Overview

Surveying a wide range of cultural controversies, from the Mapplethorpe affair to Salman Rushdie's death sentence, from canon-revision in the academy to the scandals that have surrounded Anthony Blunt, Martin Heidegger, and Paul de Man, Wendy Steiner shows that the fear and outrage they inspired are the result of dangerous misunderstanding about the relationship between art and life. ""Stimulating. . . . A splendid rebuttal of those on the left and right who think that the pleasures induced by art are trivial or dangerous. . . . One of the most powerful defenses of the potentiality of art.""—Andrew Delbanco, New York Times Book Review ""A concise and . . . readable account of recent contretemps that have galvanized the debate over the role and purposes of art. . . . [Steiner] writes passionately about what she believes in.""—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times ""This is one of the few works of cultural criticism that is actually intelligible to the nonspecialist reader. . . . Steiner's perspective is fresh and her perceptions invariably shrewd, far-ranging, and reasonable. A welcome association of sense and sensibility.""—Kirkus Reviews, starred review ""Steiner has succeeded so well in [the] task she has undertaken. The Scandal of Pleasure is itself characterized by many of the qualities Steiner demans of art, among them, complexity, tolerance and the pleasures of unfettered thought.""—Eleanor Heartly, Art in America ""Steiner . . . provides the best and clearest short presentation of each of [the] debates.""—Alexander Nehamas, Boston Book Review ""Steiner has done a fine job as a historian/reporter and as a writer of sophisticated, very clear, cultural criticism. Her reportage alone would be enough to make this a distinguished book.""—Mark Edmundson, Lingua Franca

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9780226772240

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Reviews

Sanity, sanity, sanity, as Steiner squarely addresses a number of contemporary cultural conflicts and teases out their subtler meanings. While Steiner is the chair of the English department at the University of Pennsylvania, her writing and thought are remarkably free of the cant and willful obfuscation so characteristic of the modern academy; this is one of the few works of cultural criticism that is actually intelligible to the nonspecialized reader. Ranging from the S&M photos of Robert Mapplethorpe to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie to that discredited doyen of deconstructionism, Paul de Man, Steiner argues for a conception of art that cuts between aestheticism (art for art's sake) and literalism (that dull province of feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon, Marxists, and certain presidentially minded Republican politicians). Working outward from the critic Cleanth Brooks's text-based conception of paradox, Steiner posits: The work of art is . . . a virtual reality which we invest with value. We do this because of what we are and what therefore gives us pleasure, and we are able to do so because the work has such a paradoxical makeup. Like condensed milk, this idea is not exactly fresh. Samuel Johnson in his Preface to Shakespeare developed a similar conception of art's imitations bringing realities to mind. But rarely has this notion been given such elaboration and play and used so forcefully to root out hypocrisy and contradiction. For example, Steiner effectively demolishes MacKinnon's view of pornography as equal to rape. It is a small shame that most of Steiner's diverse targets have been so extensively pummeled already. But Steiner's perspective is fresh and her perceptions invariably shrewd, far-ranging, and reasonable. A welcome association of sense and sensibility. (Kirkus Reviews)

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