Art and Pornography: Philosophical Essays - Hardcover

Maes and Levinson's book demonstrates clearly the wide range of current issues that connect aesthetics with pornography, and will be a landmark collection on the topic. (Christopher Bartel, British Journal of Aesthetics)

There is much to like about this collection. First ... it is the first of its kind. Second, the collection connects debates about pornography in analytic feminist philosophy and aestheticsâsomething that surprisingly seldom happens, but that could be extremely fruitful. (Mari Mikkola, European Journal of Philosophy)

Art and Pornography is a very successful venture into a new region of aesthetics ... The book not only joins in the existing discussion-it succeeds in setting new standards for it. Pornography was largely treated as a fairly homogeneous phenomenon in the past, but the insightful unpacking of the concept offered by the authors, the instructive examples and analyses of less straightforward works, the exploration of its subgenres, and the attention given to artworks with clearly pornographic content leave a much more varied and interesting landscape. Such diversification opens multiple new avenues for research, and as the dispute over whether pornography can be art strongly leans toward a positive answer, the book provides an inspiration for inquiring into the value, characteristics. creation, and reception of pornographic art. (Simon Fokt, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism)

Maes and Levinson's volume is important in orienting philosophers of art to contribute to reflection on pornography (Natalie Nenadic, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

[Art and Pornography] breaks important ground. (E. K. Mix, CHOICE)

Art and Pornography presents a series of essays which investigate the artistic status and aesthetic dimension of pornographic pictures, films, and literature, and explores the distinction, if there is any, between pornography and erotic art. Is there any overlap between art and pornography, or are the two mutually exclusive? If they are, why is that? If they are not, how might we characterize pornographic art or artistic pornography, and how might pornographic art be distinguished, if at all, from erotic art? Can there be aesthetic experience of pornography? What are some of the psychological, social, and political consequences of the creation and appreciation of erotic art or artistic pornography? Leading scholars from around the world address these questions, and more, and bring together different aesthetic perspectives and approaches to this widely consumed, increasingly visible, yet aesthetically underexplored cultural domain. The book, the first of its kind in philosophical aesthetics, will contribute to a more accurate and subtle understanding of the many representations that incorporate explicit sexual imagery and themes, in both high art and demotic culture, in Western and non-Western contexts. It is sure to stir debate, and healthy controversy.