Abstract
The recapitulation of slave auctions in the works of Janelle Monae occurs within the frame of a larger counter-intuitive visionary context, viz. that of Afro-Futurism. There existed corporeal nudity contra injunctions and edicts with regard to aurat’ in the Islamicate publics. The codpiece was an accepted form of vestment in Islamicate regions, allowed for a close inspection of the male genitalia by prospective customers, including women, in the public-space. The langot’ could be removed and circumcision carried out, on demand. The matrilineal cultures gave a counter-emancipatory matrix of visual and corporeal affectivity in orientalist images. The spatial separation of the harem and the souk becomes slightly blurred here as in harem’ paintings. The Islamic injunctions on clothing and food are crucial for locations like India. The regimentation of the nine bodily orifices (navadwar, or nine orifices in India) is flouted in the human auction, transforming it into a post-human event. instructions regarding clothing insist that the genitalia have to be compulsorily covered at all times, which also is part of a mental discipline. During the slave auction, there is involuntary, forced stripping where the human corporeal self is phenomenologically made available for consumption, in this early modern window shopping’. The locus of visual narratives provided by the visual anticipation of the female pleasure in the female gaze, contra Laura Mulvey, provides a nexus of emancipation with counter-emancipation.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Orientalism, Gaze, Auctions, Futurism, Asia
