Rewriting Girlhood. Ambiguous Bodies in Contemporary American Visual Arts: Sally Mann’s At Twelve

Ileana Botescu-Sireteanu

doi:10.31178/ubr.11.1.8

Abstract

Drawing on cultural studies, gender theories, feminist theories, visual culture and semiotics, the present study investigates the subversive ways in which particular visual representations of teenage bodies introduce the generic transgression of cultural boundaries and limits in order to reflect the process of identity formation. Departing from various theories of corporeality and the semiotics of the body as a cultural entity, this study looks at contemporary American photographer Sally Mann’s collection of photographs, At Twelve, in order to discern the visual mechanisms through which the staged representation of adolescent girls introduces the generous subversion of generic normative categories such as gender, age or social status. Furthermore, the present analysis suggests that trespassing boundaries is a necessary stage in the construction of self-sustainable identities in the aftermath of-postmodernism. Thus, the article tackles gender construction as a cultural edifice in which visual representation plays a significant part. Sally Mann’s photography is eventually viewed as an instance of the contemporary interrogation of norms and boundaries of classical Western culture, as well as an innovative visual documenting of the transgressions, transitions and avoidance of limits that characterize adolescence.

Highlights

Drawing on cultural studies, gender theories, feminist theories, visual culture and semiotics, the present study investigates the subversive ways in which particular visual representations of teenage bodies introduce the generic transgression of cultural boundaries and limits in order to reflect the process of identity formation
A quick look at the history of Western culture reveals an intense preoccupation with the human body, from visual representation to philosophical discourse
Set in sharp contrast to entities like the soul and the spirit by most ancient cultures, as the material, mortal and inferior constituent of human identity, the body seems to have entered a new phase in the contemporary Western culture, with the transition from Homo Sapiens to Homo Deus

Summary

Introduction

Gender theories, feminist theories, visual culture and semiotics, the present study investigates the subversive ways in which particular visual representations of teenage bodies introduce the generic transgression of cultural boundaries and limits in order to reflect the process of identity formation. A quick look at the history of Western culture reveals an intense preoccupation with the human body, from visual representation to philosophical discourse. Mann’s depiction of female adolescence is viewed as a challenge of canonical representations of the female body and identity, in a daring effort to discard the consecrated visual fetishism for the Madonna, the Whore and the domestic woman that Western culture employed in order to contain the Woman category.

Results

Conclusion