Art, sex and eugenics; corpus delecti.

9780754658276

Art, sex and eugenics; corpus delecti.

Ed. by Fae Brauer and Anthea Callen.

Ashgate Publishing Co.

2008

298 pages

$124.95

Hardcover

N7625

After the horrifying results of the Nazi plans to create a "perfect race" by sterilizing or murdering all those they considered inferior, the science of eugenics fell into deep disfavor. The essays in this volume remind one of the popularity of eugenics before the war, not just in Germany but the United States, France, Australia, Canada and the Soviet Union among other countries. Brauer (visual theory, university of East London) and Callen (visual culture, University of Nottingham, emerita) present articles that focus on the use of art as a method of establishing the ideal human form from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. They look at material intended as eugenic propaganda. This was disseminated through photographs, health journals and films. By giving the viewer an ideal male and female form, the eugenicists also defined sexual roles, generally making even the perfect woman subservient to men. One essay is of the counter-attack made by W.E.B. Dubois in his series of photographs of American Negroes, refuting the caricatures put forth by racists. Another discusses the Maori Haka dance as an art form that uses the body to establish cultural and racial identity in the face of colonial pressure to assimilate. Taken as a whole, these articles tell the history of a dangerous theory. In the light of recent discoveries in the ability to manipulate genes, this study is particularly timely.

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