Adrian Piper performed a virtual masculine persona of 'Mythic Being' between 1973 and 1975. She disguised herself with an Afro-wig, sunglasses, a mustache, turtleneck shirt, etc. in order to be 'Mythic Being', hung around the everyday street and carried out performance. She imitated and reproduced a violent, sexual stereotype of a black man of the working class filled with hostility. Through a performance like this, Piper tried to do research on the racial prejudice and stereotypes implanted in the audiences' mind. In addition, Piper was able to experience gender freedom while doing an impersonation of a black man's erotic stereotype through 'Mythic Being', and did an experiment on what sort of liberation such an experience could give her as a black woman. In addition, Piper used an artful practice in 'Mythic Being' performance in an effort to produce contrary evidence that a racial stereotype could by no means represent the true identity of black people. The 'Mythic Being' in <The Mythic Being>series looks like someone who has a short and small body with lighter skin which clouds racial distinguishment despite the fact that it claims to stand for black masculinity. Besides, the Afro-wig and mustache of the 'Mythic Being' are worn awkwardly and exaggeratively as if they didn't belong to it. Such factors hint at the fact that Piper is not completely assimilated to the black masculine persona-'Mythic Being', but simply does an awkward imitation of it. In this way, Piper intended to expose the fact that it is by no means possible to explain the essence of the racial identity simply by using a stereotype while proving that performing a racial stereotype imitatively, though, is enough to acquire specific ethnicity, i.e. negritude.

Ⅱ. 인종적 스테레오타입의 모방과 전복
  1. 흑인 남성으로의 변장
  2. 흑인 남성성 흉내내기의 전략
  3. 스테레오타입의 해방적 가능성
 Ⅲ. 나오는 말

• 김지혜(숙명여자대학교) | Kim, Ji Hye