<p> This dissertation contends that the kinds of consistency composition both affords and demands in order to hold together <i>as a</i> composition have a special location within European and American late modernism. In the decades surrounding the Second World War, artists acknowledged that art needed to let in disorder to reflect lived experience; yet, it still had to cohere in order to be recognizable as art, or a form of presentation. Paying attention to how diverse late modernist artists were thus creatively challenged, I argue that their works of art demonstrate historically located and informed compositional conservatism, or formal rigidity. Making the case for the breadth of composition's organizing force during the period, I focus on a different artist and disciplinary area in each of three chapters: Francis Bacon's oil paintings, Samuel Beckett's dramatic and theatrical work in <i>Endgame,</i> and Ralph Ellison's novelistic efforts in <i>Invisible Man</i> and his unfinished second manuscript. </p><p> Late modernist artwork exercises formal control in ways extreme enough to be called violent. But if "violence" signifies here how formal control stringently orders components (and excludes others) to bring them into line with composition's demands, this <i>formal</i> signification hardly removes such violence from having lived consequences. More, such components' failure to fall into line, or the artist's failure to accomplish such organization, can itself have unfortunate repercussions. Building on Gilles Deleuze and F&eacute;lix Guattari's art theory, which lays the groundwork for aligning apparently dissimilar compositions, I argue that in Bacon, Beckett, and Ellison, compositional force operates in ways shared by larger physical and psychological arrangements. I show how not just home or domestic spaces, but also national and political structures, including, e.g., those defining German fascism, partake in composition's formational activities. Making use of conceptual apparatuses that extend beyond Deleuzoguattarian theory to include psychoanalysis and Frankfurt School theorists, this dissertation examines how the violence (and pleasure) of form variously subtends the period's configurations.</p>

This thesis explores a complex concept of home with respect to issues of belonging and displacement from both a personal and transnational1 perspective, which deals with the here in New Zealand and there in the Netherlands. Through the visual and the poetic, in printmaking, book art, digital photography and installation--drawing on auto-biographical experiences of migration, as well as contextual research--I have been investigating the concept of "home" as a hyphen. This hyphen motif aptly performs the migrant condition of between here and there, a liminal space of betweenness and transition, where internal and external worlds, here and there, past and present, intersect. This intersection point, marked by hyphenation, always performs across multiple borders and thereby emphasises a spatial-temporal liminal register experienced by many transnational. In textual practice a hyphen is a punctuation sign that connects and separates two different entities. As such, here the hyphen begins to evoke an interesting spatial-temporal paradigm for transnational, who are placed between two or more divided geographies, sociographies and cultural identities. As well as being a link between multiple series of dual entities and conditions, the hyphen can simultaneously signify an ambiguous area of liminality--a psychological space of neither here nor there, an undecidability of identity and belonging, which, on various levels, is symptomatic for many transnational. This project explores how this hyphenated position influences a sense of identity and belonging and its relation to our postmodern world.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--John Hopkins University, 1976. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-286).

Thesis--Uppsala. / Bibliography: p. 285-293.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Simon Fraser University, 2007. / Senior Supervisor: Jerald Zaslove. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 291-310). Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1991. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-283).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1989. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 390-396). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between German Expressionist film and Hegel’s system of aesthetics. Through an analysis of the aesthetic qualities of Hanns Ewers’ The Student of Prague (1913) and F.W. Murnau’s Faust, I believe we have evidence to believe that the subjectivity that German Expressionist film sought to capture is aligned with the ‘interiority’ that Hegel believes Romantic art expresses. Further, I will consider whether these two films indicate that film as an artistic medium falls within Hegel’s characterization of Modern art. I believe that because both Student of Prague and Faust use elements of Romantic art in an effort to convey the melancholy spirit, and that the melancholy spirit is reflection and product of a uniquely modern Germany, these films indicate that film as a medium fulfill the requirements Hegel sets for Modern art.

This is a practice based research, based on a representation of motifs related to Kuwait's traditions and heritage through Sadu textile; the research starts with determining the factors needed by Sadu in order to move to the monumental modern art form. One of these factors is the analysis presented by the artists of the first generation in Kuwait concerning Sadu and what was presented by Sami Mohammed in his "Sadu Project" in the Eighties. From another side, to present what affected Sadu through the globalisation concept and to benefit from the same in order to show Kuwait visual culture, analyse and develop the colour philosophy in order to reach a colour group that represents Sadu modern art. This aspect of the research is bibliographic, along with other aspects, including a critical reflection on practice. The research begins by using Jacques Derrida's "Deconstruction" as a process to dismantle Sadu motifs as ornaments, symbols, colours and subject matter. It is original research as it is based on an interview with Sami Mohammed's, which revealed that, in the Sixties, he was one of the pioneer artists who used modern art as a different area in their art careers, while also building national abstraction in Kuwaiti art. The other interview is with Yahya Swailem, an art teacher and critic in Kuwait since the Sixties, who provided the research with an overview of the history of art in Kuwait. The research aims at attracting the current and young generations to the heritages and traditions of their country by transforming the Sadu textile to a Sadu modern art form in paintings and increasing the art appreciation and their cultural awareness. The research title is also the research aim and the selection of it was based on the existence of words that contributed in refining the twentieth century art as modern art and monumental and Kuwait for determining the research location that is considered the base of the research and linking them with the word "representing" that also shows something new presented by this research. Sadu was selected for this research since it is a major and essential part of the heritage and traditions of Kuwait and since it is a textile, it may be on a two dimension form and for what it witnessed through the art in Kuwait through the first generation artists. Sami Mohammed considered it a start to success in changing its form and making it more modern. The paintings produced in the research display Sadu motifs with a colour philosophy that is different from previous presentations, with a focus on large-scale paintings to gain a new meaning through monumental Sadu art.