Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

and high culture as did the Marquis de Sade 6 . The trials of his life and work are well-
known 7 ; the perverse and obscene character of his works subjected him to a series of
prosecutions. Yet thanks to critical discourse examining his literary contributions in the
ensuing centuries, 8 his oeuvre has benefited from a remarkable increase in its cultural
capital and he is now not only recognized as one of the forefathers of transgression and
erotica, but is also integrated in university curricula and anthologies. In the licentious
texts of Justine and Les 120 Jours de Sodome for example, he describes scenes of sexual
activity in vivid detail, incorporating such taboos as homosexual and anal intercourse,
sadism, and scatology with a style so intricate and sophisticated it seems he is writing the
most noble and purest visualizations and thoughts; as Barthes puts it, “pornographic
messages are embodied in sentences so pure they might be used as grammatical models”
(6). As mentioned above, critics such as Bataille and Foucault argue that by exploiting
the language of pornography, Sade stretched the limits of traditional literary language and
by doing so, he instated a new self-defined realm of literature. Interestingly enough, the
irony is that, on a formal level, the author adhered to the style of canonical works while
in content, he incorporated material that had traditionally been shunned. Taken in
context, however, what makes Sade particularly noteworthy is that he not only challenged
established artistic practices, but he is also considered to have promoted the ideas that set
in motion the French revolution and reflected the inherent conflicts of class and culture,
as well as the exchanges of institutionalized power that characterized it. Hence, Sade is
6
This could be due to the fact that these boundaries only become firmly drawn for the first time in the age
in which he writes.
7
See for example, The Marquis de Sade: A Life, by Neil Schaffer. Knopf, New York: 1999.
8
See for example, Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal essay: “Must We Burn Sade?” or the collection of essays
regarding the Marquis’ oeuvre in the book published by Humanity Books which bears the same title.
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