This essay analyzes Mette Edvardsens performative work oslo, which usually falls under the label of dance and choreography. The performance is in many ways making use of and staging language though, so the aim here is to examine how the linguistic and textual material of the performance is enacted in relation to its mediating devices and vice versa. The essay is making use of the media theory by David J. Bolter and Richard A. Grusin to show that no medium stands by itself but always exists and works in a web-like relation to other medias. Language will therefore not be seen as isolated but always interacting with other mediating instances. Their theory will also stand as a base in trying to track different medias ideological origin. With inspiration from actor-network theory, this essay tries to map the performance as a network made up by components. The components will be understood, through material- semiotic theorists as Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, to exhibit agency. That is, they are seen to be doing something, they affect the network in a way which is beyond the control and possible intention by an author. The essay shows that Edvardsens performance is being enacted by its network, wherein the author or choreographer is one but not the only actor. The essay also examines how we come to understand a body or and object for what they are, how we define their borders, and will argue that borders are not static but are open for negotiation.

This thesis explores the metaphoric cyborg concept, based on the classic essay "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna J. Haraway, through Claudia Springer and her analysis of cyborgs in popular culture, and in relation to Judith Butler and queer theory. By extending the cyborg term to include contemporary forms of cyborgship such as our internet lives and personas, I advocate discussion of philosophical matters concering man/machine-compounds today rather than tomorrow. The main purpose is to restore the cyborg concept as a meaningful analytic and philosophic tool for studying man/machine-relations, in a world where other theories concerning nature/culture, man/machine/animal, subject/object, and similar dichotomies, partly lack a technological perspective. Hopefully, this thesis manages to connect three decades of cyborg reflections from several points of view, posing interesting questions about our dealings and feelings towards our dear friends – the machines.

luftgäster, och andra försvinnande akter, behandlar ett antal olika sammankopplade teman; representation av lantbruk, ickemänniskors agens och olika akter av att komma nära natur, t.ex. naturkultur. den handlar om att lämna en plats; och att kolla i backspeglar med hjälp av framlidne ingegerd möllers karaktär luftgästen ställer jag frågor om närhet och distans. förutom en undersökande (och stundvis meandrande) text så innehåller den ett antal instruktionsverk och teckningar av växter från landskapet lantbruk.  luftgäster, och andra försvinnande akter, är skapad som ett komplement och en nyckel till min kandidatutställning utom jord: ish

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Historically vilified, the vocalizing woman developed a stereotyped image with the emergence of the prima donna in eighteenth-century opera. By the nineteenth century, the prima donna became the focal point for socio-cultural polemics: women sought financial and social independence through a career on the operatic stage while society attempted to maintain through various means the socio-cultural stability now threatened by women's mobility. The prima donna represented both a positive ideal for women as well as a great threat to western patriarchy. A discourse emerged in which the symbol of female independence and success ”the prima donna" became the site of tactical control and containment. The prima donna stereotype, opera plot and music, and literature all presented the vilified image as a warning of the disaster awaiting women who overstepped the social boundaries established in the patriarchal image of ideal womanhood. Pauline Viardot confronted this attempt at containment by fulfilling society's expectations of her as a woman and simultaneously confounding its presentation of women opera stars. Viardot performed the role of social woman: she married young, she raised a family, she held a salon, and she engaged in other approved social activities. Madame Viardot's acceptance and fulfillment of the roles established for her by her contemporary society provided her a unique freedom within society in which she could maintain a career on the operatic stage without succumbing to the traditional detritus of the popular press, literature or social ostracizing. She crafted her own image rather than allow society to stigmatize or vilify her. Her success was chronicled in contemporary literature written by women who viewed prima donnas as spokespersons for the female plight. Much of this literature explores women's hopelessness and despair in the face of highly restrictive social codes. Prima donnas engaged in a very public career through which they established financial independence, professional success, and an identity literally shaped by their own voices. George Sand briefly explored the artist-woman's search for freedom and independence in her 1833 Lélia, but it was not until Sand met Pauline Viardot that she was able to create a heroine who could gain a respected position in society, enjoy lasting personal happiness, maintain social and financial independence, and who lived to enjoy the fruits of her labor. Consuelo stands as a permanent record of Viardot's impact on her contemporary society. Pauline Viardot successfully revised the image of the prima donna and that of women in the process. Viardot navigated the centuries-old tradition which demonized publicly vocalizing women and created a new image of the woman-artist. An accomplished actress among other things, Viardot successfully performed the roles of social woman, inspiration of a literary heroine, and prima donna. It is her successful negotiation of these roles which allowed her to carve out a unique position in her contemporary society, a position that allowed her to teach at the Paris Conservatory, support the careers of budding male musicians, garner the respect of royalty, publish and perform her own musical compositions, and live a long, fulfilling life. Letters addressed to Viardot, contemporary accounts by male musicians, and her immortalization in Sand's Consuelo all record the new image Viardot created: that of a respected member of society and operatic performer of great artistic and musical genius.

L'émergence de l'écriture migrante dans les dernières années a considérablement changé le visage de la littérature québécoise. Dans une société de plus en plus axée sur la diversité culturelle, plusieurs auteurs issus de ce phénomène ont fait leur marque. Ce mémoire s'intéresse à un écrivain migrant présent dans le paysage littéraire du Québec depuis plus de 20 ans : le Québécois d'origine italienne Marco Micone. Ce dernier, qui a fait paraître dans les années 1980 une trilogie d'oeuvres dramatiques portant sur les problématiques de l'immigration italienne, a publié récemment Silences (2004), Migrances (2005) et Una Donna (2005), des réécritures de ses trois pièces originales. Nous nous proposons de faire l'étude des espaces de cette nouvelle trilogie afin de mettre en lumière le traitement que l'auteur en fait et ainsi mieux comprendre le rapport particulier que les personnages en contexte d'immigration entretiennent avec l'espace. U sera également question de l'actualisation du discours de Micone à travers cette démarche de réécriture.

Feminist philosophy of science has long been considered a fringe element of philosophy of science as a whole. A careful consideration of the treatment of the key concept of objectivity by such philosophical heavyweights as Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper, followed by an analysis of the concept of objectivity with the work of such feminist philosophers of science as Donna Haraway, Lynn Hankinson Nelson, and Sandra Harding, reveals that feminist philosophers of science are not members of some fringe movement of philosophy of science, but rather are doing philosophical work which is both crucial and connected to the work of other, "mainstream" philosophers of science. / Master of Arts

This dissertation investigates how W. A. Mozart applies the concept of key characteristics—the affective properties of each tonality—as discussed by three of his contemporaries, Johann Mattheson, C.F.D. Schubart and G.J. Vogler, to four soubrette and four prima donna characters from four of his late Italian operas: La Contessa and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Donna Anna and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; Fiordiligi and Despina in Così fan tutte; Vitellia and Servilia in La clemenza di Tito. The analytical method of this dissertation provides a hermeneutical tool to search for meanings in Mozart's music. The application compares the libretto text and its corresponding tonal center with the description of key characteristics on a micro level, to reveal significant dramatic and practical implications from Mozart's key usage in his operas.

Postkoloniale Theorie bezeichnet ein breites Spektrum theoretischer Zugänge zu und kritischer Auseinandersetzungen mit historischen und gegenwärtigen Machtverhältnissen, die im Zusammenhang mit dem europäischen Kolonialismus und seinen bis heute währenden Fortschreibungen stehen. Als Gründungsdokument postkolonialer Theorie gilt Edward Saids Studie „Orientalism“ (1978). Postkoloniale feministische Theorie fokussiert auf die Situation von Frauen bzw. auf vergeschlechtlichte Identitäten in (neo-)kolonialen Settings. Neben der Konstruktion von Gender und Geschlechterrollen sind Sexualität und Begehren wichtige Topoi postkolonialer Theorie. Ein weiteres Themenfeld stellt die Dekonstruktion eurozentrischen / westlichen Wissens dar.

Through an experimental theatre play, this thesis explores the development of human-like agency in contemporary “social robot” technology. The entrance point of this study is the gender gap and lack of diversity in contemporary AI/robot development, with an emerging need for interdisciplinary research across robot technology and social sciences. Using feminist technoscience and critical posthumanism as the theoretical framework, this research involves an analysis of a particular social robot case, currently being developed at Furhat Robotics in Stockholm. Inspired by Judy Wajcman (2004), I analyze how socially intelligent machines impact perceptions of human agency, body, gender, and identity within cultural contexts and through interaction. The first part of the empirical research is carried out in the robot-lab. The robot is then, in the second part, invited to perform as an actor in a theatre play. Entangled amidst the other players and audience members, a queered agency starts to reveal itself through human-machine “intra-action” and embodiment (Barad 2003). Human-like agency in machines is shown to be a complex matter, drawing the conclusion that human-beings are vulnerable to a myriad of entanglements and preconceptions that artificial intelligence potentially embodies.