Global ETD Search

31	Acting and its refusal in theatre and film. McCurdy, Marian Lea January 2014 (has links) This thesis examines works of theatre and film that explore a refusal of acting. Acting has traditionally been considered as something false or as pretending, in opposition to everyday life, which has been considered as something real and truthful. This has resulted in a desire to refuse acting, evident in the tradition of the anti-theatrical prejudice where acting is considered to be seductive and dangerous. All the works that I examine in this thesis are relatively recent and all of them explore the paradox that in our (postmodern) times a gradual reversal has occurred where everyday life is seen as more and more false or as pretending or simulating (ie. containing acting and theatricality) and conversely, acting in theatre and film has become the place where people have begun searching for reality and truth and where ‘acting’ and pretending in life can be revealed and refused. The result of this paradox - and what I also discuss as a confusion of acting and living - is that the place in which acting can be refused has shifted; the ethical desire to refuse acting (in theatre and in life) is turning up in the aesthetic domain of acting itself. In my first chapter I study works by filmmaker István Szabó and playwright Werner Fritsch, who represent the desire to refuse acting in the context of fascism where theatrical and filmic spectacle was used by the Nazis to seduce the population and where actors during this period also experienced an inability to separate their political and artistic lives. In my second chapter I look at the way Genet’s The Balcony and Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution explore the desire to refuse acting as a result of a confusion of acting and living in the context of sexual (sadomasochistic) role-play. And in my third chapter I examine the way Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls, von Trier’s The Idiots and Affleck’s I’m Still Here represent a refusal of acting and theatricality altogether, responding to the way that ‘acting’ in life may have become an all-pervasive substitute (a simulation) for living. Foundational to the development of this thesis and a major source of material is my analysis of three theatrical productions with Free Theatre Christchurch, directed by Peter Falkenberg, in which I was involved as an actor and in which a refusal of acting was explored. acting theatre film refusal theatricality ethical vs aesthetic anti-theatrical prejudice devil seduction fascist spectacle Nietzsche Baudrillard simulation suicide Szabó Fritsch Falkenberg Free Theatre Christchurch Genet Artaud sadomasochistic role-play ritual tango Ang Lee Žižek Warhol happenings reality television von Trier Affleck Abramović
32	Det odödas analys : En studie av centralproblematiken i Slavoj Zizeks samhällsanalys / Undead-analysis : Observing the Social Theory of Slavoj Zizek Palm, Fredrik January 2007 (has links) This thesis examines the social theory of Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It focuses on Žižek’s work between 1989 and 2006, and offers an interpretation based on a reading of three central concepts: the Other, fantasy, and the act. All these concepts occupy the intersection between Lacan’s three orders (Imaginary, Real, Symbolic), which in Žižek’s theory means that they express a tension shared by all social order. The first chapter approaches Žižek’s conception of “the social” through an introduction of the Lacanian concept of "the Other." Attention is paid to how (a) the Other is constitutively split between its role as a Symbolic network of signifiers, and its enigmatic (Real and Imaginary) capacity to support this Symbolic network; (b) a similar split marks several of Žižek’s Lacanian and Hegelian concepts. Moreover, the chapter contrasts Žižekian sociality with those of Giddens, Luhmann and Althusser. The second chapter gives an account of the topological place of fantasy in Žižek’s theory. Relating Žižek’s theory to Critical Theory, deconstruction and Deleuzian philosophy, fantasy is presented as a concept countering new forms of “bad infinity” (Hegel) in modern social theory. The third chapter links Žižek’s theory of the act to the theories of Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, and Alain Badiou. Commenting on Rex Butler’s brilliant reading of Žižek, the thesis argues that Butler’s definition of the act is too negative. Instead, the thesis proposes a definition which emphasises the act's productive dimension, insisting on how the act ultimately involves the transformation from masculine to feminine enjoyment. The last chapter critically observes the different treatments Lacan and Derrida receive in Žižek’s text. The argument concludes that the Žižekian text relapses into a "masculine logic of exception", insofar as it leaves Derrida’s phallus untouched, while treating Lacan as the only one lacking phallus. Sociology Rex Butler Judith Butler Anthony Giddens sexual difference castration the symbolic the real the undead the act fantasy den Andre the Other performativity deconstruction psychoanalysis poltical theory Slavoj Žižek Jacques Lacan Jacques Derrida Gilles Deleuze Niklas Luhmann Sociologi det odöda akt fantasi dekonstruktion psykoanalys politisk teori performativitet Ernesto Laclau
33	Mitchell's mandalas : mapping David Mitchell's textual universe Harris-Birtill, Rosemary January 2017 (has links) This study uses the Tibetan mandala, a Buddhist meditation aid and sacred artform, as a secular critical model by which to analyse the complete fictions of author David Mitchell. Discussing his novels, short stories and libretti, this study maps the author's fictions as an interconnected world-system whose re-evaluation of secular belief in galvanising compassionate ethical action is revealed by a critical comparison with the mandala's methods of world-building. Using the mandala as an interpretive tool to critique the author's Buddhist influences, this thesis reads the mandala as a metaphysical map, a fitting medium for mapping the author's ethical worldview. The introduction evaluates critical structures already suggested to describe the author's worlds, and introduces the mandala as an alternative which more fully addresses Mitchell's fictional terrain. Chapter I investigates the mandala's cartographic properties, mapping Mitchell's short stories as integral islandic narratives within his fictional world which, combined, re-evaluate the role of secular belief in galvanising positive ethical action. Chapter II discusses the Tibetan sand mandala in diaspora as a form of performance when created for unfamiliar audiences, reading its cross-cultural deployment in parallel with the regenerative approaches to tragedy in the author's libretti Wake and Sunken Garden. Chapter III identifies Mitchell's use of reincarnation as a form of non-linear temporality that advocates future-facing ethical action in the face of humanitarian crises, reading the reincarnated Marinus as a form of secular bodhisattva. Chapter IV deconstructs the mandala to address its theoretical limitations, identifying the panopticon as its sinister counterpart, and analysing its effects in number9dream. Chapter V shifts this study's use of the mandala from interpretive tool to emerging category, identifying the transferrable traits that form the emerging category of mandalic literature within other post-secular contemporary fictions, discussing works by Michael Ondaatje, Ali Smith, Yann Martel, Will Self, and Margaret Atwood.

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