Carol Ann Duffy's ‘Standing Female Nude’

Abstract

The present article addresses the evocative potential of posing nude in Carol Ann Duffy's poem ‘Standing Female Nude’. My assumption is that the posing model/prostitute displays two bodies: the physical body and the signifying body. The interplay between both bodies triggers a process of signification whereby art is not simply a studio production but a meta-frame encapsulating a reflection on society, culture, self-representation and politics of identity. The poem substantiates the poet's experimental method of writing which draws on nude art genre, the dramatic monologue, theatre and metafiction. What the posing female nude recounts is not just experience of posing nude in a studio, but reflections on her body as a posing model and as a writing model or a narrative imbricating in its texture cynical comments and attitudes on artistic and socio-cultural values as the female model pokes fun at the reception of artistic work in the bourgeois society.