This article examines humorous portrayals of divinities in kibyoshi, a genre of satirical illustrated fiction that became popular in Edo in the late eighteenth century. Comical and irreverent appropriations of religious icons including kami, buddhas, and bodhisattvas constituted a common technique employed by kibyoshi artists to produce parodic effects. One of the most widely read genres in the latter part of the Tokugawa period, kibyoshi served as an important avenue through which people interacted with or "consumed" religious images in the early modern period. Although it is problematic to presume a direct historical link between kibyoshi and contemporary visual media such as manga and anime, the genre of kibyoshi represents a significant precedent in which religious icons served as key elements in popular entertainment. The article aims to historicize the relationship between religion and visual entertainment, which is a growing area of research in the study of religion in contemporary Japan.

M.Tech. / My practical and theoretical research is informed by Johannesburg, the city in which I live. My thesis is positioned within postcolonial academic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of a “Third Space” and within South African academic, Colin Richards’ (In: Enwezor 1997:234-235) theory of a graft that operates within an enculturated semiosphere. In this instance, I identify spaces in which a graft operates in the form of two examples: garments designed by Strangelove and Stoned Cherrie and selected suburban boundary walls in Parktown West, Westcliff, Houghton, Melville and Emmarentia. These two examples are used to argue whether a graft ‘takes’ to ‘open out’ a space for cultural difference or whether it does not ‘take’, thus closing off space. I understand my examples as hybrid forms and manifestations of identities in a process of re-definition in the context of postcolonial Johannesburg. My practical work explores my hybrid identity in my lived context. The artworks are constructed through a similar process to that of a fashion designer by grafting diverse elements. The visual references used in my artworks are informed by the boundary wall and meaning is incorporated by selecting diverse materials to construct my artworks. My practical work therefore ties together the two examples that I use and informs my art-making process.

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Contemporary Western legal storytelling relies heavily on images and discourses in popular culture to secure meaning and give credibility to certain legal arguments. This thesis focuses on the legal stories told in the trial of a celebrity in Western society. As a system of meaning, the celebrity sign operates on the levels of signification and affect. The ambiguous semiotic power of the celebrity sign forces an examination by the legal audience regarding the "real" nature of the celebrity. Reality and truth are seen to emanate from this private self. Moreover, the affective power of the celebrity sign guarantees that, at times, emotion will dictate how much credibility will be given to particular celebrity legal stories and what stories will be considered plausible by a jury. In the trial of a celebrity "Other" — that is, one of the celebrated few who defies the white male norm -- celebrity legal storytelling looks towards issues of race, class, and gender, in addition to celebrity, in order to secure meaning and effect credibility. The aesthetic acceptance of the celebrity "Other," along with discourses of authenticity in Western society, work to shape what is considered credible and true in a courtroom. These factors place limits on the semiotic and affective power of the celebrity "Other" and, thus, on what celebrity legal stories will be accepted as truth in the courtroom. Looking specifically at the 1949 acquittal of jazz singer, Billie Holiday, and the 1994 acquittal/partial conviction of gangsta rapper, Tupac Shakur, this thesis will demonstrate the ways in which law, culture, race, gender, class, and the celebrity intersect in the Western mass media and how this intersection affects legal process and the trial tactics utilized in the trial of a celebrity "Other." / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

La thèse Des superhéroïnes à Gotham City: une étude de la (re) définition des rôles genrés dans l'univers de Batman s'intéresse à l'apparition et à l'évolution de trois superhéroïnes – Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman – dans les comic books de l'éditeur DC Comics. Cette recherche vise à montrer comment le contexte de production a influencé les origines de ces personnages. Ces origines, si elles sont sans cesse réécrites dans les comic books, ne se détachent jamais totalement de ces éléments initiaux, mais construisent des variations à partir de ceux-ci. Depuis les années 1980, alors que le nombre total de superhéroïnes du catalogue de l'éditeur DC Comics augmente significativement, ces personnages se retrouvent soumis à de nouveaux stéréotypes de genre dans des récits où elles sont des personnages secondaires. Les récits parus postérieurement, dans lesquels Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman sont protagonistes, héritent de ces stéréotypes qu'ils peuvent reproduire, détourner et/ou dépasser. Catwoman, Batgirl et Batwoman, puisqu'elles apparaissent à différents moments de l'histoire des superhéroïnes et de l'éditeur DC Comics – les débuts des années 1940, la relève des superhéros durant les années 1960 et les questionnements autour des questions de représentativités des années 2000 – nous offrent trois approches différentes de la place des superhéroïnes dans l'univers de Batman. / Superheroines in Gotham City: (Re)Defined Gender Roles in the Batman Universe examines the emergence and evolution of three superheroines - Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman - in comic books from the publisher DC Comics. This research aims at showing how the production context has influenced the origin of these characters. Although rewritten time and again in comic books, these origin stories never completely detach themselves from their initial elements, instead creating variations on them. Since the 1980s, when the total number of superheroines in DC Comics' catalogue increased significantly, these characters have found themselves subjected to new gender stereotypes in stories where they are secondary characters. Later stories, where Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman are protagonists, inherit these stereotypes either by reproducing, diverting and/or overcoming them. Catwoman, Batgirl and Batwoman are three heroins created at different key moments in the history of both DC comics productions and superheroines : the early 1940s, the resurgence of superheroes in the 1960s, and the 2000s within a context of questioning representation issues in comics. As such, they present us with three different approaches to the role of superheroines in the Batman universe throughout its publication history.

Aged by popular culture is a research project designed to investigate how our perceptions of age and aging are shaped by two specific aspects of North American culture – Western media and popular culture – which have advanced and reinforced ageism though their celebration of the ‘cult of youth‘ and negative depictions of aging and old age that form the foundation of the anti-aging industry. This combination of factors has pushed older adults out into the margins of society where they have largely become invisible, resulting in an ageism that has become normalized and largely internalized by the general population. Sixteen participants (5 between the ages of 20-35 years of age, and 11 between the ages of 65-80-years of age) contributed to this research in 2017-2018. Each participant created photographs or collage images based on specific interview questions that focused on media and popular culture’s depiction of aging and older age in contemporary society, which were then discussed during a recorded qualitative interview. Participant photos, images and audio clips are included in the dissertation which is in a website format that was specifically designed as a teaching tool to be used in K-12 schools, post-secondary institutions, and other organizations and senior’s centres. This website dissertation has the objective of promoting critical thinking that may generate a positive change in attitudes towards aging, build more positive intergenerational connections, and help to reduce the harmful effects of ageism in contemporary society. Seven theme topics were created based on an analysis of the participant images and interviews which can be accessed through ‘Themes’ on the Website Menu. I suggest using these themes as your navigation tools through the website. Each section contains a discussion and analysis of the topic, plus participant photos, text and audio clips. Links within pages provide access to detailed information on the various statistics, concepts and definitions connected to each theme topic. Additional information on Aged by popular culture and the research process is available through links on the ‘Research’ section of the ‘Website Menu.’ (See ‘Table of Contents’ for the complete list of website menu sections and topics.) The Literature Review and Copyright information are also included in a PDF format, as part of this submission. Please note: The dissertation (‘Aged by popular culture’) was created as a website. The current URL link is: https://agedbypopularcultureoutcalt.uvic.ca .The website dissertation has also been archived as a URL and can be accessed through this link: https://wayback.archive-it.org/17458/20210908235329/https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/outcaltl/ / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the transactional and transformative relationships between automobiles and their owners/drivers. Using the sport/utility vehicle as a case study, I show how both the automobile and its user go through transformations of meaning. These transformations take place on a number of levels. The one that I am most concerned with is how the sport/utility vehicle changes the owner's conception of his or her identity. To elucidate these relationships, I appropriate Michel Foucault's concept of "technologies of the self". I use C. S. Peirce's work on the theory of signs, in conjunction with the work of several other pragmatists (including John Dewey, G. H. Mead, and Joseph Pitt) to fill out this Foucaultian idea. This forms the theoretical core of my essay. I go on to analyze the historical formation of the sport/utility vehicle, beginning in World War II through the present. I then bring together the history and my theoretical perspective. In this analysis we find that the sport/utility vehicle is a way for middle-class suburbanites to transform themselves in world they perceive as increasingly dangerous. / Master of Science

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Considering the amount of media created around the zombie and the sustained interest in its role in our society, we can clearly see that a cultural phenomenon is underway, and it is important for us to question this phenomenon in order to gain some understanding of how and why its appeal has stretched so far. The zombie is somehow enthralling, and it is my opinion that this is in part because the zombie is a study of what it means to be human in the postmodern world. My main purpose here is not to ask why zombies are popular or why people are enthralled by horror films of any kind. Instead I wish to investigate what zombies mean to us in our culture and society. A study of this culture offers invaluable insight into our own contemporary Western society and culture, as the zombie provides a physical form, embodying our fears and anxieties into something that is sharable and valuable to an increasing number of people. I examine the zombie's origins within the American Gothic tradition and explore its role as a barometer for social anxieties, focusing on issues of religion in the second chapter. I step away from the traditional view of zombie origins embedded in the Haitian voodoo practice of zombification and its implied post-colonial issues, and instead focused on the zombie as a Western European and American invention, looking at its folkloric and literary heritage. I also take a new perspective of the zombie and its relation to religion in order to explore the profound way the zombie genre can address contemporary concerns. I finish the study with a chapter devoted to a close reading of the film Shaun of the Dead in order to show how the zombie genre has shifted in tone and purpose in the new millennium. What I hope to accomplish in this study is to facilitate a new perspective of the zombie, its origins, its uses and its role in contemporary culture and society, and I hope to contribute in some small way a deeper understanding of where the zombie came from and what it means to us in the 21st century.

Academic Abstract: Famous Performances examines the complications and struggles that people face attempting to maintain a sense of authentic humanity in the twenty-first century. Through various performances, the collection deals with how human-made phenomena like popular culture, technology, and consumer society, to name a few, affect identity formation, complicating the ways in which the self, as well as the world of today, is both similar and remarkably distinct from the world of only fifteen or twenty years ago. These stories run the gamut of the above mentioned interests, including a story about a television writer and his sister, a performance artist, who tour the country, acting in a bizarre, improvisatory show together, while debating the merits of commercial versus avant-garde art; as well as a story about a wealthy and emotionally unstable man who grapples with his famous activist mother's death, when her face is printed on a commemorative coin. General Abstract: Famous Performances is a short story collection that attempts to investigate the complexities of the modern world and the importance of performance in people's everyday lives. Each story dramatically examines a particular type of performance and its effects on people's inner and social lives. The characters in this collection are grappling with the various ways performance is presented to us in modern society, through technology, the media, pop culture, social media, and more. Throughout the collection the reader is forced to confront their own iterations of authenticity and performance. / MFA