Of Affects, Processes, and Excesses: Unruly Masculinities in Peruvian Contemporary Visual Productions

My dissertation, Of Affects, Processes and Excesses: Unruly Masculinities in Contemporary Peruvian Culture, addresses key questions that both explain, but also further problematize, the way in which gendered bodies – specifically, the male body- is conceived and experienced in Peru. Where scholars have reviewed the formation of Peruvian masculinity from a sociological perspective, an analysis of Peru’s artistic representations of masculinities analyzed through a Gender and Queer perspective, is necessary. Informed by an intersectional, feminist, and decolonial framework, my dissertation focuses on representations of what I recognize as unruly and undisciplined male bodies, emotions, and practices in the visual arts that question conventional assumptions about masculinity. In adopting this critical lens, I demonstrate the necessity to decentralize a hegemonic idea of masculinity while exploring the potential of visual productions to understand masculinities as evolving, multidimensional identities that reflect the complexities of gender, race, history, and political and social discourses in contemporary Peru.