Searching for early American erotica
» Erotica
A cultural history of erotica:
But before I turn to my particular tale, a few remarks about nomenclature. In this article, the terms "erotica" and "pornography" denote artifacts that contain the explicit representation of sexual organs and activities, and that were intended to incite desire or transgress period standards of decorum. I use these terms interchangeably, although some scholars differentiate them on the basis that erotica has redeeming aesthetic merit, whereas pornography is purely for titillation. Such semantic distinctions seem inherently flawed since both beauty and desirability are in the eyes of the beholder; that is, they involve subjective value judgments. Erotic standards are also historically contingent: what would have raised eyebrows in the eighteenth century often seems laughably tame, even quaint to the modern viewer.
Karen A. Sherry, Searching for early American erotica