Lisa Z. Sigel – författare

Governing Pleasures is a historical account of the production, distribution, and consumption of pornography in Great Britain from the early nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth. Lisa Z. Sigel examines how pornography changed over time as a cultural and symbolic object in British society, and asks: What was considered pornographic? Who looked at pornography and read it? What sorts of messages did this medium transmit to both men and women? What was its thematic content, who controlled it, and how did these messages affect sexual and social dynamics?In contrast to recent ahistorical feminist assertions that pornography necessarily teaches men how to oppress women, Sigel views the use of pornography through the lens of historical and social change. In a careful analysis, she illustrates the cultural complexities of the medium and links Victorian pornography to other arenas such as language, science, consumerism, and politics. Most importantly, the author asserts that pornography offered a way for people to make sense of sexuality and its relationship to their world.Governing Pleasures is a greatly needed examination of a neglected topic. Access to public and private collections of pornography has enabled the author to provide vivid illustrations to bolster her arguments.

International Exposure demonstrates the wealth of desires woven into the fabric of European history: desires about empire and nation, about self and other, about plenty and dearth. By documenting the diverse meanings of pornography, senior scholars from across disciplines show the ways that sexuality became central to the individual, to the nation, and to the transnational character of modern society.The ten essays in the volume engage a rich array of topics, including obscenity in the German states, censorship in France’s Third Republic, “she-male” internet porn, the rise of incestuous longings in England, the place of the Hungarian video revolution in the global market, and the politics of pornography in Russia. Taken together, the essays illustrate the latest approaches to content, readership, form, and delivery in modern European pornography.A substantial discussion of the broad history and state of the field complements the ten in-depth case studies that examine a wide range of sources from literature to magazines, video to the internet. By tackling the highbrow and lowdown of the pornographic form, this volume lays the groundwork for the next surge of studies in the field.

This volume concerns itself with arrival of mass pornography at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. This volume details the rise of cheap, readily available, and much maligned materials such as postcards, pamphlets, and photographs. Mass pornography expanded the market to include women, children, the poor, and people of colour in Great Britain and across the British Empire. The volume documents imperial and international attempts to curtail the spread of pornography that took place between the 1880s and 1914 and provides examples of who suffered as a result.

How people used popular culture between the world wars to articulate sexual identities and practices

How people used popular culture between the world wars to articulate sexual identities and practices