The thesis contains a discussion of surrealism and the work of Meret Oppenheim and Leonora Carrington. In the thesis I also distinguish three groups of paintings in essays and describe my work and the way in which theory and practice have recommended one another. 'Salience and Surrealism' discusses how the features of collaboration, play and partnership involve women artists within the surrealist movement, and how their ideas of the feminine principle evolve and change. I also discuss the changing attitudes to imagination, creative inspiration and activity, and the understanding brought about by the meeting between surrealism and psychology. The salience of surrealism as an introverted urge and instinct toward individuation, is suggested by Kenneth Wack 'as the source of surrealism's most abiding success.' The contemporary use of salience applies to features, characteristics, and from architecture as protrusions or fortifications. The dictionary definition begins with extroverted examples like dancig, leaping about and jetting forth. The archaic meaning is origin or first beginning, hence in old medicine salience applies to the heart when it first shows in the embryo. In salience the anagram of, a silence, gave heed to the atmosphere of silence from creativity and in paintings. A silence, also corresponds with the middle part of Meret Oppenheim's life when she experienced an artisitc crisis and depression. This essay looks back fifty years of self-expression from this artist and finds prominent features to suggest the essential dichotomies which mark the artwork. Meret Oppenheim's ouevre includes painting, sculpture, poetry, books, and theatre costume and apparal. Her multiple talents in the arts and literature are like those of Leonora Carrington who has published several books and plays, in the visual arts she sculpted and painted. The salience of their creative and intellectual endeavours found realisation in the wisdom of the feminine, of animal spirits and of natural worlds. The principles of alchemy also inspired and informed their attitudes to creativity which emerges from the unification of opposites. Both artists called for a new alliance between male and female principles, and evolve concepts of androgyny, which for them lift creation to higher levels. These women as artists found a field of the arts that furnished them with both physical life and spiritual life / Master of Arts (Hons)

Blonde hair is a potent and highly visible sign in western culture. Although the popularity and desirability of blonde hair in the West is well documented, since the 1950s, blonde hair has also generated many negative associations and these have contributed to myths around blondeness. In particular, women who dye their hair blonde find themselves in a paradoxical position; they simultaneously evoke desire and derision. This thesis uses the model of feminine masquerade outlined by Joan Riviere (1929) as a locus for discussing the transgressive potential of the knowing use of blondeness as a sign. When women wear blondeness in this way they embrace it as an oblique means to access privilege. This self-reflexivity allows women to enter sites of power that they are otherwise excluded from. Drawing on ideas of the carnivalesque, as described by Mikhail Bakhtin (1968), this thesis also proposes that the carnivalesque is employed by women in order to transgress patriarchal boundaries through an ironic masquerade of the archetypal blonde. These paradoxical meanings of blondeness are evoked in the work of performance artist Vanessa Beecroft. Beecroft stages both the reflexive awareness of today's blonde woman and the way in which she is shaped by socio-cultural forces beyond her control. Through reference to Beecroft's art, this dissertation builds upon the optimism and transgressive potential of Bakhtin's 'carnival' and Riviere's 'feminine masquerade' to re-present the identity/position of blonde women as one of agency and power.

Yasmina Reza is a contemporary French playwright who is not indifferent to the richness of humor. Her award-winning plays are portfolios of humorous situations that have attracted the attention of crowds composed of the general public and of academics. Reza turns discussions of art, parenting, existentialism, solitude and tragedy into comedies that distill a feminine humor. The public loves it, laughs and applauds. Inspired by Hélène Cixous’s call to laugh as ‘medusas’ (« A feminine text cannot fail to. . . break up the truth with laughter », and « laughs at the very idea of pronouncing the word silence »), I elaborate on the subtle presence of a feminine voice in Reza’s humor. I also consider the fact that Reza has inherited a Jewish humor. The combination of this ancient humor with a feminine voice contributes to Reza’s original imprint upon French theater. Applying selected theories of humor (mainly Bergson and Freud), to the textual analysis of five of her plays, I provide examples of how Reza’s humor transcends the old dichotomies of masculine/feminine and superior/inferior to inscribe a laughter that is particularly feminine. This project is organized in three chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction to the discussion of feminine humor, setting forth Cixous’s, among others, theoretical framework. Selected passages from the play « Art » provide examples of specific strategies of Reza’s feminine humor. The second chapter analyzes passages from the plays Le dieu du carnage and Trois versions de la vie. In the third chapter, the discussion is enlarged to include a short study of Jewish humor and its traces in the plays La traversée de l’hiver and Conversations après un enterrement. The conclusion takes a brief look at how the play L’homme du hazard also contributes to Reza’s feminine manifestation of humor. Reza’s theater is a fun, thought provoking, reenergizing experience that can shed new light on our daily struggles in life and in relationships. Reza’s feminine humor introduces a new way of relating to reality. This project reflects my desire to share this with the readers. Have fun!

I slutet av 90-talet sköljde en våg med asiatisk skräckfilm in över västvärlden. Filmerna handlade om kvinnor som dött en våldsam eller orättvis död och nu var tillbaka för att hämnas. Takashi Miike är en av de mest kända japanska regissörerna som har bidragit till den japanska skräckfilmsgenren som fick så stor spridning i väst. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka kvinnoroller som finns representerade i fyra utav Miikes skräckfilmer och hur de framställs. Uppsatsen utgår från klassisk feministisk filmteori och undersöker om Barbara Creeds ”the monstrous feminine” och Carol Clovers ”the final girl” finns representerade i Miikes filmer. Bland uppsatsens slutsatser går det att finna att ”the final girl” delvis finns representerad i Miikes filmer, dock inte i samma utsträckning som i amerikansk skräckfilm, samt att man kan stöta på en viss problematik när man applicerar Creeds och Clovers teorier på filmer som inte följer ett västerländskt berättande.

This research was conducted from an anthropology narrative approach and based on semistructured conversation interviews with four Thai women who owned their own businesses and therefore were in a leadership position. The purpose was to get a picture of women leadership in the working life in Thailand. Focus was to find characteristics in their leadership, in the way they became leaders, their forces, how they thought of their leadership and which attitudes they met from society. This was analysed using the theory from Hofstede with five dimensions on cultures and also from democratic and authoritarian leadership. The result showed both similarities and differences. Similarities, such as the respondents being strong, hard working women running a family business and mostly using a democratic leadership and were forced to stand by themselves at the same time as they cared a lot about relations. It appeared that the Thai society was changing; there the women got a more prominent role in the working life, which embodied a more feminine culture with smaller power distances.

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<p>This research was conducted from an anthropology narrative approach and based on semistructured conversation interviews with four Thai women who owned their own businesses and therefore were in a leadership position. The purpose was to get a picture of women leadership in the working life in Thailand. Focus was to find characteristics in their leadership, in the way they became leaders, their forces, how they thought of their leadership and which attitudes they met from society. This was analysed using the theory from Hofstede with five dimensions on cultures and also from democratic and authoritarian leadership. The result showed both similarities and differences. Similarities, such as the respondents being strong, hard working women running a family business and mostly using a democratic leadership and were forced to stand by themselves at the same time as they cared a lot about relations. It appeared that the Thai society was changing; there the women got a more prominent role in the working life, which embodied a more feminine culture with smaller power distances.</p>

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 5, 2010). Advisor: Paul O'Keeffe. Keywords: sculpture, performance, fabric, beauty, sewing, feminine. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28).

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on February 1, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Jason T. Eberl, Brian C. McDonald, Kenneth W. Davis. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 49).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-208). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.