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<p>While eighteenth-century Gothic fiction typically constructs masculinity as tyrannical in a rigid patriarchal structure, Gothic writers such as Horace Walpole were challenging this structure as they were instituting it. Walpole uses Gothic conventions to establish and criticize the cruel, oppressive patriarchal structure in <em>The Castle of Otranto</em>. However, he offers no alternative structure, since even the male characters are powerless to act outside of it. Charlotte Smith introduces Gothic conventions into her sentimental novels in order to undermine patriarchy and to offer an alternative structure of power in which she creates a new social order, challenges gender roles, and demands a more refined masculinity. In <em>Emmeline: The Orphan of the Castle</em>, Smith challenges traditional understandings of masculinity. By incorporating sensibility, she redefines masculinity by affirming its dependence on social status. Thus, Smith effectively establishes social authority as a more powerful force than patriarchy. In <em>Ethelinde or the Recluse of the Lake</em>, Smith further refines masculinity as she uses the power of society to advocate for an equalization of genders, not to degrade masculinity, but to indicate that both men and women are subject to social expectation, and thus to each other. Through her incorporation of sensibility and Gothic elements, Smith promotes a purified masculinity as her male characters must, under the more authoritative force of society, act with selflessness and charity. Smith’s new social structure constructs society as a disciplinary force to which men and women are equally subjected, and which replaces the tyrannical authority and gendered hierarchy evident in the traditional patriarchal structure. Ultimately, Smith promotes a new understanding of society as a gender-neutral space, which demands respectability determined not by wealth or status, but by morality and compassion for others.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The primary objective of the thesis is the correlation of the stylistic evolution of the miniature with an historical evolution of society during the complex period of the fourteenth century. Apart from Courajod's thesis of an "international courante," scholars have not concentrated on the historical factors underlying the origins of Late Gothic realism: the rise of the French monarchy and the rise of the bourgeoisie. Delisle, Martin, and Durrieu directed their research towards investigating anonymous manuscripts and identifying them with the names of artists listed in royal accounts. Bunim and White dedicated their efforts to the development of perspective in medieval art. Panofsky analyzed the formal and spatial aspects of International Style in his Early Netherlandish Painting, but without elaborating in detail the initial causes of Late Gothic realism. There is need, then, of a study which presents the evolution of Parisian miniature painting within the historical context of the times. In order to show the manner in which the innovations of the fourteenth century miniature painting reflected the changes of feudal society, the treatise is limited to a discussion of the leading miniaturists of the epoch: Master Honore, Jean Pucelle, Master "Boqueteaux," Jacquemart de Hesdin, Master Boucicaut, and the Limbourg brothers. Though Courajod established the beginning of the International Style with the ascent of Charles V to the throne in 1364, a new naturalism had been introduced into the representation of the figure by Master Honore at the close of the thirteenth century. Moreover, his pupil, Jean Pucelle, responsive to the realistic currents of the north and the south, actually laid the foundation for International Style during the first quarter of the fourteenth century. For these reasons, one regards Courajod's dating of the new art merely as the point of no return. With the influx of Flemish artists into royal ateliers during the middle of the century, the future belonged to it. To determine the historical significance of form and space, the most important works of the miniaturists have been studied and are reproduced for the benefit of the reader in a volume accompanying the test. Accorded the privilege of seeing and handling fourteenth century manuscripts in such institutions as The Cloisters, the Pierpont Morgan Library, The New York Public Library, The Walters Art Gallery, and the Houghton Library, one feels qualified in stating that the principal feature lost in the prints is the element of color, an aspect of painting which, for all of its importance, is irrelevant.to the nature of this study. Of primary consideration are the reasons why the Late Gothic artist gave volume to the figure and created the illusion of space, while, at the same time, he reaffirmed the decorative quality of the page. By analyzing the miniature in conjunction with the historical interpretations of such renowned medievalists as Perroy, Pirenne, and Scheville, one arrives at a rationale for the formal dichotomy that characterized the development of an International Style in Parisian miniature painting of the fourteenth century. / 2999-01-01

The rise of the new right in U.S. Politics from 1994-1996 is examined as a process of asymmetrical communication and informational deployments of signs constructed to appeal to a conservative political subculture. Lash and Urry’s analysis of the economy of signs and space is employed to trace the flow of these signs as they are “emptied-out” and recombined in ways that legitimate the conservative, pro-business agenda, or contract with America, unveiled during The 1994 congressional election. A re-reading of these signs seeks to replace the individual as a subject in the role of reflexive agent in a process of modernization which rejects the reassertion of the new right’s design for a social structure of moral values which maintain the distribution of risk. These risks, as managed by environmental policy, are one target of the new right’s deregulatory agenda and as such form, the central political issue examined in this paper using Lash and Urry’s theory of reflexive modernization. / Master of Urban Affairs

Following the growth of criticism related to Cormac McCarthy, this study examines the author's early works in such a way that treats the different novels as a group, deriving a worldview that functions for McCarthy's works when viewed together, as opposed to treating each novel separately as has been the only previous mode of criticism for this award-winning author. Specifically, the study examines three main themes of the first five novels in McCarthy's oeuvre: The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. In order, the themes are ontological equality, survival of "ruder forms," and time as it relates to permanence and transience. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's texts regarding the concepts of rationality, morality, war, and philosophy itself greatly inform parts of this study, especially relating to the fifth novel, Blood Meridian. Nietzsche's notion of rationality and morality (pre-revaluation) as inimical to survival ( and his conception of war, albeit as a metaphor) directly corresponds to how McCarthy's universe functions as constructed by the characters and action of the novels.

Studien undersöker användningen av Goyas etsning När förnuftet sover kommer monstren och Fuselis oljemålning Nattmaran som förekommer i slasherfilmen Terror på Elm Street (2010). Konstverken är placerade i en scen där konstverken bland annat får en självrefererande roll eftersom det som sker i konstverken även sker i filmen. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad konstverken fyller för funktion i filmen och att undersöka om det finns stilistiska och tematiska likheter mellan konstverken och filmen trots att det skiljer ungefär 200 år mellan dem. De båda konstverken analyseras semiotiskt och filmen analyseras främst utifrån studiens teoretiska perspektiv: intermedialitet, transmediering och intertextualitet.   Resultatet visar att slasherfilmer och skräckfilmer är väldigt flitiga med användandet av intertextuella referenser och självrefererande uttryck men att det är svårt att veta exakt vad konstverken har för betydelse. Tidigare forskning visar att tidig skräckfilm inspirerades av gotiska romaner och romantiska konstverk vilka transmedierades till filmmediet när det var tekniskt möjligt. Mellan konstverken och filmen går det att hitta flera stilmässiga och tematiska likheter som är typiska för det som började framhävas under romantiken. Terror på Elm Street (2010) bär på flera postmoderna drag, bland annat eftersom filmen kombinerar uttryck från det förflutna och berör gränsen för vad som ses som fin- respektive populärkultur. / This study examines Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters and Fuseli’s The Nightmare and how they are used in the slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The purpose of this study is to explore the artworks and their role within the movie and examine if it is possible to distinguish stylistic and thematic similarities between the works despite being separated by approximately 200 years. The artworks are analyzed according to a semiotic method, while the movie is analyzed mainly using the study’s theoretical aspects: intermediality, transmediality and intertextuality. The result shows that intertextual references and self-referential expressions are frequently used in slasher movies. However, the specific role which these artworks play in the movie is often hard to decipher. There are several similarities between the artworks and the movie and previous studies shows that early horror movies were influenced by gothic novels and romantic paintings which were transmediated to fit the film medium. The art works used in A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) have the same motifs as part of the film’s story and are also part of a postmodern trend of mixing between so called high culture and popular culture.

This thesis details the literary and visual influences in my work, the definition of American Gothic, and its connection it to my work. Literary sources such as Edgar Allan Poe and Fanny Kemble help spark a vision of the landscape. Visual influences include Japanese woodblock prints, scenic wallpapers, vintage postcards and Victorian mourning pictures. My regional explorations span the James River, Tidewater swamps and architecture within the city of Richmond.My work depicts local history and ecology inspired by Richmond and the surrounding region. Subtle Gothic elements add anxiety to the otherwise pastoral scenes. Gothic foreboding in the work questions our ecological future and the permanence of our human presence in the landscape.

This thesis explores the zombie’s rise to prominence in popular culture, with a focus on its development within the comics medium. The zombie is not just a ‘floating signifier’ (according to Jerrold E. Hogle), but a revenant signifier, actively and aggressively linking with existing concepts, and transforming them. The thesis also considers both the zombie figure and zombie genre within the parameters of several media – comics, television, film, and literature. The medium of comics is examined in detail as it has evolved through the influence of the zombie just as the zombie has been reshaped by each new representation. In contemporary horror comics, The Walking Dead series is not just commercially successful, it exploits properties of the medium (including panel arrangement, transitions, repetition, and the liminal space within the gutter) to thoroughly explore the metaphors and allusions that have been associated with the zombie. I discuss these metaphors by charting the zombie’s development. A lack of pre-twentieth century literary texts featuring this creature frustrates easy comparison with the monsters of Gothic fiction. Rather than evolving within the novel form, as its rival horror icons have done, the zombie has maintained a visual and visceral identity, maturing with each new incarnation, and becoming ever more gruesome: the walking corpses of ancient texts; a symbol of eternal slavery within Haitian Voodoo folklore; and its modern interpretation as violent and virulent monster. The recent notion of a zombie plague has redefined the creature as a representation of modern fears, and has led to ‘zombie apocalypse’ becoming a commonly-used fantasy scenario. The zombie’s connection to apocalyptic literature is simultaneously ancient and contemporary, with the creature being a signifier of social disorder and disrupted identity. While the emphasis throughout is on the shifting relations between media, comics are the main focus of this study. The symbolism present in the zombie, and the political and cultural ideas stemming from its slow maturation are revealed within The Walking Dead and sustained through the functions of the comics medium. Through the application of Scott McCloud’s comics theory, the closure between panels and the transition within the gutter enhance these ideas, and provide further understanding of the zombie as depicted in comics. The visual/textual relationship within comics is compared with Jacques Lacan’s modalities of consciousness, and the psychoanalytic reading provided here explores the crises of identity within the zombie, and within the fragmented narrative of the comics medium. Alternative psychoanalytic readings, and the physiology/pathology of the zombie itself are undertaken, revealing the creature to be responsive to Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject, and Slavoj Zizek’s postmodern reworking of Lacanian ideas. The thesis also returns to notions of the Gothic, haunted spaces, and the role of suburbia in the zombie narrative. This is augmented with a study of intertextuality and the “revenant” status of the zombie, and of comics. Through incorporating the critical theory of Kristeva, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Jacques Derrida, and by positioning in parallel comics theorist Thierry Groensteen’s concepts of braiding and arthrology, I emphasise the operations of the zombie figure in the comic book, and other media, asserting that the zombie is a revenant signifier continually returning and transforming, never resting, but endlessly cannibalising and reconstructing debate about identity, morality, and society.

This thesis argues for the deep implication of William Wordsworth’s writings over the period 1794 to 1814 in contemporary discourses of the Gothic. My investigation pivots upon the analogy offered in the preface to The Excursion (1814) between the incomplete epic poem The Recluse and a ‘gothic Church’, and aims, through a reconstruction of its literary and historical contexts, to establish the interpretative value of this figure in reading Wordsworth. I begin with a survey of previous critical approaches to, and a new close reading of, Wordsworth’s Gothic figure for his œuvre. I then trace the history of Gothic as a term in British public discourse since the English Revolution, showing how its contested status in the Revolution controversy of the 1790s inflects such texts as the preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), the ‘Liberty’ sonnets of Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), and the Preamble to The Prelude. I then move to a series of detailed historical readings of Wordsworth’s key Gothic texts, starting with Salisbury Plain (1794). Recovering the network of associations that made Salisbury Plain legible to Wordsworth in 1793-4 as a map of British history, I show how the poem first subverts and then restores the English Gothic narrative of ‘Celtic night’ giving way to ‘present grandeur’. I then turn to Wordsworth’s Burkean prose tract on the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, The Convention of Cintra (1809), reading it in the context of the Gothic imagery of the conflict, and then arguing on this basis that it forms a vital part of the ‘gothic Church’ of The Recluse. Building upon this reading, I then argue that The Excursion’s advocacy of Andrew Bell’s ‘Madras’ system of ‘tuition by the scholars themselves’ shows Wordsworth’s progressive Gothic politics in action. In concluding, I turn to reconsider, in the light of the preceding chapters, in what sense Wordsworth can be called a Gothic poet.

The thesis called Virgin Mary Klasová - the compensatory haptic aid is divided into two parts. The theoretical part is devoted to the history of Gothic painting in the Czech territory. The work focuses on the history of the city České Budějovice and maps the development of the monastery Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She discusses the Gothic painting of Virgin Mary Klasová, taking into account its iconographic and historical significance. The theoretical part further describes the characteristics of visual impairments and gives information about its problems. The practical part aims to transform the image of the Virgin Mary on a compensatory tactile aid in the form of a relief.