My dissertation is concerned with two central issues: analysis of theory-practice gaps in aesthetic theories applied to avant-garde musics, and problems of visibility and respect in theorizing across cultures. In the first chapter, I examine a case study, John Coltrane's successive improvisations on "My Favorite Things," under two different theories in order to show how theories shape our view of the practices we are trying to explain. In the second chapter, I take up Coltrane's practices and their relations to theories once again but, in a reversal of the previous chapter's focus, I show how examining theories through practices can reveal these theory-practice gaps and problematic assumptions. I move, from there, to an analysis, informed by feminist standpoint epistemology, of the extent to which political values influence our theory choices and thus help construct our metaphysical views. Out of this discussion, my third chapter argues that attempts to universalize a culturally-situated notion of 'the musical work' (one drawn from Western classical music) do violence to works and artists situated in other cultural traditions. Thus I construct an alternative view of the musical work that I call 'contextualized nominalism' which has the merit of being sensitive to these issues of cultural situation. The fourth chapter explores connections between avant-garde jazz practices and oppositional politics which can be made visible when performances of works are accorded priority over composition. Here I construct a performative notion of community which, in addition to making the most sense of improvisational musical practices, can also be the ground of an 'ethos of improvisation' extendable into other social contexts. Finally I turn to the need for a pluralistic framework in aesthetic evaluation of polycultural artistic processes and products, through a critical examination of universal notions of aesthetic value. I argue, from this and all of the preceding chapters, that where we cross cultures, or mix them, in aesthetic evaluations, we must do so as respectful pluralists and within a pluralist framework.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Rugtitel: Avant-garde culture. Met lit. opg., filmogr. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisors: Dr. Anita González, Florida State University, School of Theatre and Dr. Tricia Young, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts and Dance, Dept. of Dance. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 15, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 312 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Universität zu Frankfurt am Main. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-237).

Thesis (doctoral)--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Universität zu Frankfurt am Main. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-237).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xv, 238 p.; also includes music, graphics Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-238). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-196).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 469-484) and discography (leaves 485-487).

No description available.

This dissertation pursues a study of independent film, from 1980 to 1999, as an emergent system of representation. Independent American and non- American films distributed in the United States have evolved into a distinct cultural site, formulated as points of intersection between principles of mainstream popular film and the traditions of the avant-garde. Contemporary independent film's identity as a commodity stresses its differences from Hollywood's output; the independent industry is not ruled by the same economic, political, aesthetic and historical imperatives as Hollywood cinema. Arguably, this creates an autonomous filmic enterprise able to represent alternative political views and aesthetic perspectives. But simultaneously, the independent industry is driven by familiar marketplace demands and competition for consumers. My study focuses on films released theatrically in the U.S. by nonstudio distributors, such as Miramax, Fine Line, Goldwyn, October, and so on. The films considered will have received some measure of widespread play, permitting an analysis of how these specific texts, their distribution, and their reception conform to and diverge from the institutional and discursive practices of a dominant Hollywood industry. The dissertation analyses both the material, concrete aspects and the discursive dimensions of independent film. For instance, under the purview of the independent industry a division exists between 'art films' and 'political films'. A frequent attribute of work in the art category is formal experimentation. Political films tend to be those made by representatives of subcultural groups and marketed as such to their 'specialised audiences'. They may or may not exhibit formal experimentation. On the one hand, in a kind of tyranny of the formal, art films continue to be defined by their aesthetic variations without a corollary questioning of whether they are indeed 'alternative' at the level of narrative signification. On the other hand, political films are promoted as an acknowledgment to underrepresented communities --- what the industry should be providing --- and as a marketing strategy for product-starved audiences to whom these films often sell well. In other words, political films may be chosen for their subject matter or for the audiences they specifically address, but they remain specialised, without the 'universal' appeal of films accorded the label of art. This investigation traces the extent to which and how independent films represent the stories, perspectives, and experiences of a pluralistic, multicultural society. This research project develops a discursively-based methodology in which films are analysed as the functions of multiple, simultaneous, layered, and interacting discourses: representational, institutional, interpretive, and cultural/historical. The study offers a contribution to the field in its exploration of contemporary independent film as a distinct cultural formation, in its expansion of theoretical work on narrativity and the representation of subcultural groups, in its development of discursive analytical procedures, and in its integrated approach towards cultural theory, cultural politics, and cultural production.