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Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of
eros
Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite.
He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...
(passionate, romantic or sexual relationships) intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica
Erotica is art, literature or photography that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erot ...
, which focuses more specifically on sexual feelings. Other common elements are satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
and social criticism
Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general.
Social criticism of the Enlightenment
The origin of modern ...
. Much erotic literature features erotic art
Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, fil ...
, illustrating the text.
Although cultural disapproval of erotic literature has always existed, its circulation was not seen as a major problem before the invention of printing, as the costs of producing individual manuscripts limited distribution to a very small group of wealthy and literate
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
readers. The invention of printing, in the 15th century, brought with it both a greater market and increasing restrictions, including censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
and legal restraints on publication on the grounds of obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
.Hyde (1964); pp. 1–26 Because of this, much of the production of this type of material became clandestine
Clandestine may refer to:
* Secrecy, the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals
* Clandestine operation, a secret intelligence or military activity
Music and entertainmen ...
.
History
Early periods
The oldest located love poem isIstanbul 2461
Istanbul #2461 (also Ni 2461, L.2461) is an ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablet. Some have labelled it the world's oldest love poem.
, an erotic monologue written by a female speaker directed to king Shu-Sin
Shu-Sin, also Šu-Suen (: '' DŠu D Sîn'', after the Moon God Sîn", the "𒀭" being a silent honorific for "Divine", formerly read Gimil-Sin) (died c. 2028 BC) was king of Sumer and Akkad, and was the fourth king of the Ur III dynasty. He su ...
.
In ancient Sumer, a whole cycle of poems revolved around the erotic lovemaking between the goddess Inanna
Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...
and her consort Dumuzid the Shepherd
Dumuzid or Dumuzi or Tammuz (; ; ), known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd () and to the Canaanites as Adon (; Proto-Hebrew: 𐤀𐤃𐤍), is an ancient Mesopotamian and Levantine deity associated with agriculture and shepherds, w ...
.
In the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...
, found in the last section of the . '' Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...
Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''
Haft Peykar
// Encyclopædia Iranica 404. — December 15, 2002. — V. XI. — pp. 522–524. During the Renaissance period, many poems were not written for publication; instead, they were merely circulated in manuscript form among a relatively limited readership. This was the original method of circulation for the ''
One of the 19th century's foremost poets—
It was the Obscene Publications Act 1857 which made the sale of obscene material a statutory offense, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The origins of the act itself were in a trial for the sale of pornography presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Chief Justice, John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell, Lord Campbell, at the same time as a debate in the House of Lords over a bill aiming to restrict the sale of poisons. Campbell was taken by the analogy between the two situations, famously referring to the London pornography trade as "a sale of poison more deadly than prussic acid, strychnine or arsenic", and proposed a bill to restrict the sale of pornography; giving statutory powers of destruction would allow for a much more effective degree of prosecution. The bill was controversial at the time, receiving strong opposition from both Houses of Parliament. It was passed on the assurance by the Lord Chief Justice that it was "intended to apply exclusively to works written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind." The House of Commons successfully amended it so as not to apply to Scotland, on the grounds that Scottish common law was sufficiently stringent.
The Act provided for the seizure and destruction of any material deemed to be obscene, and held for sale or distribution, following information being laid before a "court of summary jurisdiction" (magistrates' court (England and Wales), magistrates' court). The Act required that following evidence of a common-law offence being committed – for example, on the report of a plain-clothes policeman who had successfully purchased the material – the court could issue a warrant for the premises to be searched and the material seized. The proprietor then would be called upon to attend court and give reason why the material should not be destroyed. Critically, the Act did not define "obscene", leaving this to the will of the courts.
While the Act itself did not change, the scope of the work affected by it did. In 1868 Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet, Sir Alexander Cockburn, Campbell's successor as Lord Chief Justice, held in an appeal that the test of obscenity was "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall." This was clearly a major change from Campbell's opinion only ten years before – the test now being the effect on someone open to corruption who obtained a copy, not whether the material was ''intended'' to corrupt or offend.
Cockburn's declaration remained in force for several decades, and most of the high profile seizures under the Act relied on this interpretation. Known as the Hicklin test no cognisance was taken of the literary merit of a book or on the extent of the offending text within the book in question. The widened scope of the original legislation led to the subsequent notorious targeting of now acknowledged classics of world literature by such authors as Émile Zola, Zola, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence plus medical textbooks by such as Havelock Ellis rather than the blatant erotica which was the original target of this law.
In contrast to England, where actions against obscene literature were the preserve of the magistrates, such actions were the responsibility of the Postal Inspection Service in America. They were embodied in the federal and state Comstock laws and named after the postal officer and anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock, who proved himself officious in the work of suppression both in his official capacity and through his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The first such law was the Comstock Act, (ch. 258 enacted March 3, 1873) which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. Twenty-four states passed similar prohibitions on materials distributed within the states.
London. * Linda Williams (film critic), Williams, Linda (1999) ''Hardcore: Power, Pleasure, and the 'Frenzy of the Visible. Berkeley: University of California Press
Lewd and Scandalous Books: An exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection
'', Clayton (Melbourne): Monash University,
. ''
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
and Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. The Greek poets Straton of Sardis
Straton of Sardis (; better known under his Latin name Strato) was a Greek poet and anthologist from the Lydian city of Sardis.
Life
Straton is thought by some scholars to have lived during the time of Hadrian, based on authorship of a poem ...
and Sappho of Lesbos
Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho ...
both wrote erotic lyric poems. Derek Parker 404, ed. (1980) ''An Anthology of Erotic Verse''. London: Constable The poet Archilochus
Archilochus (; ''Arkhílokhos''; 680 – c. 645 BC) was a Iambus (genre) , iambic poet of the Archaic Greece, Archaic period from the island of Paros. He is celebrated for his versatile and innovative use of poetic meters, and is the earliest ...
wrote numerous satirical poems filled with obscene and erotic imagery. Erotic poems continued to be written in Hellenistic
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...
and Roman times by writers like Automedon
In Greek mythology, Automedon (; Ancient Greek: Αὐτομέδων), son of Diores, was Achilles' charioteer, who drove the immortal horses Balius and Xanthos. He was born on the island of Skyros.
Mythology
In Homer's ''Iliad'', Automedon ...
(''The Professional'' and ''Demetrius the Fortunate''), Philodemus
Philodemus of Gadara (, ''Philodēmos'', "love of the people"; – prob. or 35 BC) was an Epicurean philosopher and poet. He studied under Zeno of Sidon in Athens, before moving to Rome, and then to Herculaneum. He was once known chiefly for h ...
(''Charito'') and Marcus Argentarius
Marcus Argentarius (; fl. ) was a Greek epigrammatist.
Some thirty-seven epigrams are attributed to Marcus in the ''Greek Anthology'', most of which are erotic, and some are plays on words. Stylistic evidence suggests he wrote during the early d ...
. Notable Roman erotic poets included Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes.
Life
...
, Propertius
Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium (now Assisi) and died shortly after 15 BC.
Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of '' Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the ...
, Tibullus
Albius Tibullus ( BC BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins.
Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a few r ...
, Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
, Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman and Celtiberian poet born in Bilbilis, Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of '' Epigrams'', pu ...
and Juvenal
Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...
, and the anonymous Priapeia
The ''Priapeia'' (or ''Carmina Priapea'') is a collection of eighty (in some editions ninety-five) anonymous short Latin poems in various meters on subjects pertaining to the phallus, phallic god Priapus. They are believed to date from the 1st c ...
. Some later Latin authors such as Joannes Secundus
Johannes Secundus (also Janus Secundus) (15 November 1510 – 25 September 1536) was a Neo-Latin poet of Netherlands, Dutch nationality.
Early life and education
Born Jan Everaerts in The Hague, his father Nicolaes Everaerts was a well k ...
also wrote erotic verse.
''Haft Peykar
''Haft Peykar'' (), also known as ''Bahramnameh'' (, ''The Book of Bahram'', referring to the Sasanian emperor Bahram V), is a romantic epic poem by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, written in 1197. This poem is one of his five works known collecti ...
'' () also known as ''Bahramnameh'' (, ''The Book of Bahram'') is a romantic epic by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi
Nizami Ganjavi (; c. 1141 – 1209), Nizami Ganje'i, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī,Mo'in, Muhammad(2006), "Tahlil-i Haft Paykar-i Nezami", Tehran.: p. 2: Some commentators h ...
written in 1197. This poem is a part of the ''Nizami's Khamsa''. The original title ''Haft Peykar'' can be translated literally as "seven portraits" with the figurative meaning of "seven beauties." The poem is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work.François de BloisHaft Peykar
// Encyclopædia Iranica 404. — December 15, 2002. — V. XI. — pp. 522–524. During the Renaissance period, many poems were not written for publication; instead, they were merely circulated in manuscript form among a relatively limited readership. This was the original method of circulation for the ''
Sonnets
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
'' of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, who also wrote the erotic poems '' Venus and Adonis'' and ''The Rape of Lucrece
''The Rape of Lucrece'' (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, ''Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem), Venus and Adonis'' (1593), Shakespeare had included ...
''.
''The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight
''The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight'' ( ''Al-rawḍ al-ʿāṭir fī nuzhaẗ al-ḫāṭir''), also known as the Arabic Kama Sutra, is a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual and work of erotic literature by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nefza ...
'' (Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
: الروض العاطر في نزهة الخاطر) is a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual and work of erotic literature by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Nefzawi, also known simply as "Nefzawi". The book presents opinions on what qualities men and women should have to be attractive and gives advice on sexual technique, warnings about sexual health
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, health care, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual well-being during all stages of their life. Sexual and reproductive healt ...
, and recipes to remedy sexual maladies. It gives lists of names for the penis
A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate.
The term ''pen ...
and vulva
In mammals, the vulva (: vulvas or vulvae) comprises mostly external, visible structures of the female sex organ, genitalia leading into the interior of the female reproductive tract. For humans, it includes the mons pubis, labia majora, lab ...
, and has a section on the interpretation of dreams. Interspersed with these there are a number of stories which are intended to give context and amusement.
17th century
In the 17th century, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–80) was notorious for obscene verses, many of which were published posthumously in compendiums of poetry by him and other " Restorationrake
Rake may refer to:
Common meanings
* Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines
* Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct
* Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game
...
s" such as Sir Charles Sedley, Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (24 January 164329 January 1706) was an English politician, courtier and poet.
Early life
Sackville was born on 24 January 1643, son of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset (1622–1677). His mother was th ...
, and George Etherege
Sir George Etherege (c. 1636 – c. 10 May 1692) was an English dramatist. He wrote the plays '' The Comical Revenge or, Love in a Tub'' in 1664, '' She Would If She Could'' in 1668, and '' The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter'' in 1676 ...
. Though many of the poems attributed to Rochester were actually by other authors, his reputation as a libertine
A libertine is a person questioning and challenging most moral principles, such as responsibility or Human sexual activity, sexual restraints, and will often declare these traits as unnecessary, undesirable or evil. A libertine is especially som ...
was such that his name was used as a selling point by publishers of collections of erotic verse for centuries after. One poem definitely by him was "A Ramble in St. James's Park", in which the protagonist's quest for healthy exercise in the park uncovers instead "Bugg'ries, Rapes and Incest" on ground polluted by debauchery from the time when "Ancient Pict
PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. It allows the interchange of graphics (both bitmapped and vector), and some limited text support, between Mac applications, an ...
began to Whore". This poem was being censored from collections of Rochester's poetry as late as 1953, though, in line with the subsequent general change in attitudes to sexuality, it was dramatised as a scene in the film '' The Libertine'' about his life, based on an existing play.
English collections of erotic verse by various hands include the ''Drollery'' collections of the 17th century; ''Pills to Purge Melancholy
''Wit and Mirth: Or Pills to Purge Melancholy'' is the title of a large collection of songs by Thomas d'Urfey, published between 1698 and 1720, which in its final, six-volume edition held over 1,000 songs and poems. The collection started as a si ...
'' (1698–1720); the ''Roxburghe Ballads
In 1847 John Payne Collier (1789–1883) printed ''A Book of Roxburghe Ballads''. It consisted of 1,341 broadside ballads from the seventeenth century, mostly English, originally collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer ...
''; '' Bishop Percy's Folio''; ''The Musical Miscellany''; ''National Ballad and Song: Merry Songs and Ballads Prior to the Year AD 1800'' (1895–97) edited by J. S. Farmer; the three volume ''Poetica Erotica'' (1921) and its more obscene supplement the ''Immortalia'' (1927) both edited by T. R. Smith. French collections include ''Les Muses gaillardes'' (1606) ''Le Cabinet satyrique'' (1618) and ''La Parnasse des poetes satyriques'' (1622).
18th century
In the 18th century, a famous collection of four erotic poems, was published in England in 1763, called ''An Essay on Woman''. This included the title piece, an obscene parody ofAlexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...
's "An Essay on Man
"An Essay on Man" is a poem published by Alexander Pope in 1733–1734. It was dedicated to Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (pronounced 'Bull-en-brook'), hence the opening line: "Awake, my St John...". It is an effort to rationalize or ...
"; "Veni Creator: or, The Maid's Prayer", which is original; the "Universal Prayer", an obscene parody of Pope's poem of the same name, and "The Dying Lover to his Prick", which parodies "A Dying Christian to his Soul" by Pope. These poems have been attributed to John Wilkes
John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English Radicalism (historical), radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlese ...
and/or Thomas Potter and receive the distinction of being the only works of erotic literature ever read out loud and in their entirety in the House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
—before being declared obscene and blasphemous by that body and the supposed author, Wilkes, declared an outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...
.
Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...
worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections is ''The Merry Muses of Caledonia
The Merry Muses of Caledonia is a collection of bawdy songs said to have been collected or written by Robert Burns, the 18th-century Scottish poet.
Original text
The poems and songs were collected for the private use of Robert Burns and his fr ...
'' (the title is not by Burns), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century.
19th century
One of the 19th century's foremost poets—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...
—devoted much of his considerable talent to erotic verse, producing, inter alia, twelve eclogues on flagellation
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, Birching, rods, Switch (rod), switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, floggin ...
titled ''The Flogging Block'' "by Rufus Rodworthy, annotated by Barebum Birchingly"; more was published anonymously in '' The Whippingham Papers'' (). Another notorious anonymous 19th-century poem on the same subject is '' The Rodiad'', ascribed (seemingly falsely and in jest) to George Colman the Younger. John Camden Hotten
John Camden Hotten (12 September 1832, Clerkenwell – 14 June 1873, Hampstead) was an English bibliophile and publisher. He is best known for his clandestine publishing of numerous erotic and pornographic titles.
Life
Hotten was born John Will ...
even wrote a pornographic comic opera, ''Lady Bumtickler's Revels
''Lady Bumtickler's Revels'' is a pornographic book written as a spoof libretto for a comic opera on the theme of flagellation
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implemen ...
'', on the theme of flagellation
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, Birching, rods, Switch (rod), switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, floggin ...
in 1872.
Pierre Louÿs
Pierre-Félix Louÿs (; 10 December 1870 – 4 June 1925) was a Belgian poet and writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who sought to "express pagan sensuality with stylistic perf ...
helped found a literary review, ''La Conque'' in 1891, where he proceeded to publish ''Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Greek language, Hellenized form of the Religions of the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic language ...
''—an early collection of erotic verse already marked by his distinctive elegance and refinement of style. He followed up in 1894 with another erotic collection in 143 prose poems—''Songs of Bilitis
''The Songs of Bilitis'' (; ) is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a pseudo ...
(Les Chansons de Bilitis)'', this time with strong lesbian
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
themes.
20th century
AlthoughD. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...
could be regarded as a writer of love poems, he usually dealt in the less romantic aspects of love such as sexual frustration or the sex act itself. Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
, in his ''Literary Essays'', complained of Lawrence's interest in his own "disagreeable sensations" but praised him for his "low-life narrative". This is a reference to Lawrence's dialect poems akin to the Scots poems of Robert Burns
Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...
, in which he reproduced the language and concerns of the people of Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
from his youth. He called one collection of poems ''Pansies'' partly for the simple ephemeral nature of the verse but also a pun on the French word ''panser'', to dress or bandage a wound. "The Noble Englishman" and "Don't Look at Me" were removed from the official edition of ''Pansies'' on the grounds of obscenity; Lawrence felt wounded by this.
From the age of 17, Gavin Ewart
Gavin Buchanan Ewart Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (4 February 1916 – 23 October 1995) was a British poet who contributed to Geoffrey Grigson's ''New Verse'' at the age of seventeen.
Early life
Gavin Ewart was born in Lond ...
acquired a reputation for wit and accomplishment through such works as "Phallus in Wonderland" and "Poems and Songs", which appeared in 1939 and was his first collection. The intelligence and casually flamboyant virtuosity with which he framed his often humorous commentaries on human behaviour made his work invariably entertaining and interesting. The irreverent eroticism for which his poetry is noted resulted in W H Smith
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service st ...
's banning of his "The Pleasures of the Flesh" (1966) from their shops.
Canadian poet John Glassco
John Glassco (December 15, 1909 – January 29, 1981) was a Canadian poet, memoirist and novelist. According to Stephen Scobie, "Glassco will be remembered for his brilliant autobiography, his elegant, classical poems, and for his translations".S ...
wrote '' Squire Hardman'' (1967), a long poem in heroic couplets
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the ''Legend of ...
, purporting to be a reprint of an 18th-century poem by George Colman the Younger, on the theme of flagellation.
Italian Una Chi
Una Chi (born Bruna Bianchi; Milan, 5 June 1942 – Cisternino, 19 January 2021) was an Italian translator and writer.
Life
Bruna Bianchi was born in Milan in 1942. For many years she was a professor of German literature at the University of Mi ...
distinguished herself among other publications for coldly analytical prose and for the crudeness of the stories.
Other accounts
Writings of prostitutes
Prostitution
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
was the focus of much of the earliest erotic works. The term ''pornography'' is derived from the Greek ''pornographos'' meaning "writer about prostitutes", originally denoting descriptions of the lives and manners of prostitutes and their customers in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
. According to Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...
in ''The Deipnosophists
The ''Deipnosophistae'' (, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. , where ''sophists'' may be translated more loosely as ) is a work written in Ancient Greek by Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of Greek literature, literary, Ancient history, h ...
'' these constituted a considerable genre, with many lubricious treatises, stories and dramas on the subject. A surviving example of this genre is Lucian of Samosata
Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syria (region), Syrian satire, satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with whi ...
's ''Dialogues of the Courtesans''.
Accounts of prostitution have continued as a major part of the genre of erotic literature. In the 18th century, directories of prostitutes
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...
and their services, such as ''Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies
''Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies'', published from 1760 to 1794, was an annual directory of prostitutes then working in Georgian era, Georgian London. A small pocketbook, it was printed and published in Covent Garden, and sold ...
'' (1757–1795), provided both entertainment and instruction.
In the 19th century, the sensational journalism of W. T. Stead's ''The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon
"The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" was a series of newspaper articles on child prostitution that appeared in '' The Pall Mall Gazette'' in July 1885. Written by the paper's crusading editor W. T. Stead, the series was a ''tour de force'' o ...
'' (1885) about the procuring of underage girls into the brothels of Victorian London provided a stimulus for the erotic imagination. Stead's account was widely translated and the revelation of "padded rooms for the purpose of stifling the cries of the tortured victims of lust and brutality" and the symbolic figure of "The Minotaur of London" confirmed European observers worst imaginings about "Le Sadisme anglais" and inspired erotic writers to write of similar scenes set in London or involving sadistic English gentlemen. Such writers include D'Annunzio in ''Il Piacere'', Paul-Jean Toulet
Paul-Jean Toulet (5 June 1867, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques - 6 September 1920) was a French poet, novelist and feuilleton writer.
Life and works
Paul-Jean Toulet was the son of a wealthy sugar planter, originally from Pau but living in Maurit ...
in ''Monsieur de Paur'' (1898), Octave Mirbeau
Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau (; 16 February 1848 – 16 February 1917) was a French novelist, art critic, travel writer, pamphleteer, journalist and playwright, who achieved celebrity in Europe and great success among the public, whilst still app ...
in '' Jardin des Supplices'' (1899) and Jean Lorrain
Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school.
Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time am ...
in ''Monsieur de Phocas'' (1901).
Well-known recent works in this genre are '' The Happy Hooker: My Own Story'' (1971) by the Dutch madame Xaviera Hollander
Xaviera Hollander (born 15 June 1943) is a Dutch former call girl, madam and author. She is best known for her best-selling memoir '' The Happy Hooker: My Own Story''.
Early life
Hollander was born Xaviera de Vries in Surabaya, Japanese-occupi ...
and ''The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
''The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl'' are memoirs of a former London call girl written by Dr. Brooke Magnanti, under the pseudonym '' Belle de Jour''.
From the summer of 2003 to the autumn of 2004 Belle charted her day-to-day adven ...
'' (2005) by Belle de Jour.
Writings of students
In the 21st century, a newliterary genre
A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...
of student
A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject.
In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...
published journals
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
at Universities in the United States, American universities was started. The following is a partial list of publications:
* ''The Moderator'' – Bard College
* ''Virgin Mawrtyr'' – Bryn Mawr College
* ''H-Bomb'' – Harvard University
* ''Quake'' – University of Pennsylvania
* ''Squirm'' – Vassar College
* ''Vita Excolatur'' – University of Chicago
* ''Bang'' and UntouchablesSwarthmore College#Media – Swarthmore College#Media, Swarthmore College
* ''Boink'' – Boston University
Sex manual
Sex manuals are among the oldest forms of erotic literature. Three brief fragments of a sex manual written in the fourth century BC that is attributed to Philaenis of Samos have survived. Modern scholars generally regard it as a work of parody probably written by a man, and this was most likely Athenian sophist Polycrates (sophist), Polycrates. Other examples of the genre from the classical world include the lost works of Elephantis andOvid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...
's . The Indian ''Kama Sutra'' is one of the world's best-known works of this type. The ''Ananga Ranga'', a 12th-century collection of Indian erotic works, is a lesser known one. ''The Perfumed Garden, The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Recreation'', a 16th-century Arabic language, Arabic work by Sheikh Nefzaoui, is also well-known and is often reprinted and translated. There is anecdotal evidence that, as late as the mid-20th century, sex therapists and other physicians prescribed erotic literature as treatment for erectile dysfunction.
The ancient Chinese versions of the sex manual include the texts that contain the Taoist sexual practices. These include books that show illustrations of the ideal sexual behavior because sex in this religion is not considered taboo but a manifestation of the concept of the yin and yang, wherein the male and female engage in an act of "joining of energy" or "joining of essences". The belief is that proper sexual practice is key to achieving good health. The manuals included the Ishinpō, Ishinpo text, which is a medical document that also included sections devoted to sexual hygiene and sexual manuals of the Tang and Han dynasties.
Qigong manuals include warming a wet towel and covering penis for a few minutes, then rubbing one direction away from base of penis hundreds of times daily, similar to qigong. Squeezing sphincter while semi-erect or fully erect dozens of times daily, particularly a few hours before intercourse will help delay orgasm or enhance non-ejaculatory pleasure. The Universal Tao system was developed by Mantak Chia to teach Taoist meditative and exercise techniques to balance the body and increase and refine one's vital energy, or ''qi''. Front and back channel, the back channel is where the perineum is located between anus and scrotum moving up the tailbone to the crown, the front channel is moving down the front of your body down the midline. Breathing up the back channel and then breathing out from the front channel down to and from the abdomen moves chi. Many practices combined help chi to be transformed into spiritual energy or ''shen (Chinese religion), shen''.
Not all sex manuals were produced to arouse or inform readers about sexual acts. Some were created as a form of satire or social criticism, as in the case of a mock-sex manual produced in the early sixteenth century by Pietro Aretino. It was in response to the clerical censorship of the nude engravings of the Roman artists Marcantonio Raimondi. This was released in cheap wood, with a corresponding sonnet serving as the voice of the characters.
Erotic memoir
Erotic memoirs are a subgenre of erotic literature that blend personal experiences with sensual storytelling.Erotic fiction
Erotic fiction is a genre of fiction that portrays sex or sexual themes, generally in a more literary way than the fiction seen in Pornographic magazine, pornographic magazines. It sometimes includes elements ofsatire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
or social criticism
Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general.
Social criticism of the Enlightenment
The origin of modern ...
. These types of fiction have frequently been banned by the government or religious authorities.
Legal status
Early legislation
To 1857
Erotic or pornographic works have often been prosecuted, censored and destroyed by the authorities on grounds of obscenity. In medieval England, erotic or pornographic publications were the concern of the ecclesiastical courts. After the Reformation the jurisdiction of these courts declined in favour of the Crown, which licensed every printed book. Prosecutions of books for their erotic content alone were rare and works which attacked the church or state gave much more concern to the authorities than erotica or 'obscene libel' as it was then known. For instance the Licensing Act 1662 was aimed generally at "heretical, seditious, schismatical or offensive books of pamphlets" rather than just erotica per se. Even this Licensing Act was allowed to lapse in 1695 and no attempt made to renew it. The first conviction forobscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
in England occurred in 1727, when Edmund Curll was fined for the publication of ''Venus in the Cloister, Venus in the Cloister or The Nun in her Smock'' under the common law offence of Breach of the peace, disturbing the Queen's peace, King's peace. This set a legal precedent for other convictions. The publication of other books by Curll, however, considered seditious and blasphemous, such as ''The Memoirs of John Ker'', apparently most offended the authorities. Prosecutions of erotica later in the 18th century were rare and were most often taken because of the admixture of seditious and blasphemous material with the porn.
1857–1959
It was the Obscene Publications Act 1857 which made the sale of obscene material a statutory offense, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The origins of the act itself were in a trial for the sale of pornography presided over by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Chief Justice, John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell, Lord Campbell, at the same time as a debate in the House of Lords over a bill aiming to restrict the sale of poisons. Campbell was taken by the analogy between the two situations, famously referring to the London pornography trade as "a sale of poison more deadly than prussic acid, strychnine or arsenic", and proposed a bill to restrict the sale of pornography; giving statutory powers of destruction would allow for a much more effective degree of prosecution. The bill was controversial at the time, receiving strong opposition from both Houses of Parliament. It was passed on the assurance by the Lord Chief Justice that it was "intended to apply exclusively to works written for the single purpose of corrupting the morals of youth and of a nature calculated to shock the common feelings of decency in any well-regulated mind." The House of Commons successfully amended it so as not to apply to Scotland, on the grounds that Scottish common law was sufficiently stringent.
The Act provided for the seizure and destruction of any material deemed to be obscene, and held for sale or distribution, following information being laid before a "court of summary jurisdiction" (magistrates' court (England and Wales), magistrates' court). The Act required that following evidence of a common-law offence being committed – for example, on the report of a plain-clothes policeman who had successfully purchased the material – the court could issue a warrant for the premises to be searched and the material seized. The proprietor then would be called upon to attend court and give reason why the material should not be destroyed. Critically, the Act did not define "obscene", leaving this to the will of the courts.
While the Act itself did not change, the scope of the work affected by it did. In 1868 Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet, Sir Alexander Cockburn, Campbell's successor as Lord Chief Justice, held in an appeal that the test of obscenity was "whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall." This was clearly a major change from Campbell's opinion only ten years before – the test now being the effect on someone open to corruption who obtained a copy, not whether the material was ''intended'' to corrupt or offend.
Cockburn's declaration remained in force for several decades, and most of the high profile seizures under the Act relied on this interpretation. Known as the Hicklin test no cognisance was taken of the literary merit of a book or on the extent of the offending text within the book in question. The widened scope of the original legislation led to the subsequent notorious targeting of now acknowledged classics of world literature by such authors as Émile Zola, Zola, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence plus medical textbooks by such as Havelock Ellis rather than the blatant erotica which was the original target of this law.
In contrast to England, where actions against obscene literature were the preserve of the magistrates, such actions were the responsibility of the Postal Inspection Service in America. They were embodied in the federal and state Comstock laws and named after the postal officer and anti-obscenity crusader Anthony Comstock, who proved himself officious in the work of suppression both in his official capacity and through his New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The first such law was the Comstock Act, (ch. 258 enacted March 3, 1873) which made it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials through the mail. Twenty-four states passed similar prohibitions on materials distributed within the states.
Modern legislation
This question of whether a book had literary merit eventually prompted a change in the law in both America and the UK. In the United Kingdom the Obscene Publications Act 1959 provided for the protection of "literature" but conversely increased the penalties against pure "pornography." The law defined obscenity and separated it from serious works of art. The new definition read:[A]n article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.After this piece of legislation questions of the literary merit of the work in question were allowed to be put before the judge and jury as in the ''Lady Chatterley'' trial. The publishers of the latter book were found not guilty by the court on the grounds of the literary merit of the book. In later prosecutions of literary erotica under the provisions of the act, however, even purely pornographic works with no apparent literary merit escaped destruction by the authorities. Purely textual pornographic texts, with no hint of libel, ceased to be brought to trial following the collapse of the ''Inside Linda Lovelace'' trial in 1976. However, in October 2008, a man was unsuccessfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act (the ''R v Walker'' trial) for posting fictional written material to the Internet allegedly describing the kidnap, rape and murder of the pop group Girls Aloud. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution gives protection to written fiction, although the legal presumption that it does not protect obscene literature has never been overcome. Instead, pornography has successfully been defined legally as non-obscene, or "obscene" been shown to be so vague a term as to be unenforceable. In 1998 State v. Dalton, Brian Dalton was charged with creation and possession of child pornography under an Ohio obscenity law. The stories were works of fiction concerning sexually abusing children which he wrote and kept, unpublished, in his private journal. He accepted a plea bargain, pleaded guilty and was convicted. Five years later, the conviction was Vacated judgment, vacated. Importing books and texts across national borders can sometimes be subject to more stringent laws than in the nations concerned. Customs officers are often permitted to seize even merely 'indecent' works that would be perfectly legal to sell and possess once one is inside the nations concerned. Canada has been implicated in such border seizures. Although the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, as well as 1959 legislation, outlawed the publication, retail and trafficking of certain types of writings and images regarded as pornographic, and would order the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale, the private possession of and viewing of pornography was not prosecuted in those times.H. Montgomery Hyde ''A History of Pornography''. (1969) London, Heinemann: 14 In some nations, even purely textual erotic literature is still deemed illegal and is also prosecuted.
See also
Notes
References
* Brulotte, Gaëtan & Phillips, John (eds.) (2006) ''Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature.'' New York: Routledge * Gibson, Ian (2001) ''The Erotomaniac'' London: Faber & Faber * H. Montgomery Hyde (1964) ''A History of Pornography''. London: Heinemann * Kearney, Patrick J. (1982) ''A History of Erotic Literature'', Parragon, * Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen, Kronhausen, Phyllis & Eberhard (1959) ''Pornography and the Law, The Psychology of Erotic Realism and Pornography''. New York: Ballantine Books * Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen, Kronhausen, Phyllis & Eberhard (1969) ''Erotic Fantasies, a Study of Sexual Imagination''. New York: Grove Press * Muchembled, Robert (2008) ''Orgasm and the West: a history of pleasure from the 16th century to the present'', Polity (publisher), Polity, * * Weller, Michael J. ''The Secret Blue Book''. Home Baked BookLondon. * Linda Williams (film critic), Williams, Linda (1999) ''Hardcore: Power, Pleasure, and the 'Frenzy of the Visible. Berkeley: University of California Press
Further reading
* With an introduction by G. Legman. * * * * * * * * A Bibliography of Works Published by Charles Carrington *History
General
* Atkins, John (1970) ''Sex in Literature'', 4 vols. 1970–1982 * Bertolotti, Alessandro. Curiosa la bibliotheque érotique. Paris, Editions La Martiniere, 2012, * Philippe Di Folco, Di Folco, Philippe, ed. (2005) ''Dictionnaire de la pornographie''. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, * Englisch, Paul (1927) ''Geschichte der erotischen Literatur'', 1927, Reprint 1977, * Fischer, Carolin (1997) ''Gärten der Lust: eine Geschichte erregender Lektüren'', Stuttgart; Weimar: Metzler , paperback: München: Dt. Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2000 * Gnüg, Hiltrud (2002) ''Der erotische Roman: von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenwart'', Ditzingen: Reclam * Kronhausen, Eberhard & Phyllis (1969) ''Bücher aus dem Giftschrank: eine Analyse der verbotenen und verfemten erotischen Literatur'' * Pascal Pia, Pia, Pascal, ed. (1971) ''Dictionnaire des œuvres érotiques''. Paris: Mercure de France * Schreiber, Hermann (1969) ''Erotische Texte: sexualpathologische Erscheinungen in der Literatur'' * Spedding, Patrick, curator (2010)Lewd and Scandalous Books: An exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection
'', Clayton (Melbourne): Monash University,
Ancient world and Middle Ages
* Leick, G. (1994) ''Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature'' * Mulchandani, S. (2006) ''Erotic Literature of Ancient India: Kama Sutra, Koka Shastra, Gita Govindam, Ananga Ranga''Modern times to 1900
* Goulemot, J. (1993) ''Gefährliche Bücher: erotische Literatur, Pornographie, Leser und Zensur im 18. Jahrhundert'' * Moulton, I. (2000) ''Before Pornography: erotic writing in early modern Europe''External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erotic Literature Erotic literature, Literary genres