I investigate the idea together with the concepts of Imperfection, Arte Povera and Up-cycling Fashion, which conducts me to experiment with various unconventional materials and techniques. By this, a new working method is also created to provide colors, shapes and structures to the final outfits, which further gives spiritual values to the whole collection. / Program: Konstnärligt masterprogram i mode- och textildesign

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-39).

Nostalgia is a term that is often used in literature and popular culture to connote an individual’s relation to a specific place, time or object, however, despite its use in literary analysis, it is often overlooked as a rhetorical devise employed to connect to, persuade, and influence an audience. This paper analyzes the poetry of Arabo-Siculo poet Ibn Ḥamdīs and his use of nostalgia in his poetry to influence and persuade his audiences abroad. I look to the sociologists Fred Davis and Svetlana Boym and their descriptions of nostalgia as being either public or private, restorative or reflective. Drawing on these terms, I propose that Ibn Ḥamdīs writes a relational nostalgia, that is, a nostalgia that he writes into his poetry not just for cathartic, personal benefit, but as a persuasive, rhetorical measure for his audience, and in this way he builds a collective, shared memory between himself and his audience. In addition to nostalgia, I will also be looking to Suzanne Stetkevych and Samer Ali and their work on the socio-political nature of Arabo-Islamic poetry to see how Ibn Ḥamdīs creates and employs this relational nostalgia for his audience and the effect it has on them. / text

Since Deng Xiaoping's "South Tour Speech" which he delivered during his inspection of special economic region in southern China in 1992, China's reforms and opening-up have entered a period of stable and rapid development. These undoubtedly are driving a comprehensive range of areas of social transition in Chinese society, including state affairs, social activities, mass culture, and globalization. All these factors may have a significant impact on the situation of Chinese film, but in the meantime, local cinema will inevitably present contemporary China and its social culture in a certain way. This thesis chooses a period of time from 1993 to 2008 and examines "nostalgia", a unique area of contemporary Chinese cinema, as its basis for discussion. In the light of Western and postmodern cultural theories, this study aims to explore the current state of nostalgia film and its postmodern elements in China and to extend the discussion to social areas and cultural studies. The conclusion reached by the discussion includes two major aspects. First, through historical reconstruction and superficial pastiche, China's past (or its nostalgia) has inevitably presented certain distortions when facing the global mass cult and Chinese communist leitmotiv ideology. Second, contemporary China has reached the stage of a visually featured, postmodern consumer society.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 12, 2008) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

No description available.

Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger' s films sit untidily within the dominant paradigm of 1940s British Cinema. This thesis examines how far their work partakes in a discourse of nation (and how far it can be referred to as 'British'). It also identifies 'sites of resistance'. In the context of the 1930s and 1940s, Section 1 briefly considers the terms 'nation' and 'national cinema' as hegemonic discursive strategies Section 2 sees Pressburger's immigrant status as introduces the running motif of 'alien territory'. Images of 'Home' are considered in terms of his exile; Powell's aestheticism is discussed, while 'magic spaces' in the films are taken as self-reflexive metaphors for cinema itself. Section 3 focuses on two wartime films, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Canterbury Tale. These 'narratives of aspiration' are considered in the light of Fredric Jameson's notion of ideology as utopia. Blimp charts the rejection of an old order and the emergence of a hegemonic state. Alluding to Korda's Imperial epics, its construction of masculine authority is examined. With A Canterbury Tale, the pastoral imagining of England is examined, referring to Kipling, while links are made to the British Documentary Movement (especially Humphrey Jennings). In Section 4, the focus shifts to foreignness and hybridity. German elements in 1930s British cinema are charted (and their Romantic/Expressionist credentials). A relatively international cinema is seen to be submerged as a realist cinematic aesthetic establishes itself. The Spy ill Black's gothic antecedents are looked at via the spy genre's engagement with the 'Other'; and Anton Walbrook is studied as an embodiment of a Germanic aesthetic in British cinema. In Section 5, the post-war Technicolor melodramas are examined in the light of the cultural retrenchment post-1945. The representation of women, and the role of spectacle is examined.