This thesis is inspired by an ending—that of a cowboy hero riding away, back turned, into the setting sun. That image, possibly the most evocative and most repeated in the Western, signifies both continuing adventure and ever westward motion as well as a restless lack of final resolution. This thesis examines the ambiguous endings and the conditions leading up to them in two film Westerns of the 1950s, George Steven's Shane (1953) and John Ford's The Searchers (1956). Fascinatingly, the tension and uncertainty conveyed throughout these films is also characteristic of life in modernity, a connection which has previously gone overlooked. In my analysis, I study the ties between the postwar film Western and the philosophy of modernity to interpret these works in a new light, illuminating their generic context and their understudied philosophic dimensions. This reading highlights these films' continued relevance, showing how they have enabled creators and audiences to reflect on experiences of modernity in the idiom of the celluloid century.

Esta tese analisou os processos de significação na música de cinema tendo como referencial teórico estudos musicológicos com ênfase cognitivista e semiótica, decorrentes da teoria das tópicas musicais, a partir dos trabalhos de Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) e Danuta Mirka (2014). A pesquisa se concentrou em dois gêneros cinematográficos, o western e a ficção científica, considerando as práticas musicais a eles relacionadas desde o cinema silencioso, para compreender a formação do inventário associativo que constituiu a base do pensamento tópico no cinema. Ao analisar o inventário musical de cada gênero, observamos que o uso recorrente de figurações e materiais musicais específicos correlacionados a elementos da paradigmática fílmica criou aquilo que denominamos - \"imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico\", que definimos como sendo o conjunto de gestos, musemas, tópicas e sons concretos recorrentes na música do gênero e que contribuíram para a formação de uma identidade musical. A identificação dos elementos constituintes deste imaginário sonoro nos ajudou a compreender a significação musical à luz dos códigos e da mitologia que fundamentam o gênero cinematográfico. Em relação à formação do imaginário sonoro do western e da ficção científica, duas tendências antagônicas ganharam relevância: o papel da tradição folclórica e nacionalista para a identidade da música do western e, por outro lado, a importância das experiências da vanguarda musical para a construção do imaginário sonoro da ficção científica. Os signos musicais que permeiam o imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico se combinam em processos tropológicos e se transmutam para acompanhar os desenvolvimentos técnicos, poéticos, tecnológicos e ideológicos que afetam os campos musical e cinematográfico. Em conjunto com as análises musicais, a teoria da marcação, aplicada ao plano musical por Hatten (1994), nos serviu como profícua ferramenta para a análise das antinomias que orientam grande parte das narrativas cinematográficas. A adoção da teoria da marcação contribuiu para revelar a função da música como alienadora ou -familiarizadora? de elementos da narrativa. Verificamos finalmente a possibilidade de correlação entre o discurso paradigmático das referências tópicas e o eixo sintagmático da forma fílmica. / This doctoral dissertation analyzed the processes of musical meaning in cinema using as theoretical fundament musicological studies of cognitivist and semiotic basis that have followed the theory of music topics after the work of Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) and Danuta Mirka (2014). The research concentrated in two cinematographic genres, the western and the science fiction, considering musical practices related to them since the silent movies, to understand the formation of an associative inventory that has become the basis of the topical thought in cinema. Analyzing the musical repertoire of each genre, we observe that the recurring use of specific figurations and other musical materials, related to elements of the film paradigms, has created what we called - \"sound imagery of a cinema genre\" . We defined this concept as the set of gestures, musemas, topics and concrete sounds often used in the music of that genre which contributed for the identification of the music with the images and the plot. The identification of the elements of this sound imagery helped us to understand the musical meaning by the perspective of the codes and myths that form the cinematographic genre. In relation to the formation of the sound imagery of the western and the science fiction genres, two antagonist tendencies have emerged, the role of folkloric and nationalistic traditions for the music identity of the western genre and the importance of avant-garde musical experiments for the construction of the science fiction sound imagery. The musical signs that cross the sound imagery of the cinematographic genre blend through tropological processes and transform themselves to follow the technical, poetical, technological and ideological developments that affect the fields of music and cinema. Besides the musical analysis, the markedness theory, applied to music by Hatten (1994), served as useful tool to analyze the role of antinomy that guide many of the cinematographic narratives. The adoption of the makedness theory contributed to reveal how the music alienate or familiarize the elements of the narrative. We also verified a possible correlation between the paradigmatic discourse of the topical references and the syntagmatic axis of the filmic form.

Esta tese analisou os processos de significação na música de cinema tendo como referencial teórico estudos musicológicos com ênfase cognitivista e semiótica, decorrentes da teoria das tópicas musicais, a partir dos trabalhos de Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) e Danuta Mirka (2014). A pesquisa se concentrou em dois gêneros cinematográficos, o western e a ficção científica, considerando as práticas musicais a eles relacionadas desde o cinema silencioso, para compreender a formação do inventário associativo que constituiu a base do pensamento tópico no cinema. Ao analisar o inventário musical de cada gênero, observamos que o uso recorrente de figurações e materiais musicais específicos correlacionados a elementos da paradigmática fílmica criou aquilo que denominamos - \"imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico\", que definimos como sendo o conjunto de gestos, musemas, tópicas e sons concretos recorrentes na música do gênero e que contribuíram para a formação de uma identidade musical. A identificação dos elementos constituintes deste imaginário sonoro nos ajudou a compreender a significação musical à luz dos códigos e da mitologia que fundamentam o gênero cinematográfico. Em relação à formação do imaginário sonoro do western e da ficção científica, duas tendências antagônicas ganharam relevância: o papel da tradição folclórica e nacionalista para a identidade da música do western e, por outro lado, a importância das experiências da vanguarda musical para a construção do imaginário sonoro da ficção científica. Os signos musicais que permeiam o imaginário sonoro do gênero cinematográfico se combinam em processos tropológicos e se transmutam para acompanhar os desenvolvimentos técnicos, poéticos, tecnológicos e ideológicos que afetam os campos musical e cinematográfico. Em conjunto com as análises musicais, a teoria da marcação, aplicada ao plano musical por Hatten (1994), nos serviu como profícua ferramenta para a análise das antinomias que orientam grande parte das narrativas cinematográficas. A adoção da teoria da marcação contribuiu para revelar a função da música como alienadora ou -familiarizadora? de elementos da narrativa. Verificamos finalmente a possibilidade de correlação entre o discurso paradigmático das referências tópicas e o eixo sintagmático da forma fílmica. / This doctoral dissertation analyzed the processes of musical meaning in cinema using as theoretical fundament musicological studies of cognitivist and semiotic basis that have followed the theory of music topics after the work of Leonard Ratner (1985), Kofi Agawu (1991, 2009), Robert Hatten (1994, 2005, 2014) and Danuta Mirka (2014). The research concentrated in two cinematographic genres, the western and the science fiction, considering musical practices related to them since the silent movies, to understand the formation of an associative inventory that has become the basis of the topical thought in cinema. Analyzing the musical repertoire of each genre, we observe that the recurring use of specific figurations and other musical materials, related to elements of the film paradigms, has created what we called - \"sound imagery of a cinema genre\" . We defined this concept as the set of gestures, musemas, topics and concrete sounds often used in the music of that genre which contributed for the identification of the music with the images and the plot. The identification of the elements of this sound imagery helped us to understand the musical meaning by the perspective of the codes and myths that form the cinematographic genre. In relation to the formation of the sound imagery of the western and the science fiction genres, two antagonist tendencies have emerged, the role of folkloric and nationalistic traditions for the music identity of the western genre and the importance of avant-garde musical experiments for the construction of the science fiction sound imagery. The musical signs that cross the sound imagery of the cinematographic genre blend through tropological processes and transform themselves to follow the technical, poetical, technological and ideological developments that affect the fields of music and cinema. Besides the musical analysis, the markedness theory, applied to music by Hatten (1994), served as useful tool to analyze the role of antinomy that guide many of the cinematographic narratives. The adoption of the makedness theory contributed to reveal how the music alienate or familiarize the elements of the narrative. We also verified a possible correlation between the paradigmatic discourse of the topical references and the syntagmatic axis of the filmic form.

Practising Shadow Theatre in the West today means to subvert the predominantly negative view of shadow in the Western psyche, to transcend the faintly racist notion of shadow theatre as the quaint practice of traditional people of the East and to contend with the dominant influences of the electronic media on this once powerful and popular art form. This research is through creative practice in the form of the production, Cactus. This performance investigates the use of the screen in contemporary Shadow Theatre and the optimisation of the live theatrical experience. The performance also seeks to integrate mediatized and non-mediatized performance through the combination of live performance and projected images. My research is a social constructivist process to creative practice as research using a pluralistic approach including elements of action research and autobiography. The literature included for review in this study includes work by Brook, Grotowski, Auslander, Sontag, and Schechner. The literature analysis and previous training with Italian company, Teatro Gioco Vita, served to inform the application of my theories as praxis. The central question of this research project is: How can I break the fifth wall (which is the screen) in shadow theatre performance? Subsidiary questions are: How can we harness the advantages of both mediatized and non-mediatized performance to produce a contemporary shadow theatre form catering to the needs of a twenty-first century audience? How can I optimize the live theatrical experience? What is contemporary Shadow Theatre?