Looking at Almodovar's Queer Genders and Their
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BORDER EPISTEMOLOGIES: LOOKING AT ALMODOVAR’S QUEER GENDERS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR VISUAL CULTURE EDUCATION By BELIDSON D. BEZERRA JR B.A., Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil, 1989 M.A., Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K., 1992 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Curriculum Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 2006 ©Belidson D. Bezerra Jr, 2006 Abstract The everyday practices of contemporary art education from grades K- 12 are marked by the neglect of the cultural experience of film and the disregard for issues of gender as well as the concealment of issues of sexuality. So it is in the confluence of visual culture, queer theory, art education and film studies that I posit my inquiry. I explore theoretical frameworks for understanding how we look at queer representations of gender and sexuality in visual culture, particularly focusing on Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography and its impact for the teaching and learning of visual culture in higher education and in secondary schools. The organizing questions are: How do Pedro Almodóvar’s film representations of queer sexuality and gender inform contemporary art education theory and practice? In what ways is the utilization of border epistemologies relevant for understanding representations of genders and sexualities in Almodóvar’s films? How does it inform art education practices? Also, this study fills a gap in the emerging critical literature in art education because, as a study focusing on queer visual representation and border epistemologies, it will consider intersections among these specific sites of knowledge, and such studies are rare in the field. I adopt alr/tography and queer theory as my major frameworks because they allow for a transdisciplinary flow of spaces and places in which to engage in dialogue with numerous areas, disciplines and fields of study. The thesis suggests that queer discourses can assist visual culture education to embrace the study of visual representation of social issues - specifically gender and sexuality - as an instrument of critical pedagogy. Further, these discourses confuse and provoke entrenched notions about art, representation, and common sense by continually changing concepts of gender and sexuality, thus encouraging 11 pedagogies of confrontation as opposed to assimilation and uncritical reproduction. These discourses suggest how one might define and establish visual culture education practices, while encouraging interactions between viewer and objects of vision. A discussion of these discourses provides tools for visual culture educators to study cultural domination while empowering and enabling students to become critical producers of meanings and texts as they resist manipulation and domination. 111 Table of Contents Abstract ii Dedication vii Acknowledgements viii Devouring: Explaining terms to art educators xi Film studies glossary xi Queer studies glossary xvi Chapter 1.Rummage: Introductory notes on bricolage, alr/tography and everyday 1 practices bricolage 1 A/r/tography 3 Intertextuality 4 Everyday practices 5 Chapter 2. Opening: First taste 8 Organization 9 Chapter 3. Interminglings 17 Sublimity: Border epistemology 17 Transparency: Art education and visual culture education 18 Aloofness: Art education and issues of gender, sexuality, and morality 29 Resonance: gender and sexuality in my visual culture pedagogical practices 39 Affinity: Almodóvar’s queer films and cultural education 44 Chapter 4. Emplacements 49 Dwelling: Visual culture and visibility 50 iv Disruption: Queer and visual representation 55 Reinstatement: Inlvisibility, and queer theory. 61 Mapping: Queer borders, memory, absence and emplacements 64 Chapter 5. Liminalities 73 Routes: Traveling with local and non-local communities 73 Nomads: Syncretism sexuality and language 80 Sublimity: Post-Occidentalism: Latin American Post-colonialism 86 Appetite: Anthropophagy and the devouring of Post-colonialism 93 Curiosity: Locating queer theory in Brazil 96 Chapter 6. Derivations 106 Labor: Artography and border epistemology as forms of epistemological inquiry 108 Compulsiveness: The visual and text within artistic and scholarly production 112 Contamination: From a/r/tographical practices to visual 114 Effort: Queer theory and research 123 Unpredictability: Gathering information 128 Chapter 7. Gaze 134 Unoriginality: Introducing Almodóvar’s critical approaches to films 134 Absorption: Almodóvar expliqué aux enfants 136 Loss: Queer gender between spectator and object of vision 145 Chapter 8. Dressing 158 Overdub: Introducing Bad Education, Talk to Her and All About my Mother 161 Overdye, overhaul, and overfill: Analyzing All That Bad 167 Overeat: Dying Almodóvar 177 v Chapter 9. Unruliness 179 Irony: Almodóvar’s queer genders and their pedagogical moments in classroom 179 Inconsistency: sexuality and visual culture education in context 189 Gain: Imagining pedagogical approaches to Almodóvar’s queer discourses 192 Chapter 10. Embodiments 199 Hallucination: Critical pedagogy and Almodóvar’s genders and sexualities 199 Fragrance: Pedagogical approaches: Queer film and visual culture education 205 Rumor: Implications for visual culture education 209 Chapter 11. Deliverance: 215 11. 1 Noise: Border epistemologies informing visual culture education 215 11. 2 Discretion: Last inferences 217 References 227 vi Dedication I dedicate this thesis to: Queer borders, queer, thinking, and pedagogy. Educators concerned with developing visual culture education. All transgenders who carry on living. Those who have thought about knowledge and power. The orixás of Bahia de São Salvador, but particularly Iansã and Shango. The reality of cinema. All critical thinkers. Emflia Soares and Belidson Dias, my dearly loved parents. My companion, Phillipe Raphanel. All authors cited in this thesis. Others. vii Acknowledgments A number of people have helped me to make this thesis possible and so deserve thanks. My unbounded thanks go to Pedro Almodóvar and Augustin Almodóvar who made this thesis possible. The person to whom I am most indebted is Graeme Chalmers who has been a great source of knowledge, understanding, encouragement, and assistance. Special thanks go to my committee members, Rita Irwin, Peter Dickinson and Helen Leung, who dedicated themselves to critically engage with my work and provided me with a vast array of advice, references, and interpretations. I particularly want to acknowledge scholars who were my teachers at UBC and others whom I met in doing the research: Valerie Lee Chapman, Lisa Loutsenheiser, Munir Velani, Karen Meyer, Kit Grauer, Jean Barman, Anna Kindler, Janice Miller, and Susan Pine. I want to acknowledge Jenny Peterson, Lyonel Lacroix, Jacqui Gingras, Annie Smith, Monique Fouquet, Hartej Gill, and Susan Sinkinson as my friends and colleagues who worked with me and shared friendship and intellectual conversations. Among those who alerted me to relevant materials and pointed me in important new directions I thank Fernanda Selayzin, Denilson Lopes, Felfcia Johanson, and Sneja Gunew. I would also like to express gratitude to Ana Mae Barbosa, Geraldo Orthof, Cathleen Sidki, Lygia Sabóia, Suzette Venturelli, Sylvio Zamboni, and Ana Vicentini who gave me initial encouragement and provided meticulous support. I thank my students in the courses of Gender and sexuality in contemporary art at the Universidade de Brasilia, and in Processes and methods ofart at the University of British Columbia for the perceptive conversations, criticism, and comments that helped me to form and restructure aspects of this thesis. viii This thesis owes so much to so many people but among them I would like to highlight the continuous work of Sueli Silva and Sandra Lopes of the CAPES Foundation, and Marta Helena of the University of Brasflia (UnB), who attentively looked after my scholarship and leave of absence processes. I am grateful for the total cooperation and enthusiastic support I have received from Paloma Buendia e Diego Pajuelo of El Deseo SA, Universidad de Castilha La Mancha, Centro de documentacion Pedro Almodóvar. I am thankful for the concession of copyrights from El Deseo SA, Jasbir and Balbir Sidhu, and Mario Cravo Neto, and for the donation of my family’s private photo collection. All images in this thesis besides my own belong to these individuals, foundations and archives. I am exceedingly grateful for the total cooperation and enthusiastic support I have received from many institutions and I want to give special thanks to the CAPES Foundation of the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and the University of Brasflia Foundation for the financial support supplied to me by both over the last 4 years; and also the University of British Columbia, which provided me with a vibrant, understanding and intellectually stimulating environment. I am deeply indebted to Steve Bridger for insightful comments and proof reading skills. Special thanks also go to Brian Kilpatrick and Robert Hapke, technicians of the Curriculum Studies Department (CUST), without whose dedication and patience I would never have been able to develop the necessary skills to subdue high technology. Acknowledgments are also due to all CUST staff, Hinnerk Schmidt, and Giséle Ribeiro who also provided me with diligent technical support. Thanks to my parents and siblings who relieved pressures and for taking my frequent phone calls. Also I am grateful to Zezito, Salete Soares, Lica Dias, and Cidinha who