Synopses & Reviews
"... sophisticated, provocative, and thoroughly documented.... Strongly recommended... " --Choice
"... a welcome addition to the literature on this contentious issue." --Journal of Communication
"This book does an excellent job of portraying the complexity of the legal and philosophical debates among women about the status and effects of pornography, and it is an important interdisciplinary scholarly contribution for that reason." --Signs
In an attempt to advance our society's debate on pornography beyond the current political and legal stalemate, these essays examine explicit portrayals of violence in pornography from multidisciplinary perspectives: history, literary criticism, religious studies, ethics, political science, film studies, law, and psychology.
Table of Contents
Introduction Susan Gubar and Joan Hoff
Part One Past Debates and Present Stalemates
1. Why Is There No History of Pornography?
Joan Hoff
2. Representing Pornography: Feminism, Criticism, and Depiction Female Violation
Susan Gubar
3. Pornography and the Religious Imagination
Mary Jo Weaver
4. Social Science and Public Policy: Looking at the 1986 Commission on Pornography
Edna Einsiedel
5. Pornography as a Legal Text: Comments from a Legal Perspective
Robein West
Part Two Contemporary Ramifications
6. Public Opinion and Pornography Policy Doris-Jean Burton
7. Violent Pornography: Mimetic Nihilism and the Eclipse of Differences
Richard B. Miller
8. Beyond the Meese Commission Report: Understanding the Variable Nature of Pornography Regulation
David Pritchard
9. Pornography and Existing Law: What the Law Can Do
Lauren Robel
10. Fetishism and Hard Core: Marx, Freud, and the "Money Shot"
Linda Williams
11. Mitigating the Effects of Violent Pornography
Margaret intons-Peterson and Beverly Roskos-Ewoldsen
Contributors
Index