Ismahan Soukeyna Diop

Gebundenes Buch

Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity

Beschreibung

This book draws on a unique theoretical framework informed by clinical case studies, Fanonian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, and decolonial feminism, to examine the concept of adornment in African cultures.
The book discusses the construction of aesthetic feminine ideals and the evolution of such ideals within the history of colonization, decolonization and globalization. Through the analysis of adornments including accessories, hairstyle, clothes and fabric, the author demonstrates how they can reflect social status, and also addresses its symbolic function in rituals. At the level of the individual, it draws on clinical case studies to examine the Lacanian theory of adornment and masquerade of femininity, and the extent to which this echoes ambivalent attitudes towards women in society at large. In doing so it provides a nuanced analysis which reveals how body adornment can be a paradoxical demonstration of both strength and weakness.
Building on the author's previous work in this area, this book offers an important contribution to current debates in psychoanalysis, cultural studies, critical race theory and decolonial feminism.

Autor

¿Ismahan Soukeyna Diop, is a teacher and researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal. Dr Diop's work and practice focuses on women, femininity, maternity, and the integration of tales in psychotherapy. She is also the author of African Mythology, Femininity, and Maternity (2019).

Produktdetails

• Pan-African Psychologies
• Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan / Springer International Publishing / Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 978-3-031-28747-3
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. Mai 2023
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 153mm x 16mm
• Gewicht: 378g
• ISBN-13: 9783031287473
• ISBN-10: 3031287479
• Artikelnr.: 67478789

Rezensionen

Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity certainly equips us with a fresh theoretical lens not only for understanding femininity but also for thinking more critically about masquerade in relation to women s identity in modern society. Diop articulates her own position as follows: Women are at their intersection. Their status as objects of desire is a stage of their evolution, until they get beyond the Other s desire to chase their own: desiring themselves as powerful beings . (Xiaojuan Ye, The European Legacy, Vol. 30 (5), 2025)

This book offers a thorough analysis of the interplay of adornment, masquerade, and African femininity. Theoretically, it sheds new light on how bodily adornment reveals the specifically African symbolic and social underpinnings of the feminine masquerade compared to its Western versions. Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity certainly equips us with a fresh theoretical lens not only for understanding femininity but also for thinking more critically about masquerade in relation to women s identity in modern society. (Xiaojuan Ye and Pengfei Zhang, The European Legacy, Vol. 30 (5), 2025)