The Invention of Obscenity
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2014 Festival Catalog
welcome For many years, we have worked together to build places for exploring the erotic, for meeting Eros, within ourselves and others. And we have seen the transformation that happens when people are allowed (encouraged) to encounter and Reveal true, authentic selves. We have built places that not only tolerate who we really are, but go further and accept who we are. And go further even, and celebrate our true essence. How can we know, really know, who we are if we keep so much hidden? How can we move freely, heartily through life while carrying the burdens of “unspeakable” secrets? We cannot fully love and profoundly affect our world, until we have met our real selves. And so, we offer Reveal as a promise and an invitation. Let us show you who we are, and perhaps you will reveal yourselves to us, too. We would be honored. Through art, let us reveal to you some possibilities. Let our artists lay a welcome mat; come explore–the light & dark, the soft & hard, the profane & profound. Stare, gawk, study, giggle. Stay as long as you dare, dare yourself to stay longer–past comfort, and back again. We bring you Seattle Erotic Art Festival to use as your bridge to authentic selves. Reveal. Because Eros’s love is in you, and we want you to know it. Through art, let us meet each other, and ourselves. With love and honor, Sophia Iannicelli and Leila Anasazi Seattle Erotic Art Festival 2014 ii juried exhibition juried exhibition The Festival is known worldwide for its comprehensive collection of international fine art celebrating the diversity of human sexual expression. -
Chaucer and Bawdy
Chaucer and Bawdy G. R. Simes RANCE. Had you committed the act you wouldn't now be facing the charge. PRENTICE. I couldn't commit the act. I'm a heterosexual. RANCE. I wish you wouldn't use these Chaucerian words. It's most confusing. Joe Onon, What the Butler Saw (1969), p. 55. The reputation of a medieval poet is such that a successful dramatist of the 1960s could rely on the mere mention of his name to convey to the audience of the play the ideas of naughtiness and bawdy. Presumably the expansion of senior-secondary and tertiary education after World War II, the gradual relaxation of sexual mores, and the ready availability of a lively translation of the Canterbury Tales had all been factors_ that contributed to a popular dissemination of Chaucer's reputation for bawdiness. If that is so, it occurred in the absence of scholarly activity and interest in the topic. It is true that Chaucer shares with Shakespeare the singular honour of having a book devoted to his bawdy; yet that book was published as recently as 1972 and, modelling itself on Partridge's pioneering work on Shakespeare, takes the form of discursive glosses, apart from a brief, conceptually uncritical introduction. I In general, before the later 1960s, while many medievalists privately took pleasure in Chaucer's treatment of sexual and excretory matters, they did not write upon this aspect of his work with the same unembarrassed candour that the poet himself had shown. Among general readers this aspect of Chaucer, and to an extent Chaucer's very name, was very often an occasion for sniggering. -
(2) Sexuality, Obscenity, and Genre in the Merchant's Tale
The Merchant’s Tale (2) Sexuality, Obscenity, and Genre in the Merchant’s Tale: The Case of Fabliau Marie Turner An essay chapter from the Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales (September 2018) The Merchant’s Tale is often considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Canterbury Tales. A lowbrow story told in a high rhetorical style, the tale’s richly allusive fabric interweaves sources and analogues both classical and biblical, Latin, French, and Italian, as well as self-reflexively referencing other parts of the Canterbury Tales; in the Merchant’s Tale, perhaps, we can see the man behind the curtain, the poet Chaucer at work. But in addition to all this high style and erudition, the Merchant’s Tale also has something of a reputation for crude and obscene content: the elderly bachelor Januarie seeks out a much younger bride, May, and, after a series of perhaps less-than-erotic romps, introduces her to a purpose-built sex garden where he hopes they will engage in those acts which are “nat doon abedde” (MerT 2051). Throwing a wrench in the works is May, who naturally has fallen in love with Damyan, a young squire in her household, with whom she hatches a plan to cuckold her husband, now blind. May copies the key to the garden and lets Damyan inside, where he lies in wait in a convenient pear tree. When May declares herself to have a craving for pears, Januarie delightedly assumes that his wife is pregnant and rushes to assist her in climbing the tree in search of the fruit which will satisfy her desire. -
Sex Education Practices of Mothers and Fathers with Preschool Children
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Science Shelley Lynne Knudsen-Jindauer for the degree of Master of in Family Life presented on "August 21, 1979 Title: Sex Education Practices of Mothersand Fathers With Preschool Childien Abstract approved: Redacted for privacy 0 Sally A. Koblinsky 0 This study examinee the sex education practices of middle class par- ents with presChool children. Subjects were 128 parents of three- to five. year -old children, including 37 mothers of daughters, 37 mothersof sons, 27 fathers of daughters, and 27 fathers of sons. These parents were ad- ministered a sex education questionnaire examining children's curiosity about genital differences, curiosity'about birth and reproduction, use of obscene words, masturbation, and sex play. In each area, parents provided information about the frequency with which they observed the behavior, the manner in which they responded to the behavior, and the level of comfort they experienced in responding. Results indicated that the majority of parents had encountered questions about genital differences, questions about reproduction, and masturbation. Moreover, half of the sample had encountered obscene language and one quarter had observed sex play. Chi square analyses revealed that mothers andfathers were equally likely to have observed all rive sexual behaviors, However, parents of sons were significantly more likely than parents ofdaughters to have observed masturbation. An examination of parents' responses to the various sexual behaviors revealed that parents provided more accurate information about genital sex differences to daughters than sons. Another notable finding was that the majority of parents failed to provide their children with an accurate description of reproduction and birth. -
Sexuality Research, Sexual Politics and Sexual Rights in the Anglophone Caribbean
Sexuality Research, Sexual Politics and Sexual Rights in the Anglophone Caribbean Christine Barrow The problem of sex Throughout Caribbean history sex has been framed as a moral, social, demographic and health problem. Sexual expressions are denounced as rampant promiscuity evident in blatant homosexuality, sex work, predatory male hyper-heterosexuality, lewd gyrations of women in carnival and dance hall, and teenage girls with so-called “sugar daddies”. The dominant authorities of church and state portray sex as a threat to social order and morality – the cause of overpopulation, violence and disease. The racialized imagery of sexuality provides justification for law and policy to reach beyond social control to regulate sex and family life. Streams of migration from Europe, Africa, India and elsewhere, and colonialism that passed through French, Spanish, Dutch and British hands have generated a Caribbean complex of ethnicities, religions and laws all, in turn, shaping a diversity of sexual cultures. And yet, a one-size-for-all hegemonic twin ideology of patriarchy and heteronormativity underpinning imperial authority drove post-Emancipation and post-Indenture nation- building designed to ‘civilize’ Caribbean men and women into responsible, upright citizens. At its core was compulsory heterosexuality rooted in nuclear family structures with an appropriately gendered division of labour and the policing of women’s sexuality – within rigid race-class boundaries and inside the marriage bed. The social engineering project was not new – already during slavery, religious authorities had embarked on a moral crusade to promote marriage and stamp out ‘concubinage’ and ‘promiscuity’ – but it went into high gear after World War II with the arrival of social welfare ‘experts’ whose recommendations for family restructuring centred the promotion of marriage with the aim of reducing what were seen through an ethnocentric lens as shockingly high rates of illegitimacy. -
“We Have Lived & Loved As Brothers”: Male Friendship at the University of Virginia 1825- 1861 Josh Morrison Masters'
“We Have Lived & Loved as Brothers”: Male Friendship at the University of Virginia 1825- 1861 Josh Morrison Masters’ Thesis April 25, 2017 Introduction & Historiography ....................................................................................................... 2 Part I: The Students and their University ....................................................................................... 8 Part II: Autograph Albums: A Language of Friendship .................................................................. 23 Part III: What Does Honor Have to Do with It? Explaining Violence & Friendship ....................... 40 Conclusion: Friendship & War ...................................................................................................... 48 1 INTRODUCTION & HISTORIOGRAPHY During the late antebellum period, the University of Virginia was widely regarded as the premier institution of Southern learning. Its student body was composed almost exclusively of the favored sons of the richest and most influential men of the region. As such, Jefferson’s University served not only as a mirror reflecting elite Southern culture but as an active agent of its ideological, and social development. Its first years saw a litany of violent outbursts that drew much comment at the time and indeed much focus even today. While Thomas Jefferson and the early professors did their best to get the institution off the ground, a casual observer could be excused for thinking that many of its students were just as fervently trying to tear it down brick -
Tee-Hee!" Quod She, My Vulgar Darling: Detecting the Adolescent Female Voice Through Rebellion and the Ribald in Nabokov's Lolita and Chaucer's Miller's Tale
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons CUREJ - College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal College of Arts and Sciences April 2006 "Tee-hee!" Quod She, My Vulgar Darling: Detecting the Adolescent Female Voice through Rebellion and the Ribald in Nabokov's Lolita and Chaucer's Miller's Tale Kathryn M. Fleishman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/curej Recommended Citation Fleishman, Kathryn M., ""Tee-hee!" Quod She, My Vulgar Darling: Detecting the Adolescent Female Voice through Rebellion and the Ribald in Nabokov's Lolita and Chaucer's Miller's Tale" 17 April 2006. CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania, https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/76. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/curej/76 For more information, please contact [email protected]. "Tee-hee!" Quod She, My Vulgar Darling: Detecting the Adolescent Female Voice through Rebellion and the Ribald in Nabokov's Lolita and Chaucer's Miller's Tale Abstract Though distanced in time by centuries, Nabokov's Lolita and Chaucer's Miller's Tale are both structured around young and girlish figures, or fanciulle. Both authors, too, apply three layers of male narration to their female protagonists, inviting the reader-critic into their worlds first as a ov yeur tempted by sexual stimulus and distancing him/her from the fanciulle. However, as the reader continues, s/he must work detectively to uncover the young female figure, discovering along the way her depth of character, as expressed through ribaldry, rebellion, and the only true language with which she knows how to express herself successfully – her sexuality. -
Words Full of Deed Prophets and Prophecy in German Literature
Words Full of Deed Prophets and Prophecy in German Literature around 1800 Patrick J. Walsh Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Patrick J. Walsh All rights reserved Abstract Words Full of Deed: Prophets and Prophecy in German Literature around 1800 Patrick J. Walsh In this dissertation, I consider the role of prophets and prophecy in German drama and dramatic discourse of the Romantic period. Against the backdrop of the upheaval wrought by the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, such discourse exhibits a conspicuous fascination with political and social crisis in general as well as a preoccupation with imagining how the crises of the present could provide an opportunity for national or civilizational renewal. One prominent manifestation of this focus is a pronounced interest in charismatic leaders of the legendary or historical past—among them prophets like Moses, Muhammad and Joan of Arc—who succeeded in uniting their respective societies around a novel vision of collective destiny. In order to better understand the appeal of such figures during this period, I examine works of drama and prose fiction that feature prophets as their protagonists and that center on scenarios of political or religious founding. Reading texts by major authors like Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Achim von Arnim alongside those by the lesser- known writers such as Karoline von Günderrode, August Klingemann and Joseph von Hammer, I analyze the various ways these scenarios are staged and situate them within their specific political, intellectual and literary contexts. -
Malebicta INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of VERBAL AGGRESSION
MAlebicTA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VERBAL AGGRESSION III . Number 2 Winter 1979 REINHOLD AMAN ," EDITOR -a· .,.'.""",t!. 1'''' ...... ".......... __... CD MALEDICTA PRESS WAUKESHA 196· - MALEDICTA III Animal metaphors: Shit linked with animal names means "I don't believe a word of it," as in pig, buzzard, hen, owl, whale, turtle, rat, cat, and bat shit, as well as the ever-popular horseshit. But bullshit remains the most favored, probably because of the prodigious quantity of functional droppings associated with the beast. On payday the eagle shits. Ill. Insults Shit on YDU!, eat shit!, go shit in your hat!, full ofshit, tough shit, shit-head (recall Lieutenant Scheisskopf in Catch-22), ELEMENTARY RUSSIAN OBSCENITY You shit, little shit, stupid shit, dumb shit, simple shit, shit heel; he don't know shit from Shinola, shit or get offthe pot, ·Boris Sukitch Razvratnikov chickenshit, that shit don't fetch, to be shit on, not worth diddly (or doodly) shit, don't know whether to shit orgo blind, he thinks his shit don't stink, he thinks he's King Shit, shit This article wiII concern itself with the pedagogical problems eating grin. encountered in attempting to introduce the basic concepts of IV: Fear Russian obscenity (mat) to English-speaking first-year students Scared shitless, scare the shit out of, shit green (or blue), shit at the college level. The essential problem is the fact that Rus .v,''' bricks, shit bullets, shit little blue cookies, shit out of luck, sian obscenity is primarily derivational while English (i.e., in 'r" almost shit in his pants (or britches), on someone's shit-list, this context, American) obscenity is analytic. -
The Idea of the Obscene
THE IDEA OF THE OBSCENE by JOEL FEINBERG The Lindley Lecture The University of Kansas 1979 THE IDEA OF THE OBSCENE by JOEL FEINBERG Professor of Philosophy University of Arizona The Lindley Lecture, University of Kansas, Apri I 5, 1979 .... : @) Copyright 1980 by the Deparurient of Philosophy. · University of Kansas The Idea of the Obscene Joel Feinberg This essay is an attempt to clarify the everyday concept of obscenity as it is employed unselfconsciously by ordinary people in ordinary situations (outside of law courts). I shall try to explain the various things ordinary persons are likely to mean when they judge things to be obscene, how they are likely to defend those judgments with reasons, what the objects of those judgments are likely to be (in our culture) and why those objects are selected, and how judgments of obscenity resemble and differ from judgments of other kinds, including moral judgments. I undertake this task in the conviction that more abstract discussions of obscenity, in legal as well as philosophical works, all too frequently suffer from the defect that the author no longer remembers exactly what it is that he is talking about, and that a few gentle reminders can be salutary. Furthermore, the forgotten ordinary concept, as we shall see, is surprisingly complicated. I. Two apparently conflicting rationales for the prohibition of obscenity. To paraphrase a learned judge,t it is much easier to recognize obscenity than to say what it is. For a century and a half American appellate courts had little occasion to do either, since the constitutionality of statutes making obscenity a crime was rarely challenged. -
A Study of Chaucer's Use of Scatology in the Canterbury Tales
Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1992 Chaucer's "Nether Ye": A Study of Chaucer's Use of Scatology in The aC nterbury Tales Brook Wilson This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Wilson, Brook, "Chaucer's "Nether Ye": A Study of Chaucer's Use of Scatology in The aC nterbury Tales" (1992). Masters Theses. 2181. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2181 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate degree candidates who have written formal theses. SUBJECT: Permission to reproduce thesis. The University Library is receiving a number of requests from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow theses to be copied. Please sign one of the following statements: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution's library or research holdings. I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University not allow my thesis be reproduced ~~~~~~~~- Date Author Chaucer's "Nether Ye": A Study of Chaucer's Use of Scatology in The Canterbury Tales (TITLE) BY Brook Wilson THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts in English IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 1992 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE ' DATE I /. -
Sexuality: an Australian Historian's Perspective
Sexuality: An Australian Historian’s Perspective Frank Bongiorno Suppression N 2004 A CONTROVERSY ERUPTED WHEN IT CAME TO LIGHT THAT THE AUSTRALIAN education minister, Brendan Nelson, had vetoed several projects Irecommended for funding by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The provocation for Nelson’s action on behalf of the conservative government to which he belonged was an article published in a tabloid newspaper by right-wing columnist Andrew Bolt, criticising the ARC for supporting ‘peek-in-your-pants researchers fixated on gender or race’ (Bolt, ‘Grants to Grumble’). Bolt’s campaign against the ARC continued for several years, as did Nelson’s vetting of research proposals. Among the columnist’s targets were a project on ‘the cultural history of the body in modern Japan’, and another on ‘attitudes towards sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman era’ (Bolt, ‘Paid to be Pointless’; Macintyre). The identity of the researchers and projects that Nelson had actually rejected remained a secret but university researchers, guided by Bolt’s fixation with projects about sex, took for granted that these were prominent among those culled. One researcher later commented that applicants were omitting the words ‘sexuality’, ‘class’ and ‘race’ from proposals in an effort to avoid the minister’s wrath (Alexander). The episode raised many questions—including about academic freedom—but was of particular interest to researchers of sexuality. Why did such projects lend Bongiorno, Frank. ‘Sexuality: An Australian Historian’s