Margaret Thatcher and Pornography

Synopsis

This podcast explores why 1980s British fiction turned to pornography in order to explore Thatcherism’s contradictions, focusing on Martin Amis’ ‘Money: A Suicide Note’ (1984) and Alan Hollinghurst’s ‘The Swimming-Pool Library’ (1988). Mullen finds in these novels, and in fiction more widely, an attempt to use pornography as a means of exposing an ostensible contradiction in Thatcherism between the idea of the free individual on the one hand and Thatcher’s rejection of the permissive society on the other. [41 minutes]

Series

Read Podcasts

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Subjects

English language and literature; Politics & government

Keywords

Amis, Martin; pornography; Thatcher, Margaret (1925-2013); literature - 20th century

Online availability

URI

https://readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/new-podcast-margaret-thatcher-and-pornography/

Price

free

Delivery

Streamed

Credits

Contributor

Antony Mullen

Distributor

Name

University of Durham, Department of English Studies

Web

https://readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/ External site opens in new window