Date: 1997-2000
Place of Publication: Minneapolis, Minnesota (Lake Street USA)
On first examination, we see that there is one adult monk and four young novice monks. They are preparing for a formal event (Laotian funeral service). They are wearing traditional outfits and the setting could be mistaken for Laos, aside from the large American flag in the room. Upon further inspection, Wing Young Huie's photograph shows the presence of a completely foreign culture within America. The photographer has depicted how people of different cultures have come to live in the United States still retain customs and traditions (dress/Laotian funeral) that typical Americans might see as alien. However, these groups of people do not submit to uniformity with the country as everyone must do in The Handmaid's Tale.
Both Wing Young Huie and Margaret Atwood have created works that touch on the subject of "othering." Huie uses images of real people while Atwood fabricated a story that drew heavily from reality. In several of Huie's photographs, there are people who have been subject to othering.
Date: 2012
Place of Publication: Minneapolis, Minnesota (Lake Street USA)
In this photo, two African American young adults have signs discussing how society wrongfully perceives them (stereotypes). This example is a real-life othering. In Atwood's novel, othering takes place between genders. The society is patriarchal and women are considered vessels and are useful only for their reproductive abilities. In The Handmaid's Tale, the handmaid's outfits (red dresses and white wings) instill uniformity into the culture and are used as a way of othering individuals in society who choose to stand out. However, in the picture I chose from Wing Young Huie, the photographer shows that in America, individuality can still exist and the others are not forced to conform. This seems to be a more optimistic view of our society.
Sarah- I like how you looked at two different images/sources from Wing Young Huie to strengthen your argument. I do wish you had provided more surface level analysis for the first- think about the composition, structure, and format of the text and how that develops the audience's understanding and interpretation of the artist's message.
ReplyDeleteI like how you have drawn connections of the fact that people of different cultures come together to live in the United States and still keep their customs and traditions, even though they could be alienated because they are different from the others. I also think that the concept of "othering" Wing Young Huie presented in his work was similar to how Atwood presented it in THT. When she showed that the women in Gilead thought that the Japanese tourists were wearing clothes that they should not be wearing, they alienated themselves of the past, as they had changed their way of thinking. It's like the Japanese tourists represent people who still keep their customs, and the women in Gilead represent the people who abandon their traditions.
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