![](https://d3ilqtpdwi981i.cloudfront.net/POsGCbud6PFAtDAkp3IeqmU7Ih8=/425x550/smart/https://bepress-attached-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/3b/66/e6/3b66e6c7-1fc0-400a-a2a4-7fba8177ef21/thumbnail_BPFile%20object.jpg)
Unpublished Paper
(Re)Claiming the Discourse of Desire: An Analysis of Women’s Erotic Texts
Paper for a feminist theory/methods course (Purdue University, with Prof. Patrocinio Schweickart)
(1998)
Abstract
Upon critiquing MacKinnon and Dworkin’s (Dworkin 1981; MacKinnon 1986, 1987; MacKinnon and Dworkin 1997) stance against “pornography,” discussing the theoretical and linguistic obstacles besetting women’s sexual expression, and reviewing research literature examining romance novels, I then explored erotic short-stories written by women—or women’s “erotica”—as surfaces for the (re)clamation of women’s desire. Drawing from my analyses of fourteen erotic tales from two separate collections, I concluded that the selected corpus of women’s erotica demonstrates the multiplicity of women’s sexual voices and combats the hegemony of a male-centered discourse of desire.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall 1998
Citation Information
Swygart-Hobaugh, A.J. (1998). (Re)claiming the discourse of desire: An analysis of women's erotic texts. Unpublished manuscript.