In “Sounds for Adventurous Listeners,” I argue that Conover’s role in the dissemination of jazz through the Music USA Jazz Hour was more influential on an educational level than what literature on Conover currently provides. Chapter 2 begins with an examination of current studies regarding the role of jazz in Cold War diplomacy, the sociopolitical implications of avant-garde jazz and race, the convergence of fandom and propaganda, the promoter as facilitator of musical trends, and the influence of international radio during the Cold War. In chapter 3 I introduce the Friends of Music USA Newsletter and explain its function as a record of overseas jazz reception and a document that cohered a global network of fans. I then focus on avant-garde debates of the 1960s and discuss Conover’s role overseas and in the United States. Chapter 4 engages social purpose and jazz criticism in the 1960s. I discuss Conover’s philosophy on social responsibility, and how his contributions intersected with other relevant discourses on race on the eve of the civil rights movement. I argue that Conover embodied two personas: one as jazz critic and promoter in the United States, and the other as an international intermediary. In chapter 5 I discuss how Conover presented the avant-garde to his overseas audience. I argue that through his efforts to broadcast jazz impartially, he legitimized avant-garde and emphasized its qualities as art music. In chapter 6 I explore fandom studies as they apply to the formation of Music USA as a global fan network. I discuss the early roots of Conover’s interest in science fiction fandom as a motivation for the implementation of the Friends of Music USA (FOMUSA) groups. Chapter 7 concludes in a discussion of the deification of Conover though the medium of radio in the midst of the Cold War. I argue that, through manipulation of sound resources, Conover composed his broadcasts in a way that allowed him to improvise creatively. Finally, I discuss the effect of a radio personality on crowds and the impact of Conover’s music programming in light of studies concerning deejays as objects of devotion.

L’étude de l’œuvre de Georges Mathieu, artiste controversé dont les activités s’étendent sur les décennies suivant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vise à éclairer un parcours méconnu afin de pouvoir l’intégrer de manière plus pertinente dans le champ de l’histoire de l’art contemporain. S’intéresser aux réseaux au sein desquels a gravité l’artiste permet de considérer globalement l’abstraction lyrique et de dessiner des relations complexes entre les différents acteurs des mondes de l’art. Les enjeux du contexte artistique des années 1950 sont ainsi mis en avant plus précisément, conduisant à l’identification de stratégies de promotion en partie basées sur les mythologies du geste créateur. Mathieu, élaborant son discours par anticipation de sa réception et se présentant comme une personnalité médiatique ambivalente, s’inscrit dans une dialectique inhérente de l’art à l’ère postmoderne : l’oscillation perpétuelle entre culture d’élite et culture de masse / The study of Georges Mathieu’s work, debated artist whose activities extend over the decades following the Second World War, aims at enlightening an unkown path to be able to integrate it in a more relevant way into the contemporary field of the art history. Be interested in the networks in which the artist gravitated allows to consider the lyrical abstraction overall and to draw complex connections between the various actors of the worlds of art. The stakes in the artistic context of the 1950s are so put forward more exactly, leading to the identification of strategies of promotion partially based on the mythologies of the creative gesture. Mathieu, developing his discourse by anticipation of his reception and appearing as an ambivalent media personality, fits into an inherent dialectic of the art in postmodern era : the constant swaying between culture of elite and mass culture

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Philogische Fakultät III--Mainz--Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 543-581. Notes bibliogr.

This dissertation reassesses the dialogues between the aesthetic and cultural projects of Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) and the avant-garde, in both its European and Latin American manifestations. My main assertion is that Lezama Lima’s negative appraisals of the avant-garde are more a symptom of his will-to-power and self-legitimization than a categorical rejection of avant-garde values. My work thus revises the critical consensus that fixates on Lezama Lima’s presumed rejection of the avant-garde by documenting the deep relationships between texts and contexts, that is to say, between his poiesis and the intellectual, artistic and cultural manifestations that conform the late ‘30s and ‘40s Cuban scenario, to which the pervasiveness of European and Latin American avant-garde movements such as muralismo were fundamental. I hence consider Lezama Lima’s intricate engagement with avant-garde manifestations in the visual arts, an essential element in his aesthetics underestimated by critics despite the centrality of the concept of image to his works, and the attention 20th century art and thought gave to vision and visuality, as shown by critics Martin Jay and Mary Ann Caws. My dissertation thus explores the interconnections between intellectual, literary and visual art history in order to demonstrate how, despite his critical pronouncements against the avant-garde’s will-to-novelty and rejection of tradition, Lezama Lima actually incorporates several avant-garde topoi and techniques into his works (such as André Breton’s concept of “objective chance” and Pablo Picasso’s “completive technique”), in direct response to the epistemological shift they embody – a shift that has deeply impacted the contemporary regime of perception and patterns of representation. By driving Lezama Lima’s works back to its original contexts, my dissertation represents an important contribution to Cuban avant-garde criticism and its relationship to the broader cultural context of the avant-garde in Latin America and Europe, dialoguing with recent theories that emphasize the impact of the avant-garde on the establishment of contemporary regime of perception and patterns of representation as well. / text

Thesis--Stockholm. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-147) and index.

Thesis--Stockholm. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-147) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1999. / "UMI number: 9938401"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references (p. 413-436) and index.

Thesis--Stockholm. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-147) and index.

No description available.

Diss.--Körper-Inszenierungen--Berlin--Zentrum für Bewegungsforschung, [2006]. / Bibliogr. p. 279-300.