The Invention of Pornography, 1500-1800: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity

by Lynn Hunt

In this groundbreaking collection of essays, historians and literary theorists examine how, between 1500 and 1800, pornography emerged as a literary practice and a category of knowledge intimately linked to the formative moments of Western modernity and the democratization of culture. The first modern writers and engravers of pornography were part of the demimonde of heretics, freethinkers, and libertines who constituted the dark underside of the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. From the start, early modern European pornography used the shock of sex to test the boundaries and regulation of obscene behavior and expression in the public and private sphere. As such, pornography criticized and even subverted political authorities as well as social and sexual relations.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Sexuality, Pornography, Erotica, Queer

412 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1993

About the author

Lynn Avery Hunt is the Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her area of expertise is the French Revolution, but she is also well known for her work in European cultural history on such topics as gender. Her 2007 work, Inventing Human Rights, has been heralded as the most comprehensive analysis of the history of human rights. She served as president of the American Historical Association in 2002.

Reviews

[Adriana Scarpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro bem completo, dividido em artigos com autores diferentes, sobre a história da pornografia do renascimento à revolução francesa.
Humanismo, Política e Pornografia no Renascimento italiano de Paula Findlen trata sobretudo da literatura de Aretino, com especial ênfase nos Sonetos Luxuriosos e no Ragionamento.
A Politização da pornografia de Joan Dejean trata de como o L'ecóle de Filles é considerado o marco inicial da pornografia moderna com o intuito de politizar o obsceno.
Às vezes um cetro é apenas um cetro de Rachel Weil trata da relação intrínseca do poder monárquico e a analogia pornográfica.
O mundo materialista da pornografia de Margaret Jacob trata do sentido filosófico do obsceno.
Verdade e palavra obscena na pornografia francesa do século XVIII de Lucienne Mazur retrata a linha de diferença entre narradores masculinos e femininos e o quão psicanaliticamente se desenvolvem com a preferência pelo narrador feminino.
A Prostituta Libertina de Kathryn Norberg trata de como os conceitos de Rousseau foram prejudiciais às questões de gênero ao mesmo tempo em que Sade não fazia distição entre
Fantasia erótica e libertinagem masculina no Iluminismo inglês de Randolph Trimbach trata de como John Cleland abriu toda uma nova perspectiva de pornografia na Inglaterra com Fanny Hill.
Política e Pornografia na República Holandesa dos séculos XVII e XVIII de Wijnand Mihnhardt trata ambígua relação da pornografia na Holanda.
A Pornografia e Revolução Francesa de Lynn Hunt trata do ápice da pornografia francesa, com Sade, Restif de La Bretonne.

[Ryan Scicluna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book which gives the reader the liberty to experience sexuality during the 1500s till the 1800s. Life was very different from now but at least they were more liberal with their views. Unfortunately due to certain reforms and political shifts that all ended and everything was suppressed. Life would be much better if people understood the fact that sexuality is nothing to be ashamed of and this books gives examples of literature where the pursuit of pleasure is rewarded. I recommend this book to all those willing to understand sexual behavior and pleasure.

Suggested Further Reading:

The History of Sexuality Michael Foucault
The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture Walter Kendrick
Eros Revived: Erotica of the Enlightenment in England and America Peter Wagner
A History of Erotic Literature Patrick J. Kearney
The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 Lawrence Stone
Queen Christina of Sweden and Her Circle: The Transformation of a Seventeenth-Century Philosophical Libertine Susanna Akerman
The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Ninteenth-Century England Steve Marcus
The Literary Underground of the Old Regime Robert Darnton
Essays on the Age of Enlightenment in Honor of Ira O. Wade Jean Macary
Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture R.F. Brissenden
Unauthorized Sexual Behavior during the Enlightment Robert P. Maccubin
The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History Angela Carter
Radical Underworld: Prophets, Revolutionaries and Pornographers in London, 1795-1840 Iain McCalman
From the Fires of the Revolution to the Great War Arthur Goldhammer
Renaissance in Italy (1875-86) John Addington Symonds
The Divine Aretino James Cleugh
Pietro Aretino and the Republic of Venice: Researches on Aretino and His Circle in Venice Christopher Cairns
Festum Voluptatis: A Study of Renaissance Erotica David O. Frantz
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy Jacob Burckhardt
Transuming Passion: Ganymede and the Erotics of Humanism Leonard Barkan
Libertine Literature in England David Foxon
Unfit for Modest Ears: A Study of Pornographic, Obscene and Bawdy Works Written or Published in England in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century Roger Thompson
Porneia: On Desire and the Body in Antiquity Aline Rouselle
Friendly Affections, Nefarious Vices: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence Michael Rocke
Caste Thinking: The Rape of Lucretia and the Birth of Humanism Stephanie Jed
The Culture of Print in Early Modern France Roger Chartier
The Printing Press as an Agent of Change Elizabeth Eisenstein
The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response David Freedberg
Myths, Emblems, Clues Carlo Ginzburg
The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540-1605 Paul Grendler
The Englishman's Italian Books, 1550-1700 John Lievsay
Aretin: A Dialogue on Painting Ludovico Dolce
Critics of the Italian World Paul Grendler
Aretino's Dialogues Pietro Aretino
Rabelais and His World Mikhail Bakhtin
Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance Edgar Wind
Ganymede in the Renaissance: Homosexuality in Art and Society James M. Saslow
The Book of Courtier Baldesar Castiglione
Seeing Through Clothes Anne Hollander
Refiguring Woman: Perspectives on Gender and the Italian Renaissance Marylin Miguel and Juliana Schiesari
Lives of the Courtesans: Portraits of the Italian Renaissance Lynn Lawner
The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor Amy Richlin
Priapea: Poems for a Phallic God W.H. Park
The World of Aldus Manutius: Business and Scholarship in Renaissance Venice Martin Lowry
Antonio Beccadelli and the Hermaphrodite Michael de Cossart
The Pursuit of Sodomy: Male Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe Kenet Gerard and Gert Hekma
The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice Guido Ruggiero
Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Philippe Aries and Andre Bejin
The Currency of Eros: Women's Love Lyric in Europe, 1540-1620 Ann Rosalind Jones
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects Giorgio Vasari
Society and Culture in Early Modern France Natalie Zemon Davis
Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance Timothy Wilson
Politic in Renaissance Venice Robet Finlay
Civic Rituals in Renaissance Venice Edward Muir
Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville Mary Elizabeth Perry
Feminism and Opposition Journalism in Old Regime France Nina Rattner Gelbart
L'Ecole Des Filles
Poems on Affairs of State, from the Time of Oliver Cromwell to the Abdication of Kind James the Second
The Daring Muse Margaret Ann Doody
Culture, Politics and Society in Britain, 1660-1800 Jeremy Black and Jeremy Gregory
The Political Ideology of Andrew Marvell Conal Condren and A.D. Cousins
The Politics of Religion in Restoration England Tim Harris, Paul Seaward and Mark Goldie
The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology Ernst Kantorowicz
The English Court David Starkey
The Shorter Pepys Samuel Pepys
The Secret History of the Duchess of Portsmouth Richard Baldwin
The Secret History of the Reigns of K. Charles II and K. James II Richard Baldwin
The Amours of the Sultana of Barbary Richard Baldwin
The Present State of the Ottoman Empire Paul Rycaut
Leviathan and the Air-Pump Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer
Galileo Heretic Pietro Redondi
The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution Margaret C. Jacop
The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke C.B. Macpherson
Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth Century Europe Margaret C. Jacop
The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller Carlo Ginzburg
Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton Robert H. Kargon
Atheism from Reformation to the Enlightenment Michael Hunter and David Wootton
Narrative Transvestism: Rhetoric and Gender in the Eighteenth-Century English Novel Madelein Kahn
Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud Thomas Laqueur
A Treatise of the Use of Flogging in Venereal Affairs: Also of the Office of the Lions and Reins. To which is Added, A Treatise of Hermaphrodites John Henry Meibomius
The Construction of Homosexuality David F. Greenberg
Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey
Very Peculiar People: Portrait Studies in the Queer, the Abnormal and the Uncanny Eric John Dingwall
Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious Sigmund Freud
Figure of Ill Repute: Representing Prostitution in Nineteenth-Century France Charles Bernheimer
Scenes of Seduction Jann Matlock
Farce and Fantasy: Popular Entertainment in Eighteenth-Century Paris Robert M. Isherwood
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure John Cleland
Tis Nature's Fault: Unauthorized Sexual Behaviour During the Enlightenment Robert Maccubbin
Road to Divorce Lawrence Stone
The Rise of the Egalitarian Family Lynn Hunt
In the Family Way Judith S. Lewis
For Better, For Worse John Gillis
Which Homosexuality? Dennis Altman
The Brink of All We Hate Felicity A. Nussbaum
The Eighteenth- Century Feminist Mind Alice Browne
Feminism in Eighteenth- Century England Kathleen Rogers
Body Guards: The Cultural Politics opf Gender Ambiguity Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub
Surpassing the Love of Men Lillian Faderman
Sexual Life in England Iwan Block
Aristotle's Masterpiece: or, The Secrets of Generation
Sexual Underworlds of the Enlightenment G.S. Rousseau and Roy Porter
The Tryal and Conviction of Several Reputed Sodomites Cleland
Fanny Hill
Nocturnal Revels: or, The History of King's Place and Other Modern Nuneries ... By a Monk of the Order of St Francis
Imagining the Penitentiary John Bender
Desire and Domestic Fiction Nancy Armstrong
The Hell-Fire Club D.P. Mannix
That Devil Wilkes Raymond Postgate
The Infamous "Essay on Woman" Adrian Hamilton
Sexual Symbolism Ashley Montagu
A Provision of Human Nature Donald Kay
The Role of the State and Public Opinion in Sexual Attitudes and Demographic Behaviour Ad. Van der Woude
Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England Bruce R. Smith
Sodomy and Interpretation Gregory W. Bredbeck
The Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century: Decline, Enlightenment and Revolution Margaret C. Jacop and Wijnand W. Mijnhardt
The Age of William III and Mary II: Power, Politics and Patronage Robert P. Maccubin and Martha Hamilton-Phillips
Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century
Too Mighty to be Free: Censorship and the Press in Britain and the Neherlands A.C. Duke and C.A. Tamse
The Anglo-Dutch Movement: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and Its World Impact Jonathan I. Israel
The Glorious Revolution Dale Hoak and Mordechai Feingold
The Marquis de Sade: A Biography Gilbert Lely
A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England Donald Thompson
Erotica and the Enlightenment Peter Wagner
The Family Romance of the French Revolution Lynn Hunt

[Elizabeth Quarles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of essays on the most exciting genre of literature that has its origins in the 15th century and lives on in our private internet browsers today. I would read Lynn hunts grocery lists. INCREDIBLE to my research an absolute must read to anyone interested in feminism and queer cultural in the early modern period.

[Tish Grier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still reading this book, but, so far, find it the most illuminating book about porn and erotic literature that I've ever read. It is a scholarly work, so you will have to be of the mind that isn't bothered by footnotes or terms that will make one run to the nearest dictionary. Regardless, the essays in this collection are beautifully written, meticulously researched, and provide ample ammo for anyone who wants to argue that (1) prohibitions against homosexuality have nothing to do with the Bible,(2)understand that the Puritans were escaping a world where *everything* in politics was about sex--and they were disgusted by it (3) that porn presents metaphors for political situations (4) that what we consider "obscene" changes over time but always reflects past philosophical thinking about it (5) explanations of our era's medicalized and psychologized views of "healthy" and "unhealthy" sexual attitudes and behaviors have their roots in the past.

and finally that, yes, even in a highly eroticized culture such as ours, where sex is a commodity, there's still room to be a total "subversive" through sexual behavior!

A most enlightening book! (finished on November 19. Absolutely loved it! a great reference for any academic discussion/argument I might have in the future.)

[mahatmanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://lecturer.ukdw.ac.id/mahatmanta...