Our Posteriors, Our Posterity
The problem of embodiment in Suzan-Lori Parks'sVenusand Kara Walker'sCamptown Ladies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3649858 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arlene R Keizer (University of California, Irvine, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 200-212 |
| Publication date | 2011-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Dynamics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0253-3952 • E-ISSN: 1940-7874 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02533952.2011.603191 |
| OpenAlex | W1980398486 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
This article employs art-historical and cultural-studies analytic practices to argue that visual representation of the black female body, specifically the body of the ‘Hottentot Venus’, throws into question the conceptual nature of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Venus and Kara Walker’s Camptown Ladies. Furthermore, the article contends that the efforts of both playwright and artist to treat Sara Baartman/the ‘Hottentot Venus’ as an abstract concept – the endlessly revivable image of the black woman reduced to her sexual parts and parodied within popular culture – deterritorialises the historical Sara Baartman and imposes US concerns, rather than those of southern Africa, upon her narrative and its afterlife
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Astrobiology · Literature · Narrative · Physics · Political science · Politics · Spectacle · Venus · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Race, History, and American Society · South African History and Culture
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |