Review: Sara K. Howe; Susan E. Cook (ed.), Representing Kink. Fringe Sexuality and Textuality in Literature, Digital Narrative, and Popular Culture.

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review:

By its title alone Representing Kink questions the notion that kink is in and of itself the representation of BDSM, leather, and latex by which it prominently is sold. Kink is always already a deviation from what is considered the norm, which lead to the normative representation we have of it today. Hence this collection of articles unravels the lens through which kink is viewed in two major ways, firstly, by engaging with a wider range of kinks not represented in BDSM and leather communities and, secondly, by analyzing fan-fictions of popular movies and TV-series, which subvert popular characters and images from the bottom-up. Instead of engaging with a top-down representation of kink, the majority of the nine articles collected in this book engage with the bottom-up expression of desire. These expressions are found in digital narratives unfiltered and uncensored by publishing houses and institutions that provide alternate readings of popular fictions. Kink, in this sense, can therein also be viewed as something already latent within popular culture.