A Rereading of Duchamp through Genre Allegory (1943)

Abstract

This article explores the tension between intimacy and politics in Marcel Duchamp´s collage Genre Allegory (1943). I focus on the use of allegory and other common strategies in his praxis, such as metonymy and jokes, and the concomitant process of displacement and the sliding of meaning between the signifier and the signified. The questioning of identity constructions in his work is also addressed, in particular the overlap found here between gender and national identity. Finally, I speculate on the well-known way in which Duchamp typically engages with the issue of conquest by using different perspectives, including some that are unpublished.