Performing the Erotic
Performing the erotic: (Re)presenting the body in popular culture by Dionne van Reenen Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements in respect of the doctoral degree qualification Doctor of Philosophy with specialisation in English in the Department of English Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State Bloemfontein Submission date: 28 June 2019 Supervisor: Prof. S.A. Tate, Canada Research Chair Tier 1 in Feminism and Intersectionality, University of Alberta, Canada. Co-supervisors: Prof. H.J. Strauss, Chair: English Department, University of the Free State, South Africa; and Dr M.M. Mwaniki, Visiting Associate, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. I, Dionne van Reenen, declare that the research dissertation that I herewith submit for the doctoral degree qualification Doctor of Philosophy with specialisation in English (ENGD9100) at the University of the Free State is my independent work, and that I have not previously submitted it for a qualification at another institution of higher education. Signed: __________________ Date: 19 June 2019 iii Abstract In 1995, Mitchell suggested that spheres of public culture, and the academies that study them, are in the midst of a ‘pictorial turn’ which entails thinking about images in digital communication and mass multimedia as forms of life. In the study reported in this thesis, a critical semiotic analysis of mainstream, moving images that are designed, performed, mediated, and repeatable was conducted. The study focuses on the role of social constructs of gender, race, and class (along with size, age, and ability) in the ordering processes of society which are, in turn, sustained and reproduced by the (re)presentation of eroticised bodies in visual media in the twenty- first century.
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