'n Murgtere saak: 'n gendermatige lees van Boom van my lewe en Ad hominem
Abstract
This article presents a reading of two artist’s books by male artists who
participated in the practice-based research project Transgressions and boundaries of the page.
The selected artists specifically address the notion of masculine vulnerability and injury,
and in the process, they utilise a number of signifying strategies conventionally associated
with masculine as well as feminine gender divisions. Schutte’s Boom van my lewe [Tree of my
life] and Strydom and Burger’s Ad hominem were investigated. I argue that the use of media
with a conventional feminine character together with themes associated with both masculine
and feminine aspects assisted towards expressing the experience of masculine vulnerability
and injury in such a manner that an unusual masculine subject position was suggested. This
subject position offered a more nuanced view of masculinity that departs from masculinities
proposed in discourses of conventional (heteronormative) or even so-called ‘new’ or
alternative masculinities (transgender, homosexual and the like)
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]