abstract: "Recontextualizing Music for Social Change" proposes alternative ways through which the traditional setup of a vocal recital may be transformed into a multidisciplinary performance with a specific social purpose. This task might be achieved by the conscious use and merging of elements such as innovation, ritualistic significance of music, and hopes for social change. Rather than exclusively analyzing the nature of these three elements, this document seeks to exemplify the artistic use of these tools through the description of two doctoral recitals. These performances focus on the portrayal of two specific social issues concerning gender identity: the femme fatale, and sexual identity. The first performance, "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale: The Voice behind a Stereotype," reflects on the negative connotations of the French femme fatale stereotype. This dangerous image has been perpetuated through popular and mass media since the nineteenth century. The femme fatale has achieved an iconic status thanks to her appealing, damaging, unrealistic, and hypersexualized traits. Nevertheless, this male-constructed stereotype was actually conceived as a parody of female emancipation. "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale" seeks to create awareness of this image through a staged approach of Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite, feminist poetry and prose, and euphonium music. The second performance, "Un-Labelling Love: A Scientific Study of Romantic Attachment in Four Seasons," analyses the biological nature of love. According to this perspective, "Un-Labelling Love" transforms a vocal recital into a scientific lecture. This lecture examines four developmental stages of romantic love through the performance of art songs and the inclusion of a narrator, who describes the biological and psychological changes experienced by two research subjects--the performers--during these love stages. Through a plot-twist at the end of the performance, "Un-Labelling Love" also questions the patriarchal assumption that heterosexual kinship represents, by default, the unmarked category of adult pair-bonding. In summary, and based on scientific facts, this vocal performance seeks to encourage social assimilation of non-heterosexual kinship systems. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2014

Syftet med min analys är att se via en neoformalistisk stilanalys vilka grepp som filmen Sin City har hämtat från film noir. Jag ser även via intertextuella kopplingar vad Sin City har hämtat från serietidningen som filmen baseras på. Fokus i analysen ligger dock på fyra grepp som jag anser är de mest klassiska film noirgreppen; Ljussättning, Femme fatale, en mörk värld och protagonisten. Jag kommer bl.a. fram till att Sin Citys använder sig av klassiska film noirstilgrepp men drar dem till det extrema, kanske för att passa in på den serievärld som filmen är länkad till. Filmen använder sig även flitigt av hypermarkerade objekt för att leda in åskådaren på mer estetiska tankebanor.

Med Gerda Wegeners (1885–1940) anonymt publicerade homoerotiska illustrationer till Les Délassements de l’Éros (1917–1925) som utgångspunkt undersöker den här uppsatsen hur Wegener leker med föreställningar om kön, maskulinitet och femininitet genom att konsekvent tänja på dessa och på så sätt öppnar upp för alternativa och queera narrativ. Kontexten för dessa illustrationer; hur de publicerades i en tid där lesbisk kärlek var populär att skildra inom litteratur och konst men samtidigt kunde utgöra ett risktagande redovisas för att bättre förstå sammanhanget Wegener skapade sina illustrationer i, samt varför hon valde att signera de homoerotiska med ett sigill i form av en liten svart mask, i stället för med sitt namn som på hennes övriga illustrationer och målningar.

This thesis examines how contemporary femme fatales operate under patriarchal notions and expectations of gender and femininity to get away with their crimes. Whereas classic femme fatales were relegated to a tragic fate—either through death, incarceration or other forms of subjugation—contemporary femme fatales now have the narrative possibility of using their sexuality, intellect and agency to get away with their crimes at the expense of the male hero. Breaking with the traditional analysis centering around the femme fatale in her relation to men and male anxieties regarding feminine sexual difference, I propose a queer reading of the contemporary femme fatale that accredits the femme fatale for her active cunning and independence through an examination of her enhanced characteristics which make it possible for her to succeed under the continuous constraints of the patriarchy. The films examined are: The Last Seduction (1994), Gone Girl (2014), Body Heat (1981), Nightmare Alley (2021), Bound (1996) and Basic Instinct (1992). While the popularity of the femme fatale continues, there are still relatively few examples of femme fatales who get away with their crimes as well as a continued lack of scholarship that discusses the intricacies of the femme fatale absent from her theorization as a beacon of male anxieties. However, this project remains hopeful and advocates for a more diverse representation and an in increase scholastic conversation surrounding femme fatales in contemporary cinema.

La investigación presente analiza la caracterización de la protagonista de la novela Travesuras de la niña mala de Mario Vargas Llosa (2006) a través de una crítica falocéntrica para determinar si es una obra feminista o no. Particularmente, el objetivo del trabajo es analizar la descripción del personaje principal en relación con el feminismo y la feminidad, teniendo en cuenta desde cuál punto de vista la presentación está realizado. Las preguntas de investigación son: ¿Podría clasificar Travesuras de la niña mala como una obra feminista? ¿Cómo está descrito el personaje de Otilia en relación con lo femenino? ¿Es un personaje femenino, feminista, ambas al mismo tiempo? El análisis se sostiene en teorías sobre el feminismo (Toril Moi 1989), la crítica falocéntrica (Kate Millet 1969), y en los conceptos de lo femenino, la femme fatale y la mirada masculina (Laura Mulvey 1989). La investigación se realiza con un método hermenéutico donde la lectura del corpus se enfoca en las estructuras de poder de género presentes. Los hallazgos del análisis son que existe tanto una cosificación como una feminización del personaje. La caracterización incluye características apeladas a lo masculino, pero, las cuales están excusadas por el pasado del personaje. Además, el análisis deduce que el personaje está descrito como dependiente de un hombre tanto materialmente como emocionalmente. Consecuentemente, la conclusión de la investigación es que la obra no puede decirse ser una obra feminista. / The present investigation analyses the characterization of the protagonist of the novel Travesuras de la niña mala by Mario Vargas Llosa (2006) through a phallocentric critique to determine if it is a feminist work or not. Particularly, the objective of the work is to analyse the description of the main character in relation to feminism and femininity, considering from which point of view the presentation is made. The research questions are: Could you classify Travesuras de la niña mala as a feminist work? How is Otilia's character described in relation to femininity? Is she a female character, feminist, both at the same time? The analysis is based on theories on feminism (Toril Moi 1989), phallocentric criticism (Kate Millet 1969), and on the concepts of femininity, the femme fatale and the male gaze (Laura Mulvey 1989). The research is carried out with a hermeneutic method where the reading of the corpus focuses on the present gender power structures. The findings of the analysis are that there is both an objectification and a feminization of the character. The characterization includes characteristics appealing to the masculine, but which are excused by the character's past. In addition, the analysis deduces that the character is described as dependent on a man both materially and emotionally. Consequently, the conclusion of the investigation is that the work cannot be said to be a feminist work.

La thèse compare quelques romans suédois et français écrits entre 1884 et 1892 et comment ceux-ci sont imprégnés par les thèmes de la Décadence, et cela à partir de l’implication esthétique des portraits de femmes. Huit textes sont étudiés afin de comparer la littérature suédoise fin-de-siècle – en partie interprétée comme de la littérature de « percée moderne » – à la littérature française et la Décadence. L’étude est divisée en trois parties concernant : 1) la représentation de la femme indépendante ; 2) les nouveaux rôles des sexes ; 3) les rapports à l’esthétique et l’ontologie décadentes. Comme l’époque est concernée par de nouveaux rôles de sexes, l’attention attirée sur les figures féminines est fructueuse et originale, car la plupart des personnages principaux décadents sont masculins, un fait qui imprègne la recherche sur la Décadence littéraire. La première partie analyse aussi bien les apparences et les comportements, que l’approche de « la femme fatale » et le regard des femmes d’elles-mêmes. Dans la deuxième partie, des thèmes comme androgynie, sexualité et érotisme sont étudiés. Finalement, la thèse examine, dans la troisième partie, les relations entre les figures féminines et les idées liées à la sécularisation, à l’artifice et aux maladies fin-de-siècle. Plus les analyses évoluent, plus il devient clair que les œuvres suédoises sont marquées par les mêmes thèmes et idées que les œuvres françaises. Cependant, une différence est que les traits des figures féminines françaises sont plus souvent exagérés que ceux des figures suédoises – une différence que la thèse voit comme une influence du programme littérairement politique de la « percée moderne ». / This thesis compares Swedish and French literary prose fiction written between 1884 and1892 and its approach to Decadent themes, with focus on the female portraits and their aesthetic impact. Eight texts are analyzed in order to explore how the Swedish fin de siècle literature – partly interpreted as belonging to the political literary program of the ”Modern Breakthrough” – relates to the French literature and the Decadence. As the literary Decadence is concerned about the gender roles, the focus on the female characters is profitable and original; most main characters in Decadent literature are male, which has also influenced earlier research on this period’s literature. The study is divided into three major parts: 1) pictures of the independent woman; 2) gender roles and sexuality; 3) female characters and decadent ontology. In the first part, the analyses focus on features and behavior – as well as “la femme fatale” and the women’s look upon themselves. In the second part, themes such as androgyny, sexuality and eroticism are examined. In the third part, the study explores how the female figures relate to the ideas of degeneration and the feelings of loss: secularization, artifice and (non-)health. The more the analyses are developed, the clearer it becomes that the Swedish texts are influenced by the same decadent themes and ideas as the French texts. Nevertheless, a difference is that the French literature’s female characters more often are depicted with exaggerated traits than the Swedish characters, a difference that the thesis points out as connected to the Modern Breakthrough and its political program.

This thesis challenges the traditional view of the 'femme fatale' as merely a dangerous and ravenous sexual predator who leads men into ruination. Critical, especially feminist, scholarship mostly regards the femme fatale as a sexist construction of a male fantasy and treats her as an expression of misogyny that ultimately serves to reaffirm male authority. But this thesis proposes alternative ways of viewing the femme fatale by showing how she can also serve as a figure for imagining female agency. As such, I focus on a particular character type that is distinct from the general archetype of the femme fatale because of the greater degree of agency she demonstrates. This 'criminal femme fatale' uses her sexual appeal and irresistible wiles both to manipulate men and to commit criminal acts, usually murder, in order to advance her goals with deliberate intent and full culpability. This thesis reveals and explains the agency of the criminal femme fatales in American Hardboiled crime fiction between the late 1920s and the end of World War II in the works of three authors: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. The criminal femme fatales in the narratives of these authors show a subversive power and an ability to act - even though, or perhaps only if, this action is a criminal one. I show that these criminal femme fatales exhibit agency through their efforts to challenge not only the 'masculine' genre and the criminal space that this genre represents, but also to undercut the male protagonist's role and prove his failure in asserting control and dominance. Hammett's narratives provide good examples of how the criminal femme fatales function on a par with male gangsters in an underworld of crime and corruption. Chandler's work demonstrates a different case of absent/present criminal women who are set against the detective and ultimately question his power and mastery. Cain's narratives show the agency of the criminal femme fatales in the convergence between their ambition for social mobility and their sexual power over the male characters. To explain how these female characters exhibit agency, I situate this body of literature alongside contemporaneous legal and medical discourses on female criminality. I argue that the literary female criminal is a fundamentally different portrayal because she breaks the 'mad-bad' woman dichotomy that dominates both legal and medical discourses on female criminality. I show that the criminal femme fatales' negotiations of female agency within hardboiled crime fiction fluctuate and shift between the two poles of the criminalized and the medicalized women. These criminal femme fatales exhibit culpability in their actions that bring them into an encounter with the criminal justice system and resist being pathologized as women who suffer from a psychological ailment that affect their control. The thesis concludes that the ways in which the criminal femme fatales trouble normative socio-cultural conceptions relating to docile femininity and passive sexuality, not only destabilize the totality and fixity of the stereotype of the femme fatale in hardboiled crime fiction, but also open up broader debates about the representation of women in popular culture and the intersections between genre and gender.

This thesis argues that Ella Ferris Pell's 1890 painting, Salome, provides a unique interpretation of the ideals of the New Woman, specifically in terms of reclaiming female power through Salome's confidence in her sexuality. By examining the cultural context in which Pell exhibited her painting, as well as her background as an artist, I hope bring to the light the significant ways in which Pell's Salome participates in the construction of the New Woman in late nineteenth-century culture. Since Pell was an American woman who trained and exhibited in both the United States and France, this paper explores the significance of the New Woman in both countries. Through the examination of these ideas, we can better appreciate the way in which Pell approached her painting and why it was not well received in Paris—despite its popular subject matter, technical execution, and relevance to the popular topic of the women's movement. Drawing upon the rich visual culture of this era, I offer a comparative study of how both images of women and actual women embraced sexuality and femininity as a means of exerting influence over men, and by so doing, carved out a sphere of influence in a male-dominated society.

De légendaires, les grandes figures féminines des mythes anciens sont devenues, au fil du XIXe siècle, emblématiques. Le mouvement s’amplifie vers la fin du siècle et l’imaginaire « féminin » se nourrit alors d’un discours social qui contribue à construire la féminité en termes de menace et de dépravation. Les figures mythiques prêteront leurs traits à celle de la femme fatale, devenue le symbole de la dégénérescence de la société française. Engrangeant dans son corps représenté tous les vices du siècle, la figure féminine nous est apparue éminemment révélatrice quant à la compréhension d’une époque. Or, la figure de la femme fatale s’avère fondamentalement ambivalente et Lilith, pouvant à la fois incarner l’amour et la destruction, affiche ce double visage de la féminité. Nous démontrons qu’il existe une relation étroite entre la profonde ambivalence du mythe de Lilith et les représentations de la femme fatale et pour ce faire, procédons à une analyse comparative de l’œuvre de Rachilde et Octave Mirbeau qui, dans La Jongleuse et Le Jardin des supplices, réécrivent le mythe de Lilith. De la comparaison des deux Lilith, ressortent deux représentations extrêmement contrastées de la femme fatale : alors que Rachilde dresse toute droite son héroïne dans son désir ascensionnel, Mirbeau construit une Clara toute en mollesse et assoiffée de chair. Par l’analyse des rapports qui s’articulent entre deux écritures, nous démontrons que la dualité inhérente au mythe de Lilith répond à l’instabilité d’une société aux prises avec de multiples angoisses en matière d’identité sexuelle. Cette comparaison nous amène aussi à nous interroger quant aux traces d’une certaine sexuation dans la voix littéraire. / Over the course of the nineteenth century the legendary female figures of ancient myth had become emblematic of the female sex. This association grew stronger toward the end of the century and the “feminine imaginary” fed itself on a social discourse that contributed to the construction of femininity in terms of menace and depravity. The mythical figures that lent their faces to representations of the femme fatale became symbols of the degeneration of French society. With all of the vices of the century gathered into her body, this female figure appears to us as eminently revealing as to the understanding of an era. However, the figure of the femme fatale is fundamentally ambivalent, and the mythical figure of Lilith, which can embody love as well as destruction, represents the two opposing aspects of nineteenth century representations of femininity. This study shows that there is a direct relationship between the profound ambivalence that characterizes the myth of Lilith and representations of the femme fatale. To this end, we undertake a comparative analysis of the works of Rachilde and Octave Mirbeau, who rewrite the myth of Lilith in The Juggler and The Torture Garden. Two extremely contrasting representations emerge from the comparison between the two “Liliths”: as Rachilde portrays her upstanding heroine’s desire to transcend her body, Mirbeau constructs his Clara as soft and mired in the body, thirsty for carnal pleasure. By examining the relationships that become apparent between these works, we demonstrate that the duality inherent in the myth of Lilith responds to the instability of a society grappling with multiple anxieties regarding sexual identity. This comparison, therefore, allows us to interrogate the traces of a specific mode of sexuation in the literary voice.

Ce mémoire est l'occasion d'établir une courte généalogie des femmes vampires au cinéma, en mettant en avant la manière dont la figure de la femme vampire résonne avec celle de la femme fatale, dans la mesure où elle constitue à la fois une vision négative de la femme émancipée, tout en offrant une manière d’échapper au modèle féminin traditionnel. En me demandant si le vampirisme peut être une source de pouvoir émancipatoire pour les femmes, j’analyse attentivement Byzantium (2012) de Neil Jordan. À travers l’étude successive des deux personnages principaux, Clara et Eleanor, je montre comment le film résonne avec la généalogie des femmes vampires établie préalablement, ainsi qu’avec certains enjeux féministes. Surtout, l’accent est mis sur la manière dont les personnages féminins contestent le pouvoir masculin, à travers la performance des stéréotypes, pour Clara, et la prise de contrôle du récit, pour Eleanor. Enfin, je me concentre sur la manière dont, à travers des mouvements de devenirs, ces personnages sortent du cycle fatal de l’oppression masculiniste, qui mène habituellement à l’extinction de la femme vampire en fin de récit, mais qui ici aboutit à une tentative de réconciliation entre les sexes. Mon travail s’appuie sur de larges recherches concernant la figure du vampire, ainsi que sur les études féministes et gender studies relatives aux textes vampiriques. Je m’appuie également sur les réflexions de Judith Butler, les travaux deleuziens sur la notion de « devenir », et les considérations de Derrida sur le don. / This master thesis is the opportunity to establish a short genealogy of vampire women on screen, highlighting how the figure of the vampire resonates with that of the femme fatale, since it is both a negative vision of the emancipated woman, while also providing a way to escape the traditional female model. Wondering if vampirism can be a source of emancipatory power for women, I analyze carefully Byzantium (2012, Neil Jordan). Through successive study of the two main characters, Clara and Eleanor, I show how the film resonates with the genealogy of vampire women established previously, as well as some feminist issues. Above all, the emphasis is on how the female characters are challenging male power, through the performance of stereotypes, for Clara, and through the takeover of the narrative, for Eleanor. Finally, I focus on how, through movements of becomings, these characters come out of the fatal cycle of masculinist oppression, which usually leads to the extinction of the female vampire at the end of the story, but here leads to an attempt at reconciliation between the sexes. My work is based on extensive research on the figure of the vampire, and women and gender studies relating to vampiric texts. I also rely on Judith Butler’s work, the deleuzian concept of “becoming”, and considerations on the gift by Derrida.