The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture / Edition 1

by Walter Kendrick

Overview

Walter Kendrick traces the relatively recent concept of pornography—the word was not coined until the late 18th century—which became a public issue once the printing press gave ordinary people access to the erotica of the Greeks and Romans, the art and literature of the French enlightenment, and the poems of the Earl of Rochester and John Cleland's Fanny Hill. From the secret museums to the pornography trials of Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterly's Lover, to Mapplethorpe, cable TV, and the Internet, Kendrick explores how conceptions of pornography relate to issues of freedom of expression and censorship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520207295
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/06/1997
Edition description:	First Edition, With a new afterword
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Walter Kendrick is Professor of English at Fordham University and author of The Thrill of Fear: 250 Years of Scary Entertainment (1991) among other titles.

Table of Contents

PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION

ONE
ORIGINS

TWO
THE PRE-P0RNOGRAPHIC ERA

THREE
ADVENTURES OF THE YOUNG PERSON

FOUR
TRIALS OF THE WORD

FIVE
THE AMERICAN OBSCENE

SIX
GOOD INTENTIONS

SEVEN
HARD AT THE CORE

EIGHT
THE POST-PORNOGRAPHIC ERA

AFTERWORD , 1996
REFERENCE NOTES
LIST OF WORKS CITED
INDEX

Editorial Reviews

Village Voice editor Kendrick (The Novel Machine) goes back to the erotic murals of ancient Pompeii and forward to the recent presidential commissions on pornography to demonstrate how public attitudes toward pornography and censorship have changed. PW noted that this is a ``well-researched, nontitillating study of the phenomenon.'' (April)

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