Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University / An examination of eight films starring the American actress Joan Crawford, covering the period 1927 to 1962, analyzing performative style, character construction, utilization and subversion of gender norms, cultural context, and importance of costuming

In recent years, South Korean filmmakers have repeatedly drawn upon the nation’s experience of Japanese colonialism as an element in the construction of their films. This thesis examines the multiple ways in which contemporary South Korean cinema has drawn upon this period in the nation’s history, through both direct representation, and allegory and evocation. I demonstrate how new perspectives have emerged, creating a space to construct more nuanced considerations of the colonial period beyond nationalist paradigms, whilst not shying away from the traumatic elements which had heretofore defined the dominant perceptions of the era. Utilising trauma theory as a key framework, I argue that by restaging the traumatic events of the past on-screen, filmmakers have provided an opportunity for audiences to come to terms with this past. Turning towards the Korean concept of han, which addresses the accumulation of negative affect and how these negative emotions can be purged through the expression of han, I explore how the folk song Arirang has been mobilised as a way of connecting a film to this legacy of sorrow. By invoking the feeling of han in their work, South Korean filmmakers have tied their personal concerns to a wider national sentiment. I then draw upon the notion of spectrality, and the depiction of ghosts in contemporary films, in order to demonstrate the ways in which the present is haunted by the unaddressed actions of the past. Finally, I argue that a series of films featuring amnesiac protagonists serve to allegorise the ‘settling the past’ movement, which saw the establishment of a number of ‘truth councils’ tasked with investigating aspects of the nation’s twentieth century history. Ultimately, this thesis argues that it is only by addressing and coming to terms with the traumatic elements of our past that we can ever hope to be rid of their negative influence.

<p> The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, known colloquially by the shorthand "3.11," claimed at least 16,000 lives and caused extreme damage to landscape and property, also triggering one of the most serious nuclear crises in history. These events were of great social, economic, cultural, and political consequence and are therefore in need of study from multiple perspectives. Sociologist Jeffrey C. Alexander, as a leading theorist of the model of cultural trauma, sees the work of "trauma drama" as crucial to the collective creation and negotiation of claims toward large-scale trauma. My dissertation seeks to investigate Alexander's insight more thoroughly. This dissertation seeks not only to broaden the field of view of collective trauma studies with a new case study, but to deepen the understanding of how performance functions as a part of the collective trauma creation process. To that end, this dissertation has a topical organization that analyzes space, time, and the body as nodes of intersection between post-3.11 anxiety sites and aspects of stage and film performance. Closely reading film and stage plays while examining the specific formal mechanisms by which they manipulate space, time, and the body in the aftermath of disaster, I argue that stage and film performances are especially powerful means through which to stake and (re)negotiate claims regarding trauma, particularly in response to the specifics of the 3.11 disaster. Inspired by the socially contextualized approach to performance studies pioneered by Richard Schechner and Victor Turner, this dissertation accesses a wide array of cultural and theoretical sources, including the spatial theory of Henri Lefebvre, the temporal Deleuzian scholarship of D.N. Rodowick, and Erin Manning's theory on the political impact of touch, alongside trauma theory and a multiplicity of readings on the significance of 3.11.</p><p>

<p> Children are increasingly designated &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; for various diseases, which have&mdash;until recently&mdash;been considered predominately adult-onset diseases. Young children are now acquiring type 2 diabetes, which medical professionals have nicknamed one of &ldquo;the slow and silent killers.&rdquo; Many disadvantaged communities are disproportionately afflicted with these illnesses. Entire groups are labeled &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; by governmental agencies, which is a problematic construct since it marks people in certain communities as more likely to get sick because of inherent weakness. Historically, the discursive relationship between Latinos and diabetes has played out with a common biomedical narrative that stages this population as prone to illness. </p><p> The accounts of type 2 diabetes found in science, academia, and the mainstream media tend to tell the stories of adult patients and how their health is compromised by illness. Absent are youths&rsquo; voices, their experiences, and their beliefs about a disease that they learn through family, intervention policies, and media discourse. Current and past intervention campaigns call for changes to diet and physical activity. These types of interventions have criticized the menus of school lunches and have promoted increased activity, one widely publicized national example was the Let&rsquo;s Move campaign. </p><p> Calling for a reevaluation of traditional diabetes prevention strategies, which are usually focused on adults, this study will seek to provide a chance for children to add their voices to the conversation. The absence of their voices is profound and could perpetuate stereotypes about illness and risk. Through their narratives and short films the participants in the study will express their understanding, knowledge, and beliefs about type 2 diabetes. This study explores how children decide what their own type 2 diabetes intervention strategies look like. The participants will have the opportunity to take control of their own discourse by defining what being &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; for type 2 diabetes means to them and whether they think being &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; is a real concern. By putting cameras in the children&rsquo;s hands, we can see what stories matter to them and how they conceptualize ideas about health and wellness. Through this project, the children have a chance to take part in activities that shift the paradigm from &ldquo;at risk&rdquo; to becoming &ldquo;at promise.&rdquo; As the lead researcher, I will revisit a space, which was once my own school, and with a new double role, as parent volunteer and researcher, the focus of my return is to elicit and facilitate students&rsquo; communication about their perceptions, ideas and reactions related to type 2 diabetes.</p><p>

<p> The primary purpose of my research is to visually represent what can be regarded as a traditional Chinese thinking system and artistic style. This is to gain a deeper understanding of typical problem-solving processes of the Chinese culture. Through this research, I intend to encourage a bridge of communication between American and other cultures. It is my intent to help analyze problem-solving traditions in Chinese culture, and present a narrative that dramatizes this. The goal of this thesis; therefore, is to give a path of connection and appreciation for those not familiar, to a deeper understanding of contextualized Chinese beliefs. My process is aimed at constructing an effective narrative that illustrates the way a society creates change, in order to reflect broader cultural exchange and communication. The inspiration to undertake this study came from my three years&rsquo; of living in Los Angeles. Being suddenly transplanted into American culture made me critically review my own cultural beliefs. I often experienced cases of &ldquo;misunderstandings&rdquo; or &ldquo;conflicts&rdquo;. I perceived issues that were often embedded in the different ways that various cultures viewed and dealt with similar problems. There were, of course, differences in problem solving strategies, alongside differences in aesthetics, and perception. Consequently, based on these observations, I began to analyze how contrasting viewpoints and strategies could be translated into an animated narrative, and I wondered how I could effectively achieve this. Through this process, I addressed problems or crisis within various types of political systems. Can the methodology one uses to solve a problem be seen as systematic of the process of their own culture, even though the end goals and difficulties faced may be similar throughout various cultures? To critically analyze this question, I combined narrative animation and graphic watercolor renderings that visually parallel my personal experience of what could be defined as exemplary of traditional Chinese thought. An animated film resulted from this process, along with further research aimed at stimulating the public to appreciate the underlying approaches in both traditional Chinese aesthetics and culture. With this research, I intend to stimulate positive connections and appreciation between all cultures&mdash;a sentiment that extends to having increased inter-cultural communication and exchanges. </p><p>

abstract: This thesis explores the role of film industry boosterism in Arizona from 1911 to 2014; it argues that boosters consistently employed film as a promotional tool toward building state identity for Arizona. These boosters harnessed a variety of strategies catered specifically to a combination of personal interests and historical circumstances. Consequently, their efforts produced a variety of identities for Arizona that changed over time as new generations of boosters addressed different concerns. These state identities that boosters wanted to build relied heavily on the power of perception, often attempting to overcome or reinforce stereotypical imagery and iconography associated with Arizona. Over time, boosters used the film industry to project Arizona as: a modern and progressive state that had outgrown its frontier past; an ideal setting to make films that relived the mythical Wild West; a film-friendly place of business ideally suited for Hollywood production; and a cultural haven for filmic sophistication. Textual analysis of primary sources comprises the methodology of this thesis. Primary sources include historical newspapers, such as the <italic>Arizona Republican</italic>, and archival records of Arizona's past governors, including Governors Jack R. Williams and Raul H. Castro. These sources constitute valuable documentation created by boosters in the course of their day-to-day activities promoting Arizona, providing a window into their aspirations, worldviews and strategies. Personal interviews with active and retired members of Arizona's film boosting community are also included as primary source material, intended to capture firsthand accounts of filmic activity in the state. Using these sources as its foundation, this thesis fills a gap in the historiography by analyzing the relationship between the film industry and Arizona's state identity. While a handful of scholarly works have discussed Arizona's film history to a minor extent, they tend to take a pure narrative approach, or offer a "behind-the-scenes" look that focuses on the production aspects of films shot in Arizona. No other work focuses explicitly on boosterism or explores the statewide meaning of Arizona's film history over such a comprehensive period of time. Thus, this thesis offers a previously neglected history of both film and Arizona. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis History 2014

<p>?Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest? (New International Version, Matthew 11:28). In South India, transgenders are treated as untouchables and part of the least in the society. This restriction that the society places on transgenders has built hurt and regret in their lives. The Bible tells us to treat everyone equal and Jesus asks us to love all unconditionally; at times, it is difficult to put that teaching into practice. This topic was originally chosen to investigate this community and find a biblical approach to them, but working with Seesha, a non-profit, the approach took a different direction. The following research and documentary will focus on the acts of Jesus, that is, educating and empowering. This is in hope to bring awareness to the rejection of the transgender community and possible ways to change the perspective of society by choosing to accept them. The aim of this project is to try to lessen the burden of life in transgenders (stigma), by educating the society of their physical anatomy, lifestyle and daily struggle for a better standard of living.

This dissertation is a book-length investigation of race representation in three different East German feature film genres produced by the Deutsche Film Aktiensgesellschaft (DEFA): the western (Indianerfilm), the musical, and the science-fiction film. The primary films examined include Osceola (1971), Meine Frau macht Musik (1958), Revue um Mitternacht (1962) and Der schweigende Stern (1960). I specifically articulate how each genre structures a temporality around race politics that tells us more about unique East German conceptions of whiteness, non-whites' role in society and "progress" than it tells us about the objectives of international and interracial solidarity espoused by the state. In the introduction, I discuss the relevant foundations of this study, including the various discourses one must mobilize to explain East German racism and to frame DEFA cinema from a contemporary perspective. In Chapter I, I posit some theories of race and genre that show their historical linkages with regard to film. Chapter II is a historical overview of interactions between East Germany, DEFA cinema and the Global South. Chapter III focuses on the way the western film Osceola views 1830s American racism within a 1970s Marxist-Leninist paradigm that elides opportunities for its Cuban co-production partner or the anti-racist history of the Seminoles to speak. Chapter IV looks at the phenomenon of the musical in East Germany in terms of its production of East German whiteness, as theorized by film theorist Richard Dyer. Chapter V describes science-fiction film Der schweigende Stern in terms of its accomplishment as the first multiracial space crew seen on television or film and the problematic race hierarchies that nevertheless underpin the final product. The conclusion deals with the very notion of "progress," especially with regard to racial equality, and looks at recent German cinema as a site where the discussion initiated by this dissertation might continue.

This dissertation is an investigation of the spatial and temporal Othering of subjects, characters, and themes in German-language film and literature by means of a series of case studies, which illustrate a certain kind of alterity. This work offers a classification for a new type of Othering based on the interactions among gender, sexuality, and a notion of home or belonging. Heimosexuality, this kind of Othering, can appear when certain conditions are met: new bodies (corporeal constructions) will result from the combination of gender-sexual behaviors with notions of “home” and the pressures of abjection. The entities that emerge from this process operate in various spatiotemporalities, fusions of space and time with Otherness (allospaces and allotimes). Building on Sigmund Freud’s idea of the uncanny, chapter one provides and introduction to and foundation for the theoretical concepts employed throughout the dissertation by presenting a unique combination of phenomenological, psychoanalytic, feminist, and queer theories. ^ The following chapters demonstrate the application of these concepts to four main cultural products. Chapter two argues that the characters in Frank Wedekind’s play, “Frühlings Erwachen” (1891), affect/effect each other’s bodies and sexual identities, as the adolescent characters demonstrate the polymorphous nature of corporeal eroticism and its dependence on national ideas of respectability. Chapter three is an analysis of Robert Musil’s novel, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (1906), in which Foucauldian disciplinary power, colored by ideas of cultural propriety and social fitness, mold the sexualized and gendered methods by which privileged young men subjugate their surroundings. Chapter four is an examination of Kutlug Ataman’s film, Lola und Bilidikid (1999), in which “majority Germans” and “minority Germans” affect each other’s attempts to construct a home despite obstacles of race, gender, and sexuality. Chapter five examines Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss’s film, Zurück auf los (2000), and its presentation of the re-temporalization of its Afro-German, HIV-positive, gay protagonist. Chapter six, the conclusion, builds on the theory presented in chapter one and posits the simulacral nature of identity categories, including that of belonging, whether Othering takes place in a national or anational or post-national setting. ^

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