ABSTRACT
The Henson photographs appear as the most recent catalyst for debate between the custodians of morality on the one hand, and the proponents of freedom of speech and expression on the other. The former found a champion in no less a figure than Prime Minister who, in breathlessly pronouncing the words, “revolting, absolutely revolting”, bequeathed to the debate a lascivious air embroidered with a salivatory glint. Annear's interpretation of the breach as “transition” is somewhat prone to an altogether too hasty elision; it somehow makes a more palatable or comforting reference of the radicality of this breach. The fundamental property of obscenity is its capacity to produce a disruption in the subject's recognition of themselves. Bataille makes it clear that what he refers to as the “dispossession of the self” is a phenomenon of language, of the function and field of speech and language.
