cover image The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism

The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism

Wendy Steiner. University of Chicago Press, $24.95 (263pp) ISBN 978-0-226-77223-3

Reviewing the controversy over Robert Mapplethorpe's many photos of sadomasochistic scenes and Andres Serrano's iconoclastic sculpture, University of Pennsylvania English professor Steiner argues that art, however disturbing, cannot be obscene because artworks, as thought-experiments, are always open to personal interpretations. The anti-pornography campaign of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin ignores reports that no solid evidence exists to link pornography with rape or child abuse, declares Steiner, who castigates their militant feminism as an ``unholy alliance between the far left and the far right.'' Interpreting Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses as a satirical attack on Islamic fundamentalism, she defends his artistic integrity and reads his novel as a work of magic realism. She also ponders the failure of teachers to live up to their precepts, as exemplified by philosopher Martin Heidegger, a dues-paying Nazi. Her brilliant, incisive essays breathe fresh air into the debate over artistic freedom and political correctness. (Dec.)