Thesis (Ph.D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-215).

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to five residences that were commissioned and headed by noblewomen in England between the years 1444 and 1541. By focusing on the design, layout and use of domestic space, it explores how female authority was articulated through the material, spatial and social environment of the late medieval great household and its wider landscape. The five noblewomen and sites considered in this study are as follows: Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk (c.1404-75) and Ewelme Manor House (Oxfordshire); Margaret of Anjou, queen of England (1430-82) and Greenwich Palace (Kent); Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and Derby (1443-1509) and Collyweston Palace (Northamptonshire); Katherine Courtenay, countess of Devon (1479-1527) and Tiverton Castle (Devon); and Margaret Pole, countess of Salisbury (1473-1541) and Warblington Castle (Hampshire). By taking a comparative approach to the principal houses of these five women, this thesis makes a new and significant contribution to scholarly discussions of gender, power and space in pre-modern England, which have until now neglected to consider the great household as a site of female authority. Chapter one introduces the sites, and explores the geographical and social factors governing the women's choices of those locations. Chapters two and three focus on the arrangement of outdoor and indoor space respectively, to consider whether there was a discernible gender difference in the ways in which male and female heads of household ordered space for the projection of their authority. Chapter four focuses on the representations of male and female bodies through large-scale visual media such as tapestries and wall paintings, and considers how their representation and placement within the domestic complex articulated female authority. The fifth and final chapter explores the women's performances of their authority as household figureheads. Overall, the thesis argues that female displays of domestic authority relied on a complex interplay of masculine and feminine elements, thus challenging a prevailing notion that authoritative women in pre-modern England were merely honorary men or exceptional women, and revealing a far more nuanced reality.

In much of the writing of twentieth century Anglo-Irish author Elizabeth Bowen, houses, and in particular family homes, often reflect the psychological and social status of their inhabitants. They can be understood as the structural embodiments of the vast cultural and economic network taking shape as the forces of urbanization and industrialization changed the landscape. Yet, even as these domestic spaces represent the predominant social relations characterizing the first half of the twentieth century, the family homes also can play a key role in character development and gender identity, defining the lives of those who inhabit them, by perpetuating these same previously established and codified social roles and relationships. The family home in Bowen is often characterized by the furniture and objects that fill and structure its interior space, and the resulting pattern of experience functions to confine and represent the lives and expectations of its residents. As a result, for each of these families, this domestic space and the memories with which it is associated exert a strong and compelling force on the family members’ present psychological and emotional states, as well as their expectations for the future. Although the social conventions of the family home can be suffocating in their definition of these expectations, especially for the women of the house, these conventions also supply a stability and constancy that is perhaps conducive to the very formation of a stable identity. The security promised by the inner order of the home comes to determine the psychological stability of the inhabitants’ subjective reality, though the many upheavals that inundated the first half of the twentieth century succeeded in revealing that spatial security as an illusion. If Bowen’s characters are to succeed in achieving a self-determined identity in the new, precarious reality of the modern century, they must not only reconcile themselves to the legacy of the family home and the past traditions that it embodies, but also determine a new basis for self-realization as a twentieth century subject outside of the prescribed roles defined and perpetuated by a more traditional domestic space. In order to determine the extent to which these modern family homes reflect the dominant social discourses of the period and perpetuate their codes of identity and behavior, it will be necessary to acknowledge and take into consideration the political and cultural environment in which Bowen’s representations of domestic space exist. For example, Bowen’s depiction of the Anglo-Irish Big House Danielstown in The Last September must be understood in light of the declining political and economic power of the Ascendancy that occurred throughout the early twentieth century. In a further effort to examine the significance of homes in Elizabeth Bowen, I will also focus on selected texts from her short fiction. The moments of dispossession that are scattered throughout Bowen’s texts appear to suggest the possibility of the fictions that lie behind the stability of both the family home and the identities of family members attached to that space.

A home is the anchor point of your existence, it is the place where you live. It is also a sensation connected to a place, a dwelling or a personal object. Your perception of home could be scattered across the country or the world, it does not take into consideration the passing of time or distance. Your childhood home could be as real as your present address in your perception of your home. This is a project about the architecture of the architecture of domestic space. To understand the processes behind the design of a home. We live in a time when the market is led by profit, the Swedish standards become the architect and the minimum becomes the standard. The research is conducted through a set of interviews to define the subjective perception of home. The findings are implemented in the current building regulations in order to question the current market and whom we are building for. At this moment “Boverket” are reconsidering the current regulations, which is a possibility to do it better. It might be the perfect time to bring back the focus from the profit to the residents. To make the dwelling fulfill its original purpose, to be a home. Lifted projects or plans in this project is not a criticism against the architects behind them. They are examples of products produced by the market as a result of current rules and regulations.

“Rewrite” is a photographic project that utilizes the domesstic space as a stage for emotional projection of a traumatic memory. The work considers the relationship that exists between an individual and the rooms and objects within a home space in an attempt at understanding an individual’s mental state. “Rewrite” explores the ways in which we exist through our home and how a juxtaposition of objects and materials can create meaning. The photographs are a visual interpretation of the emotions surrounding sexual abuse/assault/rape as they have related to my own personal history and conversations I have had with women close to me.

Este estudo analisa e compara a decoração de interiores residenciais em setores da elite paulistana. A investigação desta prática é entendida como reveladora das suas funções sociais, tal como sua capacidade de afirmar posições sociais, expressar identidades, poder de consumo, e produzir distinções sociais no espaço físico da casa. O exame da dimensão material e simbólica destes espaços se dá através de entrevistas com moradores e do registro fotográfico dos interiores visitados. Outras duas fontes de informações contribuem ainda para esta análise: edições recentes de revistas sobre decoração de interiores em circulação no mercado editorial brasileiro, e entrevistas qualitativas com profissionais especializados em decoração residencial que trabalham para as elites paulistanas. A investigação do papel destas mídias no processo de produção dos espaços residenciais contemporâneos e das suas recepções pelos moradores entrevistados, juntamente à análise das percepções destes profissionais sobre as demandas de seus clientes, contribuem para a compreensão dos diversos aspectos da decoração de interiores tal como ela se apresenta no mundo de hoje. / This study compares and analyses domestic interior decoration within sectors of the elites from the city of São Paulo. The investigation of such practice is here understood as one revealing of its social functions, as its capacities in affirming social positions, expressing identities, power of consumption, and producing social distinctions in the physical space of the home. The examination of the material and symbolic dimension of those spaces is accomplished trough interviews with residents and the photographic recording of the visited interiors. Two other sources of information also contribute to this analysis: recent editions of Brazilian magazines specialized in home decoration, and qualitative interviews with professionals dedicated to interior decoration who works for the São Paulos elites. The investigation of the role of these medias in the process of production of contemporary domestic interiors and its receptions from the interviewed residents along with the analysis of the perceptions of these professionals regarding the requirements of their clients contribute to the comprehension of the diversity of aspects of the interior decoration.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar o espaço doméstico relacionado aos meios de comunicação e ao habitante contemporâneo. Inicialmente foi feito um breve histórico do rádio, televisão, telefone e computador destacando as influências no ambiente doméstico. Posteriormente foram investigadas características do habitante urbano considerando as novas formas de comunicação promovidas pelas redes digitais e o surgimento de novos grupos familiares. Por fim foi realizada uma pesquisa sobre a presença da televisão e computadores em apartamentos do município de São Paulo através de plantas de vendas veiculadas em anúncios publicitários de 1981 a 2010, averiguando os seus impactos e modos de atuação no espaço doméstico. Com base no que foi abordado são feitas interpretações sobre o habitar contemporâneo. Dessa forma, promove reflexões sobre a condição tecnológica da comunicação inserida no âmbito do espaço doméstico. / This work aims to investigate the domestic space related to media of communication and to the contemporary inhabitant. Initially is made a brief history of radio, television, telephone and computer highlighting the influences in the domestic environment. Then, characteristics of urban inhabitant were investigated considering the new forms of communication promoted by digital networks and the emergence of new family groups. Finally, it is carried a survey about the presence of television and computers in apartment\'s sales plan of São Paulo from 1981 to 2010, examining their impacts and influences in the domestic space. Based on what was discussed, it is developed interpretations of the contemporary dwelling. Thus, promotes reflection on the condition of communication technology embedded within the domestic space .

Este estudo analisa e compara a decoração de interiores residenciais em setores da elite paulistana. A investigação desta prática é entendida como reveladora das suas funções sociais, tal como sua capacidade de afirmar posições sociais, expressar identidades, poder de consumo, e produzir distinções sociais no espaço físico da casa. O exame da dimensão material e simbólica destes espaços se dá através de entrevistas com moradores e do registro fotográfico dos interiores visitados. Outras duas fontes de informações contribuem ainda para esta análise: edições recentes de revistas sobre decoração de interiores em circulação no mercado editorial brasileiro, e entrevistas qualitativas com profissionais especializados em decoração residencial que trabalham para as elites paulistanas. A investigação do papel destas mídias no processo de produção dos espaços residenciais contemporâneos e das suas recepções pelos moradores entrevistados, juntamente à análise das percepções destes profissionais sobre as demandas de seus clientes, contribuem para a compreensão dos diversos aspectos da decoração de interiores tal como ela se apresenta no mundo de hoje. / This study compares and analyses domestic interior decoration within sectors of the elites from the city of São Paulo. The investigation of such practice is here understood as one revealing of its social functions, as its capacities in affirming social positions, expressing identities, power of consumption, and producing social distinctions in the physical space of the home. The examination of the material and symbolic dimension of those spaces is accomplished trough interviews with residents and the photographic recording of the visited interiors. Two other sources of information also contribute to this analysis: recent editions of Brazilian magazines specialized in home decoration, and qualitative interviews with professionals dedicated to interior decoration who works for the São Paulos elites. The investigation of the role of these medias in the process of production of contemporary domestic interiors and its receptions from the interviewed residents along with the analysis of the perceptions of these professionals regarding the requirements of their clients contribute to the comprehension of the diversity of aspects of the interior decoration.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to chart the development of an ambivalent female identity in the Gothic genre, as exemplified by Ann Radcliffe&rsquo / s late eighteenth century fictions. The thesis examines the social and literary context of the emergence of the Gothic in English literature and argues that it is intimately tied up with changes in social, political and gender relations in the period.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive look over the domestic space in the scope of the case study held in Ankara. The key notion of the evaluation is that home is a &amp / #8216 / place&amp / #8217 / and it can not be evaluated comprehensively when abstracted and degraded into classifications of size, location, cost, or generalized user profile, without considering its place-specific qualities and the experience of its users. Starting from this point, the thesis provides a detailed observation and documentation of the physical qualities of home, followed by the appreciation of its users depicting their own experiences and interventions on the place. The &amp / #8216 / reciprocal&amp / #8217 / character of the relationship between the household and the home, the concepts of place-identity and sense of belonging are traced and discussed. The research is conducted in a privileged example of modern residential architecture in Ankara / YeSiltepe and Yildiztepe Blocks in Emek District and its method constitutes of three parallel stages which are the archival study made on written and visual documents, in-depth interviews done with the households, and on-site observation and visual documentation study of the research field.