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In this profoundly original study, Frances Ferguson persuasively makes the startling claim that modern pornography can best be understood by its analogies to utilitarian social structures. Maintaining that we miss the essence of pornography when we isolate and emphasize its sexual content, Ferguson asks us to consider pornography as a scheme that--like the social organization promoted by Bentham's utilitarianism--would produce unequivocal hierarchical evaluations of the individuals belonging to particular groups. This exciting and brilliantly argued book will be widely read and passionately debated. The Culture of Redemption --Leo Bersani, author of The Culture of Redemption

As a post-Foucauldian reconceptualization of utilitarianism, social organization, power distribution, and the conditions of equality, [the book] makes an original contribution to the fields of the history of sexuality, pornography studies, and studies in the novel but also, perhaps, to political theory.--Michelle Chilcoat Journal of the History of Sexuality The contribution [Ferguson] makes to the understanding of human actions and the social structure in which they occur makes this well worth reading.--Samantha Brennan Victorian Studies This is not a study of pornography as such, but a deeply thoughtful meditation on an entire range of modern practices that conceptualize individuals in terms of their actions or use. Ferguson relentlessly unveils modern utilitarianism and persuasively demonstrates why appeals to belief are ineffective in a society ruled by this Benthamite calculus. This provocative study will generate controversy, as has the pornography debate, but, unlike the debate itself, Ferguson's book is consistently illuminating and rewarding. A History of the Modern Fact--Mary Poovey, author of A History of the Modern Fact In this profoundly original study, Frances Ferguson persuasively makes the startling claim that modern pornography can best be understood by its analogies to utilitarian social structures. Maintaining that we miss the essence of pornography when we isolate and emphasize its sexual content, Ferguson asks us to consider pornography as a scheme that--like the social organization promoted by Bentham's utilitarianism--would produce unequivocal hierarchical evaluations of the individuals belonging to particular groups. This exciting and brilliantly argued book will be widely read and passionately debated. The Culture of Redemption--Leo Bersani, author of The Culture of Redemption

As a post-Foucauldian reconceptualization of utilitarianism, social organization, power distribution, and the conditions of equality, [the book] makes an original contribution to the fields of the history of sexuality, pornography studies, and studies in the novel but also, perhaps, to political theory. -- Michelle Chilcoat Journal of the History of Sexuality

"As a post-Foucauldian reconceptualization of utilitarianism, social organization, power distribution, and the conditions of equality, [the book] makes an original contribution to the fields of the history of sexuality, pornography studies, and studies in the novel but also, perhaps, to political theory.--Michelle Chilcoat ""Journal of the History of Sexuality"" The contribution [Ferguson] makes to the understanding of human actions and the social structure in which they occur makes this well worth reading.--Samantha Brennan ""Victorian Studies"" ""In this profoundly original study, Frances Ferguson persuasively makes the startling claim that modern pornography can best be understood by its analogies to utilitarian social structures. Maintaining that we miss the essence of pornography when we isolate and emphasize its sexual content, Ferguson asks us to consider pornography as a scheme that--like the social organization promoted by Bentham's utilitarianism--would produce unequivocal hierarchical evaluations of the individuals belonging to particular groups. This exciting and brilliantly argued book will be widely read and passionately debated.""The Culture of Redemption--Leo Bersani, author of The Culture of Redemption ""This is not a study of pornography as such, but a deeply thoughtful meditation on an entire range of modern practices that conceptualize individuals in terms of their actions or use. Ferguson relentlessly unveils modern utilitarianism and persuasively demonstrates why appeals to belief are ineffective in a society ruled by this Benthamite calculus. This provocative study will generate controversy, as has the pornography debate, but, unlike the debate itself, Ferguson's book is consistently illuminating and rewarding.""A History of the Modern Fact--Mary Poovey, author of A History of the Modern Fact"

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Frances Ferguson is the Mary Elizabeth Garrett Professor of Arts and Sciences and professor of English and the humanities at The Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Wordsworth: Language as Counter-Spirit and Solitude and the Sublime: Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Individuation.

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