Abstract

This thesis investigates the motivations and manifestations of female discourse and body politic in Czech-Canadian artist Jana Sterbak’s sketches and artworks from the 1980s.The analysis focuses on four artworks: Corona Laurea (1983), Hot Crown (1983-98), I Want You to Feel the Way I Do… (The Dress) (1984-85) and Standard Lives (1988). I argue that by analyzing the sketches as a separate entity and then in juxtaposition to the artwork, one can grasp the deeper, concealed meanings which Sterbak has hidden through the use of subversive text, imagery and material substance. This usually has to do with the traditionally feminine forms of clothing and adornment, specifically dresses and crowns in what are some of the artist’s most recognizable artworks. In this thesis, supported by the concepts of narratology developed by Mieke Bal and the relationship between language and the female body as Lesley Jeffries and Jane Ussher have explored in their research, I will examine Sterbak’s on-going reflections on the politics of the female body that begin with the artist’s initial conception in the process of what she calls her “thread drawings.”