Sociological Perspectives on Women

As Subjects and Objects in the Arts

Abstract

Through this study, we intend to analyze the most important “reference and foundational” sociological writings on the issue of “women and the arts”. We will apply methodological techniques to these writings such as “classification according to the historical process”, as well as “interpretation and comparison”; all in order to respond to an epistemological problem related to the dialectical situation that arises in relation to the position of women in the arts, between intellectual currents that emphasize masculinity and the traditionalism of the arts, and other currents that highlight the critical dynamism that characterizes some artistic currents. In the same context, we will examine the various theoretical approaches and applied methodologies used in these investigations, in order to form a general theoretical framework on the theoretical and methodological mechanisms from which one can benefit, especially given the small number of investigations pertaining to the sociology of art in the Arab world. In this context, we seek, through this study, to present a bibliographical collection of “Western” sociological literature that has addressed gender issues in relation to the arts. The aim is to contribute to theoretical enrichment in the field of the sociology of art, on the one hand, and to attract the interest of different readers, from different cultures, on the other, to the importance of the “fields of art and the screen” as instruments of socialization with a power that can control individuals and influence their representations.