''The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography'' is a 1978 non-fiction book by
Angela Carter
Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
. The book is a feminist re-appraisal of the work of the
Marquis de Sade, consisting of a collection of essays analyzing his literature, particularly the tales of sisters Juliette and Justine.
Her work was later criticized by the radical feminist and
anti-porn theorist
Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen solo ...
in her 1981 book ''
Pornography: Men Possessing Women.'' Unlike Dworkin, Carter sees de Sade as being the first writer to see women as more than mere breeding machines, as more than just their biology and, as such, finds him liberating.
Carter argues that Marquis de Sade was a “moral pornographer”, one that analyzed the relation between the sexes within his work.
She argues that Marquis “would not be the enemy of women”, as she views his works as contradicting patriarchal notions of sex and feminity.
The Marquis de Sade’s pornography went on to influence Carter’s fictional work. In her collection of short stories published the next year,
The Bloody Chamber
''The Bloody Chamber'' (or ''The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories'') is a collection of short fiction by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary ...
, the opening story follows a young, unnamed
French woman who is groomed into sex and marriage by the scopophiliac,
Marquis.
References
1977 non-fiction books
Books by Angela Carter
Feminist books
Works about the Marquis de Sade
Pantheon Books books
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