Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History of Art

In the decades following Edward Said's 1978 formulation of the discursive theory of Orientalism and the publication of his book of the same name, scholars working in a variety of disciplines, including the history of art, have deployed the theory to explain the nature of the historical relationship between the Eastern and Western worlds. One defining concept of Orientalism proposed by Said that is also found in the work of these other scholars is that the historical interaction between the East and West has been governed by a gendered hierarchy that proposes the East to be feminine and the West masculine. The material products of this interaction are Orientalism, according to Said, thus revealing his belief that the discourse of Orientalism is not only binarily gendered but also heterosexually oriented. While this manner of thinking has inarguably produced important works on the art of Orientalism, it has also limited its interpretation. Primarily relegated over the past four decades to studies of enticing harems, cavalier European explorer-painters, savage warriors, and generative landscapes, art historical scholarship has largely heterosexualized Orientalist art and essentialized its gendered components. Recently, however, an increasing number of scholars working in both the history of art and in associated disciplines have begun to suggest that such a theorization is problematically binary, and that it fails to entertain the possibility that other narratives and motifs, such as those concerning queer bodies, gender nonconforming individuals, and male homoeroticism, are found within the linked textual and visual archives of Orientalism. One such motif is the eunuch, whose image is frequently found in nineteenth-century France. Focused on France and French colonial contexts and geographies, this dissertation examines the representation of the eunuch during the long nineteenth century. It suggests that the image of the eunuch functioned as a type of Orientalist (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Shelton (Advisor); Lisa Florman (Committee Member); Karl Whittington (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History