After the 1881 declaration of press freedom, France enjoyed a golden age of print, arguably up until the 1950s. This book shines a much-needed light on one of the key elements of Frances new literary age: that being the production of pornography of all kinds.
H.G. Cocks reveals how publishers and writers, both mainstream and clandestine, tried to cash in on the vogue for erotic literature which surfaced at the time. Though the vast majority of what was produced was no more than risqué or saucy, Cocks shows that this was seen as far more dangerous than frank sexual imagery, as it was mostly legal and within the range of the ordinary reader.
Pornographers, Hacks, and Blackmailers in Interwar France reflects on how, as a result of this gold rush for what one writer called the faux obscene, a great deal of writing, journalism, and quite a few literary and even political careers were supported by the writing of pornography. For some, this new wave of indecent literature seemed to be sapping the morale of the Republic, while for others it was simply part of the creative literary and journalistic ferment of the period. In that sense, Cocks convincingly argues, the pornographic became part of the curious mixture of cultural energy and malaise that enveloped the struggling French democracy.
Arvustused
In this engaging, much-needed exploration of the creation and consumption of a profitable marketplace for sexual media in interwar France, Cocks shows how quasi-obscene sexual content was normalized, integrated into the fabric of everyday life, with repercussions for how the French thought and what the world thought of France. * Hannah Frydman, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, USA *
Muu info
A study of obscene literature and journalism in 20th century France which is focused on the perspective of a history of reading and literary production.
Introduction: Simil-Obscène'
1. Cest Français: Parisiana, Gauloiserie, and the Image of France
2. Pornography and its Opponents, 1900-1939
3. Pornography and the Paranoid Political Style
4. The World of the Presse Grivoise
5. Hacks, Pornographers, and Blackmailers: Or, How to Live Well in Interwar
Paris
6. Pierre Vachet and Popular Sex Science
Conclusion: The Twilight of Gauloiserie?
Bibliography
Index
H.G. Cocks is Associate Professor of History at University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of Visions of Sodom: Religion, Homoerotic Desire, and the End of the World in England, c 1550-1850 (2017), Classified: The Secret History of the Personal Column (2009) and Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in 19th-Century England (Bloomsbury, 2003).
