Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-146). Also available via the World Wide Web.

A kind of poetry that tries to understand contemporary social and philosophical issues as much as behaviors by rewriting in a poetic language the video artwork of some of the main representatives of modernism and postmodernism. Such poetry is deprived of confessional hues, any personal reference has to be ascribed to a mirroring effect by which the single person empathically absorbs and projects what is conveyed, be it stemming directly from the historical time of the artwork's making and inherited, or alive at the time of its actual viewing. By following a restructuring process started at the beginning of the twentieth century, the writing analyzes possible ways to outline developments or to underline breaking points. Poetry is seen as an active medium within the formation of societies characterized as it is by its highly introspective power, not restricted to the individual but open to all beings perceived as members of one entity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. S.E. Gontarski, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Program. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Jenny Holzer's text-based projects have attracted the attention of critics, historians, and curators from Des Moines to Dresden. An understanding of the complex interplay between language, gender, power, and site within Holzer's work demonstrates how a singular interpretive approach is insufficient for discussing the multitude of meanings her projects produce. Perhaps most significantly, a fresh analysis of Holzer's work and critical reactions to it challenges the story of modernism and postmodernism and the relationship between these two terms.

This dissertation is a fundamental critique of the Western discourse using an Afrocentric critical reading of major Western constructions of knowledge. As such the study examines both the origins and dehumanizing consequences of the European project of Modernity. The study departs from the thesis that Afrocentricity, a philosophical paradigm conceptually rooted in African cultures and values, brings renewed ethical and social significance to a sustained project of human agency, liberation, and equality. Thus the dissertation explores how each major Western idea is understood within the context of the revolutionary philosophical paradigm and epistemological theory of social change. Concepts like individualism, domination, colonialism, race and ethnicity, universalism, progress and supremacy that Molefi Kete Asante calls the “infrastructures of dominance and privilege” are reviewed against the backdrop of agency, community, commonality, cultural centeredness, and ma’at. Indeed, employing critical ideas from the works of Afrocentrists this study highlights the inadequacy of Westernity in overcoming the various forms of oppression. Modernism, Marxism, Existentialism, Feminism, Post-modernism, and Post-colonialism, are addressed in dialogue with Afrocentricity as an exploratory part of a two-way relationship between theoretical understanding and practice which challenges established and hegemonic approaches to knowledge. In fact, the study argues for a rational approach to conceptual “rupture” that would allow the scholar to navigate the shattered ideologies of Western thought, and to contribute to the exposure of the imperialistic ambitions that worked at the backstage of the political and economic philosophies of Europe since the early fifteen century. In effect, the dissertation can be viewed as an intellectual journey moving from an epistemological location in Western epistemology towards an Afrocentric paradigm and theory of knowledge in the quest to defeat the inhuman. Ultimately, the aim is the search for a more humanistic and ideologically less polluted mind and for a more human humanity. / African American Studies

Vernon Lee est une femme de lettres d'origine britannique, dont l'œuvre éclectique est située dans le contexte historique et socio-culturel de l'Angleterre victorienne de la fin-de-siècle dite «décadente» (1880-1914). La problématique de cette thèse est axée autour de deux fils conducteurs : d'une part, le regard que Vernon Lee porte sur la société de son époque, et d'autre part, son intérêt pour les récentes découvertes dans le domaine des Sciences humaines. Les années 1890 représentent une ère de transition entre le Romantisme et le Modernisme. On peut donc parler d'héritage romantique en ce qui concerne l'inspiration et l'imaginaire des écrivains victoriens de la fin du XIXème siècle. La littérature de la Décadence privilégie les thèmes mythiques, en particulier le mythe de la Femme fatale. L'esthétisme et l'éthique sont au cœur de l'œuvre de Vernon Lee. Écrivain et témoin de son époque, elle utilise son écriture pour défendre la condition féminine. C'est avant tout une écriture avant-gardiste, orientée vers le Modernisme. En effet, les récentes découvertes scientifiques (notamment la linguistique, la psychologie et la psychanalyse) influencent son écriture, lui permettant d'accéder au mieux à l'intériorité de ses personnages. / The 1890s are considered as a period of transition between Romanticism and Modernism. Therefore, we can refer to a romantic legacy of the fin-de-siècle Victorian writers' inspirition and imaginative universe. The Literature of the Decadence favours mythic themes, especially the myth of the "Femme fatale". Estheticism and ethics are the main concerns of Vernon Lee's work. As a writer and a witness of her time, she makes the most of her writing in order to stand up for the woman's emancipation. It is an avangardist writing, which is steered towards Modernism. Besides, she is influenced by the recent discoveries in the field of Social Sciences.

L’exploitant de cinéma articule l’espace public cinématographique et l’espace public ; il offre une définition, une objectivation du cinéma au sein de l’espace public, dans la manière dont il construit un cadre d’expérience esthétique. Il est donc à la croisée des chemins : il doit veiller à donner un site (matériel et symbolique) à l’expérience esthétique, selon les logiques propres à son champ et en considérant la « demande » du public.Les problématiques de son métier concernent aussi bien son positionnement concurrentiel, que son positionnement au sein de l’espace public cinématographique ainsi qu’au sein de l’espace public. La présente thèse vise à en rendre compte, de manière transdisciplinaire et engage également une réflexion sur le discours porté sur le cinéma au sein de l’espace public ainsi que la fonction que lui accorde cet espace. Les nouveaux dispositifs numériques peuvent conduire à la radicalisation du caractère mass media du film (en multipliant les modalités de réception), mais ils offrent également nouvelles configurations esthétiques; le cinéma doit donc être (re)défini en fonction de ces nouvelles possibilités (partie 1).C’est toute l’institution cinématographique qui est confrontée à la problématique de l’émergence des nouveaux médias et qui, malgré elle, tend à réduire la valeur expérientielle du cinéma au caractère mass media du film. Or, c’est le marché qui capte et exploite le plus cette logique (partie 2).Cependant, l’exploitant n’est pas seulement un diffuseur ; le travail de l’exploitant est également d’opérer une médiation. Ainsi, il s’agit de considérer les problématiques de sociabilité engagées par la salle de cinéma et les conditions de création de micro-agora, de micro espace public par l’exploitation (partie 3).Ce n’est que dans une saisie globale des deux aspects du cinéma (mass media et micro agora) que l’exploitant a une fonction claire et importante, qu’il convient de revaloriser au sein de l’espace public cinématographique (conclusion). / The movie theatre manager articulates the cinematographic public place and the public place. He proposes a definition and an objectification of the cinema within the public place, depending how he « builds » an aesthetic experiment frame. Thus, the movie theatre manager is on a « crossroad ’: he has to ensure the (material and symbolical) frame required for an aesthetic experiment, depending on institutional practices and according to the spectators « demands». The business challenges of the movie theatre manager concern as well its competitive location, as its location within the cinematographic public place as well as within the public place. This thesis aims at reporting it, in an interdisciplinary way. It also commits a comment on the definitions of the cinema belonging to the public place as well as the function that this space grants it.The new digital devices can drive to the radicalisation of the mass media aspect of the movie (by multiplying the ways of reception). But they also offer new aesthetic configurations. Thus, the cinema has to be (re) defined according to these new possibilities (Part 1).It is all the film institution which is concerned by the problems due to the new technologies emergence and which tends to reduce the cinematographic experiential value to the mass media of the film aspect. Now the market exploits this logic more than the institutions do and so appears as the only guarantor of the quality (Part 2).However, the movie theatre manager is not only a diffuser; his work also is to proceeds a mediation. So, it is a matter of considering the sociability problematics committed by the theatre space and the conditions of creation of micro- agora, micro public place by the movie theatre (Part 3).It is only in a global seizure of both aspects of the cinema (mass media and micro-agora) that the movie theatre manager has a clear and an important function, that it must be revalued within the film public place (conclusion).