Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Brion, Katherine

Area of Concentration

Art History and International and Area Studies

Abstract

Surrealism’s fascination with the erotic was central to the movement’s claim that giving in to one’s unconscious desires was a radical act of anti-bourgeois resistance. One aspect of this fascination with erotic imagery is a pronounced interest in depicting non-normative sexualities and sexual behaviors. The images of these so-called “perversions” were intended to both shock the public (ideally into reconsidering their bourgeois conceptions of morality and social norms) and serve as a means of capturing the unbridled sexual energy—what Sigmund Freud called the libido—of the unconscious mind. The work of Surrealist photographer Man Ray serves as an ideal point of entry into the Surrealist fascination with the erotic and its ability to radically subvert bourgeois norms. Man Ray’s work spans both the subtly erotic and the overtly pornographic categories of Surrealist art, and his tendency to involve women he knew personally in his work, both as models and as photographic assistants, allows for a fuller understanding of the Surrealist interest in the erotic from both male and female perspectives. This thesis will focus on the “perversion” Man Ray depicts most often in his work: sadomasochism. Sadomasochism is a sexual perversion defined by its sexualization of pain—the taking of erotic pleasure in inflicting pain upon others, sadism, and having pain inflicted upon oneself, masochism. I am interested in the way Man Ray’s depiction of sadomasochistic practices fit into the larger Surrealist interest in violent and transgressive sexual practices and sexualities, as well as the movement’s treatment of women. In this thesis, I will argue that, through his reliance on collaborative artistic practices, his focus on the subjective experience of the masochist, his interest in the simulative nature of sadomasochistic play, and his depiction of female lesbian sadists, Man Ray’s images of bondage destabilize heteropatriarchal conceptions of gender and sexuality.

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