CANON AS A PATRIARCHAL DEVICE: THE CONTROL AND REDUCTION OF THE FEMALE IMAGE IN THE ARTS
Feminism. Canon. Art. Pollock.
This dissertation aims to understand, identify, and analyze the concept of canon, focusing on the representation of women in the arts, reflecting on their relationship with patriarchal society through a historical-philosophical path that includes feminist theories, based on art historian Griselda Pollock. The investigation is based on the work Differencing the Canon (1999), in which the author seeks to understand relationships between canonicity, society, myths, and the sexualization of the female body. Furthermore, we intend to explore the theoretical path developed by Pollock in the canon, considering other of his works, such as Vision and Difference: Feminism, Femininity and the Histories of Art and Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum: Time, Space and the Archive. We seek to infer the main influences that contributed to the author arriving at the notion of canon that is presented in her work, among which we highlight the art historian Linda Nochlin and her work Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?