Date of Award
Spring 5-17-2019
Degree Name
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Abstract
My work explores how father figures – biological and cultural – transmit knowledge. I draw on personal anecdotes, popular fictions, and political realities to challenge the way masculinity is concocted. Traditionally, masculinity has been taught through what I term “patrilineal epistemology,” whereby the grandfather has taught the father, who teaches the son, who will teach his son, ad finitum. Santa Daddy, Untitled (My Father Never Taught Me How to Shave), and His Son’s Countenance Would not Bear the Same Fate as the Bare Face of His Watch focus on the lesson of shaving to reify alternatives and explore shared physiognomies between father and son. The Daniel Boone Line looks at the political implications of whose progress is privileged by these persistent pioneers. Bedtime Stories juxtaposes Shel Silverstein’s adult material with his iconic children’s illustrations to explore blurred the lines of intimacy and challenge the unconscious processes by which boys are fashioned into men. My work reorients this transference of knowledge to queer these constructions.
Mentor/Primary Advisor
Michael Byron
Recommended Citation
Radley, Jack, "Reorienting Patrilineal Epistemology" (2019). Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers. 71.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bfa/71