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How can photography function as a technology of discipline, as well as a form of expressive resistance to histories of discipline, control, and invisibility? How does Zaneli Muholi use photographic portraiture in relation to or against the identifying photograph in Apartheid-era South African passbooks? (How might you compare Muholi’s response to the colonial legacy of photography with that of Pushpamala’s?)
How does the history of institutionalized racism under Apartheid continue to influence the LGBTI/Q community in the new South Africa? (See for example the video below that documents unrest during the 2012 Gay Pride parade in Johannesburg.) How does this history matter in relation to Muholi’s art?
What does it mean to talk about masculinities rather than “masculinity” in the singular: male masculinities, butch lesbian masculinities, Apartheid masculinities (black and white), stabane masculinities, etc.? How does that shift our understanding of gender and sexuality and assumptions of congruence between them? How can images, such as Muholi’s Miss D’vine, challenge ideas of gender, sexuality, and race, as well as of modernity vs. tradition?
How did Zanele Muholi become a feminist artist? How would you characterize her or her art as feminist? Why does she call herself a visual activist? How might you compare her collaborative art with that of Pushpamala or Navjot?
T 04.28
Amanda Swarr, “Paradoxes of Butchness: Lesbian Masculinities and Sexual Violence in Contemporary South Africa,” Signs
Gabeba Baderoon, “‘Gender within Gender’: Zanele Muholi’s Images of Trans Being and Becoming,” Feminist Studies
Kellie Jones, “Tracey Rose: Post-Apartheid Playground,” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art
FILM: Zanele Muholi, Difficult Love screened in class on Th 4.23