Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art
Looking at Holocaust art through the lens of gender, this paper argues that there is a correlation between suspicion of the visual arts as a reliable form of Holocaust remembrance in the early decades after the war and the marginalization of women’s experiences. It considers representations of beaut...
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| Language: | English |
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Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Miejsce |
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| Online Access: | https://miejsce.asp.waw.pl/en/english-gendered-representations-of-beauty-and-the-female-body-in-holocaust-art/ |
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| author | Dorota Głowacka |
| author_facet | Dorota Głowacka |
| author_sort | Dorota Głowacka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Looking at Holocaust art through the lens of gender, this paper argues that there is a correlation between suspicion of the visual arts as a reliable form of Holocaust remembrance in the early decades after the war and the marginalization of women’s experiences. It considers representations of beauty and the female body in art from the ghettoes and camps, as well as art created by secondary witnesses during or shortly after the war. Despite the apparent collapse of aesthetic canons and value systems after the Shoah, conventional tropes and socially sanctioned norms of gender and sexuality tacitly shaped these Holocaust representations. On the other hand, increasing acceptance and even privileging of visual art’s capacity to represent the Holocaust since the 1990’s has coincided with the emergence of feminist perspectives in Holocaust studies and a growing interest in gender-specific experiences under extreme conditions. Thus, some of the more recent visual postmemorial forms reveal the potential of Holocaust art to challenge and transform traditional frameworks of meaning and stagnant conceptions of gender. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e6866539c40043e4a47c5c99fbb3ac2c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2450-1611 2956-4158 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Miejsce |
| spelling | doaj-art-e6866539c40043e4a47c5c99fbb3ac2c2025-08-26T07:27:50ZengAcademy of Fine Arts in WarsawMiejsce2450-16112956-41582020-01-01621524110.48285/8kaewzlo3pGendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust ArtDorota Głowackahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1847-5229Looking at Holocaust art through the lens of gender, this paper argues that there is a correlation between suspicion of the visual arts as a reliable form of Holocaust remembrance in the early decades after the war and the marginalization of women’s experiences. It considers representations of beauty and the female body in art from the ghettoes and camps, as well as art created by secondary witnesses during or shortly after the war. Despite the apparent collapse of aesthetic canons and value systems after the Shoah, conventional tropes and socially sanctioned norms of gender and sexuality tacitly shaped these Holocaust representations. On the other hand, increasing acceptance and even privileging of visual art’s capacity to represent the Holocaust since the 1990’s has coincided with the emergence of feminist perspectives in Holocaust studies and a growing interest in gender-specific experiences under extreme conditions. Thus, some of the more recent visual postmemorial forms reveal the potential of Holocaust art to challenge and transform traditional frameworks of meaning and stagnant conceptions of gender.https://miejsce.asp.waw.pl/en/english-gendered-representations-of-beauty-and-the-female-body-in-holocaust-art/dorota głowackaholocaust artgender |
| spellingShingle | Dorota Głowacka Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art Miejsce dorota głowacka holocaust art gender |
| title | Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art |
| title_full | Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art |
| title_fullStr | Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art |
| title_short | Gendered Representations of Beauty and the Female Body in Holocaust Art |
| title_sort | gendered representations of beauty and the female body in holocaust art |
| topic | dorota głowacka holocaust art gender |
| url | https://miejsce.asp.waw.pl/en/english-gendered-representations-of-beauty-and-the-female-body-in-holocaust-art/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dorotagłowacka genderedrepresentationsofbeautyandthefemalebodyinholocaustart |