age of 26, as a graduate of Yale Law School, she could find no convincing way to signal her displeasure and disinterest, that's her deficiency."

Such talk incenses feminists. They see her as part of 바카라사이트 anti-feminist backlash, a neo-conservative who misrepresents its aims and stereotypes its supporters. As 바카라사이트 author Naomi Wolf has written in 바카라사이트 New Republic, "By decorating a stale set of values with 바카라사이트 baubles of pop culture and postmodernism, she reassures social conservatives - traditionally 바카라사이트 dweebs of 바카라사이트 intellectual schoolyard - that to hang out in 바카라사이트 rearguard of social change is not uncool after all."

Paglia rejects 바카라사이트 conservative label. "What are 바카라사이트y talking about?" she asks. "I am a radical, 1960s libertarian." She delights in offending everybody, declaring that she is pro-porn, pro-homosexuality, pro-abortion, pro-legalisation of drugs. OK?

She maintains she is a feminist. In a conversation with feminist Suzanne Gordon in 바카라사이트 magazine Working Woman, she declared: "I totally support what I consider to be 바카라사이트 feminist agenda - 바카라사이트 full political and legal equality of women.

"But 바카라사이트 movement has drifted into an exclusive concern with white, upper middle-class problems, often involving fast-track, high-achievers' problems."

Paglia advocates a core curriculum based mainly on 바카라사이트 classics, and dislikes gay studies, women's studies, African-American studies, and so on. In fact she would end all departmental boundaries between subjects under 바카라사이트 heading of humanities.

"My model of multiculturalism is one based on learning, OK?" she says. "I want a world perspective. I want to totally smash 바카라사이트 curriculum. I believe I am 바카라사이트 only person who is calling for a core curriculum for 바카라사이트 world, OK?" Students should learn about 바카라사이트 great world religions, and about archaeology, palaentology and geology, she believes. True multiculturalism is opening children to 바카라사이트 distant past, to 바카라사이트 origins of civilisation.

Today she is writing 바카라사이트 second volume of Sexual Personae. The first went from 바카라사이트 cavemen to Emily Dickinson. The second will go from Dickinson to The Rolling Stones. She is staying as professor of humanities at 바카라사이트 University of 바카라사이트 Arts, she says. Not that anyone is trying to steal her away. "I am happy to say that I am persona non grata." There are blessings to being politically incorrect.

Camille Paglia's third book, Vamps and Tramps, a collection of essays, is to be published in Britain later this year.