ONLINE - Dissertation Defense: Rosita Scerbo
This event is online. If you would like to attend please use the following Zoom link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/8678375107
Title of Dissertation: QueerARTivismo político y reivindicación social: nuevas aproximaciones interdisciplinarias y transculturales a la autobiografía visual femenina
Abstract
Autobiography, as a means of expression and vindication of the self, offers female authors and artists the opportunity to define their own identity. The autobiographical genre has very old origins and is essential in the process of identity construction of women belonging to ethnic minority groups. Autobiographical discourses allow women to be at the same time sculpture and sculptor, creator and creation. The objective of this work is to offer a new approach to the feminine universe of visual self-representation. Self-narration should be at the center of feminist attention, being one of the most effective methods that women can apply to talk about their experiences and conditions. This research attempts to bring together multiethnic voices and promotes an interdisciplinary resource that interests not only literature and culture, but also other fields of the humanities, such as history, sociology, gender and disability studies. One of the main intentions is to dismantle traditional forms of identity and destroy social borders, adopting difference and alterity as a unique component of each individual.
This dissertation analyzes female autobiographical texts in their different visual forms, with special emphasis on the countries of Argentina, Mexico and the United States. Through personal narratives, photographs, films, paintings, murals and digital productions, these female works examine themes such as homophobia, political identity, native sovereignty, motherhood, lesbian identity and different minority cultural identities. Some of the selected authors live on the fringes of white supremacy due to belonging to minority ethnic and social groups. Other voices live outside the dominant heteronormative system because they recognize themselves as lesbian or bisexual. Beyond these circumstances, all the authors are discriminated against for being women in a patriarchal context. The theoretical frameworks used include in themselves interdisciplinary autobiographical definitions theorized exclusively by women. For example, the concepts of HERstory (Ashby and Gore 1995), Autohistoria (Anzaldúa 1999), Pathography (Hawkins 1999), Feminography (Abrams 2017) and Autobiografilm (Paola Lagos Labbé 2011) could be mentioned. The different visual stories explore the contrasting nuances of women's racial and/or lesbian identity that are often perceived as outsiders within their own country. All the artists who are the subject of my analysis face different forms of repression and are motivated by a desire for social recognition. These marginalized groups invite readers to develop new forms of cross-cultural dialogues, practices and alliances.