Theoretical foundations for a performative art and visual culture education

Abstract

Language is central to the renewal of humanism. The term ‘queer’, for example, obtained a different usage from its pejorative meaning in the search for restoration of a community. What are the conditions for language, in its many forms, to be redefined in an activist way? Judith Butler shows that the disruptive repetition of injurious language can lead to its redefinition. She offers a theory of the performativity of language in which some discourses can define actions as much as activism can redefine language. Visual culture and design, by using language, is an essential tool in that transformation, revealing a performative pedagogical power. Such power, infused with Paulo Freire’s vision of language as the only means to develop people’s voice, creates a new performative visual culture education that can contribute to the achievement of freedom through public pedagogy.

Keywords:

• Performativity
• visual culture education
• public pedagogy
• language
• activism
• queer

Notes

1. Saïd, "The Return to Philology," 59–74.

2. Butler, Excitable Speech.

3. Ibid.

4. Restuccia, Amorous Acts.

5. Davis, Queer as Folk.

6. Morland and Willox, Queer Theory.

7. Benshoff and Griffin, America on Film.

8. “QZAP”: The Queer Zine.

9. The Free Library. Queercore.

10. Freire and Macedo, Literacy: Reading the Word.

11. Muirheid, "Visual Culture within Comprehensive Art”; Duncum, "Visual Culture Art Education," 14–23 and "Visual Culture: Developments," 101; Prosser, "Visual Methods," 13–30.

12. Sandlin, Schultz and Burdick, Handbook of Public Pedagogy.

13. Sandlin et al., Handbook of Public Pedagogy, 1.

14. Coval, "Louder than a Bomb," 395–408.

15. Chappel, "Young People Talk Back," 318–326.

16. Although Freire’s ideas has been used in the practices of critical visual culture education, at the moment of this research, it was not found many pedagogical applications of his ideas with LGBTQ people.

17. Butler, "Interview with Judith Butler."

18. Passmore, "Why Teach Visual Culture," 26.

19. Carpenter, II and Sourdot, "What Are You Watching," 444–455.

20. Duncum, "Instructional Resources: Visual Culture," 25–32.

21. Hammer and McLaren, The Spectacularization of Subjectivity, 60.

22. Nadaner, "Art and Cultural Understanding," 6.

23. See note 18.

24. Schubert, "Outside Curricula," 10–19.

25. Pinar, "Foreword," xv–xix.

26. Sandlin et al., Handbook of Public Pedagogy.

27. See note 23.

28. González, Moll and Amanti, Funds of Knowledge.

29. Haas-Dyson, Writing Superheroes.

30. Bakhtin, Speech Genres.

31. See note 14.

32. See note 15.

33. Questioning: ‘A term used to describe those in a process exploration about their sexual orientation or gender identity.’ Available at: https://www.pflag.org/blog/about-q

34. Ibid.

35. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

36. Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers.

37. See note 33.

38. See note 34.

39. See note 23.

40. See note 18.

41. See note 23.

42. Freire, Pedagogy of Hope.

43. Sandlin and Milam, "Mixing Pop (Culture)," 323–350; Zorrilla and Tisdell, "Art as Critical," 273–291; MacDonald, "Reading Pedagogy."

44. Adbusters, "About."

45. Steinberg and MacDonald, "Freire Project."

46. Examples of relatively negative representations of gays and lesbians in film: Victim (1961), The Fox (1968), The Boys in the Band (1970), Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971), Cruising (1980), and Windows (1980).

47. Shneer and Aviv, American Queer.

48. Shneer and Aviv, American Queer; Benshoff and Griffin, America on Film; Russo, The Celluloid Closet; Buckland, Film Theory.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Turner, A Genealogy of Queer.

52. Osucha, "A Genealogy of Queer”; Wall, " Review of Turner."

53. See note 6.

54. Butler, Gender Trouble.

55. Salih, Judith Butler, 19–72.

56. Hey, "The Politics of Performative," 439–457.

57. Longo, "An Approach," 53–73.

58. Secomb, "Words That Matter."

59. See note 10.

60. Davies, Judith Butler in Conversation.

61. See note 48, 145.

62. See note 49.

63. See note 55.

64. Ibid.

65. See note 41 above.

66. Dictionary.com.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid.

69. Lorde, "The Transformation of Silence," 81–84.

70. Gamson, " Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct?," 390–406.

71. See note 2.

72. Xhonneux, "Performing Butler?,” 292–307.

73. See note 48.

74. Ball, "The Use of 'Queer'," 1–9.

75. Sedgwick and Goldberg, The Weather in Proust.

76. Duggan, "Making it Perfectly Queer," 215–231.

77. See note 51 above.

78. Ibid.

79. Dilley, "Queer Theory: Under Construction," 457–472; Barthes, "Rhetoric of the Image," 32–51.

80. Beemyn, " Glbtq >> Social Sciences >>."

81. Tsjeng, " Teens These Days."

82. Segal, " The Problem."