Race and Gender Politics in Art

[Dharma Seeker]

I am totally confused. I am taking an Asian American Studies Literature and Art class in a Masters program. Today, we discussed Maxine Hong Kingston's book "Woman Warrior." The issues of politics arose in the interpretation of the text and since I come from English Literature for my undergraduate studies and am completely new to race studies, I asked some basic questions about the role of art and critics and was met with total silence in the class. My questions were:

What is the function of art? What is the responsibility of the critic? Just because an artist is a person of color, do we automatically have a right to interpret their art in a political framework? Not all artists like or agree to this. Some women artists say that they are just artists and that their art is not meant to help along the women's movement/feminists. Others, like the Hispanic photographer woman that I mentioned in class today, specifically included a disclaimer along with her photography that she is not trying to debunk or demystify social and/or political issues, but rather, she experiments with techniques that allow her to advance the technology of photography.

I was met with total silence and I feel really frustrated because it's not the first time I've been ignored by my cohorts and the professor. I also feel as if the professor's silence condones the (in)action of my cohorts. I feel as if it is automatically assumed that just because we are in an Asian American Studies class that we all must be "political" or that those who do not readily take the "political" stance is not a "true critical thinker."

I've emailed my professor my concerns and now I wait for a reply, but I feel like I am waiting for my other shoe to drop.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

-Dharma Seeker