In keeping with PAMLA's conference theme of "Translation in Action," this session invites papers that examine questions of translation and adaptation relevant to pornographic media, including but not limited to film and video, writing, and performance. I welcome papers covering any relevant period, topic, and method, from textual analysis to cultural histories to studies of pornographic production and consumption. Pornography provides an exemplary terrain on which to engage questions of adaptation as the eagerness of pornographers to adapt both low and high cultural works, from Twinklight (2010) to Spank Me, Mr. Darcy (2013), remains a reliable source of public fascination, humor, and outrage. While the move from straight text to porn comprises the most obvious vector of adaptation, other complex movements, such as demonstrated by the publication and adaptation history of E.L. James’s porno-fan-fic-cum-softcore-romance Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), require careful consideration. Adaptation transports themes, plot, and characters across not only genres but also varieties of media for different audiences, thereby providing opportunities to study social, cultural, and political relations among genres, media, and sex.

The question of translation also has relevance to pornography as the circulation of pornographic texts through different national, cultural, and linguistic contexts has been a significant feature of the genre’s history. For example, in Victorian England the refusal to translate ancient Greek effectively limited access to the erotic archives excavated from Pompeii for all but elite white men, but in the US of the mid-twentieth century controversies regarding translations of pornographic works by Sade and other writers contributed to the democratization of sexually explicit materials. Questions of translation hold continued relevance today, when networked media not only expose consumers to unfamiliar erotic traditions and cultures but also connect them to porn workers from around the world. While critics often dismiss pornography for its apparent transparency (“I know it when I see it”), pornographic translations and adaptations indicate the significant–even necessary–role that language and symbolism play for and within the genre. In fact, it may be that pornography is best characterized not by the clarity of its meaning but the stubborn resistance sex itself poses to intelligibility, thus driving endless translations and adaptations.

The above serve as only a few modest examples of the need to engage with pornographic adaptations and translations. I welcome papers that introduce other topics and problems relevant to the panel theme, and I am committed to a panel that provides a variety of methods and perspectives.

PAMLA Website: https://www.pamla.org/

Portal to submit proposals: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/