Divided into two parts, this dissertation aims to be a reflection on the creative process in visual arts, based on the testimony of the creator/artist. The image of the Virgin Mary as a source of plastic work and theoretical research is seen here from the perspective of miscegenation in the search for understanding the source imagery. The first part, "Birth of the Virgin Mary" is the establishment of the work process and construction of the Virgin Mary and, of personal memory as the trigger that motivated the development of the works. The second part, "Memory of the Virgin Mary" meets the concept of mestizaje, and lies in the use of the Virgin Mary as the appearance of erratic memory that constantly is regarded to the social. There is a meeting of mestizo ways of doing works that is always immersed in an "intertwining" of countless possible interpretations. / Dividida em duas partes, a presente dissertação se propõe a ser uma reflexão sobre o processo criativo em artes visuais, partindo do testemunho do criador/ artista. A imagem da Virgem Maria, como fonte de trabalho plástico e pesquisa teórica, é encarada aqui pelo viés da mestiçagem, na busca por entender essa fonte imagética. A primeira parte Nascimento da Virgem Maria trata da instauração e do processo de trabalho e construção dessa Virgem Maria bem como da memória pessoal como o gatilho que dispara as motivações da elaboração das obras. A segunda Memória da Virgem Maria vai ao encontro do conceito de mestiçagem e recai no uso da imagem da Virgem Maria, como aspecto de memória errática que regressa constantemente ao social. Um encontro mestiço de um fazer/ obra que sempre está imerso entre entres , incontáveis, de possibilidades interpretativas.

This thesis examines the place of the Virgin Mary in the intellectual culture of Benedictine and Cistercian monasticism in medieval England, between c. 1050 and c. 1200. Drawing high profile thinkers, including Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), into dialogue with lesser known figures, it reveals the richness of monastic contributions to Marian doctrine and devotion, in many cases for the first time. The shape of the analysis is provided by five key 'moments' from Mary's life, unfolded consecutively across six chapters. Chapters 1 and 2, on Mary's conception, reveal a confident and pioneering monastic culture which drove the evolution of an obscure Anglo-Saxon feast into a theological doctrine, despite fierce opposition at home and abroad. Chapter 3 explains how Mary's virginity was adopted as a blueprint for the monastic life by Ælred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) and Baldwin of Forde (d. 1190), both of whom were inspired by its fruitfulness in the Incarnation of Christ. Chapter 4 brings to light the contributions made to exegesis of the Song of Songs as a poem about Mary's humility by the mysterious Honorius Augustodunensis (d. 1140) and John of Forde (d. 1214). Chapter 5, on the divine maternity, demonstrates how English monastic theologians gave new life to understanding of Mary as Theotokos ('God-bearer') by drawing out its significance for their own spiritual maternity as leaders of religious communities. Chapter 6 shows how Mary was believed to have entered into the pain of the Crucifixion through her own spiritual martyrdom, and how monks sought to share the experience with her by a communion of charity. These and other insights offer a compelling glimpse into the culture of English monasticism between the demise of the Anglo-Saxons and the advent of the friars. Inspired by a desire to understand and ultimately to know Mary, Benedictine and Cistercian monks produced theological and spiritual works which were imaginative, often intimate and occasionally pioneering. Most of all, they were profoundly pastoral, composed in the belief that Mary could inspire and support those who had embarked upon the monastic via perfectionis.

As historicist as it is materialist, my dissertation both reads the fictional queens portrayed in romance against the fraught positioning of historical queens such as Isabella of France, Anne of Bohemia and Margaret of Anjou, and traces the ambivalent function in late medieval English society of objects including the sacring-bell, the Lollard bible and the royal sword. Merging the traditionally historicist field queenship studies with typically postmodern fields like thing theory and sound theory, I investigate how queens in late medieval romances coopt, queer and reconfigure material objects of masculine power. Each chapter examines a literary queen typically dismissed by subject-oriented ontologies as insubstantial. Analyzing romances that include Richard Coer de Lyon, Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, Malory's Morte D'Arthur and the Marian romance of "The Child Slain by Jews" from the Vernon Manuscript, I argue for the overlooked significance of literary queens as figures whose circulation illuminates the construction of medieval masculinities. Through contact with charged material objects that are pivotal to romance plots, queens query patriarchal materials, exposing their underlying "thingness" and malleability. Whether tracking the disturbing afterlife of a church bell used to exorcise the hero's queen mother in Richard Coer de Lyon, or analyzing links between the "Britoun book" that rescues Chaucer's Custance and Anne of Bohemia's vernacular books, my chapters tell a new story about the foreign queens of late medieval English romances by showing how they blur boundaries between male and female, subject and object, West and East, priest and parish, Christian and Jew, orthodox and heterodox, mother and child.

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This thesis studies the relationship of irony, as defined in Kierkegaard's The Concept of Irony to the text and subject of Fear and Trembling. Irony is interpreted in this thesis as negative space, which both binds and separates and which assumes meaning equal to or greater than the positive space that binds it. This definition applies to Kierkegaard's Socrates who lived ironically in the space between actuality and ideality. This thesis considers how Abraham also lived in ironic space and why ironic space is a prerequisite for faith. Unlike Socrates, Abraham did not stop with irony, but used irony to open ironic space in which a knight of faith can be both separated from and reconciled to his actuality. Because in Fear and Trembling the Virgin Mary is compared to Abraham, this thesis examines at length how irony is related to Mary both in terms of her faithfulness and her maternity. Irony can then be seen as a necessary circumstance of maternity. The negative space of the female anatomy becomes ironic because it can take on more meaning than it can have alone, particularly in its ability to create (an)other person. Faith and maternity share irony as a requirement for their modes of living because both require an ironic separation from the masculine sphere. Applying the relationship of irony to faith and the maternal offers a interpretive possibilities for the knight of faith that otherwise go unnoticed.

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The theoretical and practical part is dealing with the detail of a czech wall painting with the motif of the Virgin Mary from the peak era of the Middle Ages. The theoretical part introduces the marian theme. It describes its iconography, meaning in art and closely specifies the division of images according to devotional themes. The next part is focused on the description and analysis of the motif of the Virgin Mary the Protector, which is depicted on wall painting in a cloister of the Church of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in České Budějovice. In the practical part is fundamental creation of the relief as a haptic aid for the visually impaired. Created reliefs are polychrome reconstruction of the wall paintings of the above-mentioned motif. The work is supplemented by other materials, implementation procedure, sketches and photo documentation.