The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of China (the Cultural Revolution)from 1966 to 1976 is considered an unprecedented political and social upheaval in Chinese modern history. Model Plays were produced as the core of the Cultural Revolutionary propaganda in an effort to promote a new discourse of political and cultural ideology of and for the worker-farmer-soldier class. As images of heroic proletarian revolutionary women were expansively represented onstage, conventional gender norms and boundaries were challenged. This paper assesses the "woman" messages carried by Model Plays and the vision of Chinese women's liberation they depicted on the Cultural Revolutionary theatric stage. By analyzing images of Model woman characters in Model Plays, the author argues that these model plays and operas offer an idealized vision of Chinese women's emancipation and to certain extent serve as an empowering influence on women's social practice in real life during the Cultural Revolution; on the other hand, however, they reveal a central tension in the Chinese revolutionary discourse with respect to gender: women could be re-conceived as heroes, public actors fighting fearlessly for collective goals, yet these women heroes seemly could only take form in the absence of private ties: family bonds, marriage, and motherhood. So while there is something "new" and, perhaps, even liberating in these newly imagined women characters, the form they take falls short of truly reconfiguring gender relations in Chinese society.

Aristophanes to Fo is a study of the principal comedic conventions of Aristophanes' political satire and their relationship to contemporary political satire. A template of these principal conventions is tabulated. This is then compared to, and contrasted with, conventions used in subsequent plays in the genre of political satire, including one written as the practice component of this exegesis. This process determines the influence of Aristophanic conventions on political satire from 4th century BCE Greece to the modern era. There is an analytical emphasis on three 20th century plays as case studies and on my play, Soft Murder, which is case study number four. At the core of the research is the hypothesis that Aristophanic comedic conventions are still relevant to the genre of political satire in contemporary theatre. To retain relevance the genre should be a discourse on a situation or event that has social as well as political meaning to its audience and its presentation should have entertainment value for the culture of the time. Soft Murder is a fundamental part of this process and is written concurrently with the research component.

Thesis (M.(Diplomatic Studies))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Magisterarbeit, , 2007.

Univ., Diss.--München, 2000.

Heidelberg, Univ., Diss., 2003. / Online publiziert: 2008.

Thesis--Universität Siegen, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-217).

Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Mar. 25, 2010). Research paper (M.A.), 3 hrs. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-45).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Marburg, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [537]-555).