Sunteți pe pagina 1din 5

Gender and the Art of Masquerade

Author(s): Luke Dodd


Source: Circa, No. 35 (Jul. - Aug., 1987), pp. 26-29
Published by: Circa Art Magazine
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25557219
Accessed: 03-08-2019 06:04 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Circa Art Magazine is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Circa

This content downloaded from 14.139.211.2 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:04:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
#<; lllllllm

^t? "^'^^S^^^HnHHHHI ^im^m^m^mMm^mwn^u^^^ti^w1^^

i ^ lilt life/' ' ffllffifflB^^^^^y^^^^^^ ^ Jilt t - V^lllllB^^^^^^^^

Iliil^BiilBBIIIlllI JST JlHBtflPV : JlI^^H ^^^^kmmmmm^^^^^Bmm


^Ir^^^^^^^^^BBBMMIMM 'li^Slraillf";"'"' ;": '" vi^^r^^^^^^f ^^^m/m^m^m^m^m^m^^^^^^^^^^^
^Wjjj^^^^^BMHHfflW - ^ ^ *. - :"::

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Hk Jm dfliH^k't wSm^m^m^m^m^m^m^m^mM

VaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVaVAVaVaVa - mm^mmmmWi; F^wmmmmmmmmmmwmmmmMm


mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmt. v .SSmmmmmWm ^?VbVbVbVbVbVbVbVbTbWbVbYbVbYk

This content downloaded from 14.139.211.2 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:04:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
27

GENDER
AND THE ART OF

MASQUERADE Luke Dodd

To fill a gap
Insert the thing that caused it -
Block it up
With other - and 'twill yawn the more -
You cannot solder an Abyss
With air

There is a pain - so utter -


It swallows substance up
Then covers the Abyss with Trance -
So Memory can step
Around - across - upon it -
Poem by Emily Dickinson, in Emily Dickinson by Helen McNeil, Virago Press, 1986.

Cindy Sherman, 'Untitled No.90\ 1981. Photograph.

HI E
eS^^KK^Htt^iBSnBi is? n* '^BfBBBm

'^^ ^^ H re
flHS^^HHHH^BB^ *^tfet JmBt BB

HHhSBHHBmhIk -?? 1

^^^^^^^^B -

^^^^^^^^^^^^PH^MM^MMBHHB^^^^^^^^^^^ "?
B^BKBf JsBsm wOk. "^ 9

flHj^HBfl^^BB^H|^^n|B|^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B v
^^^^^^^^^^BBHBS^^^SBSB^^^^^^^^^^^^m ?

This content downloaded from 14.139.211.2 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:04:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
28
The range of subject matter in the 30 odd In Nights at the Circus (Penguin Books,another, or only half saying som
paintings by Vermeer is small. Several1986) Angela Carter recounts the tale of Silence has always been a ploy
represent women engaged in a limited Mignon, who, all her life has known women.
range of domestic activities. By far the nothing but abuse at the hands of men. Emily Dickinson knew about gender dif
most favoured activity represented by the Because of this she has lapsed into a world ference, but she also knew a great deal
artist is the act of letter reading/writing.
without meaning, a world in which events more. The graphic nature of the first two
and incidents "shone through her as
Nearly all of his sitters (including the por lines of the poem printed above says much
though she were glass." She speaks and
traits) seem lost in a private world of their about sexual politics. She is aware of the
own making, sensed by the viewer, but sings fragments of many languages, but stereotype of woman as 'she' who is not
always unknown to him. As viewers we understands none of them. She is con 'he', as that which is lacking. In more
occupy an external world where the stantly spoken for. Herr M, a fakegeneral terms, Dickinson understood that
private drama of the canvas refuses to medium, abducts her and makes her per a sense of loss is a condition of living ex
signify fully. We must interpret. Unfor sonate newly deceased daughters or perienced by both genders. She pours
tunately however, interpretation has young brides. He sells photographs of her scorn on our vain attempts to suture the
always been a dangerous activity. as the spirit of the departed to those griev
'Abyss'. Many things offer a momentary
Vermeer's female sitters all occupy the coring relatives eager to suspend their greatbut fictitious resolution (narrative, inter
ner of a room. A window, usually to the loss. Mignon seems to mimic death on two course) but all that remains once consum
left, illuminates the picture. The window,counts. Not only is she the fake spectre, mation has taken place is the corpse of
like the letter, acts as a screen through but she also appears to operate outside nostalgia. In the second verse the poem
which the interpretative act is staged. The language. She has reneged on her passage assumes a profound dimension. Having
letter writer, like the viewer through theinto the symbolic (the field of language),accepted this incomplete state the poet ex
window, has a limited control. Once
an act, however, which can only be
plains how, through memory and ex
dispatched the letter becomes a cipher for achieved with death. Now she works for perience, each individual weaves a delicate
any reader and renders the writer as im the circus cleaning the ape-house by day,tissue, a personal narrative, which also
potent as the viewer physically removed and is abused by the ape-handler at night.
shares in the more general schemas which
from the site of the action. It is no co As Fevvers (the novel's half-woman, halfcircumscribe any society. The second verse
bird heroine) comments, "The cruel sex
incidence that in the series of 'letter' paint is doubly poignant when viewed in terms
ings Vermeer uses women and not men. threw her away like a soiled glove." of feminist politics. Dickinson understood
Women too have been the subject of that silence is also a political position from
misinterpretation. They have been ascrib which to operate. Her 'Trance' is her mas
ed a meaning largely the result of an in querade. She knew that time and again
terpretation from outside. All too often Roland Barthes essay The woman is made to speak from a place
Psychoanalysis was the first discourse Death
to of the Author in Image, Music, where she is not. Her dilemma, to ar
scientifically investigate the construction Text,
of Fontana, 1977 is misrepresented.ticulate her own desires and yet employ
subjectivity. Consequently, it also offeredWhen Barthes says that any text should a language itself inappropriate, necessari
a means of explaining the disparity bet be viewed as a series of signifiers whose ly makes her a charlatan. But she does not
ween society's treatment of the male and meaning(s) change with each new reader, tell lies. Woman cannot speak falsely when
the female subject. Classicalhe means that the author becomes unim she can only speak at that point where
psychoanalytic theory tells us that, due to portant insofar as his/her biography or language begins to fall apart. Emily Dickin
the phallocentric nature of our society, original intentions for the text need to be son uses language in this manner, unpick
woman's desire takes form through anknown. However, Barthes, more than any ing the sutures which present reality as a
identification with the representation of other of the structuralist writers, was aware
seamless uncontradictory unit. Hers is
man's desires and fantasies. The totalizing of gender difference. An over simplistic writing at its most political.
nature of this argument has given much reading of Barthes' text would again allow
cause for concern and led to a rethinking the complete elision of the issue of gender.
of the female position. To equate woman To sift through a text in the manner ad
with absence is to allow her to be mapped, vocated by Barthes would immediately In Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter
to be colonized yet again. Over the past disclose the gender of the author. Women explores the possibility of the female sub
decade certain feminists have made an ef writers do use language differently,ject producing and controlling her own
fort to rethink the position of woman although it may only be in evidence asrepresentations.
a Mignon, as we have seen,
designated by psychoanalysis, a position faint echo, the choice of one word over appears as no more than a body onto
which can ultimately be seen as reinforc which meaning has been inscribed. She is
ing the original stereotypes. This rethink Emily Dickinson. a cipher for those around her, a reflection.
ing took many forms, but certain common Mignon is the Other controlled. It is only
issues emerged. A privileged relationship when, at the hands of the novel's half
with the body was stressed such that the woman, half-bird 'heroine', a relationship
notion of woman as lack could be turned is engineered between Mignon and The
about on itself. Both the male and the Princess that this poor abused girl finds
female subject are (necessarily) an effect some peace. The Princess, you see, also
of repression. Because of its phallocentric says little. Her piano has become her
organization, the social order privileges voice, and she plays constantly for the
male sexuality and validated the male tigers whom she trains. Mignon has merely
body. However, this same social order been biding her time, endlessly playing out
works to mask, to censor femininity. To the roles assigned to her, until such time
censor is to offer false, or even worse, no as her circumstances changed. The
representations. As a result, the female Princess and Mignon share a sense of exile
subject enacts an elaborate masquerade (from language) but find peace together in
which simultaneously allows her to operate song. Under the tutelage of Fevvers they
within the symbolic order ? through her devise an act. Mignon sings and the
(sham) identification with the roles assign Princess plays. "They cherish in loving
ed to her through male fantasy ? and also privacy the music that was their language,
to elide its structuring to some extent. In in which they found the way to one
short, by identifying woman with lack the another."
entire issue of gender is by-passed clever
ly. Femininity thus assumes a radicalism,
''if'"/*.".' .
offering an affront to the established order, j
Anne Devlin (1984, dir. Pat Murphy) is
"' \ , <
a film about an Irish 19th century revolu

W^>'<r;^:<;'h -''" * *'*


^S^%!^; " * : * . vJ X:, ?'->;<
A
This content downloaded from 14.139.211.2 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:04:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
29

*-. ^K* x i l ^^^cfc^^ M^BK^^^BBBsF^^^^^k" <* &?9$g" '%s ^ ^ps x

Still from the film 'Anne Devlin', directed by Pat Murphy.

tionary, much maligned by history. The prior to his own execution. "It wasn't for
tal although the film has great sentiment.
film charts her involvement with the abor
you I did it" comes her simple reply. For At emotionally charged points in the film
the last third of the film Anne Devlin does
tive uprising led by Robert Emmet and her (attempted hanging of Anne, death of
subsequent imprisonment. Many problems not speak at all. Having sustained much Anne's brother in prison) Murphy uses
physical and psychological abuse she went
arise with the making of historical films. specific devices to suspend a sentimental
These problems are further compounded underground. The last scene of the film interpretation which would have had the
when the film, as in the case of Anne effect of reinforcing the original
shows the prisoner huddled in her cell, and
in voiceover we hear of her release in 1805
Devlin, is consciously political in nature. misreadings of this woman. At the hang
Anne Devlin is a feminist film. It is both
and her subsequent encounters with othersing the camera remains stationery, recor
a biographical account and at the sameinvolved in the revolution. Even though ding the action but refusing to go for the
time, a feminist allegory with much customary close-ups. When Anne's
they pretended not to recognise her she
relevance today. The film is, of course, never
an troubled any of them with her brother dies in prison with her, Murphy
interpretation of the life of someone whodistress although she had held the lives stages
of them both as a pieta creating an im
more than fifty of them in her hands. age which amplifies the particular grief of
lived at the beginning of the last century.
Anne Devlin is no stranger to interpretThe film unfolds slowly, in Anne Anne Devlin, immeasurably.
ation, or rather misinterpretation. How Devlin's own time. We do not witness the Anne Devlin is at the forefront of
then has Pat Murphy managed to make revolution itself as she was not present. modern feminist art-practise. It is little
a film which rights the disservice done The to way in which the film is constructed wonder that when the film was shown at
Anne Devlin by previous commentators, the Moscow Film Festival one writer hail
is itself a direct attack on traditional nar
and at the same time make a film with rative structures. Like a play, the filmed is it as a modern day Antigone.
relevance to contemporary feminist issues made up of three distinct parts or acts.
Many incidental events are inserted which
without it being overtly didactic or political
ly naive? It would have been very easyhave to many resonances outside of the ac
paint Anne Devlin as a great sentimental tual historical time of the film. Anne Devlin
forgotten heroine. Instead the film shows has many secrets. Although the film has
her as actively involved in the revolution a 'happy' ending, (Anne Devlin is releas
from the point at which Emmet goes ed) we are not left with a sense of relief.
underground. Once imprisoned Anne Instead, we sense the claustrophobia and Luke Dodd has done a research place
Devlin witnesses her fellow conspirators oppression
in of the prison and the plight ment
of in the Whitney Museum, New
York and is curator of Strokestown Park
one woman in the face of the institutions
forming on each other. She never informs,
although Emmet himself pleads with her of power. Anne Devlin is never sentimenHouse, Co. Roscommon.

This content downloaded from 14.139.211.2 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 06:04:52 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

S-ar putea să vă placă și