Strange bedfellows: Tragedy and pornography

Abstract

Ready access to graphic images and the ease of remixing them, made possible by digital media, invite a reconsideration of the distinctions between traditional genres, including tragedy and pornography. Using Aristotle’s fundamental analysis of tragedy and a working definition of pornography, this article re-examines generic traits in light of subsequent theorists, including Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and George Steiner. The consequences of efforts in genre-crossing are variously exemplified by explications of three recent films: The New Behind the Green Door (2013), Intimacy (2001), and Shame (2011). The first of these works is a fully pornographic tragedy; the second confines the hard-core spectacle to a single scene, while the third explores the limitations and attractions of pornography through both the porn-consuming protagonist and the repeated verging upon hard-core spectacle in the film itself. Once subjected to the moral constraints of tragic narrative, pornography may prove to be a potent agent of revitalization.