Please note that the room number for this seminar is 266, NOT 226. Apologies!
Gender & Religions Research Seminar
4th February 2004, 13:00-15:00
Rm 226, SOAS, University of London
Information on how to get to SOAS is available from http://www.soas.ac.uk/contact/location.cfm?navid=1110
"Beautopia"
Laura Sullivan
In this hypertext, I interrogate the language, imagery, and ideologies of cosmetics advertisements and related texts. Hypertext as a form lends itself to unorthodox juxtapositions, particularly through linkages based on associative logic (e.g., metaphors, puns). I invoke the feminist understanding that "The Personal Is Political," combining autobiographical reflections with an analysis of the discourse and industry of cosmetics. The personal dimension includes elements from my unconscious (following in the Surrealist tradition of automatic writing). The political dimension includes an examination of the political economy of beauty. Both levels include many kinds of images, such as family photographs, cosmetics advertisements, images from cosmetics industry journals, and images from books on makeovers and modeling. These elements are juxtaposed, sometimes in conversation, sometimes in "collision," to borrow a term Sergei Eisenstein uses to describe his method of montage in film. I do not approach my investigation of subjectivity, media messages, and political economy directly through theoretical analysis, but indirectly, through associative connections (reasoning through dream logic). In this text, I use the analogy of the cosmetics "makeover" as the frame that holds together my information. I take the conventions of the beauty makeover and apply them to the face, to the self (identity, experience), and to society as a whole. For each "step" of the makeover, I address both the literal instructions for making over a woman's face, as well as more figurative applications that come through reading this makeover process metaphorically. The thematic focus of the work is rooted in my urge to rethink the social--I ask, through the construction of this polyvalent (hyper)text: can we begin to invent a materially grounded utopian vision through the lens of contemporary female beauty?
Laura L. Sullivan is currently completing a Ph.D. in English with concentrations in Film and Media Studies and Women's Studies. My research interests include Marxist and feminist media theory, women and technology, film and television studies, electronic pedagogy, hypertext, the politics of the World Wide Web, and autobiography. My dissertation research focuses on experimental feminist writing, including the translation of such writing into hypertext. Laura has published articles on the following topics: linguistic and social developments in the wake of new electronic technology, gender and cyberspace, nature and neocolonialism in the discourse of beauty, the film The Watermelon Woman, electronic pedagogy, and Cuba and the Internet. Laura is generally interested in the intersections of the spiritual and political. Currently, she practises holistic and politicised counselling, leading groups and classes for women, men, activists and healers, and for building alliances across race and class.
ALL ARE WELCOME!
For more information, please contact Sian Hawthorne ([log in to unmask]; 020 7898 4774)
With kind regards,
Sian Hawthorne
Acting Chair, Centre for Gender & Religions Research
Convenor, MA Gender Studies and Religion
Lecturer (part-time) Critical Theory & the Study of Religions
Department of the Study of Religions
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Tel: 020 7898 4774
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.soas.ac.uk/Religions/grr/index.html
Acting Chair, Centre for Gender & Religions Research
Convenor, MA Gender Studies and Religion
Lecturer (part-time) Critical Theory & the Study of Religions
Department of the Study of Religions
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Tel: 020 7898 4774
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.soas.ac.uk/Religions/grr/index.html
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