Тайнство или терор
Sacrament or Terror

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the coverage of sex in „picture-books for lovers”. Until recently the sexual themes in this country have been pushed out into the private sphere. The operation of the „civilization process” means gaining of publicity. This applies also to sex treatment in picture, speech, or sound. That is why the questions of what is permissible and what is not permissible, where the boundary lies between eroticism and pornography, attain a special significance. The author advances the idea that the eroticism-pornography dilemma should not be reduced simply to the dilemma of artistic-nonartistic. Pornography comes on when the secrecy of sex has been devoid of sacrament, when play has been devoid of playfulness, imagination, and spell. By contrast with eroticism, pornography implies no seducing, no promise, neither travelling over new realms. It is merely a realization for its sake. Function. Hyperthrophied appearance. Everything is on the surface: unambiguous, commonplace, two-dimensional. There is a violent elimination of everything spiritual from sex in pornography. Therefore pornography is defined here as terror, and eroticism — as sacrament. In conclusion the author emphasizes the historical and the regionally specific cultural relativity and variability of what is perceived as „normal” in eroticism.

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