Differencing the Canon: Feminism and the Writing of Art's Histories

by Griselda Pollock

Overview

In this major book, Griselda Pollock engages boldly in the culture wars over `what is the canon?` and `what difference can feminism make?` Do we simply reject the all-male line-up and satisfy our need for ideal egos with an all women litany of artistic heroines? Or is the question a chance to resist the phallocentric binary and allow the ambiguities and complexities of desire - subjectivity and sexuality - to shape the readings of art that constantly displace the present gender demarcations?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415067003
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/04/1999
Series:	Revisions: Critical Studies in the History Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Griselda Pollock

Table of Contents

Preface PART I Firing the canon 1 About canons and culture wars 2 Differencing: feminism's encounter with the canon PART II Reading against the grain: reading for ... 3 The ambivalence of the maternal body: re/drawing Van Gogh 4 Fathers of modern art: mothers of invention: cocking a leg at Toulouse-Lautrec PART III Heroines: setting women in the canon 5 The female hero and the making of a feminist canon: Artemisia 6 Feminist mythologies and missing mothers: Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte, Artemisia Gentileschi and Cleopatra 7 Revenge: Lubaina Himid and the making of new narratives for new histories PART IV Who is the other? 8 Some letters on feminism, politics and modern art: when Edgar Degas shared a space with Mary Cassatt at the Suffrage Benefit Exhibition, New York 1915 9 A tale of three women: seeing in the dark, seeing double, at least, with Manet

Editorial Reviews

'The flow of the book is wondrous, as Pollock buils each new idea onto the next, rounded out with rigorous research.' - Elizabeth Millard, ForeWardo

'If you like psychoanalytic feminism accompanied by committed, sensitive writing, then you will enjoy this read.' - Professor Gen Doy, The Art Book

From the Publisher

The flow of the book is wondrous, as Pollock builds each new idea onto the next, rounded out with rigorous research. The writing suffers slightly from an overabundance of academic jargon, especially when the description of individual artworks involves a scholarly definition of 'desire' and 'the other.' Despite this, Pollock reaches and even surpasses her goal, articulated in her introduction, to open new discussions about art and feminism.
— ForeWord Magazine

Elizabeth Millard

Enters into a major debate at the center of feminist art history, and asks whether the traditional canon of the Old Masters should be rejected, replaced, or reformed. Discussion moves between feminist re- readings of the canonical modern masters, including Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Manet, and the "canonical" artists of feminist art history, Artemisia Gentileschi and Mary Cassatt, drawing on psychoanalysis and deconstruction to examine the project of reading for "inscriptions in the feminine." Acknowledges differences between women shaped by racist and colonial hierarchies, and explores questions of sexuality and cultural difference in modernist representations of black women. Includes b&w illustrations and photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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