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Using the account from the royal wardrobe as a source to discover the gift giving practices at the court of Gustav Vasa (Gustav I of Sweden), this thesis studies how material culture was part of the state formation process in 16th century Sweden. By analyzing the king’s gifts the study traces the informal networks that functioned as a base of power for the king’s reign. But it also exposes the material stuff as part of these network and thus part of that power. The thesis argues that to fully understand the political and social transformations that took place during the dynamic 16th century, it is mandatory not only to analyze the individuals who were part of that process, but also the material things they had at their disposals and how the things functioned as part of that process. The conclusion is that the king’s gift giving was due to carefully strategic considerations and part of a highly political strategy, and that the objects given acted as part in a process where – in the century to come – the aristocracy became a more distinguished group, both materially, culturally and socially.

Mémoire en recherche-création / Si Athènes occupe une place particulière dans l’imaginaire occidental pour son passé prestigieux, la capitale moderne est dernièrement associée à une crise sociale et économique sans précédent, à des mesures d’austérités délétères et aux luttes. La ville occupe une place privilégiée dans l’étude des cultures et des sociétés car elle concentre de nombreux enjeux économiques, sociaux et matériels. Ces enjeux s’imbriquent dans les imaginaires urbains au cœur de négociations importantes avec le passé et les projections futures. Si les phénomènes urbains font souvent l’objet d’études et de planifications systématiques, cette recherche a pour objectif de dévoiler des imaginaires paradoxaux qui font partie tant de l’histoire que de l’espace de cette ville. Elle s’inscrit au croisement des études des cultures matérielles et des études médiatiques pour aborder les imaginaires en s’intéressant aux matières qui la composent. Le béton, le marbre et le bigaradier se font à la fois médiateurs de ces imaginaires et supports d’interventions informelles sur la ville. Les méthodes de la flânerie, du collage et du zine sont toutes choisies pour leur dimension tactique (De Certeau, 1990), c’est-à-dire comme alternative aux méthodes et formes hégémoniques. L’approche recherche-création accentue la praxis dans une optique de réappropriation de la ville. La collecte de matériels est inspirée par des flâneries dans la ville et dans des sources variées pour arriver à un assemblage non exhaustif de textes et d’images philosophiques, poétiques, historiques, et personnelles. Ce matériel est rassemblé selon les techniques et la logique du collage pour le présenter sous la forme d’un zine. Le béton, le marbre et le bigaradier engagent des réflexions dans la construction d’une identité culturelle et dégagent des notions plus larges comme les relations de pouvoir, le rapport à la nature, à la connaissance, au commun et à l’altérité. / If Athens holds a special place in the Western imagination because of its prestigious past, the modern capital has recently been associated with an unprecedented social and economic crisis, with harmful austerity measures and with struggles. The city occupies a key place in the study of cultures and societies because it concentrates many economic, social and material matters. These matters are embedded in urban imaginaries that are central to important negotiations with the past and future projections. While urban phenomena are often the subject to systematic studies and planning, this research aims to reveal paradoxical imaginaries that are embedded in both the space and history of the city. It stands at the crossroads of material culture studies and media studies to approach the imaginary by focusing on the materials that make it up. Concrete, marble, and sour orange trees are both mediators of these imaginations and vehicles for informal interventions in the city. The methods of flânerie, collage and zine are all chosen for their tactical dimension (De Certeau, 1990), i.e., as an alternative to hegemonic methods and shapes. The research-creation approach emphasizes praxis in a perspective of reappropriating the city. The collection of materials is inspired by strolls through the city and various sources to arrive at a non-exhaustive assemblage of philosophical, poetic, historical, and personal texts and images. This material is gathered using the techniques and logic of collage to present it in the form of a zine. The concrete, marble and sour orange tree trigger reflections in the construction of a cultural identity and release broader notions such as power relations, the relationship to nature, to knowledge, to the common and to otherness.

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<p>This thesis is concerned with the representation of children on sculptural funerary commemoration, with a focus on freedmen panel reliefs and funerary altars. Although there is evidence found from all regions of the Empire, the majority of the material discussed here is from the city of Rome itself. Representations of young children first appear on freedmen panel reliefs, which date to the end of the Republic and were produced into the first century of the Empire. When this genre declined in popularity at the end of the first century AD, funerary altars emerged as the new, preferred form of commemoration. The goal of this thesis is to show that these two types of funerary monuments reveal much about the children themselves, but also provide insight into the social and cultural identity of their parents. Due to the family relationships expressed on these commemorations, I also evaluate the degree of affect demonstrated by the parents or the dedicator towards the children present on these monuments. The first chapter provides a socio-cultural background on the role of children in the family and Roman society as well as the importance of funerary commemoration. In this chapter I also discuss the likelihood of high infant and child mortality rates and explore reactions towards the death of children in literary evidence and social conventions. In the second chapter I provide a background on the significance of the freedman family, followed by an examination of the panel reliefs. The third chapter examines funerary altars that commemorate young children. The material discussed in this chapter is analyzed through a case study approach of nine altars, examining both the epigraphic elements and the sculptural components.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Building on concepts of the pastoral, the picturesque, the “vernacular ruin,” and frontierism in an American context, this thesis explores the interest in ruin and commodity-oriented refuse within rural, wilderness, and what Leo Marx in <em>The Machine in the Garden</em> calls “middle ground” environments. Chapter one analyzes how “nature” has been conceptualized as a place where human-made objects become repurposed through the gaze of the spectator. Theories surrounding gallery and exhibition space, as well as archaeological practices related to garbage excavation, are assessed to determine how waste objects, when wrested out of context, become artifacts of cultural significance. Chapter two turns to focus on the settler experience of the frontier in order to locate a uniquely American evolution of the interest in everyday waste objects. Chapters three and four return to the rural and the pastoral to focus on Marx’s concept of the “middle ground.” In dialogue with Marx’s theories, I propose a definition of the “neopastoral” as that which evolves from the interjection of domestic waste into these middle spaces to the aesthetic appropriation of everyday, common objects in modernist American poetry. The final chapter focuses on selected poems by modernist writers such as Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and W.C. Williams to analyze their explicit references to everyday waste in conjunction with the mythologized American pastoral. These poets provide evidence for how the drive to poeticize an abandoned, human-made object’s proximity to a natural environment plays a significant role in the perception of the fragmented object-subject relationship in modernity.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)