Sadism and masochism in fiction

The role of Sadism and masochism in fiction has attracted serious scholarly attention. John Kucich has noted the importance of masochism in late-nineteenth century British colonial fiction. This article provides a list of appearances of Sadism and masochism in not just literature, but various works of fiction in multiple forms of media.

Novels
Titles are sorted in chronological order.
 * Fanny Hill by John Cleland - Includes a detailed description of a mutual flagellation scene between Fanny and an English client.


 * The 120 Days of Sodom, Justine (1791) and Juliette (1797) by Marquis de Sade - Are written from an extreme sadistic viewpoint.


 * Anti-Justine (1793) by Nicolas-Edme Rétif A response to de Sade's works, using a very similar style to describe a directly opposite political point of view.


 * Venus in Furs (1870) by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch - Is essentially one long masochistic fantasy, where the male principal character encourages his mistress to mistreat him. Many of Sacher-Masoch's other works include themes of sadomasochism and female dominance.


 * The Torture Garden (1899) by Octave Mirbeau - Has been interpreted as an allegorical examination of western society and human condition.


 * Les Onze mille verges (The eleven thousand rods) by Guillaume Apollinaire - written around 1906-1907 (the publication is neither signed nor dated).


 * Histoire de l'oeil (Story of the Eye) (1928) by Georges Bataille - A short novel.


 * The Story of O (1954) by Pauline Réage - Another classic masochistic novel, this time written by a woman. In this novel, the female principal character is kept in a chateau and mistreated by a group of men, one of them her official lover. Later, she resumes her normal life while secretly becoming the property of one specific man, a friend of her lover's.


 * L'Image (1956) by Catherine Robbe-Grillet, (under the pseudonym Jean de Berg) another French woman. It was made into a 1975 film, The Image, also known as The Punishment of Anne.


 * Gordon (1966) by Edith Templeton


 * Je... Ils... (1969) by Arthur Adamov _ With stories like Fin Août. The author revolves around Masochism, which he regarded as "immunisation against death", but does not aim erotic arousal.


 * Horror novelist Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart (1986), offers an extreme, gruesome study of sadomasochism, illustrated rather graphically by the brutal rituals of its infamous demonic antagonists. See Cenobite (Hellraiser).


 * Die Klavierspielerin (Reinbeck, 1983) or The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek.


 * The Ties that Bind (Le Lien) (1993) by Vanessa Duriès


 * Matriarchy: Freedom in Bondage, 1997 by Malcolm McKesson (An Outsider artist) - It tells the story of a Harvard undergraduate dominated by his mistress and forced to dress in women's clothing.


 * Marketplace series of novels by Laura Antoniou


 * Macho Sluts by Pat Califia


 * Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey - Belongs in the fantasy fiction and BDSM fiction genres, along with its subsequent sequels.


 * Writer Anne Rice has produced a number of examples of sado-masochistic fiction, including Exit to Eden and Belinda as well as The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and its sequels, Beauty's Punishment and Beauty's Release. The Sleeping Beauty books were written under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure.

Specialist publishers of S/M fiction

 * Nexus Books
 * Black Lace
 * Silver Moon Books

Mainstream films
Consensual BDSM is not generally depicted accurately or sympathetically in mainstream films, to say the least; however, film-makers often find some way to incorporate BDSM imagery into many films. The following films feature BDSM as a major plot point, not just as an exploitative add-on.

Sado-masochism is featured as a central plot element in the following mainstream drama films:

Art movies:
 * The Whip and the Body (La Frusta e il Corpo) (1965) (starring Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi)
 * Belle de jour (1967) (starring Catherine Deneuve)
 * The Libertine, (La Matriarca) (1969)
 * Daughters of Darkness, (Le Rouge aux Lèvres) (1971) directed by Harry Kümel starring Delphine Seyrig
 * The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, (Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant) (1972) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
 * The Night Porter, (Il Portiere di notte) (1974) (starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling)
 * Story of O, (Histoire d'O) (1975)
 * The Image, (The Punishment of Anne) (1975)
 * Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom, (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) (1975) directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
 * Maîtresse, (1976) starring Gérard Depardieu and Bulle Ogier
 * A Woman in Flames, (Die Flambierte Frau) (1983)
 * Crimes of Passion, (1984)
 * Seduction: The Cruel Woman, (Verführung: Die grausame Frau) (1985)
 * Blue Velvet (1986) (starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern)
 * 9½ Weeks, (1986) (starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke)
 * Tokyo Decadence, (Topazu) (1991)
 * Bitter Moon (1992) (starring Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner, and Peter Coyote)
 * Spanking Love (1994)
 * Venus in Furs (1994)
 * Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) directed by Jan Švankmajer
 * The Bondage Master (1996) (Japanese indie film directed by Keisuke Konishi)
 * Of Freaks and Men, (Pro urodov i lyudej) (1998)
 * Lies, (Gojitmal) (1999)
 * Moonlight Whispers, (Sasayaki) (1999)
 * Romance, (Romance X) (1999)
 * Quills, (2000) (starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix)
 * The Piano Teacher, (La Pianiste) (2001) (starring Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel)
 * Secretary (2002) (starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal)
 * Bettie Page: Dark Angel (2004)
 * The Passion of Life (2005)
 * A Year Without Love (Un año sin amor) (2005) (directed by Anahi Berneri)
 * Hounded (Verfolgt) (2007) (directed by Angelina Maccarone)

Comedy:
 * The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), musical version (1986) (starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray)
 * The Choirboys (1977)
 * Personal Services (1987) (starring Julie Walters)
 * Exit to Eden (1994)
 * Preaching to the Perverted (1997) (starring Guinevere Turner)

Thrillers:
 * Videodrome (1983)
 * Tightrope (1984) (starring Clint Eastwood and Geneviève Bujold)
 * Basic Instinct (1992) (starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone)
 * Body of Evidence (1993) (starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe)
 * 8 mm (1999) (starring Nicholas Cage and Joaquin Phoenix)
 * The Cell (2000) (directed by Tarsem Singh)
 * Ichi the Killer (2001) (directed by Takashi Miike)

Television

 * The FOX series The Inside episode "Old Wounds" dealt exclusively with S&M, and was criticized by the Parents Television Council as a result.
 * The television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has featured sado-masochistic themes in the plots of a number of episodes, most notably in the special episode "Lady Heather's Box".
 * Season 4 of HBO series Six Feet Under features a character (Joe) who wants to adopt a submissive sexual role in his relationship with Brenda.
 * A Family Guy gag depicts main characters Lois and Peter suiting up for a sadomasochistic session while having a mundane conversation about unrelated matters from the plot of that episode. Toys have been made of this scene.  In the audio commentary for that episode it is noted that such a practice seemed normal to them.
 * Season 2 of the FOX medical drama House, a patient is deeply involved in a BDSM relationship.
 * Rex Van de Kamp of Desperate Housewives was unveiled as a lover of S&M, much to the disgust of his wife, Bree.

Drama

 * Thomas Shadwell's play The Virtuoso (1676) includes an old libertine named Snarl who entreats a prostitute, Mrs Figgup, to bring out the birch rods. It is unclear if he is to flog her or be flogged.


 * In Thomas Otway's play Venice Preserved (1682), Act III, Scene i, an old senator, Antonio, visits the house of Aquilina, a Greek courtesan. Antonio pretends to be a bull, then a frog, begging her to spit on him, and then a dog, biting her legs. She whips him, then throws him out and tells her footmen to keep him out.


 * Jean Genet's play The Maids (1947) concerns two maids who play out dominant and submissive roles.


 * Genet's play The Balcony (1959) is set in a brothel where clients and staff perform various fetishized roles while a revolution brews outside.


 * The play Oh! Calcutta! includes at least two segments with sadomasochistic themes. One of them, set in a fantasy of an English girls public school, invites the audience to vote on which of four "girls" is beaten at the end.

Poetry

 * Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote poetry on erotic flagellation.