Thesis advisor: Sue Roberts / A collection of stories that explore the lives of men and women struggling with love, friendship, growing up and facing the world; all through the lens of Indian culture. Some of these characters are recent immigrants, some have lived in America for years. Regardless, they struggle with issues that are both connected to and separate from their status as Indian Americans. Here we have missed connections and realities. A desire to know as well as a desire to remain in the dark. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

Many critics examine Shaw's plays in terms of the subjects they deal with, but they often ignore what aspects of these subjects Shaw draws on or how he uses them. One subject that appears in many of his works is war. This thesis examines Shaw's treatment of war in Arms and the Man and Heartbreak House, and attempts to discover a common element between them that reveals something not only about the plays themselves, but also about Shaw's drama in general. The chapter on Arms and the Man notes how Shaw makes war a highly visible element of the play, but avoids dealing with issues directly related to war. Shaw does not draw on war itself, but on its image. The sources for Catherine's and Bluntschli's impressions of both war and Sergius—Lady Butler's paintings, the military melodrama and extravaganza, Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," and accounts of the Battle of Balaklava—indicate that the play's focus is not on war, but on how one perceives the world. This idea is further reinforced by Shaw's own views about idealism, romanticism, and realism. Unlike Arms and the Man, war is an integral part of Heartbreak House. Shaw uses elements from the British homefront during the First World War—the wasted lives of England's youth, the lies of the government and the press, and the potential for violence both on the front and at home during the conflict—to help create the play's deep sense of crisis and impending doom. But as with Arms and the Man, Heartbreak House is not a play about war. Whereas war is highly visible in the former, its presence is negligible in the latter: there are no military characters or any clear indication that a war is in progress until the end of the play. Moreover, Shaw does not draw on sources related only to the war. Thus while Heartbreak House was born largely out of the despair of the First World War, its themes go beyond that conflict to deal with questions about the individual, the family, and the fabric of society itself. This thesis concludes by briefly examining Saint Joan, and notes that it combines the two approaches to war found in Arms and the Man and Heartbreak House, but distances its intended audience—the English—by using a historical conflict where Englishmen are the enemy. In comparing the three plays' treatment of war, one can conclude that the common element in Shaw's treatment of war is his distancing of an audience from the subject itself. Moreover, one discovers that this distancing is related to the nature of the subjects that Shaw uses for his plays. Only subjects that he believed were complex were suitable for creating his dramatic works. Therefore, it is fruitless for critics to examine Shaw's plays for his opinions about a subject; they should concentrate on how Shaw uses these subjects in his plays instead. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This essay is one part of my Bachelor’s degree project, the other part being the dance performance OUR VISIONIS FROM HELL. / 34°10'26.6"N 118°39'50.4"W, which was presented in November 2022 at Stockholm University of the Arts. The work was inspired by certain events around the breakup between musician Kanye West and reality star Kim Kardashian. The text aims to further articulate, explain and discuss the topics of the piece, which were heartbreak, violence and pop culture in the arts, as well as referencing the American writers bell hooks and Susan Sontag and their approach to these issues. The essay also goes into the research, conversations and different thinking processes from and within the work. The text is written as a fictional letter to Kanye West and desires to question and criticize his behavior during the fall of 2022.

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The thesis examines American teen dramas on Australian television in the period 1992 to 2004. It explores the use of the genre by broadcasters and its uptake by teenagers in an environment where American popular culture has frequently been treated with suspicion and where there are perennial arguments about the Americanisation of youth and their vulnerability to cultural imperialism. The thesis argues concerns about Americanisation and cultural imperialism in relation to youth culture, young people and the media are misplaced. American teen dramas are investigated as an example of the ways imported programs are made to cohere with national logics within the Australian mediasphere (Hartley, 1996). Utilising Yuri Lotman's (1990) theory of cultural 'translation' this thesis argues teen drams are evidence of dynamic change within the system of television and that this change does not result in a system dominated by imported product, but rather a system that situates foreign programming amongst domestic frames of reference.

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The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2018) defines heartbreak as “crushing grief, anguish or distress.” Heartbreak can lead to biological, psychological and social responses and consequences. Heartbreak from the dissolution of a romantic relationship is a form of disenfranchised grief, which is defined as the griever’s belief that society does not recognize their source of grief as legitimate (Doka, 1989). The literature shows that talking about grief helps those who experience it (Fisher & Archer, 2008). Hence, the present study sought to provide a consensus of the best practices that marriage and family therapists have utilized to help broken-hearted clients. I employed a modification of the Delphi technique, a research method which seeks to reach consensus on a topic through group communication between experts in the subject area discussed (Hsu & Sandford, 2007) in order to gather data about best practices from marriage and family therapists on how they have helped their broken-hearted clients. This study consisted of a total of 20 experts, who are licensed marriage and family therapists. The findings suggest that the disenfranchisement of the grief resulting from the dissolution of a romantic relationship is closely associated with the symptom of sadness experienced by the broken-hearted. In addition, the way in which MFTs can help the disenfranchised griever is by providing an empathic presence in sessions, generating historical conversations through the use of a genogram, involving family members in the therapeutic process and having future oriented conversations. The results of this study have illustrated a plethora of techniques and best practices that have reportedly proven successful in helping the broken-hearted client.

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Prenant appui sur ma pratique plastique, cette thèse s’est développée en marge mon expérience subjective et vécu avec ma mère spirituelle, tout en étant ancrée dans la problématique de la période contemporaine. En ce sens, l’articulation entre mes œuvres plastiques, le patrimoine ancestral africain et l’art contemporain occidental reste un point central de médiation. De même, celles-ci s’articulent avec la magie africaine et la psychothérapie occidentale dans leur dimension thérapeutique. Ainsi donc, cette thèse intitulée « RITE ET POÉTIQUE DU DON DANS L’ART CONTEMPORAIN - Dépense, Dégoût, Destruction » a pour but d’examiner l’expression artistique du déchirement intérieur de mon histoire personnelle, développer des concepts artistiques de la pratique créatrice singulière. La première partie de la thèse situe mon œuvre poïétique dans le processus d’altérité qui mène à la naissance de concepts dans le champ de l’art contemporain, qui ont tendance à façonner la personnalité comme pédagogie d’intégration de l’apprentissage à l’individu. La seconde porte sur l’immatérialité artistique qui se révèle comme un procédé catalyseur du concept de performance. La troisième partie démontre les procédures plastiques d’aujourd’hui auxquelles l’artiste peut faire face en scrutant l’œuvre ritualisée. La quatrième est une mise en œuvre du vohou vohou comme processus de déconstruction d’une nouvelle identité artistique. Le don comme forme de re-création me permet de faire œuvre dans ma pratique picturale. C’est pourquoi, j’ai toujours revendiqué une dimension spirituelle qui apporte à l’œuvre son champ sacré. Plus proche de Michel-Ange ou de Marx Ernest par ma foi en l’art, je crée une œuvre allégorique, qui affirme efficacement la perte re-créatrice comme langage pictural dans l’art contemporain. / On the basis of my practice of plastic arts, this thesis developed alongside my subjective experience lived with my spiritual mother, while staying rooted in the problematics of the contemporary era. In this perspective, the meeting place between my works of art, the African ancestral heritage and the western contemporary art stands as a central point of mediation. These meeting elements also go along with the African magic and the western psychotherapy in their therapeutic dimension. Then, this thesis entitled « RITE AND POETICS OF GIFT IN CONTEMPORARY ART - Exhaustion, Disgust, Destruction » aims at examining the artistic expression of my heartrending personal history, and developing artistic concepts of the singular creative practice. The first part of the thesis identifies my poietic work in the process of otherness which leads to the creation of concepts in the field of contemporary art, which concepts tend to shape the personality as pedagogy for the integration of learning by the individual. The second part is about the artistic immateriality which appears as a catalytic process for the concept of performance. The third part exhibits the nowadays plastic procedures the artist can meet by examining a ritualized work. The fourth one is an implementation of the vohou vohou as a process of deconstruction of a new artistic identity. Gift as a form of re-creation enables me to paint. Therefore, I always claim a spiritual side which endows the work of art with a sacred dimension. Admirer of Michel-angel or Marx Ernest through my faith in art, I create an allegorical work, which effeciently affirms the re-creative loss as a painting style in contemporary art.