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This book marks a radical and powerful intervention in traditional arguments about pornography. Kappeler re-examines the artistic distinctions between fantasy and reality, pornography and erotica, and challenges the legal definition of obscenity as well as the intellectual defence of 'freedom of expression'. By linking images of actual violence with the imaginative portrayal of women in the realm of the aesthetic, she establishes vital connections between modes of representation and social forms of power and domination. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of pornography and sexual politics and related debates in literary criticism and cultural studies.
List of contents
Acknowledgements vii
Preamble 1
Problem 1 Fact and Fiction 5
Problem 2 Human Rights 11
Problem 3 Obscenity and Censorship 18
Problem 4 Porn vs Erotica 35
Problem 5 Subjects, Objects and Equal Opportunities 49
Problem 6 Why Look at Women? 63
Problem 7 Art and Pornography 82
Problem 8 The Literary and the Production of Value 101
Problem 9 The Book Business 123
Problem 10 Playing in the Literary Sanctuary 133
Problem 11 Collaboration 148
Problem 12 Communication 167
Problem 13 Sex/Sexuality 196
Postscript 212
Practical Perspectives 220
Notes 223
Index 239
About the author
Susanne Kappeler Lecturer in English at the University of East Anglia and works as a freelance writer and teacher in both England and Germany. She authored
Reading and Writing in Henry James and was also co-editor of
Teaching the Text.
Summary
This book marks a radical and powerful intervention in traditional arguments about pornography. Kappeler re--examines the artistic distinctions between fantasy and reality, pornography and erotica, and challenges the legal definition of obscenity as well as the intellectual defence of a freedom of expressiona .
