Insertion and Subversion in Beyoncé’s “Formation”

H.B. Cott describes the intertwined phenomena of “mastery of form” and “deformation of mastery,” opposites of one another: where mastery of form involves perfectly inserting oneself into existing standards of being in search of safety, deformation of mastery entails a rejection of those standards, a demonstration of one’s transcendence of nature. In Beyoncé’s “Formation” music…