A NORTH-EAST academic will give a free talk about the impact of the best-selling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy on readers next week.
The trilogy has sold more than 70 million copies since 2012.
Clarissa Smith, professor of sexual cultures at Sunderland University, who is delivering her talk in the David Puttnam Media Centre, in the Sir Tom Cowie Compus on Monday, October 7, argues that despite public and media perceptions of the trilogy's readership, the actual readers of the books had complex contradictory responses to the novels.
"For these readers the acts of reading and discussing the novels offer a range of pleasures and displeasures," she added.
Prof Smith said the success of the trilogy "offers a fascinating insight into the complex and contradictory pleasures of popular novels."
Her talk, "A Nice Girl's Nasty Book", starts at 5.30pm.
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