The Guilty Breast: A Fleshy Semiotics

Abstract

The Guilty Breast: A Fleshy Semiotics takes up the subject of the nude female breast, from St. Augustine\u27s developing and a shifting semiotic theory of signs and the flesh in Christian doctrine through feminist theories and Foucault\u27s analysis of the scientific “Gaze†to the protests of breastfeeding on social media, such as Facebook and Instagram, and in the public sphere. The dissertation argues that boobs teach us how to see by examining the breast\u27s semiotic anatomy in five parts. “Chapter One: Nipple†asserts that breasts are both…and: maternal and sexual, subjective and objective, metaphoric and actual. “Chapter Two: Cleavage†juxtaposes St. Augustine with French feminist Hélène Cixous to reveal their shared life project of making “the sign†(and substance) of the guilty body—and by extension/ostension, female breasts—morally good. “Chapter Three: Milk†“mangles†and disrupts “the Gaze†of biological theory by dripping thirst, claiming that leaking itself is onto-epistemological. “Chapter Four: Areola†highlights social media\u27s censorship of breastfeeding to explore socially constructed borders. “Chapter Five: Ducts†investigates two political examples of breasts-as-weapon. “Chapter Six: Support†offers “breast semiotics†as a new hermeneutic by which to read nude female breast texts via the plurality of bodies and concludes with a visual example