This dissertation examines the history of the relationship between light/color as an artistic medium and music. Looking at four artist-inventors from the eighteenth through to the mid-twentieth centuries, I consider how new arts of light and color arose from music, relied on music, and also distanced themselves from it. Drawing chiefly on published and unpublished primary sources, this dissertation compares artists’ and inventors’ conceptions of what this new art should be as it was continuously reimagined and reconstituted in their works, discourses, and technologies. I suggest a running tension throughout this history between the aspiration for a new and even autonomous art and its reliance on the music. In Chapter 1, I investigate the work of the eighteenth-century French Jesuit monk Louis Bertrand Castel, who in 1725 proposed the first ever instrument for color music, his clavecin oculaire or ocular harpsichord. I note conflicting tendencies in his thought as he suggested two different avenues for color music: as a form of multimedia, and as a separate, silent medium capable of giving pleasure on its own. The next chapter turns to the color organ and color music of the late nineteenth-century inventor and artist Alexander Wallace Rimington. Drawing on contemporaneous theories of color, reception of Rimington’s performances, and the inventor’s own writings, I locate Rimington’s organ at the intersection of a continuing tradition of analogizing music and color and late nineteenth-century attempts to theorize color independently and systematically. I then demonstrate how Rimington’s desire to use color music as means of improving color perception can be understood as part of a larger debates about sensing color and color education around the turn of the twentieth century. Chapters 3 considers Mary Hallock Greenewalt’s instrument, the sarabet, and her art form, nourathar¸ while the final chapter looks at Thomas Wilfred’s (usually silent) light art, lumia. I suggest that Greenewalt and Wilfred’s relationship to music is a source of tension in their work, as they attempted to extricate and purify light art into an autonomous art form but display various forms of musical influence.

Les débats entre historiens qui étudient l’époque féodale, Xe-XIIe siècle, portent sur la seigneurie castrale, son apparition, son développement, mais avec un présupposé : l’apparition des châteaux traduit la crise de l’autorité publique, son éparpillement entre les mains de l’aristocratie pour laquelle les châteaux deviennent des instruments de domination, l’an Mil marquant une étape décisive de ce processus. Cette thèse tente d’apporter des éléments de discussion par l’étude du phénomène castral : la formation des châteaux, les autres formes de fortifications, leur rôle, leur évolution. Leur implantation et leurs fonctions permettent d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur ce qu’est une châtellenie, et sa mise en perspective sur le long terme, depuis le premier millénaire. L’évolution de la villa en seigneurie rurale constitue un chapitre qui tente de comprendre ce qu’est une seigneurie, ses droits et ses fonctions, et les divers acteurs de la création des seigneuries. Dans une deuxième partie, l’étude des familles gravitant dans les châteaux et dans leurs ressorts permet d’apporter des éléments nouveaux sur l’origine des nouveaux comtes, des seigneurs de châteaux et des garnisons castrales. Elle s’intègre directement dans le débat sur la chevalerie : hommes nouveaux, soldats de fortune, ou héritiers de l’aristocratie carolingienne. Les comportements familiaux sont aussi étudiés, et les évolutions entre cousinages et lignages. Ils sont impactés par l’extension des liens féodo-vassaliques qui concernent de plus en plus tous les aspects de la vie, les héritages et les biens allodiaux. L’étude de l’évolution de la société « féodale » tente d’éclairer le passage du château, détenteur de la puissance publique, au château, résidence d’une aristocratie et point de crispation de la part des populations rurales dès le XIVe siècle. Elle cherche à établir s’il y a bien eu une « mutation » féodale à la veille de l’an Mil, ou s’il s’agit d’un processus évolutif sur le long terme. / The debates between historians who study the feudal period,10th-12thc., relate on the seigneurie castrale, its appearance, its development, but with one presupposition: the appearance of the castles translates the crisis of public authority, its scattering in the hands of the aristocracy for which the castles become instruments of domination, the year 1000 marking a decisive stage in this process. The thesis tries to bring elements of discussion by the study of the castle phenomenon formation of the castles, the shapes of the fortifications, their role, their evolution. Their establishment and their functions make it possible to bring a new light on what is a châtellenie, and its setting in prospect in the long term, since the first millenium. The evolution of the villa to seigneurie rurale constitutes a chapter which tries to understand what is a seigneurie, its rights and its functions, and the various actors of the creation of the seigneuries. In a second part, the study of the families evolving in the castles and their resorts makes it possible to bring new elements on the origin of the new counts, the lords of castles and the garrisons of the castles. It is integrated firmly in the debate on knighthood : new men, soldiers of fortune, or heirs to the Carolingian aristocracy. The behavior of the families is also studied, and the evolutions between kinships. They are impacted by the extension of the feodo-vassalic links which relate more and more to every aspect of life, inheritances and freehold possessions. The study of the evolution of the “feudal” society tries to clarify the passage from the castle, holder of the public power, to the castle, residence of an aristocracy and locus of tenseness by the rural populations as soon as the14th century. It seeks to establish if there were actually a feudal “change” on the eve of the year 1000, or if it was an evolutionary process on the long term.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-229). Also available on the Internet.

Aujourd’hui disparu, le château de Choisy-le-Roi reste bien souvent dans les esprits un symbole des fantaisies coûteuses de Louis XV et de Mme de Pompadour, idée répandues par la littérature et les chroniques des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Choisy occupe cependant une place majeure dans l’histoire de l’architecture des programmes mis en place pour les besoins de la vie de cour de la deuxième moitié du XVIIIe siècle. Proche de la forêt de Sénart, le château devient d’abord une résidence conviviale où se retrouve, après les parties de chasse, une « cour particulière », composée des familiers du roi et de la favorite. Louis XV convie par la suite à Choisy ses enfants, auxquels il consacre de courts séjours dans un cadre moins protocolaire. La suite nombreuse attachée à leur service transforme cet espace auparavant « privé », et le rend plus accessible aux courtisans. Cette augmentation de la fréquentation entraîne de nombreux travaux dirigés par l’architecte Ange-Jacques Gabriel. En conséquence de cette perte d’ « intimité », d’autres lieux particuliers sont alors aménagés ; ainsi, le Petit-Château, premier pavillon d’habitation de Louis XV, est construit. C’est là où prend place la table « volante ». À travers l’étude du domaine royal, on perçoit également le fonctionnement quotidien du château, où vivent de nombreux employés attachés à l’administration des Bâtiments du roi. Le travail sur le terrain est coordonné par un contrôleur des Bâtiments, dont les lettres échangées avec le Directeur de l’administration délivrent de précieuses informations sur la gestion et le personnel. Ainsi, le château de Choisy apparaît comme une pièce majeure pour la compréhension de la cour et de la sociabilité de Louis XV. / Today disappeared, the castel of Choisy-le-Roi remains as a symbol of the Louis XV and Mme de Pompadour’s expensive whims, idea spread by the 18th and 19th centuries literature. However, Choisy has an important part in the history of the programs architecture set up for the needs for the life of court of the second half of the 18th century. Close to the forest of Sénart, the castel becomes at first a friendly residence where finds itself, after the hunting trips, a " particular court ", made up of the king ’s close friends. Louis XV invites later to Choisy his children, to whom he dedicates short stays in a informal settings. The numerous entourage attached to their service transforms this space previously "private", and makes it more accessible to the courtiers. This increase of the company produces many construction works by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel. As a result of this loss of "intimacy", other intimate places are then fitted out; so, the Petit-Château, the first detached house of Louis XV, is built. It is where takes place the table « volante ». Through the study of the royal domain, we also notice the daily functioning of the castel, where live numerous employees attached to the administration des Bâtiments du roi. The field works is coordinated by a controller des Bâtiments, from whom letters exchanged with the Director of the administration give valued informations on management and staff. So, the castel of Choisy appears as a major part for the understanding of the court and the sociability of Louis XV.

In dieser Arbeit werden vier zwischen 1712 und 1755 entstandene Kritiken von Leibniz’ Optimismus-Lehre der ‚besten aller möglichen Welten‘, wie diese in der Theodizee (1710) vorgestellt wird, dargestellt und kritisch untersucht. Nach der Meinung etlicher Kommentatoren wurde Leibniz’ philosophischer Optimismus erst nach dem Erdbeben von Lissabon 1755 und Voltaires Angriffen zum Ziel gewichtiger Kritiken seitens Philosophen und Theologen. Gegen dieses geläufige Bild zeigt diese Dissertation, dass jene Kritiken sehr bald nach der Veröffentlichung der Theodizee kamen, und dass zentrale Thesen des Leibniz’schen Optimismus schon in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jh. Gegenstand philosophiegeschichtlich bedeutender Polemiken waren. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Kritik an Leibniz’ Gottesbegriff – der in dieser Arbeit als ‚intellektualistisch‘ bezeichnet wird – eine fundamentale Rolle spielt, und dass ein beträchtlicher Teil des Konflikts zwischen dem Optimismus und dem frühen ‚Gegen-Optimismus‘ durch den Konflikt zwischen Intellektualismus und Voluntarismus erklärt werden kann. / This work describes and examines four critical reviews, all of them written between 1712 and 1755, of Leibniz’s theory of optimism or the system of ‘the best of all possible worlds’, as it is presented in the Theodicy (1710). Several commentators state that the first important criticisms of Leibnizian philosophical optimism by philosophers and theologians came only after the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and Voltaire’s subsequent attacks. In opposition to this standard picture, this dissertation shows that criticisms emerged very soon after the publication of Theodicy, and that central theses of Leibniz’s optimism were already the target of significant philosophical criticisms in the first half of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the criticism of Leibniz’s concept of God – a concept described here as ‘intellectualist’ – plays a fundamental role, and that a considerable part of the conflict between optimism and early ‘counter-optimism’ can be explained by referring to the conflict between intellectualism and voluntarism.

This study politicizes the mixed relationship in Israeli-Palestinian literature. I examine Arab-Jewish and interethnic Jewish intimacy in works by Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, canonical Israeli novelist A. B. Yehoshua, select anthologized Anglophone and translated Palestinian and Israeli poetry, and Israeli feminist writer Orly Castel-Bloom. I also examine the material cultural discourses issuing from Israel’s textile industry, in which Arabs and Jews interact. Drawing from the methodology of twentieth-century Brazilian miscegenation theorist Gilberto Freyre, I argue that mixed intimacies in the Israeli-Palestinian imaginary represent a desire to restructure a hegemonic public sphere in the same way Freyre’s Brazilian mestizo was meant to rhetorically undermine what he deemed a Western cult of uniformity. This project constitutes a threefold contribution. I offer one of the few postcolonial perspectives on Israeli literature, as it remains underrepresented in the field in comparison to its Palestinian counterparts. I also present the first sustained critique of the hetero relationship and the figure of the hybrid in Israeli-Palestinian literature, especially as I focus on its representation for political options rather than its aesthetic intrigue. Finally, I reexamine and apply Gilberto Freyre in a way that excavates him from critical interment and advocates for his global relevance.