The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to examine queer aspects of the animated television show Steven Universe (2013-present), created by Rebecca Sugar and produced by Cartoon Network. Situating Steven Universe in the context of Cartoon Network and children’s animation in general, and drawing on queer theory, as well as feminist cultural studies and kinship studies, the thesis aims to contribute to understanding of non-normative family representation in children’s entertainment. Through a close reading of the material, the thesis explores how Steven Universe queers the notion of family. It focuses on the show’s depiction of kinship, temporality and reproduction, and examines how each of these aspects subverts reproduces different modes of normativity. In Steven Universe, the family of the main character, Steven, is depicted as socially unintelligible, and as a mixture of biological and chosen kinship, highlighting the importance of both. It places great emphasis on being accepted by one’s family and community, and I discuss how this message can be both empowering and undermining. Steven’s family mostly inhabits queer time and does not give in to chrononormative structures. However, I also explore and critically evaluate parts of the series in which queer temporality is provisionally replaced by chrononormativity and striving for maturity. Finally, Steven Universe queers reproduction, by defamiliarizing the notion of (hetero)sexual reproduction and providing other alternatives for reproduction and motherhood. In general, the depiction of family on Steven Universe is characterized by transgressing multiple dichotomies and by having a complex relationship to different modes of normativity, by both resisting them and engaging in them.

This thesis is an exploration of some of the defining characteristics of performance art, and an investigation of how such characteristics relate to ritual. It highlights some key notions, such as that of the “Real” and the live, which are introduced in the first chapter. This chapter explores the theories of Peggy Phelan, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan in its attempts to conceptualize the Real. It assesses how performance art as ritual attempts to revise traditional apparatuses of representation. It argues that, through a transgression of representation, performance art has the potential to challenge and revise established discourses on identity, culture and violence. The second chapter of this study is an attempt to provide a history and subsequent conceptualization of performance art, based on its exposition of the live. I have taken into consideration certain strategies that performance artists employ to evoke the live, referring specifically to the manipulation of the body. It is through abject encounters with the unsymbolizable “Real” that the performance artist reaches the borders of his/her subjective constitution, and performs a transformation of his/her identity that transcends the mechanisms of representation. The third chapter of this study attempts to find the connections that exist between performance art and sacrificial ritual. I will refer specifically to the theories of Rene Girard. Girard‟s notion of the “violent sacred” and its significance within sacrifice as an antidote to community crises will be explored in relation to collective transformation within the performance event. I choose to focus specifically on the role of the performer as surrogate victim/pharmakon, and the spectators/witnesses as part of the community. The fourth chapter explores how two South African performance artists, Steven Cohen (1961) and Peter van Heerden (1973), perform the abject body as the monster. Kristeva‟s notion of the abject will be examined in terms of the transformation of the individual performer as subject within performance art, and how, through the assumption of an “othered,” monstrous identity, the performer becomes the surrogate victim. The fifth chapter will entail an examination of Peter van Heerden‟s 6 Minutes. I will attempt to draw parallels between performance art and ritual through using this performance piece as a case study. I will focus on the strategies that Van Heerden implements to resist theatrical representation. 6 Minutes will be observed in terms of its link to sacrificial ritual, and it presentation of the live, and the Real. In light of these discoveries, I aim to locate performance art within politically-driven modes of art-making, and how such an endeavour relates to South African modes of theatre and performance.

In the course of this dissertation, I will interrogate traditional representations of the heroic figure within the fantasy genre. I will argue that the tropes established by some of the most renowned fantasy texts are undergoing a process of evolution and that Steven Erikson (who is the special focus of my discussion) seeks to revision the heroic mould through his construction of Coltaine of the Crow Clan in Deadhouse Gates (2001). Deadhouse Gates centres on Coltaine, who is tasked with escorting tens of thousands of refugees across four hundred leagues of hostile territory. This re-evaluation of fantasy modes has significant ramifications for the future development of the genre as a whole. In order to explore how Erikson interrogates heroic representation, I briefly establish some of the distinctive characteristics of fantasy. I then explore how some major fantasy texts represent heroism, before investigating Erikson’s particular response to these traditions. / English Studies / M. A. (English)

The central argument of this thesis asserts that in the process of challenging dominant subject positions, such as whiteness, performance creates the possibilities for new or alternative arrangements of desire. It examines how the creative process of desire is forestalled (reified) by habitual representations of whiteness as a privileged position, and proposes that performance can be a valid form of resistance to static conceptions of race and subjectivity. The discussion takes into account how the privilege of whiteness finds representation through forms of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism in the post apartheid context. The analysis focuses on the work of white South African artists whose work offers a critique from within the privileged “centre” of whiteness. The research is situated within the inter-disciplinary field of performance studies entailing a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. Alongside this qualitative methodology surfaces a subjective dialogue with the information presented on whiteness. Part Two includes an analysis of Steven Cohen’s The Cradle of Humankind (2011), Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A (2011) and Michael MacGarry’s LHR-JNB (2010). Each section examines the way in which the respective works engage in a questioning of whiteness through performance. Part Three investigates South African rap-rave duo, Die Antwoord and how their appropriation of Zef interrogates desires for an essential authenticity. Part Four focuses on my own performance practice and the proposed value of engaging with a form of practice-led research. This is particularly relevant in relation to critical race studies that require a level of self-reflexivity from the researcher. It presents an analysis of the work entitled Villain (2012) as a disturbance of theatrical desire through a process of ‘becoming’. This notion of meaning and identity as ‘becoming’ is argued as a strategy to challenge prevailing modes of perception which can possibly restore the production of desire to the viewer. The thesis concludes with the notion that performance can offer a mode of immanent ethics which is significant in creating both vulnerable and critical forms of whiteness.

De ekonomiska klyftorna i Sverige växer i stadig takt, samtidigt som den svenska ekonomin i övrigt går väldigt bra. Men vad händer med de som drabbas av fattigdomen? Hur konstrueras den fattigas position i samhället? Den här studien syftar till att utreda hur ekonomiskt utsatta människor representeras och problematiseras i dagens populärkultur. Utifrån maktens tredje ansikte undersöks därför tv-programmet Lyxfällan med särskilt fokus på att analysera subjektspositioner och subjektifieringseffekter. Ytterligare undersöks vilka maktrelationer som skapas och reproduceras i Lyxfällan. Till sin hjälp stödjs studien av ett teoretiskt ramverk vilken beskriver hur fattigdom representerats genom historiens lopp samt vilka eventuella effekter det skapar i det politiska livet. Särskilt fokus ligger på att undersöka huruvida vi i Sverige använder oss av diskursen ’undeserving poor’. Materialet som undersöks är ett urval av Lyxfällans avsnitt under 2017. Studiens resultat visar att den diskurs som upprätthålls i Lyxfällan har inflytande på deltagares aktörsskap till det negativa. Slutsatsen av det här arbetet är att fattigdom har individualiserats vidare analyseras vilka konsekvenser det kan tänkas ha för politiken.

Jaws(Universal Studios, 1975) set a new standard for Hollywood film production byintroducing the concept of “summer blockbuster,” for a film that changed the way inwhich people thought about sharks. 37 years after the release of the movie, the idea of sharks as ferocious man-hunters still looms large in public opinion. Thisconceptualization of sharks as ruthless killers is mythical rather than factual, and thisresearch tracks the mechanisms that propelled the idea deep into popular culture.The dissertation addresses the problematics of media constructions through a casestudy of the movie Jawsdeparting from its production process, and by applyingBarbara Klinger’s interpretation of “epiphenomena.” The thesis studies how cinematravels into popular culture, by following the traces of the movie into other media, andits dialogue with the surrounding texts generated by PR, marketing andmerchandising; simultaneously, the thesis seek to demonstrate the connection between the movie as mythmaker and the stigmatized portrayal of sharks.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (MMus (Music))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / Arnold van Wyk was a composer and a pianist. He recorded his largest work for piano, Night Music (1958), on LP in 1963. Steven de Groote performed Night Music on 21 July 1984 at the Cheltenham International Festival of Music. This live performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 24 September 1984 and a copy of this broadcast exists in the Arnold van Wyk collection in the J.S. Gericke Library at Stellenbosch University. Night Music is a perfect example of Van Wyk’s compositional techniques for the keyboard. It demands a considerable musical imagination and piano technique from the performer. The score of Night Music contains many detailed instructions regarding the different musical parameters and it also encloses unusual terms such as glacial or lugubre. It shows that the composer is extremely concerned to control all aspects of the performance and expects great depth of interpretation of the performer. Analysing the score of Night Music together with a performance by the composer enables one to consider two versions of “authenticated text”. The comparison between Arnold van Wyk’s recording, score and Steven de Groote’s performance allows the researcher to draw conclusions about score fidelity as a condition for “authenticity” in performance. Therefore, the primary aim of this research project is to yield interesting perspectives on notions of authenticity in performance with regard to these two particular performances of Night Music. The main body of this thesis consists of four chapters. In Chapter One a philosophical discussion about authenticity in performance is presented. Chapter Two focuses on the contextualisation of the work under discussion, including the reception and a short analysis of Night Music. It is followed by Chapter Three which compares the pianism of Arnold van Wyk and Steven de Groote. These latter two chapters form the background of the comparative performance analysis of the renditions of Night Music by these two performers which are presented in Chapter Four. Through the careful comparative analysis of Arnold van Wyk’s and Steven de Groote’s performances of Night Music it was possible to observe that a composer can present a version of his work that departs quite radically from the score. As “authenticity in performance” strives to honour the composer’s intentions as notated in the score, this discrepancy illustrates the controversial nature of the discourse on the “authentic” in music.

Thesis (MA (VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation investigates forms of excess in representations of the body in specific examples of contemporary visual art in South Africa and internationally. Representations of excess are phenomena that have gained increasing prominence in recent art practice both locally and abroad. The discussion is focused on two artworks that are examples of this increasing phenomenon of excess in contemporary art: the Swedish video artist Nathalie Djurberg’s video installation Experimentet (2009), and South African performance artist Steven Cohen’s film Golgotha (2007-9). My discussion of the two artworks revolves around the central question: what is the signifying role of excess in representations of the human body in contemporary visual art? This central question is asked throughout the dissertation with two aims in mind: firstly, to situate within a theoretical framework the phenomenon of excess in relation to depictions of the body in contemporary art; and secondly, to situate my own arts practice within this framework. The analysis of Djurberg’s Experimentet and Cohen’s Golgotha is spread over four discussions, each relating to a specific aspect of the representation of excess in relation to the body. Firstly, I investigate the grotesque body with regards to Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of grotesque realism and Jacques Lacan’s psychological notion of the fragmented body, or corps morcelé. Secondly, I examine the ‘body spectacle’ as a cultural critique of capitalism, and make specific reference to Cohen’s use of real human skulls as shoes in Golgotha as a cultural critique of capitalism. In this discussion I also investigate George Bataille’s philosophical enquiry into the notion of expenditure as a critique of capitalism. The ‘body spectacle’ is situated in the context of late-twentieth-century theorist Frederic Jameson’s view of the postmodern and his exposition of the ‘waning of affect’. Thirdly, I investigate excess and mimesis in representations of the female body, with specific reference to Djurberg’s Experimentet. Here the discussion is situated within the context of French feminist psychoanalytical theory with Luce Irigaray’s concept of the role of excess in mimesis. The study then turns to investigating the experiences elicited in spectators by representations of excess in relation to the body. I draw from George Bataille’s writings of the function of taboo and Mikhail Bakhtin’s insistence on the ambivalence of grotesque imagery to explain my own observations on images of excess. Here I argue, in reference to both Experimentet and Golgotha, that excess is characterised by the paradoxical stance of being simultaneously attracted and repulsed. Lastly I discuss my own current art practice with reference to the theoretical framework outlined here around representations of excess in relation to the body. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek die voorkoms van oordaad in die uitbeelding van die menslike liggaam in spesifieke voorbeelde van kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse en internasionale visuele kunswerke. Oordaadsuitbeelding is ‘n verskynsel wat opvallender voorkom in huidige plaaslike en internasionale kunspraktyke. Die verhandeling fokus primêr op twee kunswerke ter illustrasie van hierdie verskynsel: die Sweedse videokunstenaar Natalie Djurberg se video-instellasie Experimentet (2009), en Suid-Afrikaanse ‘performance’- kunstenaar Steven Cohen se film Golgotha (2007 -9). My bespreking van die twee kunswerke wentel rondom die sentrale vraag: watter aanduidende rol speel oordadigheid in uitbeeldings van die menslike liggaam in kontemporêre visuele kuns? Ter beantwoording van hierdie vraag het hierdie ondersoek ten doel om, eerstens, die verskynsel van oordaadsuitbeelding van die menslike liggaam in kontemporêre kuns binne ‘n teoretiese raamwerk te plaas. Ten tweede gaan ek my eie kunspraktyk binne hierdie raamwerk plaas. Die oorsig van Djurberg se Experimentet en Cohen se Golgotha word oor vier hoofstukke versprei. Elke hoofstuk bespreek ‘n spesifieke aspek van oordaadsuitbeelding rakende die menslike liggaam. Ten eerste bespreek ek die groteske liggaam aan die hand van Mikhail Bakhtin se idée van groteske realisme en ek verwys ook na Jacques Lacan se psigoanalitiese idée van die gefragmenteerde liggaam, of corpse morcelé. Die tweede ondersoek in die verband van oordaadsuitbeelding verwys na die ‘liggaamspektakel’ as kulturele kritiek op kapitalisme, met spesifieke verwysing na Cohen se gebruik van egte menslike skedels as skoene in Golgotha. Ek bespreek ook George Bataille se filosofiese ondersoek na die idée van ‘uitgawe’ as kritiek op kapitalisme. Die ‘liggaamspektakel’ word geplaas binne die konteks van die laat-twintigste-eeuse teoretikus Frederic Jameson se opvatting van postmodernisme en sy verduideliking van die afname in gevoelsinhoud. Ten derde ondersoek ek oordaad en nabootsing in uitbeeldings van die vroulike liggaam, met spesiefieke verwysing na Djurberg se Experimentet. Hier is die bespreking geplaas in die konteks van die Franse feministiese psigoanalitiese teorie van Luce Irigaray se konsep van die rol van oordaad in nabootsing. Die studie verander dan na die ondersoek na die ervarings wat by die gehoor ontlok word deur die uitbeeldings van oordaad rakende die menslike liggaam. Ek verduidelik my eie observasies oor oordaadsuitbeelding deur gebruik te maak van George Bataille se skrywes oor die funksie van taboe, sowel as Mikail Bakhtin se aandrang op die ambivalensie van groteske beelde. Hier argumenteer ek, met verwysing na Experimentet en Golgotha, dat oordaad gekenmerk word deur die paradoks van gelyktydige aantrekking en walging. Ten einde bespreek ek my eie kunspraktyk met verwysing na die teoretiese raamwerk uiteengesit rondom uitbeeldings van oordaad rakende die liggaam.