Kent L. Brintnall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226074696
- eISBN:
- 9780226074719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226074719.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter considers the startling—and, the author argues, politically productive—juxtapositions in Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. The analysis here focuses on how these images train their ...
More
This chapter considers the startling—and, the author argues, politically productive—juxtapositions in Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. The analysis here focuses on how these images train their viewers not only to see the specific subject matter differently, but to see the practice of image-making—in art and life—differently. The beauty of Mapplethorpe's images reveals the desirability of the culturally unpalatable. Their composition highlights and magnifies the means by which selves are staged, stylized, constructed, performed, and perceived. An example presented in this chapter is Mapplethorpe's photograph Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, which could be characterized as a family portrait of a sadomasochistic couple. This characterization, however, disturbs the classificatory terms it invokes and raises questions like: Can “family,” “portrait,” and “sadomasochism” mean the same thing together as they do separately? Is it evidence that family and domesticity have always included sadomasochistic eroticism?Less
This chapter considers the startling—and, the author argues, politically productive—juxtapositions in Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs. The analysis here focuses on how these images train their viewers not only to see the specific subject matter differently, but to see the practice of image-making—in art and life—differently. The beauty of Mapplethorpe's images reveals the desirability of the culturally unpalatable. Their composition highlights and magnifies the means by which selves are staged, stylized, constructed, performed, and perceived. An example presented in this chapter is Mapplethorpe's photograph Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, which could be characterized as a family portrait of a sadomasochistic couple. This characterization, however, disturbs the classificatory terms it invokes and raises questions like: Can “family,” “portrait,” and “sadomasochism” mean the same thing together as they do separately? Is it evidence that family and domesticity have always included sadomasochistic eroticism?
Kent L. Brintnall
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226074696
- eISBN:
- 9780226074719
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226074719.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a ...
More
Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines—including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory—this book explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, it also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, the book analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege. Through readings of works by Georges Bataille, Kaja Silverman, and more, it delineates the redemptive power of representations of male suffering and violence.Less
Images of suffering male bodies permeate Western culture, from Francis Bacon's paintings and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs to the battered heroes of action movies. Drawing on perspectives from a range of disciplines—including religious studies, gender and queer studies, psychoanalysis, art history, and film theory—this book explores the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, it also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, the book analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege. Through readings of works by Georges Bataille, Kaja Silverman, and more, it delineates the redemptive power of representations of male suffering and violence.
