In this now-classic study, Linda Williams moves beyond the impasse of the anti-porn/anti-censorship debate to analyze what hard-core film pornography is and does--as a genre with a history, as a specific cinematic form, and as part of contemporary discourse on sexuality. For the 1999 edition, Williams has written a new preface and a new epilogue, "On/scenities," illustrated with 25 photographs. She has also added a supplementary bibliography.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In academic prose, film professor Williams of the University of California offers a graphic analysis of hard-core porno movies such as Deep Throat , as well as early, anonymous stag flicks. She finds that the newer, "softer" X-rated rental videos "show a more genuinely adult quality" than earlier videos. She ponders the "utopian problem-solving intent" of the hard-core genre and makes specious comparisons between blue movies, Hollywood musicals and films like Dirty Dancing . Sadomasochistic porn films, she claims, let viewers experience "a clearer confrontation with the oscillating poles of our gendered identities and the role of power in them." A critic whose professed goal is to understand film pornography, and who opposes those who would censor it, Williams begins this obfuscating study by analyzing the portrayal of women in the 19th-century kinetoscope, prototype of the motion-picture projector.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Hard Core traces ". . . the changing meaning and function of the genre of pornography. . . ." As a scholarly study of "'mainstream,' heterosexual, hard-core pornography," that is, as a specific film category, it is both articulate and comprehensive. However, the anticensorship view, while offering some valid arguments, minimizes today's realities--the violence and degradation of women. Perhaps pornography should be about fantasy and sex, but at least for now, it is more about power. As a study of film genre, Hard Core is recommended for upper level students. However, its social context should be tempered by other works.
- Frada L. Mozenter, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte Lib.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Frada L. Mozenter, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte Lib.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By "mytilene"
Format:Paperback
This is an easy to read, comprehensive analysis of visual pornography. Williams is thorough and openminded, and clearly shows that this isn't a homogenous and stereotypical genre. On the contrary, she maintains that all trends visible in other types of movies exist in pornography as well. An interesting read.
By Roberto
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's an amazing book. For everyone who is searching for a non-christian, non-conservative opinion about pornography. This book presents a new feminist look about the theme
9 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Linda Williams gives a scintillating evaluation of the politics of porn. Her detailed and insightful analysis goes beyond mere recitation of plot points and totaling of body parts to an in-depth engagement with the semiotics of pornographized couplings. The pictures were really helpful in conveying the cultural work done by this underevaluated art form. Porn-tastic!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
an ok read
Hardcores author like to use big words and confusing dialog to get her point across. This is a good book if you can get through all the muddle and crap to get to her point. Read more
Published on March 18, 2007 by J. Mclemore
1.0 out of 5 stars
It's not a monolith, it's a muddle
Williams' claim is that all porn is not the same, but her book title is very specific which would lead one to believe she will make claims about only hard core and not about the... Read more
Published on November 16, 2005 by A Reader
1.0 out of 5 stars
blah blah blah
The writing is jagged, superfluous and constantly filled with statements on what the author is intending to say in the book without actually saying it. Read more
Published on April 5, 2005 by marketi twainess
4.0 out of 5 stars
eXXXtremely provocative
I should probably look more closely at the covers of the books that I am ordering online. Any reasonable individual might naturally assume a book entitled "Hard Core"... Read more
Published on July 19, 2001 by Ana Marie Regino
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Harcore
This book changed my my mind about I saw pornography. This is a smart and sexy book that dispels many ideas we have about pornography and how the feminist anti-pron rhetoric not... Read more
Published on August 7, 2000
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unfettered Academic Insight
I never thought that this would happen to me...but I must share my pleasure with "Hard Core" in an online review. Read more
Published on December 27, 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Young Porn Fan in Oklahoma
I am only 16 and haven't really seen much pornography, but after reading Linda Williams book I am enthusiastic about learning more. Read more
Published on December 8, 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enthused reader
It has been quite some time since I have had the chance to read such an enlightening tome...I found this to be a veritable porn-ucopia of information, not to be missed by Hard Core... Read more
Published on December 7, 1999
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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44
books
cite this book:
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- Powers of Desire (New feminist library) by Ann Snitow Snitow on 4 pages
- Take Back the Night by Laura Lederer on 4 pages
- The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film, Enlarged Edition by Stanley Cavell on page 185, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Perspectives on Pornography: Sexuality in Film and Literature by Gary Day in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Pornography: Men Possessing Women by Andrea Dworkin on page 20, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Shattering of the Self: Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern Texts by Cynthia Marshall in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- White Queen: May French-Sheldon and the Imperial Origins of American Feminist Identity by Tracey Jean Boisseau in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation before the V-Chip (Console-ing Passions) by Heather Hendershot in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- White Queen: May French-Sheldon and the Imperial Origins of American Feminist Identity by Tracey Jean Boisseau in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Threshold of the Visible World by Kaja Silverman in Back Matter
See all 44 books citing this book
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