ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on sexual narratives written in the Anglosphere in order to allow for a transnational approach while providing delimitation to a vast topic. A further delineation of erotica comes through its comparison with popular romance fiction, that behemoth of the publishing world with multibillion-dollar sales, mostly written in the Anglosphere but translated worldwide and with a devoted, mainly female, readership. Erotica is a form of media representation that involves literature or visual art focused on sexuality. In romance erotica, the point about consent can be summarised as the problem of the 'bodice ripper'. Erotica creates a safe imaginative space to work through the complicated problems of consent, will, agency and desire and to try to come to grips with them. The challenge, then, for erotica with regard to these problems of consent and climax is that it must wrestle with its own fantasy world.