The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture [Paperback]

Walter Kendrick (Author), Steve Renick (Designer)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520207297 | ISBN-13: 978-0520207295 | Publication Date: February 6, 1997

Walter Kendrick traces the relatively recent concept of pornography--the word was not coined until the late 18th century--which became a public issue once the printing press gave ordinary people access to the erotica of the Greeks and Romans, the art and literature of the French enlightenment, and the poems of the Earl of Rochester and John Cleland's Fanny Hill. From the secret museums to the pornography trials of Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterly's Lover, to Mapplethorpe, cable TV, and the Internet, Kendrick explores how conceptions of pornography relate to issues of freedom of expression and censorship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Village Voice editor Kendrick (The Novel Machine) goes back to the erotic murals of ancient Pompeii and forward to the recent presidential commissions on pornography to demonstrate how public attitudes toward pornography and censorship have changed. PW noted that this is a "well-researched, nontitillating study of the phenomenon."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"An engaging, readable, and deeply perceptive analysis that details the evolution of the idea of pornography and its attendant and ever-changing sensibilities over the last two centuries. [It] patiently attempts to supply a cultural context for not only pornography but also the role that sexuality and imagination themselves play in our lives." -- Michael Bronski, Boston Phoenix

"Highly illuminating. . . . Mr. Kendrick writes crisply and amusingly about both the emergence of the word 'pornography' and its subsequent history." -- John Gross, New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (February 6, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520207297
• ISBN-13: 978-0520207295
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #787,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Porn has a history., August 23, 2011

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Museum: Pornography in Modern Culture (Paperback)

I read this more than 15 years ago for an undergraduate class at Brown University. (I actually dropped the class 'cuz I was too lazy to write the final paper and I thought the prof rhymed with witch.) In the same way that "Epistemology of the Closet" starts with an interesting anecdote or premise, this author asks, "What do we do when we uncover household objects from Pompeii that show beastiality or backdoor sex and other things that would shock us?" There's a great documentary on DVD about porn that defines the medium as "work of a sexual nature that a segment of the population are not allowed to see." That sure beats Meese's definition. This book asks who gets to see these old artefacts and what does the "censoring" of the material say about our culture. Okay, I'm a bit foggy on the details, but I remember this being a solid text. I recall just enough that I can faithfully say that folk should feel free to read it.