Books by Jeffrey Escoffier
As Laura Kipnis proclaimed, “Pornography is the royal road to the cultural psyche (as for Freud, ... more As Laura Kipnis proclaimed, “Pornography is the royal road to the cultural psyche (as for Freud, dreams were the route to the unconscious).” This book explores that claim. Hardcore pornographic films have combined fantasy and real sex to create a unique genre of entertainment. Pornographic films are also historical documents that give us access to the sexual behavior and eroticism of different historical periods. This book shows how the making of pornographic films is a social process that draws on the fantasies, sexual scripts and sexual identities of performers, writers, directors, and editors to produce sexually exciting videos and movies. Yet hardcore pornographic films have also created a body of knowledge that constitutes, in this digital age, an enormous archive of sexual fantasies that serve as both as a form of sex education and self-help guides. Sex, Society and the Making of Pornography focuses on sex and what can be learned about it from pornographic representations.
“Explores sexual revolution as a prolonged process rather than a single event, and the central an... more “Explores sexual revolution as a prolonged process rather than a single event, and the central and formative role of LGBT struggles within that. [Escoffier is] firmly committed to the significance of LGBT agency and grass-roots knowledge in creating the conditions for radical change. This is a landmark book that deserves to be read and re-read.”
– Jeffrey Weeks, author of What is Sexual History?
“Compelling and necessary!”
– Cirus Rinaldi, University of Palermo
“Deeply informed, conceptually potent, and essential analyses of LGBTQ histories, economics, and social life. A great deal of how I think about these things has come from his work.”
– Gayle Rubin, author Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader
Creativity and Economics in 1970s New York by Jeffrey Escoffier
Gotham Center for New York City History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2018
The traditional narrative of 20th century New York urban living has often concerned itself with t... more The traditional narrative of 20th century New York urban living has often concerned itself with the antipodal philosophies of urban planner Robert Moses and critic Jane Jacobs. This binary conception of American urban life contrasted Moses’ radical projects to remake New York City to suit the automobile with Jacobs’ admonishments that quality of life required small, organic neighborhoods of diverse inhabitants and independent businesses. These philosophies, however, were no longer applicable in 1970s New York. In a new city characterized by crisis, ruins, and abandonment, a fundamentally new way of conceiving of the urban realm was required. The artist, activist, and ‘un-builder’ Gordon Matta-Clark was one of the first to explore and embody an alternative—and he remains a representative figure of the unique culturo-political ferment of 1970s New York. This paper argues that Matta-Clark’s art, actions, and writings express his vision of the de-industrializing metropolis as a city of possibility and that his approach to the urban realm rejected a clean image of historical continuity in favor of the radical discontinuity of times of disaster. We claim that he accepted the city as it was, presently, for him—dirty, contested, and struggling—and devised strategies for reclaiming dignity amidst a ruinous landscape. A key cultural instigator and advocate for a particular type of urban commons, Matta-Clark was more than an artist and activist; he was, in his unique manner, both an urban planner and urban philosopher—his work embodying Henri Lefebvre’s notion of the ideal city as the “perpetual oeuvre of the inhabitants.”
[This article published by the CUNY Grad Center is the general readership version of an upcoming academic article.]
Gotham Center for New York City History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2018
In this review of the Whitney Museum's David Wojnarowicz retrospective for the CUNY Graduate Cent... more In this review of the Whitney Museum's David Wojnarowicz retrospective for the CUNY Graduate Center's Gotham Center for New York City History, we explore Wojnarowicz as a representative figure of the experimentalism in art-practices and urban living that occurred in the 1970s/1980s New York City.
Gotham Center for New York City History, CUNY Graduate Center, 2018
This article first examines the complex relationship that underground culture has with brick-and-... more This article first examines the complex relationship that underground culture has with brick-and-mortar institutions ("depends on specific spaces yet transcends the particulars of place"), then employs Sharon Zukin's analysis of kairological images to explore how individual myth-making and commercial interests make use of such institutions after they are no longer hosts to underground or avant-garde culture.
Sexuality by Jeffrey Escoffier
by Cirus Rinaldi, Vulca Fidolini, Alain Giami, Jeffrey Escoffier, Aurelio Castro, Kevin Walby, Florian Vörös, Mathieu Trachman, Cosimo Marco Scarcelli, Lucas Monteil, and James Farrer
cross-cultural comparisons, anthropology and demography,
Syllabus In the early days of the AIDS epidemic " promiscuity " and public sex were frequently ci... more Syllabus In the early days of the AIDS epidemic " promiscuity " and public sex were frequently cited as the primary causes of the epidemic – and while gay men's sexual behavior certainly played a part, there were many other factors at play—sexual freedom, personal development, collective intimacy, community building, and cultural expression. This seminar will explore the gay male sexual subculture that existed in NYC before the epidemic and will examine the impact of HIV/AIDS on gay male sexuality – by contrasting the 1970s with the gay male subculture of today. In this seminar we will examine the films, art, and literature that played such an important role in the development of this sexual subculture.
Contemporary Sociology-a Journal of Reviews, 2006
From the Berkeley Journal of Sociology: A Critical Review, Volume 43/1998-99
This piece was originally published as the Foreword to John Gagnon's "The Interpretation of Desir... more This piece was originally published as the Foreword to John Gagnon's "The Interpretation of Desire: Essays in the Study of Sexuality" (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
Dance Studies and Music by Jeffrey Escoffier
cross-cultural comparison of ballet's occupation culture
dancing as thinking, why intellectuals should care about dance, originally prepared as a talk to ... more dancing as thinking, why intellectuals should care about dance, originally prepared as a talk to the Florida Atlantic University, Program in the Comparative Studies for Public Intellectuals, October 1999
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Books by Jeffrey Escoffier
– Jeffrey Weeks, author of What is Sexual History?
“Compelling and necessary!”
– Cirus Rinaldi, University of Palermo
“Deeply informed, conceptually potent, and essential analyses of LGBTQ histories, economics, and social life. A great deal of how I think about these things has come from his work.”
– Gayle Rubin, author Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader
Creativity and Economics in 1970s New York by Jeffrey Escoffier
[This article published by the CUNY Grad Center is the general readership version of an upcoming academic article.]
Sexuality by Jeffrey Escoffier
Dance Studies and Music by Jeffrey Escoffier
– Jeffrey Weeks, author of What is Sexual History?
“Compelling and necessary!”
– Cirus Rinaldi, University of Palermo
“Deeply informed, conceptually potent, and essential analyses of LGBTQ histories, economics, and social life. A great deal of how I think about these things has come from his work.”
– Gayle Rubin, author Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader
[This article published by the CUNY Grad Center is the general readership version of an upcoming academic article.]