GILMAN Black Bodies White Bodies Representation ideological relying
GILMAN “Black Bodies, White Bodies”
Representation ideological, relying on stereotypes (conventions based on class, race, gender, ways of seeing that are invisible, unexamined and naturalized) Observers and producers of images—both shaped by history Icons: representing a whole class/category; all visual representation uses icons
Science and Art Aesthetic and scientific spheres—synchronic existence; overlapping and intertwined conventions of representation Subjective vs objective “specimens” Anatomical studies of Cuvier; travellers; writers and artists (painters); popular engravers
Hottentot Venus Icon of the Hottentot Venus/icon of the prostitute Essence of the black woman; absolute difference/sexualized woman; reduced to her sexual parts Evidence of racial difference (inferiority): as different from the European as the orangutan; sign of the primitive Havelock Ellis (1905): scale of beauty Inherent biological difference
Historicising the black figure Presence of black figure—meant to sexualize; mark the presence of illicit sexual activity (18 th c) 19 th c: similarity b/w white and black female figures (black figures domesticated to represent female sexuality in general) Icon of deviant sexuality Disappearance of the black female in modernity
Black figures/prostitutes/primitives Pathological vs normal in scientific discourse Source of pollution (cf. sewers of Paris) Illness of society/the diseased prostitute Children of alcoholics Concern with the prostitute’s physical features (plump/fat; lazy); signs at the lower end of the scale of beauty
- Slides: 6