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“SHOWING HER ASS OFF IN HER IRON CAGE”: DIS(-RE-)MEMBERING THE BLACK FEMALE BOD

“SHOWING HER ASS OFF IN HER IRON CAGE”: DIS(-RE-)MEMBERING THE BLACK FEMALE BODY IN SUZAN-LORI PARKS’S VENUS Raphaëlle Tchamitchian Belin | « Revue française d’études américaines » 2022/2 N° 171 | pages 80 à 91 ISSN 0397-7870 ISBN 9782410025705 DOI 10.3917/rfea.171.0080 Article disponible en ligne à l'adresse : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-d-etudes-americaines-2022-2-page-80.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Belin. © Belin. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) “Showing Her Ass Off in Her Iron Cage”: Dis(-re-)membering the Black Female Body in Suzan- Lori Parks’s Venus RAPHAËLLE TCHAMITCHIAN Keywords Suzan-Lori Parks; the Hottentot Venus; colonial exhibition; blackness; black womanhood Dans Venus (1995), une interprétation ﬁctive et hyper-théâtrale de l’histoire de « La Vénus hottentote », Suzan-Lori Parks place délibérément et de manière provo- cante le corps féminin noir nu au centre de la scène. Sans éviter les questions de complicité et d’agentivité, la pièce met en scène la construction coloniale du corps féminin noir, ainsi que la position du public dans ce processus. En ﬁn de compte, en choisissant de mettre en avant une repré- sentation noire de la nakedness plutôt que l’idéal occiden- tal associé à la nudity, Parks investit le corps de La Vénus de rébellion et d’irrévérence. Although African-American drama has often staged the “dis(-re-)mem- berment” (Parks, V 95) of the black body in order to throw light on what it means to be a black body under white scrutiny, nudity per se is rather rare in this tradition. It lies at the heart however of one of Suzan-Lori Parks’s major plays, Venus. This highly theatrical drama presents the “imperialist tragedy” (Keizer 200) of Saartjie Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who was famously displayed in Britain and France from 1810 until her death in 1815 as “The Hottentot Venus.”1 Her body—especially what scientiﬁc racism has called her “steatopygia” (hypertrophy of the hips and buttocks) and “macronymphia” (protruding sexual organs)—fascinated Western audiences. During her time in France, Baart- man also became an object of study for naturalist Georges Cuvier, whose 1. Sometimes called “Khoisan” or “Bushmen,” the Khoikhoi were called “Hottentots” by the Afrikaners. They live in what is now South Africa, which at the time of Baartman’s birth (at the end of the 18th century) was under Dutch rule. 80 No 171 © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) DIS(-RE-)MEMBERING THE BLACK FEMALE BODY IN SUZAN-LORI PARKS’S VENUS observations contributed to making her a symbol of racial and sexual difference in the West (Gilman 231). After her death, Cuvier dissected her and put her sexual organs and other anatomical elements in jars which, along with a plaster cast of her body, joined the shelves of Paris’s Musée d’Histoire Naturelle.2 “Sadly,” comments Mae G. Henderson, “her fate as ethnographic spectacle, along with her subsequent display as museum specimen, signiﬁes the European colonial fetishization of the black female body in life as well as in death” (163). The few images of Saartjie Baartman that have reached us show her partially or completely naked. Similarly, Parks’s play uncovers “The Venus” both literally (her naked body is the very ﬁrst thing we see) and ﬁguratively: much like the playwright herself, a master of ceremonies called The Negro Resurrectionist digs up her body from its grave (“Dig- gidy-diggidy-diggidy-diggidy” 12) to expose it in all its horror. During the Overture, while she spins round slowly for everyone to see, he introdu- ces her in a circus-like fashion: “Venus, Black Goddess, was shameles, she sinned or else / completely unknowing of r godfearin ways she stood / totally naked in her iron cage” (18). Although it is clear from the begin- ning that the whole play revolves around The Venus’s nudity, the word “nude” never appears in the text. Instead, The Venus is said to be “naked.” This choice of words is of major importance. According to Ken- neth Clark’s classic study The Nude: to be naked is to be deprived of our clothes and the word implies some of the embarrassment which most of us feel in that condition. The word nude, on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenceless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and conﬁdent body: the body re-formed. (1) By choosing to call her “naked,” Parks ﬁrst implies that The Venus is vulnerable. Indeed, “exposure iz what killed her” (11) says The Negro Resurrectionist. Whether for entertainment or scientiﬁc purposes, The Venus’s uncovering continuously results in an economic exploitation and/or an emotional hold. Venus tells the story of a woman who was stripped of her clothes as well as of her dignity and humanity. The play, with scenes 2. Saartjie Baartman’s organs and cast remained in public view at the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle and later at the Musée de l’Homme until 1976. In 1994, with the end of apart- heid, descendants of the Griqua people, belonging to the Khoisan group, appealed to Nelson Mandela to demand the restitution of her remains. After long negotiations, in April 2002 they were ofﬁcially returned by France to South Africa, and Saartjie Baartman was ﬁnally properly buried. Revue Française d’Études Américaines 81 © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) RAPHAËLLE TCHAMITCHIAN numbered from 31 to 1, looks like a countdown towards the ultimate unveiling that is her dissection. Taking great liberties with the historical record, it is organized in two symmetrical parts separated by an intermis- sion. The ﬁrst part is a place of public exhibition: “The Girl” leaves South Africa to be displayed by The Mother-Showman throughout England, where she becomes “The Venus Hottentot,” a freak show character.3 The second part features nakedness in relation to intimacy and scientiﬁc racism: after being bought from The Mother-Showman by The Baron Docteur, a ﬁctional avatar of Georges Cuvier, she follows him to Paris and soon becomes her lover. While covering her with gifts and promises, The Baron Docteur studies her for his own advancement. Seduced, she sees her hopes dashed: after two abortions, she is abandoned and dies in prison. In his deﬁnition, Kenneth Clark suggests that “nakedness” is a state, whereas “nudity” is the result of a work of art. While the nude alludes to an ideal body, the naked refers to the body itself, in all its materiality and crudeness. In the case of The Hottentot Venus, the body, according to Western standards, is not only “re-formed,” it is de-formed. Described as a “STEPSISTER-MONKEY TO THE GREAT / LOVE / GODDESS” (45), she becomes in the Western mythology an anti-ideal as well as anti- goddess, her stage name a cruel oxymoron. While the nudity of Venus is associated with beauty, ideal and civilization (all qualities that are paired with whiteness), The Hottentot Venus’s nakedness is synonymous with monstrosity, primitivity and animality (that is to say: blackness). Thus, behind the distinction between nudity and nakedness lies an implicit dif- ference between whiteness and blackness. By using the word “nakedness” instead of “nudity,” Parks both addresses that difference and chooses blackness. Since “the Hottentot remained representative of the essence of the black, especially the black female” (Gilman 225), Parks uses The Venus as a conceptual ﬁgure to reﬂect on the perception of the black female body, and more generally black womanhood, in contemporary America.4 As Mehdi Ghasemi reminded us (260), by putting her naked body center stage Parks unveils the “matrix of domination” intersecting issues of race, 3. Whereas the historical Venus was called “the Hottentot Venus,” Parks inverted the two terms to give “the Venus Hottentot.” Depending on the context, I use both formula- tions. 4. Parks’s appropriation and reframing of Baartman’s story in the American racial context has been critiqued for its tendency to “generalise Africa” and “denature” the ‘Hottentot Venus’, which then “function as concepts” for the playwright (Keizer 208). See also Gordon-Chipembere. 82 No 171 © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) © Belin | Téléchargé le 29/06/2022 sur www.cairn.info par via Université de Tours (IP: 94.66.80.14) DIS(-RE-)MEMBERING THE uploads/Litterature/ quot-showing-her-ass-off-in-her-iron-cage-quot-dis-re-membering-the-black-female-body-in-suzan-lori-parks-x27-s-venus-raphaelle-tchamitchian.pdf