Vulgar Genres

Vulgar Genresexamines gay pornographic writing, showing howliterary fiction wasbothinformed by pornographyand amounts to a commentary on the genre's relation to queer male erotic life. Long fixated on visual forms, the field of porn studies is overdue for a book-length study of gay pornographicwriting. Steven Ruszczycky delivers with an impressively researched work on the ways gay pornographic writing emerged as a distinct genre in the 1960s and went on to shape queer male subjectivity well into the new millennium. Ranging over four decades, Ruszczycky draws on a large archive of pulp novels and short fiction, lifestyle magazines and journals, reviews, editorial statements, and correspondence. He puts these materials in conversation with works bya number ofcontemporary writers, including William Carney, Dennis Cooper, Samuel Delany, JohnRechy, and Matthew Stadler.While focused on the years 1966 to 2005,Vulgar Genresreveals that the history of gay pornographic writing during this period informs much of what has happened online over the past twenty years, from cruising to the production of digital pornographic texts. The result is a milestone in porn studies and an important contribution to the history of gay life.