Maria Gertrudis "Mieke" Bal (born 14 March 1946 in
Heemstede
Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the fourth richest municipality of the Netherlands.
History
Heemstede formed around the Castle ''Heemstede'' that was built overlooking the ...
) is a Dutch
cultural theorist,
video art
Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...
ist, and
Professor Emerita
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
in
Literary Theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mor ...
at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
. Previously she also was Academy Professor of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
and co-founder of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis at the
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
.
Education and academic career
Bal attended the University of Amsterdam, where she obtained a M.A. in French in 1969. She continued her
postgraduate
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree.
The organization and ...
studies in Amsterdam under supervision of Professor
Jan Kamerbeek, but due to the death of her supervisor in 1977 she was awarded her Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature at
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
.
Bal was Professor of Semiotics and Women’s Studies at Utrecht University (1987–1991) and Chair of the Section of Comparative Literature as well as Susan B. Anthony Professor of Women’s Studies at the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of ...
(1987–1991). She remained associated with the University of Rochester as Visiting Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies (1991–1996) while filling the position of Professor of Literary Theory at the University of Amsterdam (1991–2011).
From 1993 to 1995 Bal was the Founding Director of the
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, a research institute and doctoral school devoted to the comparative and interdisciplinary study of culture.
In 2005 the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
awarded Bal with an Academy Professorship, a prestigious grant given to senior researchers for exceptional achievement throughout their career. The Academy characterized Bal’s approach to literary theory and the visual arts as “highly innovative, robust, and displaying extraordinary creativity.”
Bal has supervised over eighty Ph.D. dissertations spanning a wide variety of topics, including the Ph.D. dissertation of new media scholar
Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich ( ) is an author of books on digital culture and new media, and professor of Computer Science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Manovich's current research and teaching focuses on digital humanities, social comput ...
at the
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of ...
in 1993.
Bal serves on the editorial board of academic journals including ''
Parallax
Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby object ...
'' and ''
Journal of Visual Culture'', as well as on the international advisory board of ''
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.''
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including '' The Chicago Manual of Style' ...
published ''A Mieke Bal Reader'' in 2006, while in 2008
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, i ...
published ''About Mieke Bal'', a collection of essays celebrating her work. Mieke Bal received an Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Lucerne in 2016.
She is a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick Unive ...
.
Personal life
Bal's daughter, Nanna Verhoeff, is also a scholar. She is a professor of media and performance studies in Utrecht University's Department of Media and Culture Studies.
Major works
Bal has published more than thirty books on a wide range of subjects. Her research interests include
biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...
and
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
,
seventeenth-century and
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...
,
contemporary literature
Contemporary literature is literature which is generally set after World War II in the English-speaking world. Subgenres of contemporary literature include contemporary romance.
History
Literary movements are always contemporary to the writer di ...
,
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
,
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
, and migratory culture.
Bal’s ''Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative'' (1985) is an introduction to the systematic study of narrative, in which she adopts
structuralist concepts and terms as tools for the analysis of stories. A revised and expanded third edition was published in 2009.
''Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History'' (1999) investigates how twentieth-century artists set up a dialogue with old-master art. Re-theorizing notions of linear influence and temporality, Bal introduces the concept of ‘pre-posterous history’ to help understand how modern quotations of
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of h ...
renew our understanding of his work.
In ''Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide'' (2002), Bal explores the deployment of concepts in interdisciplinary
cultural analysis. In a series of case studies, Bal eschews more conventional methodologies based on a single paradigm or discipline in favor of an open re-examination of concepts as they ‘travel’ between disciplines, historical periods, and (cultural) contexts.
In 2013, Bal completed a trilogy of works on political art. Specifically, she seeks to understand how art can be politically effective without espousing particular political causes. In each of these books, she focuses on the oeuvre of an individual artist and their medium of choice. ''Of What One Cannot Speak'' (2010) examines the work of Colombian sculptor
Doris Salcedo
Doris Salcedo (b. 1958) is a Colombian-born visual artist and sculptor.["Doris Salcedo"](_blank)
Art 21, Retrieved 1 ...
, ''Thinking in Film'' (2013) looks at the video installations of Finnish artist
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, and ''Endless Andness'' (2013) engages with the abstract spatial interventions of Belgian artist
Ann Veronica Janssens.
Video work
In addition to her academic work, Bal is a video artist whose films and installations have been exhibited internationally.
As a member of the film collective
Cinema Suitcase, she made several videos that mostly revolve around issues of migration. With
Michelle Williams Gamaker, she directed the feature-length film ''A Long History of Madness'' (2011). Based on the book ''Mère Folle'' by French
psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
Françoise Davoine, the film is a so-called ‘theoretical fiction’ that examines how madness can be treated analytically. Bal and Williams Gamaker are currently completing their second feature film ''Madame B'' (2014), a modern interpretation of
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...
’s 1856 masterpiece ''
Madame Bovary
''Madame Bovary'' (; ), originally published as ''Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners'' ( ), is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emp ...
''.
Selected publications
* 1987. ''Lethal Love: Feminist Literary Readings of Biblical Love Stories''. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. .
* 1988. ''Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
* 1988. ''Murder and Difference: Gender, Genre and Scholarship on Sisera’s Death''. Trans. Matthew Gumpert. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. .
* 1991. ''Reading “Rembrandt”: Beyond the Word–Image Opposition''. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press. .
* 1996. ''Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis''. London and New York: Routledge. .
* 1999. ''Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
* 2002. ''Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. .
* 2006. ''A Mieke Bal Reader''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
* 2008. ''Loving Yusuf: Conceptual Travels from Present to Past''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
* 2009
985 ''Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative''. 3rd ed. Trans. Christine van Boheemen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. .
* 2010. ''Of What One Cannot Speak: Doris Salcedo’s Political Art''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
* 2013. ''Endless Andness: The Politics of Abstraction According to Ann Veronica Janssens''. London and New York: Bloomsbury. .
* 2013. ''Thinking in Film: The Politics of Video Installation According to Eija-Liisa Ahtila''. London and New York: Bloomsbury. .
* 2022. ''Image-Thinking: Artmaking as Cultural Analysis''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. .
References
External links
Mieke Bal's personal website–
University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
Official websiteof the ''Mère Folle Project'' (2011)
Official websiteof the film project ''Madame B'' (2014)
Mieke Bal PapersPembroke Center Archives, Brown University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bal, Mieke
1946 births
Living people
University of Amsterdam faculty
Cultural academics
Dutch women academics
Dutch biblical scholars
Utrecht University alumni
Utrecht University faculty
University of Amsterdam alumni
University of Rochester faculty
People from Heemstede
Women art historians
Dutch art historians
Dutch women historians
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters