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Under Spain's twentieth-century dictators, state agents not only censored, eradicated, and attempted to prevent the circulation of obscenity, but also contradictorily engaged in curation and even restoration initiatives that have bequeathed us an extensive queer pornographic archive. Javier Fernández-Galeano takes us inside the archive to demonstrate how the incongruities of the Primo de Rivera (1923–1930) and Franco (1939–1975) regimes were manifested in the regulation of erotic material cultures. The dictators' authorities destroyed "straight" pornographies while often curating and preserving "queer" erotica. While reproductions of the masterpieces of Tintoretto, Michelangelo and Botticelli were incinerated to avoid their "deviant" effects, judicial authorities could repeatedly attend the screening of an amateur film showing a gay threesome without acknowledging the irony: their concern was not that obscene material was consumed, but rather by whom.
Focusing on amateur pornographers and their confiscated and censored erotica, this book adds a rich complexity to both the history and theory of pornography, demonstrating that surveillance depends entirely on documenting intimacy and preserving transgression. This book sheds new light on the production, consumption, and circulation of pornography and erotica in Spain over the course of the twentieth century, drawing connections between intimate queer desires, preservation, and erasure.
"Extraordinarily documented and wonderfully written, Queer Obscenity brings to light the archives resulting from the judicial persecution of queer pornography. This is undoubtedly a work destined to become a classic in the historiography of sexualities." —Francisco Vázquez-García, University of Cadiz (Spain)
"Javier Fernández Galeano's Queer Obscenity: Erotic Archives in Dictatorial Spain is a triumphant intervention into studies of Francoist Spain, but also to the study of dictators, censorship, obscenity, and archives. This work moves the dial in significant ways and helps to articulate a vision for thinking about sex in repressive states, but also making sense of how those repressive states understood sex." —Jonathan A. Allan, Hispania
"Queer Obscenity illuminates the multiple layers and complexities of pornographic and erotic expression, production, consumption, and circulation, as well as the consequences of moral conservatism and censorship, especially for those outside the heteronormative. Academically and theoretically rigorous, yet beautifully written, it has all the ingredients to become an influential book in the history of sexualities." —Mónica García-Fernández, American Historical Review
"Queer Obscenity is a great addition to the scholarship on the intersection of sexuality, politics, and archival practices in Spain and beyond. It is an excellent contribution to a broad history of censorship that makes the experience of the encounter between censor and object come alive while laying bare the sheer absurdity of it all." —Joana Matias, Journal of the History of Sexuality
Introduction: Reflections in the Mirror: The Politics of Obscenity in Twentieth-Century Spain
1. Curators of Pornography: Scandal and Censorship in Primo de Rivera's Spain (1923–1930)
2. Dildos and Lubricant: Material Culture versus Nationalistic Rhetoric
3. "Plastic Objects of Obscene Configuration": From Ordinary to Extraordinary Legal Framings (1950–1975)
4. Burning the Normal, Preserving the Queer
5. Running Mascara: Trans Visual Archives in the 1970s
6. "Frosted Glass": The Sexual Politics of the Democratic Transition
Notes
Bibliography
Index