Šiuolaikinė vartotojiška visuomenė žmogaus kūną akcentuoja, kaip ženklą, kuris gali reprezentuoti rasę, lytį, amžių, socialinį statusą ar vaidmenį, o kūno kalba – emocijas ir jausmus. Visuomenę galima analizuoti remiantis lyčių diskursu, turtingu socialinių, politinių ir kultūrinių procesų, formuojančių lyčių identitetą, stereotipus ir idealus. Vykstant XX a. socialiniams pokyčiams, keitėsi moters vaidmuo ir požiūris į ją. Lygiagrečiai kito ir vyro tapatumas. Kai kurios socialinės subkultūros istorijoje ir moksluose ilgą laiką nebuvo išryškintos ir nagrinėjamos. Tai – marginalinės (homoseksualai – gėjai ir lesbietės bei neįgalieji) grupės. Jos dažnai jautė savos visuomenės ignoravimą, diskriminaciją ir agresiją. Feministinis judėjimas XX a. antrojoje pusėje paspartino įvairius sociumo pokyčius visame pasaulyje. Tuo pačiu metu atsirado ir šiuolaikinis šokis – sudėtingas reiškinys mene. Tyrėjai nenubrėžia aiškios jo pradžios ar pabaigos, jame persipina įvairios šokio technikos, o šokėjai išlaisvinami iš griežtos judesio abėcėlės. Šiuolaikiniame šokyje pateikiama ir kvestionuojama tradicinė (moters ir vyro) ir marginalinė (homoseksualų ir neįgaliųjų) kūno raiška paskatino analizuoti šiuolaikinį šokį socialiniame ir kultūriniame kontekste. Diplominio darbo objektas yra kūno socialiniai atspindžiai šiuolaikiniame šokyje: tradiciniai (moters ir vyro) ir marginaliniai (homoseksualų ir neįgaliųjų). Darbo objekto laukas – Europos ir Lietuvos šiuolaikinio šokio spektakliai, sukurti per... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / A contemporary consuming society emphasizes a human body as a sign that represents a race, gender, age, social status or role and a body language that highlights emotions and feelings. A society could be analysed on the basis of a gender discourse. It is rich with social, political and cultural processes shaping gender identities, stereotypes and ideals. Changes in the 20th century influenced the alterations in a woman’s roles ant attitudes towards her. A man’s identity was changing as well. Some social subcultures have not been defined and analysed in history or in science. These subcultures are considered to be marginal groups: gays, lesbians and disabled. Very often they felt the ignorance, discrimination and aggression. In the second half of the 20th century the feminist movement speeded social changes all over the world. At that time a contemporary dance appeared as a complex phenomenon in art. Researchers do not outline its clear beginning or the end. It is a mix of various techniques and dancers are free from a strict movement alphabet. Representation and questioning of traditional (a woman and a man) and marginal (homosexuals and disabled) reflections of a body in a contemporary dance influenced the analysis of a contemporary dance in the social and cultural context. The subject of a diploma paper is the body’s social reflections in a contemporary dance: traditional (a woman and a man) and marginal (homosexuals and disabled). The field of the subject is European and... [to full text]

This study analyzes the techniques that Canadian comics life writers develop to construct personal histories. I examine a broad selection of texts including graphic autobiography, biography, memoir, and diary in order to argue that writers and readers can, through these graphic narratives, engage with an eclectic and eccentric understanding of Canadian historical subjects. Contemporary Canadian comics are important for Canadian literature and life writing because they acknowledge the importance of contemporary urban and marginal subcultures and function as representations of people who occasionally experience economic scarcity. I focus on stories of “ordinary” people because their stories have often been excluded from accounts of Canadian public life and cultural history. Following the example of Barbara Godard, Heather Murray, and Roxanne Rimstead, I re-evaluate Canadian literatures by considering the importance of marginal literary products. Canadian comics authors rarely construct narratives about representative figures standing in place of and speaking for a broad community; instead, they create what Murray calls “history with a human face . . . the face of the daily, the ordinary” (“Literary History as Microhistory” 411). My research finds that contemporary Canadian graphic narratives create mundane personal histories using a medium that is inherently attuned to exaggeration and fragmentation. My reading of graphic narrative is based on “autographics,” a recent field of scholarship that analyzes the interactions between visual and verbal forms of communication in works of life writing. I draw on visual rhetorical studies and communication design in order to describe “the distinctive technology and aesthetics of life narrative that emerges in comics” (Whitlock 965). The medium of comics playfully manipulates the discourses of documentary evidence and testimonial authority. At the same time, it gives Canadian authors tools for depicting the experiences of ordinary individuals through a rich collection of emotional, sensorial, and perceptual information. Focusing on the work of such authors as Chester Brown, David Collier, Julie Doucet, Sarah Leavitt, and Seth, I suggest that Canadian comics authors exploit the unique formal properties of the medium of comics in order to interrogate dominant nationalist discourses. They also develop an alternative method for analyzing narratives about the past.

Ce mémoire s'attarde à la notion d'hyperréalisme en littérature contemporaine et à son incarnation spécifique dans trois romans de Suzanne Jacob : L'Obéissance (1991), Rouge mère et fils (2001) et Fugueuses (2005). Le recours à la théorie et à l'histoire de la peinture est essentiel puisque l'hyperréalisme est d'abord endossé par l'art pictural. De plus, la peinture, la photographie, le cinéma, la musique, la télévision, la sculpture, l'architecture et la littérature sont autant de médiations fortement présentes dans le roman hyperréaliste. Cette présence multiple des médias est essentielle au caractère hyperréaliste d'une œuvre ; la tentative d'intégrer le réel passe par un détour représentationnel. Les manifestations stylistiques et narratives de l'hyperréalisme sont associées à l'intégration de formes empruntées à d'autres arts ou médias comme la fugue et le fait divers. Les effets de l'hyperréalisme sur la narration se manifestent également par un éclatement des focalisations, en témoignent la fragmentation narrative ainsi que l'importance accordée au détail. Enfin, l'hyperréalisme joue sur une tension constante entre continuité et rupture. Les conséquences sont à envisager dans une sorte d'appréhension du réel, tant par le personnage que par le roman, qui doivent composer avec une multiplicité de représentations. / This Master's thesis studies the concept of hyperrealism in the context of contemporary literature. It focuses more specifically on the ways it is expressed in three novels written by Suzanne Jacob : L'Obéissance (1991), Rouge mère et fils (2001) and Fugueuses (2005). An overview of the history and theoretical aspects of pictural art is essential to understand hyperrealism for the latter is intertwined with this art form. When taking a closer look at the hyperrealistic novel, one will notice the abundance of media references (i.e. pictural art, photography, cinema, music, television, sculpture, architecture and literature). This occurrence of multiple medias and the depiction of the real through mediated representations are essential components of hyperrealistic works. Style and narrative are intimately related to these medias and art forms. The Hyperrealist novel hence will feature complex and particular narrative structures characterized by juxtaposed focalizations, narrative fragments and importance given to fine detail. Finally, the hyperrealist novel employs continuity and fragmentation. It features characters and author composing with these complex representations wich will eventually lead them to demonstrate skepticism and doubt when apprehending the real.

In Lithuanian architecturology, the work is new by its broader and deeper approach to contemporary wooden architecture. The dissertation has analyzed the objects of contemporary wooden architecture, which so far have been discussed only in articles of descriptive character or have not been analyzed or published at all. By revealing the significance of wood in Lithuanian culture, historical development of wooden architecture, the importance of heritage of wooden buildings and ethnic features present in such heritage, the work emphasizes the distinctive place of woodwork in contemporary Lithuanian architecture and culture now influenced by the globalization phenomena. The work deals in more detail with the relationship between traditional and innovative morphologies, and their interlinks in modern architecture. It emphasizes structural and artistic possibilities for the use of wood in contemporary Lithuanian architecture. The work discusses the international experience while revealing important peculiarities of wooden architecture as a phenomenon, which have been lost in Lithuania together with discontinuation of the tradition of wooden architecture during the last occupation of the country. The research contributes to better understanding of the value of wood as a material, which have been forgotten and sometimes still is looked upon rather skeptically, as well as its innovative possibilities in architecture. The work could serve as a theoretical background in improving... [to full text] / Lietuvos architektūrologijoje darbas yra naujas platesniu ir gilesniu požiūriu į šiuolaikinę medinę architektūrą. Disertacijoje išanalizuoti šiuolaikinės medinės architektūros objektai, kurie iki šiol buvo aptarti tik pavieniuose aprašomuosiuose straipsniuose arba išvis niekur nenagrinėti ir nepublikuoti. Tyrime atskleidžiant medžio reikšmę Lietuvos kultūroje, medinės architektūros istorinę raidą, medinių statinių paveldo svarbą, jo etninius bruožus, pabrėžiama išskirtinė kūrybos iš medžio vieta dabartinėje Lietuvos architektūroje ir kultūroje, veikiamoje pasaulio globalizacijos reiškinių. Išsamiau nagrinėjamas tradicinės ir novatyvios morfologijos santykis bei tarpusavio sąsajos šiuolaikinėje architektūroje. Išryškintos medžio panaudos konstruktyvinės ir meninės galimybės nūdienos Lietuvos architektūroje. Darbe remtasi pasaulio patirtimi atskleidžiant svarbius medinės architektūros reiškinio ypatumus, kurie prarasti Lietuvoje nutrūkus medinės architektūros tradicijai per paskutinę okupaciją. Šis tyrimas leidžia geriau suvokti visuomenės primirštos ir neretai skeptiškai vertinamos medžio kaip medžiagos vertę, dabartines galimybes architektūroje. Darbas gali būti teoriniu pagrindu tobulinant architektūros, dizaino mokymo programas bei kai kuriuos formalius reikalavimus medinės architektūros projektavimui ir statybai.

XVII – XIX a. ir XX a. II pusės – XXI a. liaudies tapyba Lietuvos dailės istorijoje izoliuotos ir tarpusavyje beveik nelyginamos. XVII–XIX a. lietuvių liaudies tapybos reiškinį apibrėžia buitis ir religija. Valstiečio gyvenime abi sritys buvo neatskiriamos, tai reiškia, jog viena kitą veikė. Šventojo atvaizdas buvo interpretuojamas ne tik kaip estetikos pagrindu sukurtas religinis objektas, bet ir kaip ryšininkas tarp materialaus ir transcendentalaus pasaulio. Dėl tos priežasties atvaizdai iš bažnyčių (kurios suvoktos kaip šventa erdvė) paplito valstietijos tarpe. Periferijos bažnyčių interjerą puošė pasimokiusių liaudies meistrų paveikslai - profesionaliosios bažnytinės tapybos kartotės. Jos tapdavo pagrindu savamokslių meistrų kūrybai. Priklausomai nuo bažnyčios titulo, ir maldos namuose kabėjusių paveikslų – nuo parapijos globėjo iki stebuklingų atvaizdų kartočių – valstietijos tarpe plito analoginiai pavyzdžiai. Egzistavo keletas „universalių“ šventųjų, kurių atvaizdai plito nepriklausomai nuo propaguoto kulto. Jie daugeliu atvejų susiję su pragmatiškuoju aspektu: saugojo nuo gaisro, ligų, kitokių nelaimių. Tiek pasimokę, tiek savamoksliai meistrai tapė griežtai pagal krikščioniškos ikonografijos taisykles: šventieji buvo atpažįstami iš jiems būdingų atributų. Autorinei kūrybai vietos beveik nebuvo. XX a. pradžioje liaudies tapybos tradicija nunyko dėl spausdintinių devocinių atvaizdų gausos, „gražumo“ ir pigumo. Liaudies tapybos sugrįžimą žymi XX a. II pusė. Dėl... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Lithuanian folk paintings periods during their existence from 17th to 19th and from the second half of the 20th to 21st centuries were isolated and no one has ever tried to compare them. 17th – 19th centuries Lithuanian folk painting defines the phenomenon of everyday life and religion. Both these areas of peasant life, were connected. What is more, it means that they used to influence each other. Holy image was interpreted not only as an aesthetic-based religious object, but also as a liaison between the material and the spiritual world. Periphery church interior used to be decorated with folk art paintings of instructed unprofessional artists, who have had reiterated church paintings. These images became the basis of self-taught artists works Both instructed unprofesionals and self-taught masters painted in strict accordance with the rules of Christian iconography: the saints were recognizable from their characteristic attributes. There were no space for artists imagination. In the beggining of the 20th century folk painting tradition disappeared because of industrial prints. They were „beautiful“ and cheep. Folk painting returned in the second half of 20th century. Because of the political situation (the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania had lasted from 1944 to 1990) in the public domain folk paintings have evolved only in conformistic genres: landscape, portrait, genre paintings, or ideological images. Sacral folk painting mostly unfolded in a private space, so they... [to full text]

The purpose of this study is to investigate what students in high school think of contemporary languages studies and to understand their motivation to continue or not continue with them. The work is relevant, as fewer students continue to study contemporary languages at high school, despite international globalization and society's need for people who speak more than one foreign language. The survey methodology is quantitative with some qualitative elements. Electronic surveys were sent to students in high school in the county of Jämtland in the north of Sweden. There were 226 respondents to the survey and in their answers I can appreciate that several of them think that it’s enough to speak English and are not interested in any other languages. However, more than half, 174 students in this study find the advantages and enjoy learning another language. The majority of those who don’t continue with their contemporary languages studies think that the burden of studies is too much. They think that the lessons or/and the teachers are not motivating, the expectations are too high and they don’t get the same support from the school as they get in other subjects. They feel that maybe the school should give better information and adapt the courses to the students, get better teachers, make the lessons easier and provide more help to the students in the contemporary languages area. / Syftet med studiet är att undersöka vad gymnasieelever tycker om moderna språk studier. Detta för att förstå vad som påverkar elevernas motivation att fortsätta eller inte fortsätta att studera moderna språk. Arbetet är relevant, eftersom färre studenter fortsätter studera moderna språk i gymnasiet, trots internationell globalisering och samhällets behov av personer som talar mer än ett främmande språk. Undersöknings metoden är kvantitativ med vissa kvalitativa inslag. Elektroniska enkäter skickades till gymnasieskolan elever i Jämtlands län i norra Sverige. Jag fick 226 svar, enkäten och resultaten av undersökningen visade att flera av respondenterna tycker att det räcker med att kunna engelska och de är inte intresserade att lära sig något annat språk. Trots detta är mer än hälften av undersökta elever i studien (174 elever) intresserade av att lära sig ytterligare ett språk. De ser fördelarna med det och de tycker även om språk. Majoriteten av dem som inte fortsätter med sina samtida moderna språk studier anser att moderna språkstudiernas börda är för mycket, de finner inte tillräcklig motivation i lektionerna och/eller lärarna. Dessutom tycker de att förväntningar är för höga och att de inte får samma stöd från skolan som de får i andra ämnen. De tycker att skolan kanske bör anpassa kurserna till studerande, skaffa bättre språklärare, göra lektionerna enklare och ge mer stöd i contemporary språk till de eleverna som behöver det. / VAL

This dissertation develops a theory for analyzing the role of audiences as aesthetic resources in contemporary site-specific performance and relational art. Collaborating with three Canadian companies as a participant-observer, interviewer, and in some cases, documenter, I develop case studies that track flexible stage-audience relationships in public spaces. By analyzing how companies Radix Theatre Society, Bluemouth, and Mammalian Diving Reflex put spectators to work in sites like IKEA showrooms, disused warehouses, and theatres, I advance a method that attends to the doubled practice of the spectator as worker and witness. This framework, which I term bifold spectatorship, articulates how audiences constitute theatrical worlds through direct physical engagement with the cultural criticism and formal experimentation that artists stage. Folded into the event, spectators literally compose the scene of the action, and enter into what I call critical proximity with the discourses that shape the performance. As participants interact with and directly query the artistic expressions that they patron, they answer a challenge to perform that is typically reserved for professionals. Such novel participation begins with a hail that interpellates audiences into the action as subjects and even sites of performance. Adapting the concept of the casting call, or what I coin site-casting, miscasting, and central casting, I show how spectators are aligned with the exigencies of the site; “mis-placed” or miscast by artists (provoking performance anxiety in participants); or cast to play a role they already perform in their everyday lives. In addition to these critical frameworks, I challenge the established narrative of “liberating the audience” by forwarding a multi-sited genealogy of site-specific performance that confronts the romance of freeing spectators from stage conventions. In examining the ethical problems that arise when audiences are made responsible for representation, The Stagehands of Subversive Spaces extends debates within site-specific performance to wider conversations in performance studies about ethics, subjectivity, and audience reception.

This thesis argues that the environmental undertones of artists Edward Burtynsky’s and Olafur Eliasson’s work have clearly aligned them; however, the focus of my study is not an evaluation of the artists’ abilities to express environmental concerns, but rather an exploration of the effects of their representations on our understanding of the surrounding environment, and of the artists’ contributions toward a definition of Nature that now includes its own demise as a site of aesthetic pleasure. This study focuses on Olafur Eliasson’s New York City Waterfalls and on Edward Burtynsky’s Nickel Tailings photographs. Burtynsky’s Nickel Tailings photographs, among them in particular, his well known Nickel Tailings No. 34, depict a barren grey and black landscape centered primarily around an intensely coloured red and orange river of molten metal. Eliasson’s recent New York City Waterfalls consists of four artist-constructed waterfalls, ranging from 90 to 120 feet tall, located within the waters of Lower Manhattan, Governs Island, and beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. In his monumental New York City Waterfalls, Eliasson has made an intervention into the landscape that effectively works to contaminate the established aesthetic upon which it is based. In his monumental photographs, in contrast, Burtynsky does the opposite; he aestheticizes the contaminated. Here I would add that both artists have carefully called upon the elemental in order to reference the idea of wilderness or a “pure” form of Nature. Reference to the elemental in Nature—to air, water, and fire— has allowed these artists to challenge the viewer’s perception and experience of the nonhuman world. These manufactured landscapes are undeniably owned by humanity, yet is this the type of landscape we are comfortable to claim as our own? / Thesis (Master, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2011-12-03 14:03:08.43

Exploring Urban Spaces in the Young Imagination makes the case for taking seriously children's and young adult fiction as a topic worthy of scholarly analysis beyond a purely didactic focus. The recent explosion of interest in this literature among adult readers and the blurring of boundaries between adult and youth media demonstrate that it has become a powerful influence on popular culture and has captured the collective imagination. As the future inhabitants of urban spaces, paying close attention to children’s and youth perspectives can provide fresh lenses, with which to view the cultural construction of cityscapes. This dissertation examines post-millennium children’s and YA fiction and film. Drawing on theories of the spatial turn, my research provides five case studies on a variety of topics related to the contemporary metropolis – ranging from cognitive disability to environmental concerns. Specifically, it pays close attention to the inherent connections between the developing perceptions of metropolises and the various protagonists’ processes of identity formation. Beginning with Berlin, as portrayed in Andreas Steinhöfel’s popular Rico-und-Oskar-trilogy, my analysis explores the protagonist’s shifting perceptions of his urban surroundings while overcoming the limitations of his learning disability. Furthermore, my research shows how Steinhöfel’s Der mechanische Prinz utilizes the cityscape as a mirror for the protagonist’s psyche and how his knowledge of the Berlin subway system contributes to his self-healing. In contrast, China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun explores the ecocritical implications of London’s urban ‘other’, UnLondon. Katherine Marsh’s The Night Tourist and its sequel The Twilight Tourist illustrate the literary construction of New York City as a ‘mediascape’ and modern myth. Finally, I focus on alternative family structures and their connection to urban spaces, specifically Venice in Cornelia Funke’s Herr der Diebe, and Paris in Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The study concludes with an examination of these novels’ filmic versions and their respective romanticisations of Venice and Paris. The dissertation contributes to the fields of child and youth studies and urban geographies by exposing the manifold symbiotic constructions of cityscapes and youth in post-2000 children’s and YA fiction that shape identities and spaces alike. / Thesis (Ph.D, German) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-02 16:56:36.507

No description available.