In this thesis I investigate the theoretical or philosophical notion/archetype of the Dionysian in relation to the transgressive female body in performance. I do so through 1) an investigation into the theories behind the Dionysian and the transgressive; 2) an examination of the performative practice of the transgressive female body; and 3) a personal exploration of the theatrical practice. 1) In the first chapter I introduce and thoroughly explore the archetypal concept of the Dionysian, and identify its significance because of its intrinsic association with the transgressive. I associate it with its oppositional force, the Apollonian, which is similarly significant because it is through the Dionysian disruption of the Apollonian from which the very notion of the transgressive springs. Through a review of Camille Paglia's seminal text on the subject of the Dionysian¹, this chapter provides a historical, mythological and theoretical context for the schism between the two archetypal aesthetics, starting from the description of the mythology of the ancient Greek gods, Dionysus and Apollo, and unpacks the transgressive nature of the Dionysian. Drawing on concurring theories of Friedrich Nietzsche and Julia Kristeva, as well as Hans Thies-Lehmann's writings on post-dramatic theatre², Chapter One attempts to firmly establish the inherent link between the Dionysian and theatre and performance, as well as the Dionysian and the transgressive, and provide a thorough theoretical framework for the rest of the thesis. 2) The second chapter investigates the work of two female performance artists³ who (re)present⁴ their bodies as transgressive in performance, namely Marina Abramovic and Karen Finley. It critically examines specific performance works of theirs, and through this examination it explores how they (re)present their bodies as transgressive in performance, and why they do so. This chapter furthermore establishes the connection between the transgressive female performing body, as (re)presented by Abramovic and Finley, and the Dionysian. In so doing it explores how they negotiate this ancient aesthetic or practice in a contemporary performance context. I believe that these performance artists are in fact striving to celebrate and reclaim the Dionysian within their work, and I attempt to establish this within this chapter. 3) The third chapter of this thesis analyses my own practical exploration of the transgressive female body in performance in a piece entitled Bleeding Mermaid (2008). It examines this exploration in the context of the theory of the Dionysian, as well as investigating how and why I (re)presented my body as transgressive in the performance. The analysis furthermore questions how I understand my work on the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in relation to, and within the context of, Finley and Abramovic's work on the same subject. Through this investigation, I aim to establish a link between the Dionysian and the transgressive female performing body; and investigate the motivation(s) behind the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in performance. I hope to open up a pathway to the reclamation of the Dionysian, both in performance practice and research. ¹Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. England: Penguin Books, 1990. ²Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. Trans. and Intro. Karen Jürs-Munby. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. ³Performance Art began around the 1960s in Europe and America. It is performance with a sense of immediacy – in that it is hard to replicate as it interacts with each unique audience – it is thus effectively a fresh/new experience each time. It breaks the boundaries of traditional theatre (form, structure, venue, time etc) and is often shocking or provocative in nature. It mixed the aesthetics of theatre and art, often taking place in installation settings. Performance Art has developed and morphed throughout the years, and is also referred to as Live Art in Britain. A performance artist is someone who produces performance art. It is possible that Performance Art no longer exists/is possible because it no longer shocks or affects the audience. ⁴My use of the brackets in (re)presented/(re)present throughout this thesis is because I would like to make simultaneous reference to the words/connotations of "presentation" and "representation", without being bound to the connotations of illusion/falseness/non-reality as is associated with the word "representation" (in opposition to the concept of the "real"), and thus be left only with the one-dimensional approach/meaning of "presentation".

This project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to examine the depiction of the female body in nature through interconnectedness and reciprocity between human and non-human nature, green transformations, and the archetype of the witch. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

Essa pesquisa investiga o corpo humano na atualidade a partir de seu aspecto cultural. É analisado o corpo híbrido, resultado do encontro entre suas dimensões biológicas e tecnológicas. Através de um Essa pesquisa investiga o corpo humano na atualidade a partir de seu aspecto cultural. É analisado o corpo híbrido, resultado do encontro entre suas dimensões biológicas e tecnológicas. Através de um recorte histórico que busca alguns momentos onde o corpo humano interage direta ou indiretamente com criações tecnológicas, o corpo híbrido é evidenciado a partir da análise de algumas criações artísticas que utilizam em seus processos o corpo humano em interação com tecnologias. / This paper focus on the study of cultural aspects of the human body. The hybrid body is analysed as a result of the mixing of both biological and technological dimensions. Through a historical approach which points out some moments when the human body interacts implicitly or explicitly with technological creations, the hybrid body is put in evidence with the analyses of some artistic creations which include the human body as a way of interacting with new technologies.

Orientador: Maria Filomena Gregori / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T06:26:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Braz_CamiloAlbuquerquede_M.pdf: 1289575 bytes, checksum: 9c8390068c9533960e962f4d67b3c933 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Neste trabalho, lanço um olhar antropológico para o universo da body modification em São Paulo. A minha proposta, e desafio, foi realizar um estudo etnográfico junto aos/às profissionais, adeptos/as e entusiastas da parte ¿pouco usual¿ das modificações corporais, práticas que, dentro desse próprio campo, são denominadas como ¿extremas¿ ou ¿radicais¿. Nelas, a relação com a dor extrema está presente, o que as torna especialmente rentáveis para um estudo antropológico preocupado em interpretar o significado atribuído ao corpo, à estética e à dor, levando em conta as possíveis interconexões entre o corpo modificado e a experiência do prazer, do erótico. Esta Dissertação constitui uma tentativa de interpretar antropologicamente o que observei, senti e ouvi dos sujeitos desta pesquisa em campo. A discussão das técnicas corporais e da medicalização da body modification é o gancho por meio do qual discuto a possibilidade de efetivação de um discurso que enxerga nessas práticas um meio de conformação de projetos corporais individuais, em contraposição com a crescente profissionalização e normatização desse universo. A partir de dados de campo relacionados aos significados atribuídos pelos/as adeptos/as à experiência da dor, busco discutir também a potencialidade subversiva dessas práticas corporais / Abstract: The aim of this work is to shed anthropological light onto the realm of body modification in the city of São Paulo. My proposal is to pull off an ethnographic study together with non-mainstream body modification professionals, undergoers and enthusiasts. In this practice the quest for strenuous pain is present, which makes it some interesting ground to be scoured with an anthropological approach concerned with seeing into the role of body, aesthetics and pain, never shrugging aside the association between sexual arousal and modified body. This essay is directed towards my attempt to interpret what I could feel and gather from the subjects in the field work from an anthropological point of view. The discussion in body techniques and medicalization in body modification is the starting point from which I discuss means to spawn a discourse capable of viewing the practice as a manner to state self-body projects, as opposed to the growing profissionalization and normalization in the field. Taking into account field work data on how the subjects view pain experience, I shall discuss the subversive potential of these body practices / Mestrado / Mestre em Antropologia Social

Orientador: Laymert Garcia dos Santos / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-04T18:51:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monteiro_MarkoSynesioAlves_D.pdf: 14010644 bytes, checksum: 84f93a9c31977e89c8b6246cdca253a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: A tese tem por objetivo debater as mudanças atualmente em curso nas concepções modernas do corpo, a partir do impacto das novas tecnologias associadas à genética. Tais concepções, calcadas fortemente na dualidade cartesiana, estariam sendo modificadas pela possibilidade, cada vez mais real, de manipulação da natureza em seu nível molecular. As conseqüências teóricas de transformar o corpo, junto com a própria prática científica, em objetos de analise social, são debatidos. Um estudo de caso, a partir de pesquisa de campo feita em laboratórios de bioinformática na Universidade de São Paulo e no Instituto Ludwig de Pesquisa com Câncer/Hospital do Câncer, fundamenta empiricamente a discussão. Os microarrays, utilizados em pesquisas que buscam estabelecer biomarcadores para câncer de próstata, são analisados como objetos que encarnam as novas visões do corpo, num contexto marcado pelo avanço da biotecnologia. A tese debate também alguns aspectos políticos que se mostram relevantes na compreensão desse avanço tecnológico, como os temores de um ressurgimento da eugenia. Ao final, debatem-se alternativas analíticas e políticas para a compreensão do novo esatuto do corpo e da matéria viva, a partir de pistas dadas por artistas, engajados com a expressão artística através do corpo e da tecnologia, e através de teóricos que buscam repensar as bases nas quais assenta-se a biologia e a pesquisa científica contemporâneas / Abstract: This thesis analyzes transformations in contemporary conceptions of the body under the light of changes brought on by new technologies associated with genetics. These conceptions, strongly marked by a cartesian opposition between mind/matter, are being shifted in the context of the growing possibilities of the manipulation nature in its molecular leveI through technology. The theoretical consequences of tuming the body, as well as the scientific practice of manipulating it, as an object for the Social Sciences, are also debated. A case study, originated ITom field research with done in bioinformatics laboratories at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and the Ludwig Center for Cancer Research/Cancer Hospital, provides the empirical basis of the argument. Microarrays, used in the research being developed in the laboratories cited above in research towards the development of molecular markers for prostate cancer, are analyzed as objects that embody the new conceptions of the body that arise in a context of rapid advance in biotechnology. The thesis debates also some political aspects that are relevant for a deeper understanding of these technological developments, such as the fears surrounding a retum of eugenic practices. ln the conclusion some analytical and political altematives are discussed, as a means of pursuing a richer criticism of the new statute of the body and of living matter, using the example of artists that use the body and technology as medium of artistic expression; also through a debate of theorists that are busy rethinking the bases of contemporary biology and of current scientific practices / Doutorado / Doutor em Ciências Sociais

Thesis embargoed for an indefinite period - full text not available

Feminists have always taken an interest in the manner in which the media represents women. This is due to the fact that the media is always accused of representing women in an unfavourable manner. If not under-represented, women are objectified or used to perpetuate negative stereotypes about women in general. Research demonstrates that the media has moved from under-representation of women. However, equal representation to men or overrepresentation of women does not necessarily mean correct representation. This dissertation is based on the soapi opera Generations, a soapie where female characters outnumber male characters. The purpose of this dissertation is to look at the manner in which black African women characters' bodies are represented. The women characters' bodies have been studied as social constructions with an underlying message. Foucault's ideas of subjectivity were employed to look at the unlimited possibilities as well as limitations of the body. Subjectivity when looking at bodies have been analysed through the flexibility of bodies to be changed through discipline, body gestures as well as adornment with jewellery and other accessories. Moreover, the underlying culture behind the various constructions was studied. The findings were that in the soapi opera Generations, the representation of women characters' bodies was highly influenced by western culture. The choice of a character's body size, hair texture and complexion is mainly that which is defined as beautiful in western culture. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.