This thesis, titled '[Re]viewing the Chinese Landscape: Imaging the Body [In]visible in Shanshuihua ?????????,' examines shanshuihua as a 'theoretical object' through the intervention of the present. In doing so, the study uses the body as an emblem for going beyond the surface appearance of a shanshuihua. This new strategy for interpreting shanshuihua proposes a 'Chinese' way of situating bodily consciousness. Thus, this study is not about shanshuihua in a general sense. Instead, it focuses on the emergence and codification of shanshuihua in the tenth and eleventh centuries with particular emphasis on the cultural construction of landscape via the agency of the body. On one level the thesis is a comprehensive study of the ideas of the body in shanshuihua, and on another it is a review of shanshuihua through situating bodily consciousness. The approach is not an abstract search for meaning but, rather, is empirically anchored within a heuristic and phenomenological framework. This framework utilises primary and secondary sources on art history and theory, sinology, medical and intellectual history, Chinese philosophy, phenomenology, human geography, cultural studies, and selected landscape texts. This study argues that shanshuihua needs to be understood and read not just as an image but also as a creative transformative process that is inevitably bound up with the body. In addition, the thesis contends that the body is 'invisible' in shanshuihua not because it is absent or irrelevant, but rather because it had been 'naturalised' within the landscape as a palimpsest. Further, the thesis urges that the seemingly 'invisible' may be made visible through knowing how and what to see. In all, this study presents a different view of shanshuihua: as a theoretical object it 'theorises'; as a painting it 'transforms'; and as a process it 'embodies'.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 571-597).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1990. / Photocopy does not include plates. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 349-376).

Die Äolsharfe galt als Stimme der Natur, des Windes, ohne menschliches Zutun. Sich der Natur anzunähern führte bei den Romantikern und Impressionisten zu einer Musik, bei der Gestalten und Phrasenbildung zugunsten des ›Klanges‹ zurücktraten. Debussys Prélude Brouillards (Nebel), in Beziehung gesetzt zur chinesischen Landschaftsmalerei öffnet den Raum für philosophische Überlegungen über die Rolle des Subjekts in der Musik, in Auseinandersetzung mit der Philosophie von Theodor W. Adorno und François Jullien, sowie mit Klangkompositionen von John Cage und Alvin Lucier. / The Aeolian harp was considered to be the voice of nature and of the wind, able to play without any human help. To get closer to nature, Romantic and Impressionist composers reduced the importance of figure and phrasing in favour of sound. The prélude »Brouillards« (fog) of Debussy, set in relation to Chinese landscapes paintings, opens the mind for philosophical reflections on the role of subjectivity in music, in light of the philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno and François Jullien and with sound compositions of John Cage and Alvin Lucier.

In each of my paintings I try to create an individual micro-universe made up of elements that resonate between the familiar and the unknown. I carve up space and hybridize disparate elements, in an effort to excavate objects and spaces from our collective unconscious. By employing different perspectives, I try to encourage an experiential view of the landscape, like the one that exists for the viewer in the physical world, where sightlines are constantly shifting. These landscapes become a rhythmic labyrinth to enter and travel through, wherein the viewer experiences his or her own personal associations. In this thesis, I will explore the painted landscape in Western and Eastern traditions and discuss different types of landscapes as they relate to my paintings and my personal commentary on the landscape. I will also examine my painting process and my personal approach to fundamental elements including perspective, line, and color.