Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2018
Degree Type
Capstone Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies (BA)
Department
Cultural Studies
First Advisor
Douglas Reichert Powell
Second Advisor
Carmelo Esterrich
Third Advisor
Kenneth Daley
Abstract
This project investigates the work of performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pefia through a postcolonial discourse. This project will be looking at three of the artist's pieces and proposes that though seen as an abstract or avant-garde performer, Gomez-Pefia's these pieces provide a platform for the oppressed who cannot speak for themselves due to hegemony - the subaltern. In the context of Gomez-Pefia's performance art, this theory provides a postcolonial discourse on notions such as hybridity, borders, transculturalism, and other elements of identities found in lafrontera. Ultimately, this project finds that though the subaltern cannot speak, it is through Gomez-Pefia's use of strategic essential ism that allows the subaltern to take back cultural stereotypes and turn them into agency. 30 pages.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Martell, Paola, "Speaking Within Subalternity: A Critical Analysis of Performance Artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena and the Use of Strategic Essentialism" (2018). Cultural Studies Capstone Papers. 32.
https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cultural_studies/32
Included in
American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons