Porn Studies

Laura Vivanco

Pam Regis notified me of a new journal, Porn Studies, which is to be launched in 2014.  The New York Times reports that

The journal, edited by two British academics, Feona Attwood and Clarissa Smith, has already inspired some hearty scholarly endorsements. “We have waited a long time for an academic journal that treats the subject of the representation of human sexuality with the seriousness it deserves,” Julie Peakman, a historian at the University of London and the author of “Mighty Lewd Books: The Development of Pornography in 18th-Century England,” said in a statement. “I look forward to a lively and disciplined debate across different disciplines.”

I wonder if one of those disciplines might be popular romance studies given that romance, and particularly erotic romance,

often asserts itself as something other than pornography. It claims not to just be erotic, but romantic. The romance part ought to indicate that it is doing more with sex and sexuality than merely recounting various bits of fucking for the reader’s titillation. Otherwise, why call it romance? Why not just be pornography?  (Toscano)

The boundaries between romance, erotica and pornography may be of particular interest at the moment given the fame and popularity of the Fifty Shades trilogy: "More than just an instance of a particular genre of fiction, Fifty Shades has spawned considerable discussion of the significance of ‘women’s popular erotic fiction’ generally" (Phillips and Trevenen). As Jodi McAlister argues, Fifty Shades

occupies a strangely liminal position at the crossroads of several genres, adopting structural elements from both modern popular romance fiction and 19th-century pornography.

The call for papers for the Journal of Porn Studies can be found here.

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McAlister, Jodi. "Fifty Shades of Genre." Popular Romance Project. 8 Nov. 2012.

Phillips, Kristen and Claire Trevenen. "CFP – Shattering Releases: The Pleasures and Politics of Popular Erotic Fiction (edited collection)." 2013.

Schuessler, Jennifer. "Routledge to Publish Porn Studies Journal." The New York Times. 30 April 2013.

Toscano, Angela. "Why I Now Hate Erotic Romance." Dear Author. 30 April 2013. Originally published at That Sly Wench, 9 January 2012.