Black Body in Ecstasy

Jennifer C. Nash is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Women's Studies at George Washington University.

• Acknowledgments viiIntroduction. Reading Race, Reading Pornography 11. Archives of Pain: Reading the Black Feminist Theoretical Archive 272. Speaking Sex / Speaking Race: Lialeh and the Blax-porn-tation Aesthetic 593. Race-Pleasures: Sexworld and the Ecstatic Black Female Body 834. Laughing Matters: Race-Humor on the Pornographic Screen 1075. On Refusal: Racial Promises and the Silver Age Screen 128Conclusion. Reading Ecstasy 146Notes 153Bibliography 181Index 213

“The Black Body in Ecstasy is an excellent example of a ‘loving critique’ of a tense field...Nash’s intentional, clear structuring and synthesis, and her fascinating interventions provide a solid basis for future scholars in this field.” - Laura Abbasi-Lemmon (Journal of Gender Studies) "[E]ssential reading for anyone seeking to understand new work on feminism, critical race studies, pornography, and film history." - Svati P. Shah (Women's Review of Books) "...[Nash's] alternative readings do give readers insight into the tropes within pornography, and into how certain films upset racist and sexist industry practices, as well as upsetting the Black feminist theoretical archive’s theories of representation and resistance in favor of a Black feminist theory of sexual subjectivities of pleasure and ecstasy. Nash has earned her place among a new generation of Black feminist scholars"  - Sherri L. Barnes (Feminist Collections) "The Black Body in Ecstasy poses a fresh set of questions as it forwards a groundbreaking black feminist approach to contending with representations of black women’s ecstatic corporeality." - Jennifer DeClue (GLQ) "The Black Body in Ecstasy makes an important contribution, and is essential reading for anyone interested in how black women are depicted within hard-core visual pornography." - Fiona Proudfoot (Media International Australia) "[T]his work is a significant contribution to feminist porn studies and to the analysis of representations and images of black bodies and black female desire and sexuality. The Black Body in Ecstasy starts a new conversation within feminist porn studies, an original, provocative discussion of the multiple identities and ecstasies that can be located in instances of rupture in pornographic films." - Siobahn Stiles (Hypatia)