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What is satire, what can it do and what not, and why should we care about it? Since its introduction as a classification of artworks in Roman times, these fundamental questions about satire have been continually addressed by satirists themselves, their fans, their detractors, political and moral authorities, art-critics, and, not in the least, scholars. These longstanding debates about the fundamental issues of satire have often been fruitful and enlightening. Still, the fundamental questions about satire's nature, its function and its significance have remained unanswered. In this thesis, I aim to resolve these issues by engaging with satire throughout the ages in various media, with a specific focus on contemporary moving images. While satire was traditionally a literary phenomenon, it is nowadays most widespread on the screen, especially due to commercial success on American television (Gray, Jones and Thompson 2009, 19). For this reason, although I do not ignore debates in literary studies and other disciplines, I primarily engage with recent scholarship in film, television and media studies (e.g. Day 2012; McClennen 2011; Jones 2010; Baym 2010). Apart from moving images, I also discuss a variety of comics, because I argue that satire is characterised by similar storytelling techniques as cartoons and caricatures. My investigation aims to clarify fundamental, general and abstract questions about the nature, function and significance of satire. In order to realise these aims, I introduce and develop methodological frameworks from analytic aesthetics and philosophy. I draw mostly on methodologies in philosophy of art to address my research questions and clarify closely related concepts to satire, including irony (Wilson and Sperber 2012), humour (Carroll 2014), fiction (Friend 2012), genre (Abell 2014), aesthetic experiences (Stecker 2010), entertainment (Shusterman 2003) and narrative interpretation (Currie 2004). I also engage with scholarship which has sought to appraise the nature, function and significance of satire by comparing it to philosophy (Gray 2005; Higgie 2014). On the one hand, such comparisons are problematically vague and, under scrutiny, the differences between satire and philosophy quickly become apparent (see Diehl 2013). On the other hand, these comparisons are valuable because they rightfully highlight that satirists and philosophers share a moral concern for truth, which situates them in a similar existential framework. Still, concepts like 'truth' and 'ethics' have remained problematically vague in recent debates about satire, especially in the wake of postmodernism. In order to redress this situation and introduce greater clarity to the debates, I develop a meta-ethical investigation rooted in the quasi-realism of Simon Blackburn (1998). In the first chapter, I challenge the idea that satire is a spirit or mode which can only be characterised by a cluster account (Condren 2012). Instead, I define satire as a genre with the purpose to critique and entertain. This definition highlights a fundamental tension in satire between a broadly moral purpose to critique and a broadly aesthetic purpose to entertain, which explains the ambiguous reception of satire: hailed for its truthful moral interventions (Gray 2005), enjoyed for its aesthetic pleasures (Griffin 1994), but also dismissed as frivolous pastime that cultivates cynicism (Webber 2011). In the second chapter, I frame the significance of satire's definitive tension as corresponding to a fundamental conflict in ethical life between the demands of critique and its limits. Although I acknowledge that satire's purpose to entertain limits its political impact as critique (Holbert 2013), I revalue entertainment in satire as therapy to cope with the limits of critique. In the third chapter, I investigate the cognitive contributions of satire as critique, even if they are moderate. Acknowledging that fictions are epistemically risky (Currie and Levinson 2017), I acknowledge that satire can deceive, but I also defend that good satire can teach non-trivial truths, including moral truths. Nonetheless, I advocate a careful cognitivism which acknowledges that satire's cognitive contributions need to be complemented with further inquiry. In the fourth chapter, I explain that satirists often cultivate a humorous irony to cope with the limits of critique. In dialogue with psychological research on the therapeutic function of narratives (Roberts and Holmes 1999) and the correlation between humour and wellbeing (Martin 2007; Ruch and Heintz 2016), I conceptually clarify the therapeutic dimension of humorous irony in satire as a narrative strategy to cope with the absurd gap between the demands of critique and its limits. I conclude that further research about satire should focus less on proving that satire changes the world and more on how it copes with it.

Much star studies theory, following key theorist Richard Dyer (1998/1979; 1986), continues a focus on 'the star' in isolation. This thesis, however, places stars within the context of other stars. Specifically, I analyse three popular star couples from Hollywood's Studio Era. Star couples played an important part in Hollywood production and reception, with many films employing a male and a female star involved in a romantic plot. My case studies of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor (partnered in films from 1927-1934), William Powell and Myrna Loy (1934-1947), and Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson (1941-1953) focus on their representation in fan magazines. Fan magazines are rich and complex sites of star and audience interaction, with these publications misleadingly implying that they provide access to the 'real' star. In fact, as Dyer has commented, we are only ever offered a carefully constructed media text - a 'star image' - comprised of promotion, publicity, films, and criticism and commentary. Fan magazines have recently become increasingly available to researchers via digital platforms, making my advancing of a rigorous, yet flexible, methodology especially relevant. Expanding on recent work on tropes in fan magazine coverage, I analyse themes occurring in these stars' screen and star images. Comparison within and between these star couples affords insights into what found favour with audiences at different times, especially in relation to romance. The thesis also sheds light on the intricate ways Hollywood negotiated its presentation of screen and star images within the framework of myriad stars.

This practice as research thesis centres on the use of light projected through theatrical haze as a method of creating tangible, volumetric objects within a performance or installation space. The practice seeks to define light as a physical object, not simply an illuminating force but as a material in its own right, and in doing so examines the relationships built between that physically perceived light and the performer, the installation participant, the audience and the choreographer. The term Dynamic Light Structure has been coined here as a way to identify light perceived as a solid object, and to describe a sense of movement, reconfiguration and agency. Although the use of theatrical haze for performance lighting design is an accepted and ubiquitous technique used in the pursuit of conditioning a stage space, the resultant volumetric forms that appear when light is introduced to that conditioned space have not been examined in terms other than those relating to design methodology. This thesis moves beyond discourse that explores light as a design tool by placing the Dynamic Light Structure at the heart of the performance and installation experience. The research establishes the relationships that are built between Dynamic Light Structures and audience members, installation visitors and choreographers. In examining participant reception and practitioner process, the research defines how Dynamic Light Structures are perceived as autonomous stage objects in dialogue with a live performer, as manipulable objects used to redefine an environment and as process tools that can shape the trajectory of performance making.

This study traces the development of the East End’s artists’ agglomeration from its origins in 1968 until 1998 through a geographical history of the studio blocks in which those artists have worked. The thesis concentrates on visual artists and the ways in which they have commandeered space in which to work. The thesis argues that the agglomeration may be conceptualised as a complex adaptive system which has evolved in the “edge of chaos” urban environment which arose in the East End as it made the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial district. The core methodology draws largely on ethnographic techniques. Information was gathered from fieldwork, which in this project comprised semi-structured tape-recorded interviews and semi-participant observation in the form of my involvement with a project “ViA” which is developing an information service for the East End’s artists. The qualitative approach is Grounded Theory. Interview transcripts were “coded” for themes, and these themes explored further in subsequent fieldwork, from which further coding was carried out in an iterative process. The themes which emerged were then combined with the archival research and the findings of the social network analysis, forming the foundations of a theoretical model. The quantitative approach is social network analysis at an organisational level, which establishes that the organisational networks are weak, from which it is inferred, in combination with the qualitative evidence, that the significant networks are informal, a sort of “grapevine”. These foundations are developed into a unified theory which draws on existing models concerning the development of such “creative milieux” and then carries these forward using concepts more commonly found in chaos theory and complexity theory such as inherent unpredictability, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, adaptive topographies and fitness landscapes, and emergence. I argue in conclusion that the artists’ agglomeration in the East End is an emergent phenomenon arising from the actions and interactions of individual artists in search of studio space. It can thus be conceptualised as a “complex adaptive system”, capable of learning, growing and spontaneously developing new properties, and finding new directions which cannot be predicted simply by looking at the system’s constituent parts in isolation.

This thesis is an analysis of ‘militant art’ – a type of art activism that is prepared to break the law, use violence against people (including the artists themselves), property, or incite others to do the same, in order to realise a cause. This thesis considers militant art as a continuation of the expanded field of relational aesthetics fused with a renewed interest in 20th century avant-garde art practices and the organisational structure, politics and tactics of the Global Justice Movement – which I conceptualise as a direct response to a lingering post-political spectacular malaise. Although there has been a surge of recent writing about Socially Engaged Participatory Art practices and, to a lesser extent, art activism, the more militant forms are still under-researched. The thesis is divided into two parts: the first is an art historical, theoretical and political analysis; the second uses qualitative research methods to verify and interrogate claims made in the first. A series of ten interviews with contemporary artists (and collectives) and an ethnographical study provide new data on militant art, which are analysed fully in a dedicated chapter. The findings give us insight into the militant artists’ psychology, motivations and tactics providing a description, analysis and definition of hitherto overlooked contemporary practices.

In this thesis, I demonstrate how Martin McDonagh’s plays, both in text and performance, express the destructive, homogenizing, or stereotype-reinforcing element of globalization, as well as the positive elements of globalization including globalized cultural exchange and (g)localization. My original contribution to knowledge is the in-depth research surrounding the effect of globalization on the theatre by using an extremely globalized playwright to demonstrate this phenomenon. The introduction is used to situate McDonagh in terms of ‘in-yer-face theatre,’ explore existing scholarship on his work, and introduce McDonagh’s globalized identity, created in a small part by the playwright’s actual background, but in large part by the media. McDonagh’s reputation is due to the fast exchange of information and disinformation. In the second chapter, I explore the varying definitions of globalization and its relationship to the theatre; specifically with reference to the plays of McDonagh. I then explore the proposed solutions to globalization including cosmopolitanism, localization, and ‘glocalization,’ and their relationship to the theatre and McDonagh’s plays. I conclude that these elements are not in fact solutions to globalization, but elements that function within the framework of globalization. In the chapters that follow, I examine the relationship of globalization to McDonagh’s work by analysing the representations of terror, terrorization, and humour in the plays, McDonagh’s work performed in translation, and the risk of accepting McDonagh’s work as authentically Irish. In order to do so, I use examples of McDonagh’s plays in performance from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, the United States, and Turkey. Globalization, in both its positive form of globalized exchange and negative form of McWorld, or the widespread homogenization of culture and economies, is intrinsic to both the fabric of the plays as well as the contexts in which they are performed. However one defines globalization, we are unarguably living globalization now, and must endeavour to understand what this means in all disciplines, including the theatre.

This thesis is an investigation of media and technology in stand-up comedy performance and a reflection on Practice as Research undertaken at the University of Kent, UK. Using case studies of experimental stand-up practice and the work of professional comedians, I examine the application of technology in stand-up comedy and analyse the performance dynamics of mediatized stand-up. The framework of this study is formed by three Practice as Research performances, considering issues of time, body and space fundamental to live performance and media theory. Ben Hudson’s Super Media World (2012) used digital projection and an internet connection to play simultaneously to a live studio and online audience, exploring the presence and liveness of screened media. Ben Hudson, Not A Real Person (2013) staged a personal journey of discovery through online social networking profiles and an animated double-act, presenting the comedian at odds with their media double. Finally, Ben Hudson’s Dead Funny (2014) used the hypermedium of videogame streaming as a model for stand-up performance in cyberspace, featuring the videogame DayZ (2013) as its online venue. Analysis of these performances, combined with critical reflection on the work of relevant comedians, is placed within a framework of media and performance discourse. Stand-up is presented as a basic model of theatre performance; a present tense encounter with a requirement for two-way communication between audience and performer. This thesis argues that instead of threatening stand-up as a quintessentially live and co-present art-form, media and technology are shown to create exciting potential in comic performance. In their role as cultural mediators, stand-up comedians self-reflexively acknowledge the process of technological mediation. Responding to the specificity of the performance situation and playing with the temporalities of recorded and broadcast media, stand-ups are able to find humour in the juxtaposition of media elements and subvert audience expectations of presence and liveness.

This dissertation provides a theoretical and historical exploration of two contrasting approaches and attitudes that took hold in street photography during the 1950s, and of their impact on the street photography of the 1960s and 1970s. The two approaches and attitudes are identified as, firstly, that of the "decisive moment," and, secondly, what is referred to as the "moment in between." The former attitude was famously introduced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and exemplified within his work, while the latter is distinctly manifested in the work of William Klein and Robert Frank. Through a comparative and interpretative approach to each, this study analyses the work of photographers whose imagery exemplifies the stylistic differences, and the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the two attitudes to street photography. In the first part of the dissertation, two concepts taken from ancient Greek thought - kairόs and tyche - are used to elucidate the nature of, respectively, the decisive moment and the moment in between, as well as the differences between these approaches to street photography. It is argued that the concept of kairόs embodies certain spatial, temporal, aesthetic and moral features capable of enriching the understanding of the approach to street photography represented by the notion of the decisive moment. The concept of tyche, with its focus upon chance and the unforeseen, brings to light a powerful contrast with the decisive moment, emphasising the photographers' position in respect of the fortuitous episodes that shape their practice, as well as the significance of the abandonment of linearity, intelligibility and determinability that is characteristic of this approach and attitude toward reality. The second part of the dissertation is dedicated to the impact of the decisive moment and the moment in between upon the North American street photography of the 1960s and upon the work of photographers active outside of the North American and Western European cultural and intellectual contexts. In particular, it is argued that in the 1960s, Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander established within their work a bridge between the approaches of the decisive moment and the moment in between, bringing about their fruitful co-existence within a single image. By interpreting these elements through the categories of kairόs and tyche, I analyse how these photographers embraced both approaches with the aim of appreciating the aesthetic opportunities resulting from their union. This second part also involves an examination of the extent to which forms of street photography that developed in relative isolation from the intellectual and cultural contexts of North American or Western European street photography, or which are embedded in non-Western ideas and philosophy, may still be understood by means of the dichotomy between the decisive moment and the moment in between. The works of Miroslav Tichý, a photographer who worked in the climate of seclusion of Communist Czechoslovakia, and Raghubir Singh, an Indian photographer who was profoundly influenced by Indian philosophy, are analysed in order to assess whether or not the categories of kairόs and tyche can be usefully employed in their interpretation.

This thesis argues for a new way of thinking about the corporeality in cultural performance. Drawing on performance theory, cultural analysis, corporeal and materialist discourses, I demonstrate how the new workings of bodily materiality and its dramaturgical configurations constitute an extra layer of meaning, most readily discerned when the body is deliberately placed on a public display, thus also exposing and highlighting its – often exaggerated – material workings. The concept of material as used in this study does not denote the anatomical or organic, although it is informed by them; nor does it imply the purely representational body. What I call for is a quality of “presentness” engendered through materiality, between organic and representational, that is informed by historical and cultural context and the workings of fleshy reality, as well as the meanings created by the bodily image. The material layer persistently reveals itself in the four case studies which embody the “pageantry” of contemporary Western bodies and comprise the thesis: the dead body as represented by Gunther von Hagens’ plastinates, the pop body produced by contemporary popular culture, homo nudus, or the naked body, as it appears in theatre performance and the wrestler’s body in the context of professional wrestling. By departing from the well-established postmodern and phenomenological terminology, the study re-evaluates the contemporary status of the body and its reception, and offers new approaches to the heterogeneous bodily manifestations of the twenty-first century.