Blasphemous Art?

This book explores the critical and transformative potential of arts and popular culture for constructions of religion, gender and sexuality. Doing so, it deploys and develops the notion of blasphemous art, honouring and building on the work of Anne-Marie Korte. Deliberately articulated with a question mark, Blasphemous Art? raises questions about the spaces, methods and resources available to individuals and communities at the gendered, sexual and racialized margins of society to tell their stories, claim their bodies and perform symbolic and sacred meaning, and it analyses the productive effects - both aesthetically, politically and theoretically - of such provocative work. The book focuses on a wide range of artistic and cultural expressions, featuring case studies from across Europe, South Africa, Israel and the United States. Drawing on feminist, queer and postcolonial perspectives, the book reveals the critical, constructive and imaginative potential of the creative arts (broadly defined) and popular culture in its complex and diverse representation of, and engagement with, religious life, belief, text, ritual and practice.

Adriaan van Klinken is Professor of Religion and African Studies at the University of Leeds, UK, and Extraordinary Professor in the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Nella van den Brandt is researcher of Religion, Gender and Race at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium. Mariecke van den Berg is Endowed Professor of Feminism and Christianity (Catharina Halkes Chair) at Radboud University in Nijmegen and Associate Professor of Religion and Gender in the Faculty of Religion and Theology at VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Part 1 Bodies 1. Do We Need to Talk About My Uterus? Some Thoughts on What Makes for a Blasphemous Menopause Narrative 2. In/Decent Black Theology in South African Poetry: Reimagining Jesus Christ, Sexuality, Race and HIV 3. 'You Do Not Have To Burn Anymore': The Witch Of Almen as a Grounds for Constructive Feminist Theology Part 2 Stories 4. Resisting Dehumanization: A Feminist Reading of Iconoclashes in Ukrainian War Art 5. Mendacity as Blasphemy: Storytelling and the Making of Religious/LGBTQ+ Jewish Identities 6. (Losing) Faith, Intimacy and the Gendered Religion-Race-Secularity Nexus in Stories by Women of Islamic Backgrounds Part 3 Performances 7. 'I'm Just a Vessel': Sex and the Sacred in South African Cape Flats Theatre 8. 'Your God Made Me This Way': Religion, Race and Queer Love in the Drama Series Pose 9. 'The Only Orthodox Jewish Woman in British Stand-Up Comedy': Marginality, Relatability and Popular Culture in Rachel Creeger's Pray It Forward! 10. This Barbie Can Walk on Water! Longing for a Feminist Messiah in the Cinema