This dissertation explored visual representations of death in the photographic work of Andres Serrano and Joel-Peter Witkin, as well as the MAFA candidate's (David Buchler) own art practice. It looked at historical overviews of representations of death from the Middle Ages to present, as a means of contextualising and locating the reasons as to how images came to be the way they are in the present. Selected artworks were examined with particular theoretical reference to Phillipe Ariès' investigation into the changing attitudes towards death in Western society and Julia Kristeva's abjection theory. This dissertation focuses on the abjection of death and more specifically the corpse and the treatment of it in the work of Serrano and Witkin. This project explored some of the reasons why the images in this dissertation may be seen as disturbing and confrontational. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

El presente trabajo pretende demostrar que una parte importante del arte contemporáneo se puede entender mediante el sentimiento de lo ominoso, entendido como un sentimiento de rechazo ante lo psíquico y socialmente reprimido por todo individuo humano y que sin embargo es capaz de volver a la conciencia ante una situación externa. Este sentimiento se definirá, fundamentalmente, como la fusión de Das Unheimliche ensayo realizado por Freud en el año 1919, (lo espantoso que afecta a las cosas conocidas), y lo abjecto (una extrañesa repugnante que alguna vez fue familiar), expuesta en el texto Los Poderes del Horror de Julia Kristeva, (1980). Así también nos referiremos a otros escritos freudianos sobre psicoanálisis que nos parece importante al analizar el tema de lo ominoso.

CAMPOS, Israel Souto. Do pandiabolismo intertextual de Joel-Peter Witkin. 2012. 153f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Comunicação Social, Fortaleza (CE), 2012. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-04-02T13:46:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-ISCAMPOS.pdf: 6073680 bytes, checksum: d4572a025d76608261b0e1edf0413966 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-04-02T14:29:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-ISCAMPOS.pdf: 6073680 bytes, checksum: d4572a025d76608261b0e1edf0413966 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-04-02T14:29:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2012-DIS-ISCAMPOS.pdf: 6073680 bytes, checksum: d4572a025d76608261b0e1edf0413966 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / In an attempt to approach the concept of pandiabolism created by Wolfgang Kayser, this study is on hold intertextual analysis of wealth that five decades of work, they documented in the book The Bone House, offering as an object. The research takes as methodology the intertextual analysis of Witkin’s images through criticism of his creative processes. As subsidy theory, it employed the interdisciplinary dialogue, presented by Lucy Figueiredo, as a tool to this cartography. / Na tentativa de se aproximar do conceito de pandiabolismo criado por Wolfgan Kayser, este estudo se detêm sobre a análise da riqueza intertextual que as cinco décadas de trabalho do fotógrafo Joel-Peter Witkin, documentadas no livro The Bone House, oferecem como objeto. Como metodologia à análise intertextual das imagens de Witkin, opta-se pela crítica de seus processos criativos. Como subsídio teórico, lança-se mão do dialogismo interdisciplinar, este apresentado por Lucy Figueiredo como ferramenta à esta cartografia.