This thesis sets out to examine the relationship between science fiction and its conditions of production, specifically interrogating the genre's articulations of the ideology of modernity as progress. Sf has been characterized variously as a characteristically useful critical engagement with the ideologies of its context and as wholly ideological at the level of form, relying on the authority of a scientific episteme in its "cognitive estrangements," while not obligated to operate within the boundaries of this episteme. As such, the genre is unparalleled in its capacity to articulate ideologies under the guise of a putatively neutral science and reason. However, this same formal action places the genre in the unique position of being able to utilize the authority of a scientific episteme to re-evaluate the putative neutrality of that very scientific episteme. As a result, this study concludes that while the genre's reliance on the external authority of science in "cognitively" organizing its estrangements may make it particularly conducive to articulating ideological technoscience and the ideology of modernity as progress, the genre is characteristically ambivalent in this respect, both at the level of form and as a result of the incongruities between form and narrative. To support my thesis I engage a number of science fictional texts, focusing on Golden Age sf of the mid-20th century, while also branching out into explorations of a variety of 20th and 21st century sf texts, including texts from the pulp era, New Wave, cyberpunk, and post-singularity sf. I analyze within the effects of the conceptual mapping of society in terms of the natural sciences in sf, as well as the ambivalent presence of the robot as a megatextual motif, exploring the relationship of these to the ideology of modernity as progress and the post-scarcity fantasy of global mass consumption prosperity.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), a Dutch Baroque painter, is known as one of the more prominent artists among the Utrecht Caravaggisti, so-named for the city in which he worked and as a follower of Caravaggio. The Caravaggesque style swept through Northern Europe during the cusp of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and genre scenes of half-length figures could be found in every art fair and open market. The label of Utrecht Caravaggisti, however, is a limiting descriptor for ter Brugghen, who created works in response to the changing art market and tastes of a growing Dutch middle class, not motivated solely out of admiration for the Italian painter and his style. Hendrick ter Brugghen’s works featuring musicians at play are prime examples of how an artist in the competitive art market of the northern Netherlands engaged the viewer in a multitude of ways. With the rise of the middle-class merchants, professionals, and city officials, as well as the establishment of music and art academies, the subject of lower class musicians likely would have appealed to a range of buyers. Ter Brugghen’s use of half-length figures find their roots in earlier Dutch and Flemish artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch and Quentin Massys, who preceded Caravaggio in this type of composition by nearly a century, and certainly would have appealed to the market of a newly formed Dutch Republic seeking its own artistic lineage. Ter Brugghen employed allegorical themes and invoked a modern and vernacular variant of the pastoral mode in his string musicians, which would have been instantly recognizable to the learned buyer. In addition to engaging the viewer on a contemplative level, I shall argue that ter Brugghen’s musical compositions also enticed the viewer by activating his innate ideasthetic responses through visual cues and multisensory stimulation. By examining ter Brugghen’s musician paintings within the context and history of Dutch art production, we can more fully understand how his works engage the viewer so effectively and how they extend well beyond a dialogue with Caravaggio to assert his own inventiveness and modernity. / Art History

This thesis examines the symbolism of food in the Italian narrative during the economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s. It explores how food and hunger in selected texts reflect historical, social, and anthropological changes during Italy's transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation. Through works of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino, Luciano Bianciardi, Luigi Meneghello and Fabrizia Ramondino the study analyses the representation of food, or lack thereof, to criticise the emerging consumer society, reflect on the concept of homeland and emotions such as nostalgia, and examines generational, gender and class differences. The thesis further explores the inventions of traditions, as well as the connection between myth and tradition in relation to food culture. The selected literature primarily consists of works where food appears to be less relevant on first reading. At last, the aim of this thesis is to work out the strong symbolic power of food, especially for this period and in these works, and to demonstrate to what extent "si può parlare del cibo o attraverso Il cibo" (Ghiazza, Silvana: Le diverse funzioni del cibo nel testo letterario, p. 10).

This study explores the relationship between poetry and politics in Books 1 and 15 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Vergil had refashioned the concept of the golden age to better resonate with Roman values, and Ovid in turn responds to Vergil by making his own golden age free from law, seafaring, and warfare (Met. 1.89-112). Ovid’s golden age clearly foils his ‘praise’ of Augustus in Book 15 (819-70), and thus challenges Vergil’s innovations. Ovid closely connects his demiurge (opifex, 1.79), who created the conditions necessary for the existence of the golden age, to himself (15.871-9); they together display the potency of poetic power. Poesis is different than the power of empire, which is inherently destructive: Jupiter terminates the golden age (1.113), and Augustus’ accomplishments are only ostensibly ‘peaceful’ (15.823, 833). Ovid suggests that the power of poesis remains beyond the destructive reach of Augustus, since Rome’s power is limited to the post-golden, chaotic world, and that poesis enjoys the status of eternality which Rome and Augustus claimed to possess themselves.

Le présent travail de recherche se propose d’étudier comment se décline le concept d’entre-deux dans El Pasajero de Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa, en prenant pour point de départ l’épineuse question de l’appartenance générique de cette œuvre. La première partie de cette étude définit les influences diverses dont s’abreuve le texte. Par-delà l’inspiration italienne, le texte plonge ses racines dans un substrat folklorique hispanique réaffirmant ainsi la prégnance du concept d’entre-deux dans la prose figuéroène. Ce dernier se manifeste, en effet, dès le paratexte puisque le titre complet de l’œuvre, El Pasajero, advertencias utilísimas a la vida humana doit être lu comme une invitation à une pratique étendue de la transtextualité, une invitation que viennent confirmer les dires du meneur de l’interaction. La porosité des frontières entre réalité et fiction tend à ériger le texte en laboratoire d’expérimentation littéraire et en lieu de passage vers de nouvelles formules littéraires, aspect auquel est consacrée la deuxième partie de cette étude. Le traitement de l’espace et du temps mais aussi celui des personnages sont autant de points qui attestent de la fonction déterminante que joue le concept d’entre-deux dans la genèse de l’œuvre figuéroène. Celle-ci oscille perpétuellement entre tradition et innovation littéraires. Enfin la dernière partie de cette étude montre comment au-delà d’une certaine bigarrure, l’entre-deux confère aussi au texte figuéroen une cohérence et une homogénéité en devenant un élément structurant, à l’instar du discours sur le mérite qui sous-tend l’œuvre. Autrement dit, l’entre-deux, chez Figueroa, devient une stratégie d’écriture qui passe par différents mécanismes de glissements qui confirment la nature profondément hybride de El Pasajero. / The purpose of this PhD thesis is to study the in-betweenness concept in Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa's El Pasajero in all its forms and will first deal with the thorny issue raised by the generic identity of the work. The first part of this study aims to define the different influences pervading the text. Besides being Italian-inspired, the text is deeply rooted in the Hispanic folk substrate, which thus testifies to the prevalence of the in-betweenness concept in Figueroa's prose. Indeed, the concept emerges as soon as one reads the paratext, for the full title of the work, El Pasajero, advertencias utilísimas a la vida humana, has to be construed as an invitation to indulge in extensive transtextual practices, as confirmed by the words of the character who presides over interaction. The porous frontiers between reality and fiction tend to transform the text into a laboratory where literary forms are experimented on and a place of exchanges leading to new literary patterns, which are the focus of attention in the second part of the study. The treatment of space and time and characterization all contribute to underlining the key role played by the in-betweenness concept in the genesis of Figueroa's work. The latter keeps wavering between literary tradition and innovation. Finally, the last part of the study shows that beyond the colourful patchwork, in-betweenness gives consistency and homogeneity to Figueroa's text by becoming a structuring principle, like the discourse on merit inscribed in the work. In other words, in Figueroa's work, in-betweenness is the cornerstone of a writing strategy based on different slippage mechanisms that account for the profoundly hybrid nature of El Pasajero.

The major theme of this thesis is {\clq}qCourtly and moralistic literature and Spanish aristocratic society of the Golden Age``. The goal is to portray european courtly-moral literature, which described aristocratic society of 16th and 17th century. Thesis is devided into six chapters, each presents one of the essential works of art which have influenced the behaviour of the society of the court and which have contributed to the mentality changes of the noble class. The reader thus gains not only a comprehensive picture of Spanish courtly literature and culture of the Golden Age, but of the Spanish courtly society as a whole.

abstract: ABSTRACT Mexican Golden Age Cinema materialized the narratives of identity, unity and morality that became the obligated point of reference to understand social stability and mexicaness during the post-revolutionary period. Hence, film stars evolved into cultural icons that embodied the representation of patriarchal order as a synonym for nationalism. However, dissident depictions that challenged carefully tailored heteronormative roles were as much a part of the post-revolutionary reality as was the attempt to manufacture a utopic heterosexual family on screen, that functioned as a metaphor for national reunification under the law of the father/president of the Mexican Republic. Nonetheless, even when an distinguished member of the Mexican star system, Sara García´s queer performativity of her quintessential sainted mother and even more revered grandmother characters highlights fissures in the effort to naturalize sexual passivity and heterosexual motherhood as the core of Mexican women identity. Furthermore, García took advantage of her romanticized butch characters in order to revert lesbian invisibility in movies where she portrait roles that exemplified sapphic households. In most of García's films masculine presence became redundant, hence challenging male privilege. Not very far from her own reality, García's queer women of a certain age, involved in female marriages, contested the post-revolutionary discourse of stability and mexicaness even in the heteronormative realm of Golden Age Filmmaking. Regardless of her queerness, unlike any other transgressive figure, Sara García became a national icon in her time and her image continues to hold relevance in current Mexican popular culture. More than five decades after her death young generations are still familiar with her legacy and her image has evolved into the representation of the nostalgia for tradition and alleged "more simple" times. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Spanish 2014