Cas Horne

“Spiders: The Unsung Maternal Figures” Paper Topic Proposal

Using Louise Bourgeois’s similarly inspired contemporary and modern works of “Spider” and

“Maman”, I aim to show how her art functions as a motor to change perceptions of gender

and/or sexuality. Spiders are a common theme in her work that often represents cleverness and

most importantly protectiveness. The wiry, intricate, and sometimes chaotic nature of these

pieces challenge the way we view women and, most importantly, mothers. The pieces are said

to be inspired by her Bourgeois’ mother and partly herself. Challenging the accepted symbolism

of both spiders and motherhood acts as a way to change perceptions of womanhood and the

body. I will use information about her life to add deeper context to my analysis of the pieces

since, as I mentioned, the pieces are inspired by her mother and herself. I may use other works

of hers to lay groundwork of her overall style or show how themes have reoccurred in her work

but I will focus mainly on “Spider” and “Maman”. I hope to prove my thesis through close

examination of her work and exploring what some elements of her art tend to represent in

culture.

Annotated Bibliography
Speaks, Elyse. “Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010).” Sculpture Journal 19, no. 2 (September 2010):

244–48. doi:10.3828/sj.2010.17.

This piece comes from a tribute to her in Sculpture Journal after she had passed and gives some

detail on her life. I think it acts as a good foundation to understanding the artist and her

contributions. The tribute to Bourgeois does mention briefly about “Spider” and “Maman” but

does not focus on it. Instead, it’s more about her overall style, personal life to an extent, and

giving tribute to all that she’s accomplished.

Huber, Cécile. 2021. “Polymorph: Female Embodiment in Louise Bourgeois’s

Sculptures.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 22 (2): 49–61.

https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=fmh&AN=149

355863&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

This piece gives detailed background information on both “Spider” and “Maman” while also

focusing on other pieces of hers as well. The main argument behind this writing is that

Bourgeois’ work has an underlying theme of polymorphy of female embodiment. It has a large

interest in representation of form and how this represents female’s bodies or the female

experience. The analysis of the spider as a post-human form and connection to maternity is

what I will use throughout my paper.

Punter, David. “Arachnographia: On Spidery Writing.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative

Studies 9, no. 1–2 (2017): 143–57. https://doi.org/10.5250/storyworlds.9.1-2.0143.

This piece is unusual in that is focuses less on the works of art or even the artist but on the

subject matter. It is a work that talks about spiders mainly and their representation throughout

different kinds of medium. It does speak about how “Spider” and “Maman” directly in this piece

and analyzes it a small amount. Most importantly, I think it’s interesting to get a perspective of

what the spider symbolizes outside of just these pieces of art and to those who know spiders

more than just surface-level.

Bal, Mieke. 1999. “Narrative inside out: Louise Bourgeois’ Spider as Theoretical Object.” Oxford

Art Journal 22 (2): 101–26. doi:10.2307/1360637.

This piece describes more of Bourgeois’ style and work throughout. It also places a heavy focus

on narrative in her work and how she reactivates old stories into new moments which can be

very important when it comes to analyzing. I also enjoy this piece as it comes from someone

who saw “Spider” in person not long after it was made. That can provide a different context

and perspective compared to myself who is looking at it online twenty-eight years after it was

made.

Pollock, Griselda. “Old Bones and Cocktail Dresses: Louise Bourgeois and the Question of Age.”

Oxford Art Journal 22, no. 2 (1999): 71–100. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1360636.

This piece examines a lot of Bourgeois’ work including some spider-inspired work I hadn’t even

known about. This writing gives an interesting analysis of Bourgeois’ tendency to use spiders in

her art and ties it not only to motherhood but to aging. Once again, this writing gives great

background on Bourgeois not only about her artistic life but her personal life which is useful.