This thesis focuses on the theme of the journey and the changes that occur in the socio-historical context of the Great Depression as well as in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. The thesis is an expository piece on road literature, its features and how the chosen novel has earned its rightful place in the American oeuvre, specifically that of road literature. The thesis is separated into two major parts. The former part provides the reader with a socio- historical context of the Great Depression as well as a background on the historical patterns of the 'journey' in America and how these two aspects are interrelated in the context of this thesis. The latter part constitutes the analysis of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by including the authorial relationship to the novel and the many aspects of the novel as studied through the scope of road literature. This part is further expanded by a close-up analysis of the changes in identity of characters in The Grapes of Wrath. The primary focus is on the notion of change and how it is connected to the notion of the road, including how the human being stands between these notions and is transformed in the process. Keywords: change, mobility, flight, escape, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, American Dream, hope, depression, 1930s, Great...

I denna uppsats har jag undersökt hur den svenska arbetarförfattaren Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901–1990) beskriver könssjukdomar i romanen Kungsgatan (1935). Lo-Johansson smittades själv av gonorré i början av 1930-talet och kände därför som författare att han hade ett syfte att göra detta ämne lite mindre tabu. Han skulle dock inte berätta om sin sjukdom för någon under denna tid. En stor del av uppsatsen kommer ägnas åt hur romanen mottogs i den samtida pressen. Jag har försökt bevisa – tvärtemot vad som flera litteraturvetare och även författaren själv gjort tidigare – att romanen inte kan klassas som en skandalroman som fick uteslutande negativ kritik på grund av dess två huvudteman prostitution och könssjukdomar.  Den vanligaste åsikten bland litteraturkritiker var att romanen generellt kraftigt borde kortats ner innan utgivning. / In this paper, I have analyzed how the Swedish proletarian writer Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901–1990) describes venereal diseases in his novel Kungsgatan (1935). Lo-Johansson contracted gonorrhea during the early 1930s, and because of this, he felt he had a social purpose as an author to make this subject a little less taboo. He would not, however, reveal his case for anybody during this period. A significant part of this paper will be dedicated to the initial critical reception of Kungsgatan. I have tried to prove – in contrast to previous scholars, even the author himself – that the novel in the beginning wasn’t regarded as scandalous by most literary critics, nor it wasn't criticized because of its main themes: prostitution and venereal diseases. Rather, the most common opinion by critics was that the novel in general should have been shortened down heavily before publication.

The thesis focuses on the contacts between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, specifically in the area of the 1930s fine arts. This topic has been mapped from 1930 to 1938 (before the Munich Agreement). The first part of the text deals with the historical-political background of that period and cultural relations between the two countries with emphasis on fine arts. Specific manifestations of these relations can be found in the next part of the thesis, using analysis and comparison of the Czechoslovak printed periodicals and archival documents, especially political news and correspondence. This thesis focuses mainly on realized art exhibitions and their reflections. All of this has been set into the historical and political context, thus achieving a comprehensive description of the topic. Key words Czechoslovakia, Graphic Arts, Caricature, Catalogue, Contacts, Printed Periodical, Political News, the Soviet Union, 1930s, Fine Arts, Art Exhibition.

Cette thèse a pour objet la lutte pour les droits civiques dans la période qui va de la crise économique de 1929 jusqu'à l’entrée en guerre des États-Unis en 1941, et ce à travers l’examen du rôle joué par la National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) d’une part et le parti communiste américain (CPUSA) de l’autre. Si ces deux organisations se firent d’abord concurrence, s’opposèrent même parfois, comme ce fut le cas lors de l’affaire Scottsboro, certains rapprochements s’esquissèrent un peu plus tard, dans la période du Second New Deal, notamment à l’occasion du National Negro Congress, tandis que la syndicalisation des ouvriers noirs devenait possible grâce à la fondation d’une nouvelle confédération syndicale, le Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). La NAACP et le PCUS, deux organisations que tout semblait séparer, furent donc amenées à se « rencontrer » autour de la question noire, et à modifier sensiblement certaines habitudes, comportements, ou réflexes. Alors que la NAACP se rapprochait du peuple noir, les militants communistes, en acquérant sur le terrain une expérience concrète, aidèrent le Parti à modérer sa rhétorique révolutionnaire. On pourrait dire aussi que la concurrence entre la NAACP et le PC constitua une sorte de préfiguration du mouvement pour les droits civiques des années cinquante et soixante. / This dissertation deals with the struggle for civil rights in the 1930s – from the economic crisis of 1929 until 1941 – through an examination of the role played by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on the one hand and the American Communist Party (CPUSA) on the other. As was evident in the Scottsboro Case, the competition between the two organizations often bordered on antagonism, even confrontation. During the Second New Deal, however, the relationship eased considerably: the National Negro Congress, and the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) manifested the growing visibility and acceptance of African-American demands for equality and fairness, both were a mover and a consequence of the now possible convergence of the activities of the NAACP and the PCUS. These two organizations, which had seemed so dissimilar, even irreconcilable, now came to meet around the Afro-American problem(s). While the NAACP now sought to move closer to the real-life conditions of the African-American masses, the grassroots experience gathered by committed Communists probably helped the Party and its members to alleviate their revolutionary rhetoric. One might add that the competition between the NAACP and the CP prefigured the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

L’objectif de ce travail est l’étude de la démarche artistique du mouvement surréaliste et de la peinture métaphysique en Grèce pendant la période des années 1930. En particulier la thèse étudie le cas des peintres Nikos Engonopoulos, Gerassimos Steris et Georges Gounaro. Tout en examinant « l’idiome pictural » des artistes, ce travail vise également à élucider les influences reçues des artistes Grecs tant par le mouvement surréaliste en France que par les aspirations métaphysiques de la peinture de Giorgio de Chirico. Ainsi orientée, la mise en relation s’effectue sur deux axes, premièrement thématique et deuxièmement stylistique. Dans la première partie, la thèse considère la réception du surréalisme et de la peinture métaphysique en Grèce, effectuée dans des conditions hostiles. Il s`agit donc d`étudier le concept de la « Grécité » et le contexte historique et sociopolitique qui a marqué l’implantation retardée et l’expression affaiblie de cette peinture qui, affranchie des contraintes de l’académisme, a provoqué un scandale sans précédent, combinant Modernisme et Tradition. Dans les parties suivantes, ce travail aborde des thèmes communs dans l`œuvre des artistes du corpus, à savoir l`espace pictural surréel, méta empirique, et onirique, les visions métaphysiques, le rôle du Mythe Orphique, et finalement la représentation et le symbolisme de la figure humaine, historique et mythique, dans son inquiétante étrangeté. De surcroît, la thèse révèle l’originalité de cette création artistique subversive (thèmes choisis, techniques, dessin, et couleurs utilisées) qui a oscillé entre les influences occidentales et la revendication d`une spécificité nationale et culturelle. / The objective of this work is the study of the artistic process of the surrealist movement and the metaphysical painting in Greece, during the 1930s. In particular, the thesis examines the case of painters Nikos Engonopoulos, Gerassimos Steris, and Georges Gounaro. While examining the artists’ « pictorial idiom », it also seeks to elucidate the influences received from Greek artists by the surrealist movement in France and by the metaphysical aspirations of Giorgio de Chirico’s painting. The method of approach is based on the parallel, performed on two axes, firstly thematic and secondly stylistic. In the first part this work considers the reception of surrealism and the metaphysical painting in Greece, at the time of the inter-war period, which was carried out in adverse conditions. The reasons for the weak expression of Surrealism and its delayed implantation in Greece are attributed to the socio-political context and the imperatives of the time. This surreal and metaphysical creation, freed from the constraints of academic painting, caused a scandal as she approached Greek tradition in an innovative way. In the following sections the research deals with common topics in the pictorial work of Greek artists’, namely the surreal, meta-empirical, and dreamlike pictorial space, as well as painters’ metaphysical visions, the role of the Orphic myth, and finally the presence and the symbolism of historical and mythical human figures which often follow the principle of metamorphosis. In addition this work reveals the originality of this art (topics, drawing and colours used) mainly due to its Greek character. It’s a particular case study of that thoroughly subversive artistic creation, oscillated between Western influences and claims of national and cultural specificity.

My research on Victor Brauner’s work in the first two decades of his affiliation with the Surrealist group in Paris re-establishes the role played by the Romanian Jewish artist in the definition of automatic Surrealist procedures of painting and mixed-technique objects that relied upon a new and unconventional understanding of the occult. In the three chapters of this study of Victor Brauner’s work in the 1930s and early 1940s, I analyse key notions, such as the fantastic, animal magnetism, and the occult practices of art making in a Surrealist context. The fantastic is discussed in the first chapter of the thesis from a literary perspective with political connotations in Surrealism, which resulted from a debate engaged in nineteenth-century French literature on the issue of the marvellous versus the fantastic. Due to the Surrealists’ interest in the fantastic a new category emerged, the fantastic art, which is examined in this first chapter in connection with Brauner’s artworks in the 1930s. The incursion into the fantastic, with focus on the premonition of the painter’s left eye loss in his artworks of the 1930s is completed with an approach to spiritualism that had a revival at the time. The second chapter of the thesis investigates the doctrine of animal magnetism and the state of magnetic somnambulism in eighteenth-century scholarship and shows how this experimentation had influenced the development of a new branch of the science, metapsychics or psychical research at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth one. I take into account and demonstrate that these outdated and modern domains of enquiry into the unknown and beyond reality were appealing to Surrealists, in particular to Brauner, due to their research into unconscious processes of the mind. I argue that through the attainment of a condition similar to the one of the somnambulist in sessions of magnetic sleep, the Surrealists aimed to generate automatic procedures of painting and object making. In the third chapter of the thesis I discuss Victor Brauner’s technique of drawing with a candle, or le cirage, as an automatic procedure of art developed in connection with the occult. This final part of the thesis makes also manifest the association of Brauner’s artworks in the early 1940s with practices of the occult in the near and centuries before past.

The dissertation deals with the research of a role played by the SS, respectively Allgemeine-SS, in Lower Austria and Reichsgau Lower Danube since its creation in the early 1930s to the end of the Second World War. The dissertation's purpose is to analyse SS activities, structure and staff. Its history showed a number of identical features with the history of the SS in other Austrian Bundesländer and in Germany itself, but at the same time local specifics appeared. In Lower Austria / Lower Danube, the SS had the second highest or even the highest number of members in entire Austria, depending on a particular year. However, conversion to per capita it was exactly the opposite. In comparison with the situation in "the old empire", the SS also showed below average numbers of SS men. This fact consisted in geographic character and population social structure of the country whose predominantly Catholic-conservative inhabitants living in the lowland countryside showed greater resistance to entry into the SS than Evangelicals or Catholics living in the mountains. The situation was specific in South Moravia and the south-eastern corner of Bohemia which were connected to Lower Danube in October 1938. There were, as in the entire former Czechoslovak borderlands, a number of Allgemeine-SS members per capita...

Ce mémoire porte sur la convergence des compositeurs français Georges Migot (1891-1976) et André Jolivet (1905-1974) au cours des années 1930 sur le plan de leurs idées en esthétique musicale, de leur démarche compositionnelle, et de leur implication administrative sur la scène musicale parisienne. Ceci a pour but de mieux comprendre l’amitié spéciale entre Migot et Jolivet, mesurer son influence sur leurs personnalités musicales, observer son impact sur leur engagement commun au sein de la société de concert La Spirale, et, plus globalement, évaluer sa portée sur l’ensemble de la scène musicale française. Actuellement, Stravinsky, Ravel et le Groupe des Six prennent une grande place dans les histoires de la vie musicale française de l’entre-deux-guerres. Ultimement, cette étude cherche à favoriser une meilleure compréhension de la variété des manifestations musicales dans le Paris des années 1930. Le premier chapitre de ce mémoire examine les idées esthétiques respectives de Migot et Jolivet et discute leurs similitudes. Le deuxième chapitre se penche sur l’engagement des deux compositeurs au sein de la société de concert La Spirale (1935-1937). Relativement peu étudié, cet organisme est néanmoins connu pour avoir servi d’incubateur au groupe La Jeune France (1936-1942), une association réunissant Olivier Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur, André Jolivet et Yves Beaudrier. À travers l’examen des activités de La Spirale, ce mémoire propose non seulement une liste revue et corrigée de toutes les œuvres présentées dans ses concerts, mais rend également compte de la nature de l’engagement de Jolivet et Migot en son sein. Finalement, le troisième chapitre propose une analyse comparative d’une sélection de mouvements tirés de deux recueils pour piano solo de Migot et Jolivet, respectivement Le Zodiaque (1931-1932) et Mana (1935). Les analyses se concentrent sur les structures de hauteurs et l’organisation motivique (pratiques modales ou sérielles, constructions accordiques inspirées par la série des harmoniques, procédés motiviques) et sur les proportions temporelles. Dans certains mouvements, les événements structurels semblent être gouvernés par des notions mathématiques telles que le Nombre d’or ou les nombres de la suite de Fibonacci. / This Master’s thesis explores the convergences between the French composers Georges Migot (1891-1976) and André Jolivet (1905-1974) during the 1930s, in terms of their respective musical aesthetics, compositional techniques, and involvement in the Parisian music scene. The aim is to provide a clearer picture of the relationship between Migot and Jolivet, to evaluate its influence upon their musical ideas and shared interest in the development of the concert society La Spirale, and to assess its significance in the wider sphere of French music. Currently, music history of this period is saturated with writings on Stravinsky, Ravel, and the Groupe des six. This study seeks to provide a better understanding of the other various musical manifestations in 1930s Paris. The first chapter of this thesis consists of an examination of Migot and Jolivet’s respective aesthetics ideas and a discussion of their similarities. The second chapter explores a shared project of the two composers: the concert society La Spirale (1935-1937). While largely un-studied, this organization is known for having given rise to the group La Jeune France (1936-1942), an association formed by Olivier Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur, André Jolivet, and Yves Beaudrier, as the first three also took part in the executive of the former society. Through an exploration of La Spirale’s activities, this thesis not only provides a complete and revisited list of all works performed at its concerts, but also qualifies the involvement of Jolivet and Migot. Finally, this research will conclude with a comparative analysis of select movements from solo piano collections by Migot and Jolivet, Le Zodiaque (1931-1932) and Mana (1935), respectively. While Migot uses a more modal language to convey his lyrism, Jolivet employs an emancipated post-tonal idiom. This analysis will take into consideration pitch and motivic structure (modal and serial practices) and temporal sequences. Moreover, it will provide an examination of the use of the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci series in some pieces.

No description available.

Lilian Westcott Hale (1880-1963) and her daughter Nancy Hale (1908-1988) built successful careers during a period of transition in America, as Victorian mores were replaced by new modern freedoms. Greater independence for women had evolved during the preceding century, before the influential cultural factors which occurred during the early twentieth century like urbanization and world war. This interdisciplinary analysis of Lilian Hale‘s artwork and Nancy Hale‘s writings demonstrates the imprint of the surrounding world on their work. Lilian Hale‘s art is influenced by her Victorian childhood, and Nancy Hale‘s fiction reveals many conflicts of the modern era. The study of these two women is enhanced by the wealth of primary documentation connecting their ideas and their lives to their artistic works. Both of the women ranked among the most respected in their fields during their lifetimes. Their works resonate with elements of their eras, demonstrating what it was to be a woman during the first half of the twentieth century. Lilian Westcott Hale and Nancy Hale both engage the gender constructs of their periods through their work. Lilian Westcott Hale‘s art is divided here into three distinct genres: her still lifes and landscapes express the confining environment the Victorian woman occupied; her idealized women reflect the period‘s taste for female perfection and beauty; her portraits and figure studies point to Hale‘s own distinction between males and females through their clothing and their poses. Unlike Lilian Westcott Hale, Nancy Hale demonstrates woman‘s new freedoms in an open manner, a result of the break with Victorianism. Hale‘s use of a literary medium allows her direct examination of the turmoil caused by the modern breakdown of Victorian structures. Lilian Westcott Hale refrains from harsh judgment of her daughter‘s world, while Nancy Hale‘s modern challenge of the previous era‘s standards leads her into troubling relationships and difficulties balancing her career with her personal life. Their work reveals the cultural ideologies of their respective eras and particularly the changes taking place for women.