Talking Sense About 'Fifty Shades of Grey', or, Fanfiction, Feminism, and BDSM
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About This Book
Heard of Fifty Shades of Grey but don't know what the fuss is about? Read it but not sure what to think of that fuss?
The mass media have created a lot of heat about E. L. James's trilogy, but shed very little light on it. This short, analytical guide looks at her publishing phenomenon and asks why it matters to readers that it started as fanfiction, why so many feminists object to it, and why practitioners of organized, consensual BDSM also have issues with it.
Clearly, concisely, and readably written, it reveals a story from within fandom that the media have ignored, and makes connections with the political, moral, and ethical issues that are affected by James's writing.
John Lennard was formerly Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and edits the Genre Fiction Sightlines and Monographs list for Humanities-Ebooks. He has published two collections of essays on genre fiction, 'Of Modern Dragons' (2007) and 'Of Sex and Faerie' (2010).
The mass media have created a lot of heat about E. L. James's trilogy, but shed very little light on it. This short, analytical guide looks at her publishing phenomenon and asks why it matters to readers that it started as fanfiction, why so many feminists object to it, and why practitioners of organized, consensual BDSM also have issues with it.
Clearly, concisely, and readably written, it reveals a story from within fandom that the media have ignored, and makes connections with the political, moral, and ethical issues that are affected by James's writing.
John Lennard was formerly Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and edits the Genre Fiction Sightlines and Monographs list for Humanities-Ebooks. He has published two collections of essays on genre fiction, 'Of Modern Dragons' (2007) and 'Of Sex and Faerie' (2010).
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