Gap Between Literary Gothic and Pornography

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Recommended: The effects of media violence on society summary

As a society, we are confronted daily with pornographic images, they feature in our newspapers, on our film screens, and even in our novels. This voyeuristic obsession the media holds has for a long time been desensitizing us to depictions of violence and sex, but has it also disabled us in being able to see the difference between what is carefully constructed satire and what is merely pornography?

There is probably no text this discussion embraces more in modern gothic literature than that of Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. The novel was surrounded with controversy, ecen before its publication in 1991. Originally, cited to be published by Simon & Schuster, the company forfeited from the engagement, including its £300,000 advance, due to the controversy surrounding the novels publication after a number of chapters were leaked and later it became the first book in America to receive an R rating. Immediately, the novel was portrayed by critics as ‘vile pornography, immoral and artless’ (Milner 43), with Ellis himself being described as ‘a dirty writer’ . The reactions to the text were befitting of how many people negatively receive pornography, with some critics outright declaring that the novel was pornography. This shows a distinct example of how society viewed representations of violence coupled with sexuality, regardless of the purpose of the medium.

A major similarity between the two mediums is the way they represent women. American Psycho received extremely negative press from women’s groups who claimed the novel ‘legitimizes inhuman and savage violence masquerading as sexuality’ ; this is a quote that could easily be applied to similar group’s opinions on the Adult Entertainment Industry. Sex being used as a s...

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Self, W. (2009) Porn in the home – it’s the nations dirty secret. London Evening Standard [Online] Available from: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/porn-in-the-home--its-the-nations-dirty-secret-6810268.html

Tanner, L. (1994) Intimate Violence: Reading Rape and Torture in Twentieth-Century Fiction. [google ebook] Indiana University Press. Available from: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=1vzSNgTqIgcC&rdid=book-1vzSNgTqIgcC&rdot=1&source=gbs_vpt_read&pcampaignid=books_booksearch_viewport

Yardley, J. (1991) American Psycho: Essence of Trash. The Washington Post [online] Available from: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1051588.html

Yebra, M. (2010) Retro-Victorianism and the Simulacrum of Art in Will Self’s Dorian: An Imitation. University of Zaragoza. [Online] Available from: http://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/17433/1/RAEI_23_13.pdf

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