Painful Pleasure. Saintly Torture on the Verge of Pornography

Within female hagiographical narratives, stimulating, pornographic, and often sadistic endeavours can be detected; gendering the tortured body parts such as the tongue, teeth or the breast and thus supporting the development of (negative) erotic fantasies. This paper will explore the connection betw...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Schäfer-Althaus, Sarah
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2014
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositório:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:119456
Acesso em linha:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/119456
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Women Saints
Hagiography
Torture
Pornography
Body
Santas
Hagiografias
Tortura
Pornografia
Corpo
Descrição
Resumo:Within female hagiographical narratives, stimulating, pornographic, and often sadistic endeavours can be detected; gendering the tortured body parts such as the tongue, teeth or the breast and thus supporting the development of (negative) erotic fantasies. This paper will explore the connection between pornography, torture, and hagiography and investigate the ambiguity of this 'painful pleasure', which, despite any assumptions, is not only enjoyed by the male torturer when cutting off these symbolically significant body parts, but recurrently so it seems also by the saint herself, who more than once cheerfully exclaims that 'the pains are my delight' (St Agatha).