Headin' back to June...
Dec. 31st, 2010 09:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pheloniusfriarI have been digging through piles of paper looking for scraps that will allow me to piece my crumbled existence back together (okay... at very least do my back taxes... I'm owed money... the rest might take a little longer and involve more than sorting through paper). One thing I found was the proposal for the final project in the feminist disability studies course I took over the summer. I really thought it would be easier to execute than it turned out to be… If you care to listen, I have it on my server (it launches the MP3 player in your browser hopefully): it's called Sitpoint Epistemology (you'll need good bass, or to listen to it on headphones, fyi). You can read what I said about the finished piece in this post.
Project Proposal: Exploring Feminist Disability Themes Through Music
WGST 3804A, 25 May 2010
While a robust academic discourse is at the core of advancing Feminist Disability Studies as a relatively new field of integrated study, communication of its findings and particular approach to analysis needs an activist constituency for promulgation into popular culture. While some work has been done on exploring the connection between disability and music, it is usually from the perspective of analyzing the impact of disability on musicians themselves — whether the interplay of public reaction to their disability (for instance, in “Re-narrating Disability” through Musical Performance) (Honisch) or the impact that a sudden or progressive disability had on a musician during their career (for instance, in Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ Sonata, First Movement, and the Normal Body: The Idea of Formal Prosthesis) (Quaglia) — or through the exploration of disability as expressed in popular music (for instance, in Transformer Man: An Exploration of Disability in Neil Young's Life and Music) (Stein). However, little work seems to have been done on creating music that expresses, through the artform of music itself, the critical analyses advanced by Feminist Disability Studies.
Outside of popular music's portrayal of disability through lyrics, whether positive or negative, two broad forms of music have managed to consistently capture the “otherness” theme that is widely explored in gender, race, and disability studies: so called “industrial” and “goth” music. These two musical genres can be considered to be “two sides to the same coin — the yin and yang, the male and female” (Smith). Both forms of art express the disability imposed upon the individuals who, for whatever reason — be it physical, mental, emotional, or social impairment — find themselves outside of the normalized expressions imposed by society. Many of these individuals transcend their disabilities through a post-modernist understanding of society and outward expression conveyed through the music and fashion (Woods), and thus choose to live on the fringes on society in a culture created by and for themselves. I hope to use some of the sensibilities, if not the actual forms, of goth and industrial music to attempt to integrate a musical narrative that will explore the themes of disability, and specifically, of gendered disability within the larger context of these experiences as expressed in the academic literature of Feminist Disability Studies.
Works Cited
Honisch, Stefan Sunandan. “"Re-narrating Disability" through Musical Performance.” Music Theory Online 15.3 and .4 (2009): n. pag. Web. 25 May 2010.
Quaglia, Bruce. “Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, First Movement, and the Normal Body:
The Idea of Formal Prosthesis.” Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society. 30 Mar. 2007. Tempe, Arizona.: n. pag. Web. 25 May 2010.
Smith, Alicia Porter. “A Study of Gothic Subculture: an Inside Look for Outsiders.” Web. 25 May 2010.
Stein, Isaac. “Transformer Man: An Exploration of Disability in Neil Young’s Life and Music.” The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal 4.2 (2008): 3-10. Print.
Woods, Bret D. “Industrial Music for Industrial People: The History and Development of An Underground Genre.” Master of Music Thesis, Florida State University, College of Music, Summer 2007. Web. 25 May 2010.
WGST 3804A, 25 May 2010
While a robust academic discourse is at the core of advancing Feminist Disability Studies as a relatively new field of integrated study, communication of its findings and particular approach to analysis needs an activist constituency for promulgation into popular culture. While some work has been done on exploring the connection between disability and music, it is usually from the perspective of analyzing the impact of disability on musicians themselves — whether the interplay of public reaction to their disability (for instance, in “Re-narrating Disability” through Musical Performance) (Honisch) or the impact that a sudden or progressive disability had on a musician during their career (for instance, in Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ Sonata, First Movement, and the Normal Body: The Idea of Formal Prosthesis) (Quaglia) — or through the exploration of disability as expressed in popular music (for instance, in Transformer Man: An Exploration of Disability in Neil Young's Life and Music) (Stein). However, little work seems to have been done on creating music that expresses, through the artform of music itself, the critical analyses advanced by Feminist Disability Studies.
Outside of popular music's portrayal of disability through lyrics, whether positive or negative, two broad forms of music have managed to consistently capture the “otherness” theme that is widely explored in gender, race, and disability studies: so called “industrial” and “goth” music. These two musical genres can be considered to be “two sides to the same coin — the yin and yang, the male and female” (Smith). Both forms of art express the disability imposed upon the individuals who, for whatever reason — be it physical, mental, emotional, or social impairment — find themselves outside of the normalized expressions imposed by society. Many of these individuals transcend their disabilities through a post-modernist understanding of society and outward expression conveyed through the music and fashion (Woods), and thus choose to live on the fringes on society in a culture created by and for themselves. I hope to use some of the sensibilities, if not the actual forms, of goth and industrial music to attempt to integrate a musical narrative that will explore the themes of disability, and specifically, of gendered disability within the larger context of these experiences as expressed in the academic literature of Feminist Disability Studies.
Works Cited
Honisch, Stefan Sunandan. “"Re-narrating Disability" through Musical Performance.” Music Theory Online 15.3 and .4 (2009): n. pag. Web. 25 May 2010.
Quaglia, Bruce. “Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, First Movement, and the Normal Body:
The Idea of Formal Prosthesis.” Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society. 30 Mar. 2007. Tempe, Arizona.: n. pag. Web. 25 May 2010.
Smith, Alicia Porter. “A Study of Gothic Subculture: an Inside Look for Outsiders.” Web. 25 May 2010.
Stein, Isaac. “Transformer Man: An Exploration of Disability in Neil Young’s Life and Music.” The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal 4.2 (2008): 3-10. Print.
Woods, Bret D. “Industrial Music for Industrial People: The History and Development of An Underground Genre.” Master of Music Thesis, Florida State University, College of Music, Summer 2007. Web. 25 May 2010.
quick take a deep breath!
Date: 2013-10-12 06:03 am (UTC)