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Ines Glanznig, University of Vienna, AustriaAbstract
Erotic fiction has the power to mark its reader permanently, yet the journey of how such texts are received, adapted, and embodied across time remains underexplored. This talk traces the evolution of Pauline Réage’s Story of O (1954) through its various adaptations—from Just Jaeckin’s 1975 film “Story of O” to kink.com’s “The Training of O” and Richard Schechner’s immersive stage production “Imagining O” (2012). Using a historicist and feminist framework, I ask how the relationship between viewer, reader, and participant has shifted from passive observation to shared embodiment. While early feminist critics like Andrea Dworkin condemned Story of O for linking femininity with submission, later adaptations complicate this reading. Jaeckin’s film softens O’s cruelty, “The Training of O” grants the protagonist agency and choice, and Schechner’s interactive theatre collapses the boundary between spectator and performer. Drawing on Laura Marks’ concept of embodied vision and Ingrid Ryberg’s ethics of shared embodiment, I argue that contemporary adaptations move beyond the “male gaze” toward a more tender, selfless form of engagement. In doing so, they transform erotica from a tool of patriarchal control into a space for mutual vulnerability, challenging us to rethink pornography, obscenity, and the embodied power of adaptation.
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