The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review

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Orientalism and David Hockney's Cavafy Etchings: Exploring a Male-Positive Imaginative Geography


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1 Springfield College, MA, United States
     

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In their attempts at representing Constantine P. Cavafy's Alexandria, David Hockney's Cavafy Etchings offer more than a neocolonial authorization of the poet's Mediterranean Orient: they subvert generic Western depictions of their locale in order to create a male-positive imaginative geography; an unique version of Edward Said's "free-floating mythology of the Orient" that presents an affirmative, unconventional view of the homoerotics of Orientalism (Orientalism 53). This paper examines the political and aesthetic characteristics of the Orient in the Cavafy Etchings; three topics are explored: first, how Hockney's works exemplify Said's Orientalism; second, how these etchings subvert the conventions of British Orientalist art; and finally, how they exemplify a male-positive imaginative geography.

Keywords

Orientalism, Male-Positive Criticism, David Hockney.
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  • Orientalism and David Hockney's Cavafy Etchings: Exploring a Male-Positive Imaginative Geography

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Authors

Dennis S. Gouws
Springfield College, MA, United States

Abstract


In their attempts at representing Constantine P. Cavafy's Alexandria, David Hockney's Cavafy Etchings offer more than a neocolonial authorization of the poet's Mediterranean Orient: they subvert generic Western depictions of their locale in order to create a male-positive imaginative geography; an unique version of Edward Said's "free-floating mythology of the Orient" that presents an affirmative, unconventional view of the homoerotics of Orientalism (Orientalism 53). This paper examines the political and aesthetic characteristics of the Orient in the Cavafy Etchings; three topics are explored: first, how Hockney's works exemplify Said's Orientalism; second, how these etchings subvert the conventions of British Orientalist art; and finally, how they exemplify a male-positive imaginative geography.

Keywords


Orientalism, Male-Positive Criticism, David Hockney.

References