> "Does anyone know if there is a coincidence of Bentham's (1748-1832)
> panopticon writings and the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814). Porn was invented
> in the era after Sade (according to Lynn Hunt)... it somehow seems
> appropriate that this coincides with the threat-concept of total
> surveillance and invasive voyeurism backed by an obsessive masculine
> brotherhood (Rousseau's fraternity) (1712-1778)."
>
> Porn invented in the nineteenth century? I seriously doubt this.
>
> Joanna
Lynn Hunt, ed., The Invention of Pornography, 1500-1800: Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1996. Pornography should be distinguished from obscenity. As a genre, pornography emerges after Sade (for the most part). Until Sade, sexual imagery was used primarily for other political or religious purposes: fertility, regicide... The basic secularisation of sexual concepts hadn't taken place until the 19th century. Of course this is a particular definition of pornography... "nudity" or "explicit nudity" has a long history. But as a genre... yes, 19th century.
ken