Glimmers of the forbidden fruit – Reminiscing pornography, conceptualizing the archive

: Reminiscing pornography, conceptualizing the archive

: Katariina Kyrölä, Susanna Paasonen

Publisher: Sage

: 2016

: International Journal of Cultural Studies

: IJCS

: 19

: 6

: 595

: 610

: 16

: 1367-8779

: 1460-356X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877915580625

: http://ics.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/11/1367877915580625

The article explores theoretical and methodological understandings of the archive, drawing

on a research project that investigates reminiscences of using and encountering pornography

in Finland. The contributors’ reminiscences of what they have done with porn can be seen as

forming an archive of feelings, which sheds light on attachments and practices often considered

ephemeral and hidden, and focuses attention on the queer significance of those practices. We

further consider the blurred boundaries between an archive, a collection and a stash in terms of

their secrecy, publicness and affective intensity. Finally, we propose that the notion of somatic

archives allows for analysis of how encounters with pornography layer through time in our

bodies, contributing to forms of sexual knowledge. The article thus examines interconnections

between memory work archives, personal porn stashes and somatic archives while analysing

the importance and power of pornography in and for everyday life, sexual histories and cultural

memory.