Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
5-2019
Document Type
Capstone Project
Degree Name
M.A.
Program
Liberal Studies
Advisor
Paisley Currah
Subject Categories
Cognition and Perception | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Feminist Philosophy | Fine Arts | Gender and Sexuality | Human Ecology | Interactive Arts | Interdisciplinary Arts and Media | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Metaphysics | Personality and Social Contexts | Photography | Social Psychology and Interaction | Sociology of Culture | Sociology of Religion | Theory, Knowledge and Science | Women's Studies
Keywords
consciousness, aesthetics, witches, queerness, plants, non-linearity
Abstract
Taking as a point of entry the critique of representation and affirming the limitations of the cuts that language makes, this capstone project explores the imbrications and assemblages between Foucault’s concept of subjugated knowledges, witchcraft and other body-based ways of knowing and being, and the consciousness of non-human forms such as plants and through the framework of non-representational theory, process philosophies, aesthetics, queerness, and the concept of difference itself.
Since such theories themselves are living, breathing entities, this capstone project explores the ideological split that has occurred between sacred and secular beliefs, moving through different figures such as nuns and witches and examining how different iterations of energy—both in the form of vibrations and other forces—enact discourse and the materiality of mattering through bodies, power, aesthetics and the nexuses that bodies exist both within and as deeply material events, concluding with an ethics of non-linearity and relation.
Recommended Citation
Bigelow, Megan, "Queerness, Witchcraft, and Embodied Presence: Aesthetic Knowings of What a Body Can Do" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3200
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Human Ecology Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Photography Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons, Women's Studies Commons