To reach our office for the meeting on 15th April 2011, our guest didn’t have to travel far. On that day, the lecture was delivered by Thomas Swoboda PhD from the University of Gdansk, the author of “Historie oka” (“The Stories of the eye”), a book awarded with the Andrzeja Siemka Prize.
The work, sometimes shocking with naturalistic images of carnality, was reflected in the lecture prepared for our office. Our guest, however, did not confine his talk to the present times, but tried to give a wider picture of the history of erotic and pornographic literature. Tomasz Swododa’s presentation about the history of forbidden books was accompanied by illustrations which effectively highlighted the nature of eroticism in literature and art.
Especially for us, the author of “Historia oka” also discussed legal issues related to pornography and encouraged the participants to discuss those issues and reflect on them. Finally, a question about today’s eroticism was posed – ex definitione dependent on prohibitions, and thus, perhaps theoretically, limited to the shocking phenomenon of pedophilia.
