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Postmodern Eroticism

Postmodern Eroticism

Wojciech Klimczyk, Postmodern Eroticism [Erotyzm ponowoczesny], Wydawnictwo Universitas, Kraków 2007.

Postmodernity can be described as a new ethical model based on the plurality of outlooks on the world. It can be described as a morality of compromise resulting in chronic uncertainty in our actions and convictions. In this context, sexuality and its accompanying eroticism, understood as representations and theories of sex circulating in the public sphere, can be viewed as one of the most explicit symptoms. In order to analyse this issue, the book delivers a study of diverse sources – from articles in popular weekly magazines, through women's press, to internet pornography which is becoming more and more prevalent in contemporary culture.

Such broad research results in presenting eroticism in pop culture today as an expression of profound ambivalence in the postmodern mind. On the one hand, it is governed by its own rules: a drive to maximise pleasure and express its desires spontaneously. On the other, it leads to cynicism, cold calculations and loneliness. It is this ambivalence that makes our sexualities more and more problematic. In our emotional lives we often encounter a rather discomforting question – how and if we should love? Postmodern eroticism is a humble attempt to help in finding an answer to this.

 

Key words: eroticism, postmodernity, sexuality, popular culture, pornography