A body under construction: The notion of the monstrous and the otherness in Orlan artwork

This thesis studies the body construction carried out by the French artist ORLAN through her artistic practice. The analysis is made concerning the notions of monstrosity and otherness. Regarding the monstrous, it focuses on three aspects taken mainly from the studies of Michel Foucault, Georges Canguilhem, and Richard Goldschmidt: hybridity, abnormality, and possibility, which allude respectively to the hybrid monster, the moral monster, and the hopeful monster. On the concept of otherness, the Other is referred to as the feared or inferior entity to understand the notion of "feminine moral monster"; however, special emphasis is placed on the idea of constructing oneself as an Other-Monster. The idea of the body under construction alludes to a body that is transformed, and which leads to the advent of two types of entities: the fixed entities and the entities in flux. It is considered in this sense, that ORLAN proposes the construction of a body in constant transformation, a body open to experimentation and possibility, a body which does not submit but proposes, and which is aligned with its internal being and the new scientific and sociocultural paradigms, in opposition to a closed, fixed body which submits, and which is disconnected from the internal being and does not respond to the new paradigms. For the analysis of these two possible ways in the construction of the body, some corporal transformation practices of the subculture are mentioned which are directly related to the ideas of the body as a costume, becoming Other, the right to build oneself a body, and a body better for life.