The Grand Rapids Art Museum of Michigan is currently displaying a performance art video by artist Shannon Plumb who is based in New York. The white and black short video Rattles and Cherries is one of Plumbs latest works created in 2004, she both directs and stars in her work. Plumbs video works are her own comedic feminist take on the deconstruction of societal critiques of women and everyday people. She is compared to being a mix of Charlie Chaplin, Cindy Sherman, and Claude Cahun. Shannon Plumbs Rattles and Cherries is a low tech black and white short film shot on grainy super 8 film that becomes a digital video. It is displayed on a 56 inch TV and played on a loop, in it Plumb both directs and stars in this performance art film as well …show more content…
as all her other films. In Rattles and Cherries she is taking is not so much as playing a roll but trying to find a balance in herself. Plumb starts the film off with her wearing a nightie and blond bob wig, as she moves awkwardly to soft jazzy music to find a natural sexy side of herself while playing with various fruits (a cherry, banana, and watermelon). The whole time Plumb is putting on this act she is getting distracted her son who is off camera crying and cooing to get her attention. She finally towards the end of the film gives up on her sexy endeavors to attend to her son, she ends the film with her naturally breast feeding the baby boy on camera. The plot or theme compares how being a mother or caregiver and being your human being or a sexual women at the same time seems to be rather obviously through the whole film via the incorporation of her acting and sound choices. The quality of this four minute film and how it interacts with the rest of the elements of the work, such as the plot, theme, sound, and acting. Plumb and her use of old-fashioned music, exaggerated acting, handmade props and her wigs, all interact to give her work an overall look and atmosphere of early, silent, slapstick films like Charlie Chaplin. The videos are shot with the scratchy and silent super 8 film reels and then transferred to video and DVD using various low-tech means. The use of low quality super 8 film to shoot her performance gives you a great sense of nostalgia and timelessness, clearly indicating Plumb is an old-school movie buff. Though she has her own sense of comedy, irony, and social critique that lifts her work beyond these obvious influences. Furthermore the performance art film Rattles and Cherries directed and performed by Shannon Plumb is considered contemporary art. This work falls into the art discipline of video and further into the sub category of performance art short films. The subject matter of Rattles and Cherries is an underlying feminist take on the deconstruction of being both a mother and your own human being. This subject is an on going theme in many female artists works. The style used to create these films is not new but borrowed and inspired from the past as most contemporary artist tend to do. Most of the work done by Shannon Plumb has a underlying feminist hint to their commentary. Similar to the way the Cindy Sherman used those underlying feminist commentary in her black and white self-portraits the Untitled Film Stills between 1977 to 1980. She produced a series of 69 photographs using herself to enact female clichés (like housewives and sex kittens) in her imaginary films. Though Plumb is compared to Sherman, she seems to be drawing her feminist inspiration from critic and philosopher Judith Butler who wrote Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. The main theme in Gender Trouble is Butler arguing that sex (male, female) is seen to cause gender (masculine, feminine) which is seen to cause desire (towards the other gender), seen as a kind of continuum. Butler's approach is basically to get ride of the supposed links between these oppositions, so that gender and desire are flexible, free-floating and not caused by other assumed factors. Butler says, ’There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; ... identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results.' (Butler 25)This theory is not just a view on sexuality, or gender it also suggests that the identity can potentially be reinvented by its owner. The part about identity is what Plumb seems to be drawing from to inform her performance films. In this film Rattles and Cherries Plumb is making a comment on how there are multiple parts of herself that make up her identity, being a mother is one and being a sexy woman is another side of her. According to Plumb in this short film she is trying to find the balance between ‘sexy and not…mother and self… selfless and selfish’(Kaczmarczyk). Plumbs commentary coincides with this judgment, and according to Boca Ration Museum of Art ‘…distracting her from the most unsuccessful striptease ever, until she has no choice but to breast-feed the child on camera: the un-erotic anticlimax of a hilarious personification of the mother-whore paradigm…. It’s perhaps her best metaphor for the impossible responsibilities and expectations of the modern woman.(Thomason 1).’ Also Plumb seems to be taking a page right out of Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction featured in his book Positions 1972.
The theory of deconstruction is taking to binary oppositions (true/false, male/female, etc.) and comparing them unbiased until there is nothing else to compare which neutralizes them or justifies them as one and the same. In the work we are looking at Rattles and Cherries, Plumb looks at a few oppositions to create this short film. In Rattles and Cherries there are two characters being portrayed one is a sexy comedic chick, the other a mother being distracted by her baby. This is the Beginning of the deconstruction of her characters and her self. She is comparing the opposing ideas of being a mother and sexy, being selfless and selfish. Being a mother a nursing your child is not looked at as being sexy and in this Plumb is trying to bring back her sexiness and not being very successful. She is waring with her self to be selfish to be sexy or be selfless to care for her son. Derrida suggests ‘…we must traverse a phase of overturning. To do justice to this necessity is to recognize that in a classical philosophical opposition we are not dealing with peaceful coexistence of vis-a-vis, but rather with a violent hierarchy (Derrida
41).’ Furthermore, Plumb is taking these ideas of feminism and deconstructionism by using comedy to make these apparent in her work. She uses her own life and life of everyday people and events. In a review my the New York Times, ‘Humor is essential to the success of these works. It is also refreshing, for sadly we are not accustomed to laughing out loud in a contemporary art space. We do so here because Ms. Plumb's films are pleasurable, as well as smart. Happily Ms. Plumb proves beyond doubt that video can be entertaining and witty without being lightweight (Genocchio 1),’ they are seemingly agree with this verdict. Here is where Plumb is drawing inspiration in acting and comedy and video work from Charlie Chaplin. She is using black and white grainy silent film, performing exaggerated expressive body gestures and facial expressions to portray the character and plot of each video. The same way that Chaplin did in his performances when film and video was just being introduced. Rattles and Cherries is a great short film rendition of her using comedy, deconstructionism and feminism in a coherent and smart way to grab the viewers attention and make them laugh. Most contemporary artist don't use comedy as a way to bring a lighthearted to a heavy situation. In a review by Boca Ration Museum they take note of the same thing by saying, ‘Good-humored, self-effacing, and occasionally lacerating in her societal critiques, Plumb is an artist, provocateur and silent-film comedian who injects sly feminism into the deadpan avatars (Thomason 1).’ Moreover, all the aspects of Shannon Plumbs Rattles and Cherries as well as her other work draw us in and hypnotize us into feeling and understanding her commentary. The low-tech quality of the film and the comedic opposing perceptions in this video bring a nostalgia to the screen. Considered a feminist work and connected slyly to deconstruction, Plumb is bring her critique on society and her play on the past to the Contemporary times. She is finding a balance between her work and her life.
In today’s society, many struggle to freely demonstrate their identity in fear of potential backlash and disapproval from others. While examining the two poems within this assignment, "sturgeon" as well as "the same as trees," I distinguished the overarching theme of identity crisis, and the inability for individuals to effectively express themselves. The first poem being analyzed is “the same as trees” by Nicola I. Campbell. As a member of the Métis community, Campbell’s life has not been simple. Often, people of Métis origin have difficulty navigating their European and Indigenous roots.
In the story, "Cherry Bomb" by Maxine Clair the author uses many literary devices to characterize the adult narrator’s memories of her fifth-grade summer world. One of the literary devices used constantly in the passage was imagery. Imagery is used to give readers insight of how summer felt to the fifth-grader of the story and helps understand the tone of the adult. “Life was measured in summers then, and the expression “I am in this world, but not of it” appealed to me. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but it had just the right ring for a lofty statement I should adopt” (Line 4-7). This quote from the passage best represents how the adult memories are reflected to the summer of her fifth-grade self. This passage gives imagery to the readers of a naïve character who believes everything that is said to her. The quote also let us know that
Children have a way with words as writers have a way with ink. Maxine Clair’s “Cherry Bomb” uses literary devices to characterize memories from the narrator’s lively fifth grade summer. Clair uses figurative language like imagery, childlike diction, and hyperboles to captivate her memories from an enchanting summer.
Books: a group of blank white pages where authors record memories, reveal what they imagined, and take us along on a ride through their minds. These past few weeks, I had been reading two popular novels that did in fact take me on that journey: The Outsiders written by S.E. Hinton, and Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson. In no uncertain terms, I did notice that these two books could be compared to one another. Although these are two separate books, written by two different authors with separate journeys, they actually have great similarities and differences in the characters and plot.
As the women narrate the harm caused by men, they lose track of the beings that they once were and become different people in order to cause a reaction in others. These women are hurt in ways that cause them to change their way of living. The Lady in Blue becomes afraid of what others will think of her because a man impregnated her: “i cdnt have people [/] lookin at me [/] pregnant [/] I cdnt have my friends see this” (Shange, Abortion Cycle # 1 Lines 14- 16). Instead of worrying about the life of her child, she worries about how her...
Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything. Since his article, “Allure, Authority and Psychoanalysis” discusses the meaning behind everything that happens in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” we can also examine “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in the same manner.
Atwood uses symbolism to convey how a person’s personality can disintegrate by living in a repressive society. In the beginning of the story, Kat goes through a surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst which she keeps and names “Hairball”. This large cyst is in fact, a symbol that represents Kat’s personality disintegration. Most cyst that develop in the human body are dysfunctional, and Kat can be seen as a dysfunctional woman when she decides to keep this cyst. “The cyst turned out to be a benign tumor. Kat liked that use if ‘benign,‘ as if the thing had a soul and wished her well” (304). This specific passage shows the readers how Kat is slowly loosing her mind by thinking that her cyst has a soul of its own. In addition, she humanizes her cyst by naming it “Hairball” and by giving it human characteristics: “Hairball’s baby teeth glint in the light; it looks as if it’s about to speak” (312). Moreover, Hairball is described as having baby teeth which can represent how it is like a baby who still developing. This developing cyst can also symbolize how Kat is trying to develop her own personality. However, this becomes a challenge for her because she lives in a society where male domination is present. She works as a photographer for an avant-garde magazine, and tries to express her ideas, but the men whom she works with don’t let her do so. Kat trying to develop her personality within her society leads her to become lost, and back to becoming dysfunctional just like a cyst trying to be a tumor. The author uses Hairball as a symbol to highlight how Kat’s personality disintegrates by living in a society where gender inequality is supported.
Deconstruction or poststructuralist is a type of literary criticism that took its roots in the 1960’s. Jacques Derrida gave birth to the theory when he set out to demonstrate that all language is associated with mental images that we produce due to previous experiences. This system of literary scrutiny interprets meaning as effects from variances between words rather than their indication to the things they represent. This philosophical theory strives to reveal subconscious inconsistencies in a composition by examining deeply beneath its apparent meaning. Derrida’s theory teaches that texts are unstable and queries about the beliefs of words to embody reality.
the tube as a group of girls ganged up on Flavia and the attitudes of
Gleam and Glow, written by Eve Bunting was published in 2001. Gleam and Glow is told from the perspective of Viktor, a young boy living with his family in a war-torn country. After his father leaves home to fight in the war, Viktor is left home along with his mother and five-year-old sister, Marina. Viktor’s home soon becomes a shelter for travelers, where the family learned of the horrors of the war and what is to come to Viktor’s home. One day, a traveler comes to Viktor’s home with two goldfish. These goldfish, named Gleam and Glow by Marina, become a positive in a sea of negatives. However, when the day comes that the family must flee from their home, Viktor places the goldfish into the pond near their home. After days of walking, the family
Psychoanalytic Theory itself has, what seems to be, two contradictory halves: Freudian psychoanalysis and Lacanian psychoanalysis. The first half focuses solely on the author and the unconscious mind; the second considers the unconscious, but prefers to concentrate on outside influences by deconstructing the text itself. According to Freud, interpretation is achieved by examining conflicts and symbols, such as Freudian slips and dream images. These outlets are help to determine whether an individual’s external behavior coincides (or conflicts) with their internal emotion. Freud placed emphasis on sexuality and the Oedipus complex, which is the idea of repressed sexual feelings toward a parent of opposite sex. He also defined three levels of the subconscious mind: the ego, the super-ego, and the id. Barry explains that the stages align with “the consciousness, the conscience, and the unconscious” respectively (93). On the other hand, Lacan, a follower of Freud, concentrated on the relationship between an author and his or her work. He claimed the two were inexorably connected, that objectivity is nonexistent. In an essence: an author’s personality is used to interpret the text and, in contrast, the text is used to gain insight about the author. Regardless of the emphasis, psychoanalytic criticism engages an
Throughout the development of sociology as a discipline, the main backdrop to both sociological field-work and theory has been the distinction between Self and Other – or subject and object – expressed more broadly through the study of the interplay between individuals and institutions. With the advent of poststructuralist thinking, also known as postmodernism, the preference toward this distinction has come under suspicion by some contemporary sociologists and philosophers. Critics typically charge postmodernism with holding subjectivity to higher ground than objectivity, that postmodernism is exclusively relativist in that it questions the unity of an objective reality. That is only partially the case; Jacques Derrida, one of the more influential writers on contemporary postmodernist thinkers, suggests that even the unity of a Subject is suspect. Historically, many sociologists have seen society as derived from Subject with the implication of axiomatic inalienable rights. This also implies a sort of contract between individuals where Subject defines the shape and structure of societies. This notion is turned upside down by the postmodernist suggestion that the Subject is a creation of society. This mirrors Foucault’s idea of the “discursive production of the subject,” or that the discourses of power relations create an imposed self-identity. This is not a new idea to sociology – and Foucault was more of a structuralist than a postmodernist—but Derrida’s main work centers around “deconstruction” pivoting around the idea of “différance,” essentially declaring that “there is nowhere to begin” when it comes to tracing the universality or truth status of individual “narratives,” whether scientific or political. This is just as applic...
...ry description of the beloved, his hope for freedom, and fight for power. The beloved, through the speaker’s perception of her, is able to maintain the inverted gender roles and strip the speaker of all power and control resulting in his resentful acceptance of defeat.
But as a literary theory, Marxism needs no factories to act as means of production. All that is needed are words, specifically chosen to justify an Official View of a dominating class, in our case, in a society guided by capitalism. This Official View is sometimes disguised as what we might otherwise call culture. Marxist Theory can be applied to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in two ways, one from inside the story, and the other from outside. First, let's examine the story itself.
Literary criticism is used as a guideline to help analyze, deconstruct, interpret, or even evaluate literary works. Each type of criticism offers its own methods that help the reader to delve deeper into the text, revealing all of its innermost features. New Criticism portrays how a work is unified, Reader-Response Criticism establishes how the reader reacts to a work, Deconstructive Criticism demonstrates how a work falls apart, Historical Criticism illustrates how the history of the author and the author’s time period influence a text, and last of all, Psychological Criticism expresses how unconscious motivations drive the author in the creation of their work as well as how the reader’s motivations influence their own interpretation of the text (Lynn 139, 191). This creates a deep level of understanding of literature that simply cannot be gained through surface level reading. If not one criticism is beneficial to the reader, then taking all criticisms or a mixture of specific criticisms into consideration might be the best way to approach literary