The central aim of this thesis is to critically examine the values associated with dogs in Victorian British art and visual culture. It studies the redefining and restructuring of the domestic dog as it was conceptualized in visual culture and the art market. It proposes that the dog was strongly associated with social values and moral debates which often occurred within a visual arena, including exhibitions, illustrated newspapers, and prints. Consequently, visual representations of the dog can be seen as an important means through which to study Victorian culture and society. Historians have agreed that the Victorian period was a significant turning point for how we perceive the dog. Harriet Ritvo, Michael Worboys and Neil Pemberton cite the Victorian period as founding or popularizing many recognisable canine constructs; such as competitive breeding; a widespread acceptance of dogs as pets; and the association of particular breeds with particular classes of people. Phillip Howell defines the Victorian period as the point at which the domestic dog was conceptually established. The figurative domestic dog did not simply exist in the home but was part of the home; an embodiment of its core (often middle class) values. As such, the domestic dog became the standard by which all other dogs were perceived and the focal point for related social debates. Yet most studies concerning the Victorian dog overlook the contribution of visual culture to these cultural developments. William Secord compiled an extensive catalogue of Victorian dog artwork and Diana Donald examined Landseer and the dog as an artistic model yet neither have fully situated the dog within a broader Victorian social environment, nor was their intention to critically examine the dog’s signification within the larger visual landscape. Chapter One provides this overview, while subsequent chapters provide studies of key canine motifs and the manner in which they operated in art and visual culture. Underpinning this thesis is a concern with the Victorian moral values and ideals of domesticity in urban environments. These values and their relation to the dog are explored through the framework of the social history of art. Seen through this methodology, this thesis allows the relationship between canine debates, social concerns, and visual representations to be understood. It will argue that the figure of the dog had a significant role to play both socially and visually within Victorian society and propose a reappraisal of the dog in art historical study.

This thesis employs the bodily wound as a metaphor for exploring HIV/AIDS in visual culture. In particular it connects issues of bodily penetration, sexuality and mortality with pre-existing anxieties around the integrity of the male body and identity. The thesis is structured around four case studies, none of which can be said to be ‘about’ HIV/AIDS in any straightforward way, and a theoretical and historical overview in the introduction. In doing so it demonstrates that our understanding of HIV/AIDS is always connected to highly entrenched ways of thinking, particularly around gender and embodiment. The introduction sets out the issues around HIV/AIDS particularly as they relate to visual culture and promotes the work of Georges Bataille and Jacques Derrida as philosophical antecedents of queer theory, a body of ideas that emerges alongside HIV/AIDS and is intimately connected with it. Chapter one continues to engage with Bataille through the work of Ron Athey. Athey’s work uses religious and sacrificial imagery, wounding and bodily penetration to explore living in the world as an HIV-positive man. The work of Mary Douglas, who argued that the individual body could stand in for the social body, along with Leo Bersani, who argues that male penetration is tantamount to subjective dissolution are instructive in this regard. The second chapter examines how Bataille’s work has been incorporated into the discourse of art history but subject to strategic exclusions that masked its engagement with sexuality, corporeality and politics at the height of the AIDS crisis in the western world. It argues that the work of David Wojnarowicz addresses similar concerns but in an embodied, activist form. The third chapter looks at a film by François Ozon from 2005 and argues that, through photography and trauma discourse, it returns viewers to a time when HIV infection was invariably terminal and fatal. The film, therefore, is an engagement with mortality on the part of a young man. The final chapter looks at the films of Pedro Almodóvar to argue that his films simultaneously undercut our expectations around gender and sexuality while promoting an understanding of sexual difference as the originary experience of loss in our lives. The work of Judith Butler is instructive in this regard and also draws out its connections and implications to HIV/AIDS. In conclusion the thesis argues that HIV/AIDS, understood as a wound to the idea of an integral, stable and sacrosanct body, has made such an understanding of the body untenable and that this has enabling and productive consequences for our understanding of gender and sexuality.

Admitindo a produção estética como uma importante condição da existência humana, não é difícil entender a importância de se dar voz à juventude que tem uma produção poética rica, ainda desconhecida e pouco explorada à seu favor. Dar voz, aqui, sobretudo às suas imagens visuais, criar oportunidades de explorar a eloquência e as significações dessa literacia visual específica (Gil, 2011) e dar ouvidos ao que nos gritam tais imagens. A pagada aqui defendida se estende aos gadgets, às telas de celular, computadores, videoclipes, games, mangás, entre tantas outras fontes visuais e comportamentais. Assim, no permanente processo de ressignificação da escola, nos parece promissor o máximo aproveitamento das imagens que constituem a cultura visual que envolve o cotidiano dos estudantes. Esperamos que esta pesquisa mostre um pouco da riqueza, força ou energia cultural que existe no universo da pichação e a pertinência de sua reflexão em sala de aula como um caminho de elucidação não apenas dos seus aspectos estéticos e plásticos mas, também redefinir o papel político da afirmação de padrões estético-culturais e assim fortalecer o diálogo com os jovens estudantes periferizados / Thinking about the production of these young people as a necessary way to get noticed, or rather, to have their thoughts recorded in a metropolis that was not designed for them, but that they must also belong to them, we tried to carry this discussion to the classroom without the pretense of being pedagogical or regulate graffiti, but understand it better as a resource to reach these visual producers. And so do the most properly possible to the teaching work. Assuming production aesthetics as an important condition of human existence, it is not difficult to understand the importance of giving voice to youth who have a rich poetic production, unknown and unexplored to your favor. Giving voice here, especially to its visual images, creating opportunities to explore the eloquence and the meanings that "visual literacy" specific (Gil, 2011) and to listen to what scream such images. A 'paid' defended here extends to gadgets to mobile screens, computers, video games, manga, among many other behavioral and visual sources. Thus, the ongoing process of reframing the school, seems the most promising use of images that constitute the visual culture that surrounds the daily lives of students. We hope this research show a bit of wealth, power or cultural energy that exists in the universe of the graffiti and the relevance of its reflection in the classroom as a way of clarifying not only its aesthetic and plastic but also redefine the role of political affirmation of cultural-aesthetic standards and thus strengthen the dialogue with young students from the urban periphery

In this case study I document a group of youth, ages thirteen to fifteen, as they investigate and explore social justice issues and personal beliefs in order to create a community service learning project. Ideas are presented through the introduction of activist art and also by the viewing of recordings of a variety of perspectives on social justice issues and community involvement from a diverse population. The vehicle of inquiry in the study is the production of a visual journal in which thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and ideas will be examined and considered through art making. A review of literature related to the benefits of artmaking and individual storytelling, teaching social justice issues, and the influence of visual culture provide insight and foundation for the study. Qualitative research methods are incorporated to determine the effectiveness of connecting the making of art to the instigation of community involvement. The data collected and interpreted to inform the conclusions are interviews, discussions, and visual and written responses by the participants in the study. The conclusions may be used in either a classroom or community art forum and contribute to the foundational body of knowledge that asserts that art making and critical thinking are necessary components of contributing to today's society.

The blurred lines between the domains of art, education and art education create tensions that impact how art educators negotiate their identities (Baxter, Ortega López, Serig & Sullivan, 2008) within themselves and through a myriad of complex relationships with society and the natural world. I reflect upon the profound transformations of my theoretical and methodological framework of pedagogy emerging from my academic, artistic and professional experiences, particularly my exposure to twentieth century philosophy, post-modernism, critical pedagogy, democratic education, feminist theory and queer studies, each through the lens of social justice. I draw from the ideas of thinkers—Goodman, Lorde, Deleuze, Freire and Zolla, amongst many—who, in one way or another, embraced an integrative dialectic of difference rather than fearing or rejecting conflict, opposites and contradictions. In the twenty-first century, this exploration of the interspace has resulted in arts-based theoretical and methodological approaches to inquiry (Rolling, 2013) such as studio art as research practice (Sullivan, 2004), a/r/tography (Springgay, Irwin & Kind, 2005), and productive ambiguity (Shipe, 2015). This thesis is an arts-based autoethnography, intended to embody the dual nature of the identities and practices of artists/teachers through the creation of an artistic product. Carolyn Ellis and Arthur P. Bochner pointed to the three axes of autoethnography: the self (auto), culture (ethno) and the research process (graphy); modes of autoethnography fall along different places within these continua (Ellis & Bochner, 2000). While I place the strongest focus on my experience and culture, I also stress the relevance and rigor of the research process. Drawing inspiration from the amazing work of Nick Sousanis and Rachel Branham, I include extensive notes and references at the end of the thesis. The prologue is formatted as an illustrated novel—a blueprint for a full graphic novel version of this thesis. The rest of the manuscript is a literary autoethnography, by which I assume the identity of an autobiographical writer foremost.

The disciplinary anxiety that has emerged between art history and visual culture studies increasingly dominates academic research and institutional practice both in global and South African contexts. The research posed here explores the contested relationship between the discipline of art history and the newly-emerging field of visual culture studies. For, despite the fact that art history has already transformed itself due to ideological pressures, this transformation is evidently no longer sufficient to ward off the visual cultural onslaught. Since the disciplinary boundaries between art history and visual culture studies intersect - or, more aptly, collide - this research examines whether these two fields are complementary or antagonistic endeavours. The proliferation of multitudes of ambiguous visual images, perpetuated by the rise of new media technologies, has complicated image production and consumption. As a result, a critique of all image-making technologies - including art - has gained momentum in light of the increasing entanglement of images with human existence. In particular, this research argues that art history can no longer maintain its allegiance to hierarchical distinctions between images, nor can it rely on traditional art historical methodologies only in its analysis and interpretation of images. This research proposes that art history visual culture studies can critically analyse the ideological functions of images in our postmodern era more appropriately than traditional art history is able to do. / Dissertation (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

Mujeres de papel examines the representation of female same-sex desire in Spanish literature and culture between 1868 and 1936, drawing on novels, popular sex manuals, sexological treatises, postcards, and illustrations. While scholars have productively attended to Post-Francoist literary and cinematographic expressions of non-normative sexualities, my dissertation sheds new light on its rich yet discontinuous prehistories. I argue that the figure of the “lesbian” is a convergence point for the ideas, beliefs and anxieties of Spanish modernity. From the will to know and categorize to erotic fantasies, the “lesbian” constitutes a pervasive yet unstable trope, which resists and at the same time motivates its definition and control. Chapter one analyzes Francisco de Sales Mayo’s 1869 La Condesita (Memorias de una doncella), a work halfway between a private diary, an erotic novel, and a medical treatise, which features a provocative case of female homosexuality. The next two chapters grapple with literary, (pseudo)scientific, and visual artifacts of the so-called “sicalipsis,” or erotic wave that inundated Spanish culture between the late 19th century and the 1930s. Works studied in these sections include novels by Rafael Cansinos-Assens, Álvaro Retana, Artemio Precioso, and Felipe Trigo, popular sex manuals by Vicente Suárez Casañ and Ángel Martín de Lucenay, and visual erotica. Chapter four turns to the fiction of Feminist writer Carmen de Burgos in conjunction with the theories on “intersexuality” formulated by Gregorio Marañon, Spain’s most renowned scientist and public intellectual of the 1920s. / Romance Languages and Literatures

A travers l’évolution du costume de scène et de sa représentation dans les arts graphiques, la thèse explore les éclairages croisés que jettent l’un sur l’autre le développement du costume de scène historique et la construction d’une pensée et d’une culture historique en Grande-Bretagne, entre 1776 et 1834. L'histoire du costume de scène historique, avant les mises en scène érudites du milieu du XIXème siècle, est généralement évoquée en termes de costumes "Van Dyck" stéréotypés. C'est pourtant dans la deuxième moitié du XVIIIème siècle que se développent l'engouement pour l’étude des antiquités et pour les collections de portraits gravés, l'esthétique du pittoresque et celle du néo-gothique. La période se caractérise également par le succès des romans historiques et le désir général de la part du public d'en savoir plus sur les coutumes – et les costumes – du passé. Cette analyse interdisciplinaire replace le costume de scène dans le contexte plus large de la culture visuelle et historique de la fin du XVIIIème siècle et du début du XIXème. L’étude de documents liés aux théâtres londoniens ainsi que de tableaux, gravures, illustrations, spectacles et expositions a permis de montrer que la représentation du costume de scène historique dans les arts visuels reflète de nouvelles manières de concevoir et de représenter l'histoire, profondément marquées par l'intérêt pour la vie quotidienne des époques passées et l'attention portée à la matérialité du costume. Cette thèse suggère que le costume historique au théâtre et sa représentation dans le portrait d'acteur sous ses nombreuses formes (tableaux, estampes, illustrations…) participèrent au processus plus large de définition de l'art et de l'identité britannique dans la période 1776-1834. / This thesis explores the relationships between stage costume and British historical culture in the period 1776-1834. Until the painstakingly researched antiquarian stagings of the mid-nineteenth century, the history of historical stage costume has typically been described in terms of a stereotyped ‘Van Dyck dress’. Yet the period witnessed the expansion of antiquarianism and portrait print collecting, the development of the Picturesque and Neo-Gothic aesthetics, the success of historical novels and a general desire to know more about the habits and costumes of the past. This interdisciplinary analysis situates stage costume within the wider visual and historical culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Drawing on theatrical material related to the London theatres as well as paintings, engravings, book illustrations, shows and exhibitions, this study argues that the representation of historical stage costume in the visual arts reflects new ways of conceiving and depicting history, in which interest in the everyday life of past periods and a focus on the material and the visual were fundamental. This thesis suggests that ht historical costume in the theatre and its representation in theatrical portraiture played a role in a broader process that sought to define British art and identity.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / American cities are rampant with structural inequities, or “unfreedoms,” which manifest in the forms of poverty, housing instability, low life expectancy, low economic mobility, and other infringements on people’s abilities to do things they value in their lives and meet their full potential. These unfreedoms affect historically and systemically disenfranchised communities of color more than others. Too often, economic development that is supposed to remediate these issues leads to disproportionate economic growth for people who already have access to opportunity, without adequately creating conditions that equitably remove barriers, extend opportunities, and advance freedoms to all people. This dissertation investigates why this pattern persists. In this work, I describe the significance of the differing ways in which economic development is perceived by people living and working in an historically and systemically disinvested urban neighborhood facing socioeconomic transformation near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and city decision-makers in governmental, nonprofit, and quasi-governmental organizations. The ethnographic research methods I used in this study revealed that: many residents described economic development as a process that takes real and perceived neighborhood ownership away from the established community to transform the place for the benefit of outsiders and newcomers, who are, more often than not, white people; and city decision-makers contend that displacement is not a problem in Indianapolis but residents consistently see economic development leading to displacement. I contend that the type of disconnect that persists between the perceptions of people who live and work in the neighborhood and those of city decision-makers is the result of exclusionary development practices and helps perpetuate inequities. This work concludes with a solution for rebalancing the power between well-networked and well-resourced decision-makers and residents facing inequitable and exclusionary development.

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