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Scandalous women : gender and identity in top-notch smut

journal contribution
posted on 2013-01-01, 00:00 authored by Alyson MillerAlyson Miller
Examining a diverse range of texts offering controversial representations of female sexuality, this paper demonstrates a persistent link between literary scandal and anxieties about women's sexuality. Texts from Madame Bovary (1857) to The Sexual Life of Catherine M (2001) have provoked various arguments, from debates about the need to restrain the unruly bodies of women to contestations about aesthetic merit, morality, and obscenity. Indeed, the scandalous literature of sexual women is distinguished by efforts to reduce its transgressions into something manageable, whether through naming and categorisation (‘chick lit’ and ‘posh porn’), textual analysis, public censure, or critical excoriation. The desire to manage controversial material signifies a discourse of containment that suggests both women and literature require strict control. As this paper will argue, the relationship between women, literature, and scandal is one marked by both intra- and extra-textual efforts to restrain not only the unpredictability and power of female sexuality, but also the unruly energies of literature itself.

History

Journal

Journal of gender studies

Volume

22

Pagination

367-382

Location

Oxon, Eng.

ISSN

0958-9236

eISSN

1465-3869

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2013, Taylor and Francis

Issue

4

Publisher

Routledge

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