Nurturing the Unfertilised Egg: Towards the Absurd Heroine
Scarrott, Emily (2023) Nurturing the Unfertilised Egg: Towards the Absurd Heroine. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 1. Abstract.pdf - Accepted Version Download (72kB) |
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 2. List of Artworks.pdf - Accepted Version Download (13MB) |
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 3. Thesis.pdf - Accepted Version Download (48MB) |
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 4. The Vessel (Script).pdf - Accepted Version Download (213kB) |
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 5. Performance Documents.pdf - Accepted Version Download (6MB) |
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Emily Scarrott PhD Thesis_Final Award 2023_Part 6. 3D Scan of Egg.mp4 - Accepted Version Download (30MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This PhD uses a theory-led art practice to position the absurd as a landscape which could provide emancipation from binary gender. In response to inconsistencies between Camus’s definition of ‘the Absurd Hero’ and his naming of cisgendered men as representative of absurd identities, this project proposes a revised figure, ‘the Absurd Heroine’. This amendment to absurdist theory contributes a new terminology to challenge notions of transcendence that are used to enforce adherence to a gender binary.
The epistemic object of this research is an unfertilised chicken’s egg, which I have cared for since the beginning of the study. The combination of the egg and researcher is described as the ‘Egg Carrying Researcher’, acknowledging an entangled embodiment of knowledge. My methodology as the Egg Carrying Researcher provides a material and bodily language with which to explore the figure of the Absurd Heroine through a queer appropriation of the Sisyphean task to antagonise a biologically gendered object. This performative practice protests capitalist expectations of heteronormative reproduction, both biologically and institutionally, while theorising that engagement of unproductive and absurd behaviours within the everyday can be utilised as a form of corporeal activism.
The Egg Carrying Researcher provides the primary practice and framework for this research, which is documented through interdisciplinary and action-led artworks, including: sculptural terminological, anecdotal, and fictional text, manifesto, audio play and performed readings, site-based protest, and redacted and reinterpreted archival and media texts. The accompanying thesis positions transfeminist theory and kin-making strategies within a socio-political climate propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, an environment replicative of the male-centric absurd scenario detailed in Camus’s The Plague. I conclude by deliberating upon the positionality of cis women as increasing gatekeepers of their identity through measurement of biological reproductivity. I identify the selective mentality of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) as a form of quality control to a reproductive workforce and distinguish cooperation with this ideology as undemonstrative of the Absurd Heroine.
As the research is embodied by the Egg Carrying Researcher, the findings of the research can be fully encountered and demonstrated within a requested audience with the Egg Carrying Researcher.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) | ||||||
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Egg, Unfertilised, Absurd, Absurdism, Absurdist, Absurd Hero, Absurd Heroine, Performance Art, Fine Art Practice, Practice-led Research, Theory-led art practice, Performance methodology, Queer studies, Gender studies, Transfeminism, Non-binary, Care, Nurture, Albert Camus, Sisyphus, Sisyphean task, Non-human collaboration, Twin Peaks, PCOS, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Covid-19, Fiction as method, Speculative fiction, Sculptural writing, Writing as art practice, Sculpture, Expanded sculpture, Egg carrying researcher, Reproduction, Philosophy, Maintenance art, Corporeal activism, Protest, Embodied knowledge, Autoethnography, Anecdotal, Anecdotal theory, Cultural studies, Durational performance, Durational art practice, Performed viva, Manifesto, Audio play, Performance documents | ||||||
| Subjects: | CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-01 - creative arts and design > CAH25-01-02 - art CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-02 - performing arts > CAH25-02-03 - drama |
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| Divisions: | Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > Birmingham School of Art |
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| Depositing User: | Jaycie Carter | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 19 Feb 2024 12:39 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 19 Feb 2024 12:39 | ||||||
| URI: | https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15267 |
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