Feminism 4 Examples of Postmodern Feminism Barbara Kruger

Feminism 4: Examples of Postmodern Feminism Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman and Margaret Atwood

Outline • Postmodern Feminist Artistic/Literary Strategies • Cindy Sherman • Barbara Kruger

Postmodern Feminist Strategies -- conscious use of dual language Ø Mimicry; Parody; e. g. Cindy Sherman; Madonna Ø Revising tradition and traditional genre: 姜嫄、 ”野獸派”、Atwood’s use of fairy tales and genres Ø Re-Visioning History: The Woman Warrior (novel), The Piano (film); Collage + Open accusation: Barbara Kruger Ø Fluid Styles mixed with linear narrative: Films by Lea Pool, poems by 夏宇

Postmodern feminist literary strategies: the use of duality (2) Themes & Meanings: 1. Construction of identity through relationships; blurring of gender boundaries; dual identity (腹語術，The Piano). 2. Alternative world: Fantasies, magic realism, utopia or distopia 3. Dual language subversiveness (of binaries and fixed meanings), irony and ambiguity. Ø

Mimicry + Parody e. g. (1) Ø Target: Jean-Aguste-Dominique Ingres' The Turkish Bath, 1862 Credit: The Artchive

Mimicry + Parody e. g. Ø Sylvia Sleigh, The Turkish Bath, 1973

Mimicry + Parody e. g. (2) Cindy Sherman 1) Untitled Film Stills (1977) -- using herself as a model in some black-and-white film stills; Ø 2) on the tradition of portraiture, she exploits the grotesquerie of wealthy and powerful patrons through the extensive use of prostheses, stage makeup, and costumes Ø 3) to using body fragments, dolls or some other inanimate objects. Ø Addresses issues of femininity, sexual identity, voyeurism, and artificiality and oppression in cultural representations. Ø

Cindy Sherman (1) Untitled Film Stills (1977) Lois Lane in the 1950's television program Superman Ø Cindy Sherman: (Staniszewski 281)

Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Stills (1977) Ø Marilyn Monroe Ø Cindy Sherman: Untitled film still (Staniszewski 282)

Cindy Sherman (2) work in the 80’s –critique of portraits Ø

Cindy Sherman (2) work in the 80’s— female victimization Cindy Sherman, Untitled No. 153, 1985. Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman (2) work in the 80’s— female grotesque Sherman, Untitled #155, 1985. -- “gaze disembodied so that it belongs to no one. ” (source: http: //www. tenverses. org/ten 2. ht ml The article Ten Years Later Reconsidering Cindy Sherman's "Sex Pictures" http: //www. tenverses. org/ten 1. html )

Cindy Sherman (2) work in the 80’s— the female grotesque Cindy Sherman, Untitled #250, 1992. -- Thus, the seductive has been used to produce the grotesque. (source: http: //www. tenverses. org/ten 7. html

Barbara Kruger Ø Traditional images superimposed with some strong words. Ø An opposition between the pronouns "you" and "we, " which satirically refer to l l l "men" and "women, “ “the dominant” and “the dominated, ” or “the commercial culture” and “the consumers”