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Art/Porn

A History of Seeing and Touching

Kelly Dennis author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:1st Mar '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Art/Porn cover

Also available in hardback, 9781847880574 GBP55.00 (March, 2009)

Pornography is condemned for being 'too close' whilst erotica is defended as 'leaving room for the imagination'. And the art of the nude is treated as something much more special, located even further away from the potential of arousal. This book argues that these distinctions are based on an age-old antithesis between sight and touch.Do we really know pornography when we see it? Pornography is condemned for being "too close" whilst erotica is defended as "leaving room for the imagination." And the art of the nude is treated as something much more special, located even further away from the potential of arousal. Art/Porn argues that these distinctions are based on an age-old antithesis between sight and touch, an antithesis created and maintained for centuries by art criticism. Art has always elicited a struggle between the senses, between something to be viewed and something to be touched, between visual and visceral pleasure. Images compel the senses in ways that are both taboo and intrinsic to art. Contemporary responses to images of the nude embody this longstanding tension. Our fears about the materiality of art when in close proximity to our own bodies exist alongside a regulation of sensory response which dates back to Antiquity. Art/Porn reveals how - from fondling statues in Antiquity to point-and-click Internet pornography - the worlds of art and pornography are much closer than we think.

"This is a daring and provocative study of the historical conception of "pornography" and, in particular, of its relation to questions which have helped define art since its beginnings: the antagonism between painting and sculpture, the representation of female sexuality, the deeper implications of sexuality and subjectivity for art and its history, and the struggle between art and photography. Reading Art/Porn clarifies why we often are so moved and impassioned by art. After it, we may never again view art or pornography in the same way.' Eduardo Cadava, Princeton University [Art/Porn] sparkles with fresh ideas ... it is lavishly illustrated and can be recommended to anyone interested in the historical context of the fuzzy boundary between erotic art and pornography. Gustav Jahoda, University of Strathclyde, for Metapsychology Dennis takes the reader on a journey from the ancient world to modernity along a line of thinking that extends beyond what does or does not constitute pornography. The recapping of key themes without undue repetition, makes for an informative and accessible text that illuminates the history of visuality while verifying its extant investment in the present. David Prescott-Steed, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies

ISBN: 9781847880673

Dimensions: 244mm x 172mm x 11mm

Weight: 515g

264 pages