Understanding Pornographic Fiction ─ Sex, Violence, and Self-Deception

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.

Charles O. Nussbaum received his PhD in Philosophy in 1988 from Emory University, USA. He has taught at Northwestern University, Northern Michigan University, and is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at UT Arlington. His publications include The Musical Representation and papers on the philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and Kant.