The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"

Autores
Martínez, Ariel; Arévalo, Luciano; Gomariz, Tomás Manuel; Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián
Año de publicación
2021
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
We present our thoughts here on British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum´s Corps étranger (1994), a video-installation consisting of endoscopic images of the inside of the artist´s own body projected from beneath the glass floor of a cylindrical booth. In a departure from the social constructionist proposal of Judith Butler, who emphasizes the role normative ideals play in the construction of the body by imposing an imaginary morphological ideal (assigning some parts of the body to a position in a hierarchy while dismissing others), this performative work of art is analyzed in the light of an emerging theoretical field known as New Materialism. Using this perspective, a return to materiality is proposed as a counterpoint to hyper-constructionist queer thought, presented here as inadequate for addressing the complexity of the agency of matter and its relation with meaning. Similarly, and in agreement with criticism of that sector of queer theory which revolves around representation and silences or demonizes materiality and its processes, we suggest connections between material agency and antisocial queer negativity, which some theorists link to the death drive. On the basis of these theoretical connections, we utilize some non-essentialist viewpoints of the body that enable us to see that Hatoum´s video-installation confronts us with a corporal dimension which manifests itself as an eruption of matter outside the limits of linguistic mediation. Corps étranger constitutes a potent onto-epistemological resource that brings us closer on the one hand to integrating the agency of matter into the definition of what it is to be human, and on the other, to the recovery of queer theory´s potential to make peace with dimensions that cannot be confined to the limits of language.
Fil: Martínez, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Arévalo, Luciano. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Gomariz, Tomás Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina
Materia
BODY
ABJECT
MATTER
PRESENTATION
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ar/
Repositorio
CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Institución
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
OAI Identificador
oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/181319
Acceder
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spelling The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"Martínez, ArielArévalo, LucianoGomariz, Tomás ManuelSuzzi, Guillermo SebastiánBODYABJECTMATTERPRESENTATIONPSYCHOANALYSIShttps://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.1https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5We present our thoughts here on British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum´s Corps étranger (1994), a video-installation consisting of endoscopic images of the inside of the artist´s own body projected from beneath the glass floor of a cylindrical booth. In a departure from the social constructionist proposal of Judith Butler, who emphasizes the role normative ideals play in the construction of the body by imposing an imaginary morphological ideal (assigning some parts of the body to a position in a hierarchy while dismissing others), this performative work of art is analyzed in the light of an emerging theoretical field known as New Materialism. Using this perspective, a return to materiality is proposed as a counterpoint to hyper-constructionist queer thought, presented here as inadequate for addressing the complexity of the agency of matter and its relation with meaning. Similarly, and in agreement with criticism of that sector of queer theory which revolves around representation and silences or demonizes materiality and its processes, we suggest connections between material agency and antisocial queer negativity, which some theorists link to the death drive. On the basis of these theoretical connections, we utilize some non-essentialist viewpoints of the body that enable us to see that Hatoum´s video-installation confronts us with a corporal dimension which manifests itself as an eruption of matter outside the limits of linguistic mediation. Corps étranger constitutes a potent onto-epistemological resource that brings us closer on the one hand to integrating the agency of matter into the definition of what it is to be human, and on the other, to the recovery of queer theory´s potential to make peace with dimensions that cannot be confined to the limits of language.Fil: Martínez, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; ArgentinaFil: Arévalo, Luciano. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; ArgentinaFil: Gomariz, Tomás Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; ArgentinaFil: Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; ArgentinaUniversitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer2021-06info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11336/181319Martínez, Ariel; Arévalo, Luciano; Gomariz, Tomás Manuel; Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián; The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"; Universitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer; Whatever; 4; 6-2021; 487-5102611-657XCONICET DigitalCONICETenginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://whatever.cirque.unipi.it/index.php/journal/article/view/85info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.13131/2611-657X.whatever.v4i1.85info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ar/reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas2025-09-29T10:31:31Zoai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/181319instacron:CONICETInstitucionalhttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/Organismo científico-tecnológicoNo correspondehttp://ri.conicet.gov.ar/oai/requestdasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:34982025-09-29 10:31:31.855CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicasfalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
title The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
spellingShingle The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
Martínez, Ariel
BODY
ABJECT
MATTER
PRESENTATION
PSYCHOANALYSIS
title_short The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
title_full The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
title_fullStr The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
title_full_unstemmed The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
title_sort The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Martínez, Ariel
Arévalo, Luciano
Gomariz, Tomás Manuel
Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián
author Martínez, Ariel
author_facet Martínez, Ariel
Arévalo, Luciano
Gomariz, Tomás Manuel
Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián
author_role author
author2 Arévalo, Luciano
Gomariz, Tomás Manuel
Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv BODY
ABJECT
MATTER
PRESENTATION
PSYCHOANALYSIS
topic BODY
ABJECT
MATTER
PRESENTATION
PSYCHOANALYSIS
purl_subject.fl_str_mv https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv We present our thoughts here on British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum´s Corps étranger (1994), a video-installation consisting of endoscopic images of the inside of the artist´s own body projected from beneath the glass floor of a cylindrical booth. In a departure from the social constructionist proposal of Judith Butler, who emphasizes the role normative ideals play in the construction of the body by imposing an imaginary morphological ideal (assigning some parts of the body to a position in a hierarchy while dismissing others), this performative work of art is analyzed in the light of an emerging theoretical field known as New Materialism. Using this perspective, a return to materiality is proposed as a counterpoint to hyper-constructionist queer thought, presented here as inadequate for addressing the complexity of the agency of matter and its relation with meaning. Similarly, and in agreement with criticism of that sector of queer theory which revolves around representation and silences or demonizes materiality and its processes, we suggest connections between material agency and antisocial queer negativity, which some theorists link to the death drive. On the basis of these theoretical connections, we utilize some non-essentialist viewpoints of the body that enable us to see that Hatoum´s video-installation confronts us with a corporal dimension which manifests itself as an eruption of matter outside the limits of linguistic mediation. Corps étranger constitutes a potent onto-epistemological resource that brings us closer on the one hand to integrating the agency of matter into the definition of what it is to be human, and on the other, to the recovery of queer theory´s potential to make peace with dimensions that cannot be confined to the limits of language.
Fil: Martínez, Ariel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Arévalo, Luciano. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Gomariz, Tomás Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones de Género; Argentina
Fil: Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; Argentina
description We present our thoughts here on British-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum´s Corps étranger (1994), a video-installation consisting of endoscopic images of the inside of the artist´s own body projected from beneath the glass floor of a cylindrical booth. In a departure from the social constructionist proposal of Judith Butler, who emphasizes the role normative ideals play in the construction of the body by imposing an imaginary morphological ideal (assigning some parts of the body to a position in a hierarchy while dismissing others), this performative work of art is analyzed in the light of an emerging theoretical field known as New Materialism. Using this perspective, a return to materiality is proposed as a counterpoint to hyper-constructionist queer thought, presented here as inadequate for addressing the complexity of the agency of matter and its relation with meaning. Similarly, and in agreement with criticism of that sector of queer theory which revolves around representation and silences or demonizes materiality and its processes, we suggest connections between material agency and antisocial queer negativity, which some theorists link to the death drive. On the basis of these theoretical connections, we utilize some non-essentialist viewpoints of the body that enable us to see that Hatoum´s video-installation confronts us with a corporal dimension which manifests itself as an eruption of matter outside the limits of linguistic mediation. Corps étranger constitutes a potent onto-epistemological resource that brings us closer on the one hand to integrating the agency of matter into the definition of what it is to be human, and on the other, to the recovery of queer theory´s potential to make peace with dimensions that cannot be confined to the limits of language.
publishDate 2021
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2021-06
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/11336/181319
Martínez, Ariel; Arévalo, Luciano; Gomariz, Tomás Manuel; Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián; The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"; Universitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer; Whatever; 4; 6-2021; 487-510
2611-657X
CONICET Digital
CONICET
url http://hdl.handle.net/11336/181319
identifier_str_mv Martínez, Ariel; Arévalo, Luciano; Gomariz, Tomás Manuel; Suzzi, Guillermo Sebastián; The queer potential of the abject: The agency of matter and radical negativity in Mona Hatoum’s "Corps étranger"; Universitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer; Whatever; 4; 6-2021; 487-510
2611-657X
CONICET Digital
CONICET
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://whatever.cirque.unipi.it/index.php/journal/article/view/85
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.13131/2611-657X.whatever.v4i1.85
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ar/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ar/
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universitá di Pisa. Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca Queer
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
instname:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
reponame_str CONICET Digital (CONICET)
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instname_str Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.name.fl_str_mv CONICET Digital (CONICET) - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
repository.mail.fl_str_mv dasensio@conicet.gov.ar; lcarlino@conicet.gov.ar
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