Can't: Revealing the Vagina in Literature and the Arts

by Emma L.E. Rees

The central concerns of Can't chime absolutely with gender and cultural studies of today. The book sits at the centre of cross-currents of theories of gender and representation. Its interdisciplinary approach means that, in examining the peculiar status – unlike any other – of female genetalia, Rees considers five fields of artistic literature, film, TV, visual and performance art. Can't focuses on the paradox of what Rees terms 'covert visibility' of the vagina, and on its monstrous manifestations. That is, in our porn-crammed culture vaginas appear to be everywhere, literally or symbolically but, crucially, they are as silenced as they are objectified. This book what happens when the female body refuses to be pathologized, eroticized, or rendered subordinate to the will or intention of another? In Can't , psycho-analytical methodologies offer one way in to considering this curious phenomenon in all its manifestations, taking in diverse texts and disciplines.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2012