Women Creating Culture

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review Did Women Have a Renaissance? (Links to an external site.) and From 1971: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (Links to an external site.) Also watch The Story of Women and Art: Episode 3.

For this assignment, you will examine womens contributions to the creation of culture in western society through a discussion of three key figures (artists, poets, writers, dancers, performers, composers, etc.) from our required or recommended resources. In your paper, you will also analyze how western society has shaped these womens lives and their creativity.

Begin by selecting three key figures from different time periods and different genres who have made artistic contributions to our culture. You may either consider these elements separately as explained below or weave the ideas together as you discuss each of your key figures. Having selected your three key figures, analyze how their creativity made important contributions to culture in their own era and in some cases, how their contributions reverberated to different disciplines and different eras and time periods, perhaps even being felt today. You should provide detailed discussion of examples from their creative work (paintings, poetry, performance, methods of dance, music, etc.) to support your claim on the importance of their contributions. This section must be three to four pages in length.

Next, as you examine how society has shaped these womens lives and creativity, consider some of the following questions.

• How did prescribed gender roles for women impact their creativity?
• What images defined women (seductress, mother, virgin, etc.)?
• Which images and roles were acceptable and which were outside the norm?
• How did these narrowly-defined gender roles and images (such as the nature of women) shape the lives and work of your three key figures?

Some women may have outwardly conformed to these expectations while their work challenged the roles/images in subversive and creative ways while others openly rebelled. As you delve deeper into these issues, consider the dynamics of gender and power in creative expression. For example, how does the subject matter in paintings and texts (or performance) reflect the dynamics of gender and power? Who has privilege? Who has power? How do these creative women sometimes deconstruct (break down) dominant male patterns while reconstructing female experience?

As you discuss how society has impacted womens creativity, remember to consider the significance of race, class, and/or ethnicity of the three key figures. How does the artists class, for example, impact both the importance of her contributions and the ways society shaped her life and work? Does her ethnicity or race determine what subjects she writes about or paints or how she performs? Again, provide detailed examples from the creative womens work (compositions, performances, sculpture, paintings, writings, etc.) to support your discussion (three to four pages).

In Summary, be sure that your Women Creating Culture Paper:

• Identifies Three Key Figures from Different Time Periods and Genres, and Discusses Their Artistic Contributions to Culture
• Discusses How the Identified Key Figures Made Important Creative Contributions to Culture in Their Own Area, and Provides Detailed Illustrations from Their Work
• Analyzes How Western Society Has Shaped the Lives and Creativity of the Identified Key Creative Women
• Analyzes the Impact of Race, Class, and/or Ethnicity of the Three Identified Key Creative Womens Lives and Wor