Susan Dorothea White Bibliography

Postmodern Irony as Subversive Rhetorical Strategy

Helene A. Shugart analyses Susan Dorothea White’s The First Supper as a postmodern and subversive reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. White preserves the earlier painting’s composition, proportions, poses and spatial structure while replacing Christ and the apostles with women from diverse cultural backgrounds. This close formal correspondence makes the reference to Leonardo immediately recognisable, while the altered figures, setting, food, colour and symbolism challenge the original work’s patriarchal, colonial and religious assumptions.

The central figure is an Aboriginal woman wearing a T-shirt bearing the Aboriginal Land Rights flag. The surrounding women represent communities within contemporary Australian society, while Uluru and the Australian landscape appear beyond the window. Shugart relates these elements to the controversies surrounding Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary and White’s stated intention to challenge the celebrated image of thirteen men as a symbol of patriarchal religion.

Shugart contrasts the darkness, austerity and hierarchy of Leonardo’s painting with the light, colour, abundance and cultural diversity of White’s work. The richly laden table, natural foods and glasses of water replace the sparse meal and wine of the earlier composition, suggesting an alternative spirituality associated with nature, pleasure, accessibility and the feminine. The Western woman occupying Judas’s position, accompanied by processed food and consumer goods, represents capitalism, colonialism and the exploitation of natural resources.

The article concludes that The First Supper operates through multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings. It may be understood as a critique of patriarchy, Western Christianity, colonialism and cultural hierarchy, yet its deliberate dependence on Leonardo’s composition can also reinforce aspects of the tradition it seeks to challenge. Shugart therefore presents the painting as an important case study in both the subversive potential and the inherent instability of postmodern irony.