The Guyanese poet Grace Nichols’s ekphrastic poem “Weeping Woman” in her Picasso, I
Want My Face Back challenges Pablo Picasso’s iconic status in twentieth-century art. Written in
the form of a dramatic monologue, the poem gives voice to Picasso’s model, muse and lover, Dora
Maar, who was a Surrealist photographer before she had an affair with Picasso. Unlike traditional
ekphrastic poems which involve the description of a fixed, silenced and gazed beautiful image
through a male persona who is also a gazer of that image in poetry, Nichols transforms Maar’s
objectified position in Picasso’s painting into a subject by voicing her critique of the artist’s cubist
art, his use of colors as well as his geometric figures, and of his maltreatment of her. Through
this ekphrastic stance, Maar reconstructs her identity as a photographer and rids herself from
the artist’s domination over her in his art and personal life. Hence, the aim of this article is to
discuss in what ways Nichols’s poem problematizes the privileged status of the male artist over
his silenced female model and acknowledges the artistic talent of the woman through the use of
ekphrasis.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Creative Arts and Writing |
Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | February 1, 2018 |
Published in Issue | Year 2018 Volume: 24 Issue: 93 |
Journal website: https://folkloredebiyat.org
The journal’s publication languages are both English and Turkish. Also despite articles in Turkish, the title, abstract, and keywords are also in English. Turkish articles approved by the reviewers are required to submit an extended summary (750-1000 words) in English.
The journal is indexed by TR-Dizin, Web of Science (ESCI), DOAJ, and many other indexes and datebases.
Within the scope of TR DIZIN 2020 Ethical Criteria and as of the year 2020, studies requiring ethics committee approval must indicate Ethics Committee Approval details (committe-date-issue) in the article’s methods section. With this in mind, we request from our author candidates to edit their article accordingly before sending it to the journal.
Field EdItors
Folklore:
Prof.Dr. Hande Birkalan-Gedik
(Frankfurt University- birkalan-gedik@em.uni.frankfurt.de)
Prof. Dr. Arzu Öztürkmen
(Bosphorus University- ozturkme@boun.edu.tr)
Edebiyat-Literature
Prof. Dr. G. Gonca Gökalp Alpaslan (Hacettepe University - ggonca@
hacettepe.edu.tr)
Prof. Dr. Ramazan Korkmaz
(President, Caucasus University Association- r_korkmaz@hotmail.com)
Antropoloji-Anthropology
Prof. Dr. Akile Gürsoy
(Beykent University - gursoyakile@gmail.com)
Prof.Dr. Serpil Aygün Cengiz
(Ankara University - serpilayguncengiz@gmail.com)
Dil-Dilbilim/Linguistics
Prof.Dr. Aysu Erden
(Maltepe University - aysuerden777@gmail.com)
Prof. Dr. V. Doğan Günay
(Dokuz Eylul University- dogan.gunay@deu.edu.tr)