It's becoming clear to me that a lot of my work is about a mask and perhaps a performance of the self. I've read some books that i've written about previously that also suggest this.
This research i've carried out looks at the masquerade and the mask within women rather differently.
The essay Womenliness and a Masquerade (1929) by Joan Riviere, found within Influential Papers from the 1920s by R.D. Hinshelwood, looks into the psychoanalysis side of the masquerade. Riviere was a psychoanalyst who helped translate Freud’s psychoanalysis theory into English and also created her own writings and subtheories to Freud’s. This essay has become incredibly well known and influential throughout the world of psychoanalysis.
The essay is incredibly academic in tone, making it rather hard to read and to understand the point she’s trying to make. This may be due to the area of interest having unfamiliar concepts within them that remain unexplained, for example she often talks about castration and the removal of the father’s penis, which she does not explain the underlying meaning for.
Despite this, with my own knowledge and identification of words and concepts it begins to make sense.
Riviere suggests throughout the essay with a series of examples that the masquerade is used by a woman to present a face of femininity in order to hide her masculinity. One of her examples is that in the presence of a man of knowledge of handiwork or other male-dominated hobbies or professions, she dumbs herself down in order to show her femininity, out of fear for what the repercussions of being masculine could mean for her (Riviere, 1927, pg. 132).
Throughout the essay Riviere also suggests that this fear comes from the oral-sucking and oral-biting stages of a girl’s life, which comes from Freudian theory. It’s said that at this early stage a girl ‘castrates’ her father. In Freudian theory this is done because she is envious of the penis as she does not have one, and so she takes her father's.
Within Rivere’s essay she claims that because of this taking, the female child enters a rivalry with the mother as she’s taken the sexual enjoyment of the penis from her. During the sucking and biting stages, she then tries to take everything the mother holds close to her such as the father’s penis, her babies and her faeces that she imagines to be within the body by biting off the mother’s nipples. She has to earn the castration of her father however, and this is where the first use of masquerade comes into a woman’s life according to Riviere (1927, pg. 135). She uses it to show her femininity and win him over while also showing her masculine side. This helps him forgive her for stripping the mother of all that was within her, as well as helps her castrate him and be forgiven for it, a performance of guiltlessness through fear of the father for all she has taken from him and the mother.
This side of masquerade is very different to what I’ve already been looking at, however it gives me a broader way of looking at masquerade and performance. While I want to look into specifically the way these two concepts are used within self-portraits, it’s also important to note that it could be present in art due to it being present in everyday life. Riviere’s theory helps me understand that perhaps this idea of the mask is within us from when we’re born rather than the impacts of society, which the other sources suggest.
Freudian theory is simply theory however, while concepts such as the gender imbalance in art is factual, and so while this source will help the concepts may help some sort of understanding, I think it’s important to discuss fact versus theory, and the facts cannot be ignored. With this acknowledged, it could be suggested that the concept of a mask of femininity being there in order to hide masculinity had an influence within the work of Claude Cahun who uses both feminine and masculine elements within her photography, perhaps out of fear.
Personally, I don't believe in this, however It is interesting to look at things from different angles and concepts. What we believe may not always be right and so acknowledging this will at least give me further knowledge that I can apply to future works if need be.
Riviere, J. (1929) Womanliness as a Masquerade in Hinshelwood, R.D (2004) Influential Papers from the 1920s London: Taylor & Francis Ltd. pp. 127-138. Available at : https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1uhgDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA127&dq=womanliness+as+masquerade+&ots=Yf44Z_b99p&sig=IKarjpiZemQRKlhmYXKnNTPuJWI#v=onepage&q=womanliness%20as%20masquerade&f=false Accessed 19/04/19
This research i've carried out looks at the masquerade and the mask within women rather differently.
The essay Womenliness and a Masquerade (1929) by Joan Riviere, found within Influential Papers from the 1920s by R.D. Hinshelwood, looks into the psychoanalysis side of the masquerade. Riviere was a psychoanalyst who helped translate Freud’s psychoanalysis theory into English and also created her own writings and subtheories to Freud’s. This essay has become incredibly well known and influential throughout the world of psychoanalysis.
The essay is incredibly academic in tone, making it rather hard to read and to understand the point she’s trying to make. This may be due to the area of interest having unfamiliar concepts within them that remain unexplained, for example she often talks about castration and the removal of the father’s penis, which she does not explain the underlying meaning for.
Despite this, with my own knowledge and identification of words and concepts it begins to make sense.
Riviere suggests throughout the essay with a series of examples that the masquerade is used by a woman to present a face of femininity in order to hide her masculinity. One of her examples is that in the presence of a man of knowledge of handiwork or other male-dominated hobbies or professions, she dumbs herself down in order to show her femininity, out of fear for what the repercussions of being masculine could mean for her (Riviere, 1927, pg. 132).
Throughout the essay Riviere also suggests that this fear comes from the oral-sucking and oral-biting stages of a girl’s life, which comes from Freudian theory. It’s said that at this early stage a girl ‘castrates’ her father. In Freudian theory this is done because she is envious of the penis as she does not have one, and so she takes her father's.
Within Rivere’s essay she claims that because of this taking, the female child enters a rivalry with the mother as she’s taken the sexual enjoyment of the penis from her. During the sucking and biting stages, she then tries to take everything the mother holds close to her such as the father’s penis, her babies and her faeces that she imagines to be within the body by biting off the mother’s nipples. She has to earn the castration of her father however, and this is where the first use of masquerade comes into a woman’s life according to Riviere (1927, pg. 135). She uses it to show her femininity and win him over while also showing her masculine side. This helps him forgive her for stripping the mother of all that was within her, as well as helps her castrate him and be forgiven for it, a performance of guiltlessness through fear of the father for all she has taken from him and the mother.
This side of masquerade is very different to what I’ve already been looking at, however it gives me a broader way of looking at masquerade and performance. While I want to look into specifically the way these two concepts are used within self-portraits, it’s also important to note that it could be present in art due to it being present in everyday life. Riviere’s theory helps me understand that perhaps this idea of the mask is within us from when we’re born rather than the impacts of society, which the other sources suggest.
Freudian theory is simply theory however, while concepts such as the gender imbalance in art is factual, and so while this source will help the concepts may help some sort of understanding, I think it’s important to discuss fact versus theory, and the facts cannot be ignored. With this acknowledged, it could be suggested that the concept of a mask of femininity being there in order to hide masculinity had an influence within the work of Claude Cahun who uses both feminine and masculine elements within her photography, perhaps out of fear.
Personally, I don't believe in this, however It is interesting to look at things from different angles and concepts. What we believe may not always be right and so acknowledging this will at least give me further knowledge that I can apply to future works if need be.
Riviere, J. (1929) Womanliness as a Masquerade in Hinshelwood, R.D (2004) Influential Papers from the 1920s London: Taylor & Francis Ltd. pp. 127-138. Available at : https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=1uhgDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA127&dq=womanliness+as+masquerade+&ots=Yf44Z_b99p&sig=IKarjpiZemQRKlhmYXKnNTPuJWI#v=onepage&q=womanliness%20as%20masquerade&f=false Accessed 19/04/19
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