Date of Award
2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Visual Arts
Supervisor
Dr. John Hatch
Abstract
The topic of this thesis is Japanese women artists from the contemporary period, withaparticularfocusontheworkofMiwaYanagiandYoshikoShimada. Itquestions and problematizes the position of Japanese women artists in art historical and feminist art historical scholarship. Its main concern is the absence of feminist and gender theory in the interpretation and criticism of Japanese women’s art and, the hitherto, non articulation of a Japanese feminist art practice. The approach taken is largely feminist in orientation, which will serve to: 1) consider culturally specific conditions for discussing a Japanese visual practice from the perspective of feminist and gender theory; and 2) speculate on gender, race, and class construction in Japan’s modem period. This thesis suggests that theories of nation, gender, class, and economy as they developed in Japan’s modem period are central to feminist evaluations of gender and power in contemporary Japanese art.
Recommended Citation
Kitzul, Carrie Lee, "en/Gendered Hierarchies: Representations of Nation, Gender, and Class in the Work of Miwa Yanagi and Yoshiko Shimada" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3639.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3639