Representing Kink

de Sara K. Howe, Susan E. Cook, Bobby Derie, Antonnet Johnson, Jane M. Kubiesa

Representing Kink raises awareness about non-normative texts and erotic practices and desires. It defines 'kink' broadly, encompassing a range of 'inappropriate' texts and understanding it in frequent reference to non-normative erotic fantasies and experiences. Kink is treated as both a set of practices as well as a category of texts at the nexus of subject and form. In addition to canonical texts that take up erotic and marginalized themes, the collection also studies forms that are themselves fringe and feature kink: taboo literature, self-published erotica, SM narratives, fan fiction, role-playing games, and other disavowed texts. The purpose of this study is to focus attention on the margins of an already marginalized subject in order to highlight the extent to which non-normative textuality and eroticism both shape and are shaped by culture and context. This book advocates for conversations abut kinky texts that transcende dichotomous frameworks of good and bad, and normal and deviant, thinking insteaad in new, theoretically rigorous, and flexible directions.