Posing Dead to Make a Claim on Life in Paul Mendez and Kehinde Wiley

Authors

  • Jose M. Yebra Universidad de Zaragoza

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.28914/Atlantis-2024-46.2.13

Abstract

This paper intends to explore the convergence of queerness and blackness in Paul Mendez’s Rainbow Milk and black portraiture art, especially Kehinde Wiley’s portraits, with particular attention to his Christ-related works. With this purpose, I will review the narratives of post- blackness and black camp (Pochmara and Wierzchowska 2017) characteristic of Bertram D. Ashe’s post-Soul aesthetics. Unlike the monolithic discourses of the Civil Rights generation, these artists cross over conceptions of race, sexuality and privilege in intersectional terms. They break with racial authenticity and play with appropriation, irony and camp to renegotiate and articulate othernesses and render them grievable.

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Author Biography

Jose M. Yebra, Universidad de Zaragoza

José M. Yebra is a senior lecturer in English Philology at the University of Zaragoza. He has widely published articles and delivered papers on writers such as Alan Hollinghurst, Colm Tóibín and Naomi Alderman. His main research interests include contemporary literature in English, ethics and gender and trauma studies. Yebra is part of a research group and project on contemporary literatures in English at the University of Zaragoza.

References

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Published

2024-12-23

How to Cite

Yebra, J. M. (2024). Posing Dead to Make a Claim on Life in Paul Mendez and Kehinde Wiley. Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, 46(2), 239–254. https://doi.org/10.28914/Atlantis-2024-46.2.13

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