Claude Cahun was an artist and a leader who subverted social binaries by employing a non-determinable style. This intentional ambiguity is omnipresent in all of Cahun’s works, regardless of their style. To demonstrate this commonality, I will analyze her work of theatre, Heroines, five of Cahun’s self-portraits and her autobiography, Aveux Non Avenus. Although Cahun’s artistic mediums are very different respectively, all three of these works use a sense of artistic ambiguity to resist social binaries. Such techniques of indeterminacy include subversive rewritings of famous characters and self-portraits that use motifs such as masks and masquerade to subvert the gaze of the spectator. Additionally, her photomontages include a fleeing gaze, an obstructed gaze, and a gaze that confronts itself. In this thesis, I affirm that Cahun's methods are aligned with queer theory because the way that Cahun uses a queer identity in her works creates a form of political and social resistance against heteronormativity and homophobia. Therefore, I will show all of the ways that Cahun has used visibility as a Jewish gender neutral lesbian for social resistance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CLAREMONT/oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:scripps_theses-2429 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Creators | stark, frankie |
| Publisher | Scholarship @ Claremont |
| Source Sets | Claremont Colleges |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Scripps Senior Theses |
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