Banished Bodies, Birds, Bowels and Babies: Humorous Acts of Resistance and Subversion in the Dutch Republic
In the Dutch Republic, the use of humour was seen as an effective way of presenting didactic and moralizing messages. Humour and the use of hidden or double meanings was also one way that particularly sensitive topics could be addressed without causing overt offence or generating reprimand. This talk will consider the role of humor and double meanings in seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture as one of the ways that people were able to register their resistance to assertions of authority by civic officials. In particular, it will highlight select images of banished criminal bodies, to demonstrate some of the playful ways that authority over criminality could be subverted or disregarded.
Anuradha Gobin is an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary. Her research specialization is early modern visual culture of Northern Europe and its colonies in the Atlantic world.
This webinar is presented by the Visual and Critical Studies BA Honours program with the support of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Contemporary Art, Design, and New Media Art Histories MA program.
Space is limited. Please register at bit.ly/vcslecture2021