Includes bibliographical references (pages 170-180) and index.
Contents:
1: The Protestant Ethic and Modern Western Pornographic Fiction -- 2: Literary Discourse and Pragmatic Implicature -- 3: Pornographic Fiction, Implicature, and Imaginative Resistance -- 4: Pornographic Fiction and Personal Integrity.
Summary:
"Understanding Pornographic Fiction seeks to defend two main theses. First, that modern Western pornographic fiction functions as a self-deceptive vehicle for sexual or blood-lustful arousal (self-deceptive, because it indulges desires virtually whose satisfaction in actuality would tend to clash with dictates of conscience); and second, that its emergence owes as much to Puritan Protestantism and its inner- or this-worldly asceticism as does the emergence of modern rationalized capitalism. The this-worldly asceticism of Puritanism is dedicated to accomplishing God's work here on earth, rather than merely preparing the believer for the afterlife. Whereas the obscene is an aesthetic category that concerns gross offence against taste, the pornographic is a linguistic, psychological, physiological, and ultimately a moral category that concerns the pragmatics of speech acts, the psychology of self deception, the physiology of arousal, and the morality of sex and violence. One of the principal aims of this work is to establish and defend these conceptual distinctions"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.