Gender and banned literatures: from Sade to japanese shotacons, writing desire beyond the norms.

Abstract

"Minor literature", of which Japanese shotacon is often —wrongly— considered as a emblematic representative, allows us, in its own way, to grasp certain fundamental aspects of what might be called "major literature". Far from being limited to the pursuit of sensory pleasure, these works can offer as many profound reflections on social norms, identity, control, desire, the pursuit of pleasure, and the body —dynamics also at the core of "major literature".

Thus, although shotacons are often associated with "minor literature" due to the controversial topics they address, they nonetheless possess a formidable and subversive potential which, as this article will demonstrate, enables them to engage with precisely what "major literature" also seeks to capture: the complexity and violence of desire, the questioning of its boundaries, (here erotic) identification, and the production of subjectivities.

By placing these contemporary works in dialogue with eighteenth-century pornographic literature —especially Sade's writings— this article aims at demonstrating how both corpora, despite the centuries and differing cultural contexts that separate them, partake in a similar endeavour: writing desire beyond the norm, interrogating representational regimes of the body and sexuality, and exposing the unequal access to jouissance. By combining gender studies, comparative literature, and the philosophy of the body, this article advocates for a critical and de-pathologised approach to so-called "forbidden" cultural productions.