Before Pornography

Before Pornography explores the relationship between erotic writing, masculinity, and national identity in Renaissance England. Dealing with printed and manuscript texts, drawing on feminist theory and queer studies, it argues that pornography is a historical phenomenon, and although representation of sexual activity may exist in all cultures, pornography does not. It addresses the social significance of eroticism in such canonical texts as Sidney's Defense of Poesy and Spenser's Faerie Queene.