disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Volume 4 Making Boundaries Article 1

4-15-1995

Preface and Contents Preface and Contents

Jeff Popke University of Kentucky

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/DISCLOSURE.04.01

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Popke, Jeff (1995) "Preface and Contents," disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 4 , Article 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13023/DISCLOSURE.04.01 Available at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/disclosure/vol4/iss1/1

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A Journal of Social Theory

Issue No. 4: Making Boundaries

Articles

Christine Braunberger on the Inscription of Other Women

Kevin Petty on Siouxsie Sioux, Punk, and the Politics of Gender

Martin Scherzinger on Musicology and Ethnographic Surrealism

Alan Wright on Benjamin, the Border, and History

Gary Scott on Limits and Liberation in Plato's Lysis

Interviews

Doreen Massey on Gender, Space, and the Academy

Gloria Anzaldua on the Border and Identity

Poetry by Don Bogen

Artwork by Gary Bibbs and Audrey Rooney

Book R eviews by Michael Gerrard, Phil Jenks, Michael Lackey, and Angela Martin

disC~osure is ~ j~urnal of Social Theory published at the University of Kentucky. Fundmg for this issue was generously provided by the UK College of Arts and s · the ~tudent ?o~ernm~nt Association, and the Vice President for Research and G~~: ;:· Studies. Ed1tonal advice and support was provided by faculty at UK.

Editorial Collective

Mike Dorn Mary Gilmartin John Grimes Brenda Ijams Peter Mortensen Wolfgang Natter Jennifer Philpot Ron Pitcock Jeff Popke Ted Schatzki Robert Shields Bruce Sowards Kakie Urch

Cover Art "Walk Don't Run" Gary Bibbs Lexington, KY

Editorial Board

Editor, Issue #4: E. Jeffrey Popke

Printed by UK Printing Services. Typeset by Jeff Popke. Copyright © 1995. ISSN 1055-6133

Subscription Information: One Year:

$20 - Libraries & Institutions $ 6 - Individuals

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disClosure: a journal of social theory c/o Department of Philosophy University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0027 (606) 257-6035 e-mail: disClose@ukcc.uky.edu

Benjamin Agger, Sociology, State University of New York-Buffalo James Boon, Anthropology, Princeton University

~atthe; Edney, ?eography, State University of New York-Binghamton anc~ raser, Philosophy, Northwestern University

Cynthia ~reeland, Philosophy, University of Houston ~ander Gilman, German/Psychology, University of Chicago p erek Gregory, Geography, University of British Columbia

eter-Uwe Hohendahl, G~rma~ Studies, Cornell University Anton Kaes, Germa~, Un·1vers1ty of California-Berkeley Dou~la.s Kellner, Philosophy, University of Texas-Austin Dom1~1ck LaCapra, History, Cornell University Maggie McFadden Wio ' Stud. . ' mens ies, Appalachian State University M1c~a~I Palmer, Poet, San Francisco, California MarJone Perloff, Comparative Literature, Stanford University Nancy Scheper-Hughes Anthro 1 U . . Barney Warf Geograph' Fl .dpoSogy, n.1ver~1ty of California-Berkeley

' . y, on a tate University ~.am~~ Wid eber, ~ngltsh , University of California-Los Angeles im m ers, History, Appalachian State U . .

Ir · z · 1. . nivers1ty vmg e1t m, Soc1ology, University of Toronto

Preface and Contents . I

It is with great pleasure that we present to you this, our Fourth issue of disC/osure. Our theme this year, entitled "Making Boundaries" is meant to call into question the familiar categories within which we make intelligibJe the social

world. As much contemporary social theory has been concerned to point out, the

process of creating 'boundaries' is a violent one. This is true not only in the more obvious sense of colonial history, but more subtly in the process of identity forma­tion itself.-in the separation of self from other, male from female, West from Non­West and so on.

Our selections in this issue explore this theme in different ways. We begin with a piece by Kevin Petty, who examines the various images projected by punk musician Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie and the Banshees). Petty shows how Siouxsie's ambivalent identity serves to disrupt stable gender categories and to question modes of representation commonly used to describe women in rock mu­sic. Gary Scott's article provides a reading of Plato's Lysis which explores the

relationship between the limits imposed by any system of knowledge, and the 'setting-free' effected by the Socratic method of erotic exchange. This dialectic of limit and liberation produces in the Lysis a particular discourse of identity.

Since the founding of disC/osure, we have attempted to publish work that experiments with novel styles of narrative and representation. Toward this end, we offer an article by Martin Scherzinger. Ostensibly an illumination of the har­monic structure in a piece of Shona music, Scherzinger uses the music analysis as a point of entry into a discussion of power/knowledge in the constitution of the 'other' within the discourse of musicology. In doing so, he attempts to do for African music what postcolonial critics such as Spivak and Bhabha have done for colonized literatures. Ne;i...'t, Christine Braunberger presents an interrogation of the gendered nature of self and identity. She examines the possibility of 'masquerade' as a strategy for walking a line between an essentialist politics of gender identity and a fractured subject constituted through the male gaze as absence, or lack.

For the second year, our theme has been loosely tied to the annual Public Lecture Series of the Committee on Social Theory at Kentucky. This provides us the opportunity to include interviews with prominent social theorists who visit the UK campus. This year, we include insightful interviews with Gloria Anzaldila and Doreen Massey, both of whom have examined boundaries in their work. For Anzaldila, the concept of the 'borderlands' figures heavily in her work, which focuses on the multiple and fractured identities of those living in the U.S. South­west. Massey's work has explored the relationship between spatial boundaries and progressive politics, and in this interview, she also pays particular attention to

disClosure: Making Boundaries

ii Preface and Contents

the 'border,, or division, between the academy and society.

We,re especially pleased to publish "The Known World,, by Don Bogen. This

is reprinted from Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review, with

kind permission of the Editor. We end with a piece by Alan Wright, who skillfully

interweaves discussions of such diverse boundaries as the Franco/Spanish border, the Berlin Wall, and his own experiences of a divided city (Belfast).

Acknowledgments

This issue would not have been possible without the efforts of many individu­als both on and off the UK campus. First, we would like to thank Rex Industries

and PolyGram records for permission to publish the photos of Siouxsie Sioux; and Spinsters/ Aunt Lute Books for permission to publish selections from Gloria

Anzaldila's Borderlands. We would also like to thank the following people for

reviewing manuscripts: Kathy Blee, Malcolm Cutchin, Deborah Dixon, Arnold

Farr, Ted Fiedler, Oliver Froehling, Scott Hunt, Todd Lewis, Ron Pen, John Pick­

les, Ellen Roseman, Greg Waller, Jim Wilkinson and Ernie Yanarella. In addi­

tion, thanks are due to Deborah Dixon, Katherine Jones, Jennifer Kopf, Rob Morris

and Chad Staddon for their eleventh hour heroism. Special thanks go to Ron Pen, Larry Nelson and Bruce Jones for invaluable technical assistance; and to Maureen McDorman for her competent legal counsel. Finally, we would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of Richard Greissman and the College of Arts and Sci­ences for the purchase of computer equipment.

Jeff Popke

Editor, Issue 4

disClosure: Making Boundaries

Preface and Contents iii

disClosure: a journal of social theory

Issue Four: "Making Boundaries"

Kevin Petty

Gary Alan Scott

Gary Bibbs

Martin Scherzinger

Gary Bibbs

Christine Braunberger

disClosure Interviews:

The Image of Siouxsie Sioux: Punk and the

Politics of Gender

Setting Free the Boys: Limits and Liberation

in Plato's Lysis

Artwork: "69-XXX Double Burner"

Appropriate Data/Dada: A Partial

Reading of a Fragment of Shona Mbira Dza Vadzimu Music

Artwork: "Black is Beautiful, But Why Does Raynail Have Blue Eyes?"

Mirroring Back on the Inscription

of Divergence: An Inquiry into Other Women

Gloria Anzaldila

Doreen Massey

1

24

44

45

66

67

75

97

disClosure: Making Boundaries

iv Preface and Contents

Don Bogen

Audrey Rooney

Alan Wright

Book Reviews

The Known World

Artwork: "Garden Series, III"

I Wanna See Some History: The Border, Identity, Writing

Michael Gerrard on Kepel's The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modem World, Barry and Wernick's Shadow of Spirit: Postmodemism and Religion and Cupitt 's Radicals and the Future of the Church

Michael Lackey on Nancy's The Experience ofFreedorn

Phil Jenks on Fishers Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change

Angela Martin on Devisch's Weaving the Threads of Life: The Khita

Gyn-Eco-Logical Healing Cult Among the Yaka

disClosure: Making Boundaries

116

140

141

159

166

169

175

Punk and the Politics of Gender 1

The Image of Siouxsie Sioux: Punk and the Politics of Gender

By Kevin Petty Arizona State University

In this essay, I attempt a reading of the 'identity' projected by Siouxsie Sioux, lead singer of the popular English punk/pop band Siouxsie and the Ban­shees. 1 This is not to imply that Siouxsie Sioux's public identity is univalent, for if she intended to project an image of herself as a self-sufficient, talented woman, the patriar~hal structures within which this projection is attempted would interfere with, and even alter the reception of the image. Siouxsie's 'origi­nal' intention is conditioned by the patriarchal ideologies of gender representa­tion.

The following analysis is based primarily on the image of this performer because she is recognized as a visual artist (she 'means' visually, as well as aurally).2 More important, in pop music, the image of the female performer is constructed as the site/sight, or the boundary at which the audience's knowl­edge of the performer begins and ends; this is particularly apparent in pop mu­sic journalism. Siouxsie, and many other female punk performers realized this and tried to subvert the image and the signs of women in pop music. 3 Excerpts from interviews, reviews, and song lyrics will be included as supporting evi­dence. I hope that through the analysis of the photographs of Siouxsie and the Banshees, the complexity of women's roles in punk music, the methods by which these roles are and were maintained, the possibility for subversion of these roles, and the possibilities for projecting positive images of women in punk music will be made a little clearer.

Siouxsie has traditionally been tied to history in much the same way as 'Woman'; i.e. , Woman, we are told, has remained the same throughout history and we can only know her by her history in Man's world. Within this prison of circularity, Siouxsie has always been introduced/constructed as a groupie, a fan who made it- not unlike the story of the discovery of Lana Turner in a soda shop on Hollywood and Vine. Siouxsie is made a woman on the (punk) past and that past is male: The Sex Pistols.4 The tale goes: "Calm down and reflect on a bewildering reputation. It's now 15 months [October, 1976] since the Banshees in a spirited, impulsive shot of audience participation, went on stage at the 100 Club .. . ,"5 "when almost on the spur of the moment they formed a

disClosure: Jvfaking Boundaries