Author Description

This international collection focuses on the phallic character of classic and contemporary literary and visual cultures and their invasive nature. The phallic eye is analyzed as a spectacle of the obscene, the scene and the sin, a visualization of guilty pleasures and outrageous lusts that evoke anxiety, guilt, satisfaction, intimacy and intimidation. The phallic eye is a powerful and useful metaphor for a radical investigation of the interrelations between spectatorship, authorship, dominance, Mulvey's theorization of voyeurism/exhibitionism/Looked-at-ness, and surveillance of human desires and visual pleasures. This volume suggests a broad perspective on the phallus as passionate, dynamic and energetic force, which is more than the consuming, predatory eye of the beholder who yearns for sensational spectacles. The chapters focus on thrillers, horror cinema, pornography, sexual art and photography, erotic literature, female and male body politics, queer pleasures, gender/cross-gender/transgenderism, CCTV and phallic ethnicities.