Sex, literature and censorship - Jonathan Dollimore

Those who love and live by art, tell us that it is the most exaltedexpression of civilized life. In this provocative new book JonathanDollimore argues that, far from confirming humane values,literature more often than not violates them.

He begins with a polemical and witty attack on the spuriousradicalism of some fashionable academic theories about desire andsexual dissidence. Dollimore then examines the ways in which themedia, literary critics and the state, as well as these literarytheorists, all deny or repress the disturbing and dangerousknowledge conveyed by literature.

His own account of the volatile connections between aesthetics,desire, politics and censorship unfolds through topics such ashomosexuality, bisexuality, sexual disgust, and the disturbingrelations between art and inhumanity, and through brilliantinsights into a wide range of authors including Euripides,Shakespeare, Tennyson and Yeats.

Most persistently, this book is about how the experience ofdesire in life and art compromises our most cherished ethicalbeliefs. If this helps make art irresistible and of indispensablevalue, it follows too that there are reasonable grounds for wantingto censor it.

This compelling and accessibly written book will be essentialreading for students and scholars of literary, gender and culturalstudies, and will have a major impact on debates about art,sexuality, censorship and the role of the intellectual.