O foco central desta tese consiste em procurar compreender um fenômeno que se verifica na atualidade em torno das imagens ultra-sonográficas fetais. O que era a princípio e em princípio uma tecnologia de imagem médica, inventada com propósitos diagnósticos, gradualmente transformou-se em objeto de consumo e lazer. Para investigar o fenômeno, a pesquisa teórica aborda como foram construídos o olhar e o observador modernos, e de que modo as tecnologias de imageamento médico incidem na construção social do corpo. Outro aspecto teórico consiste na investigação, de um ponto de vista sócio-histórico, acerca da produção da gravidez e do feto como temas médicos, e de que modo a tecnologia de ultra-som aplicada à obstetrícia está situada na articulação de vários processos: o da construção de um novo olhar, o das reconfigurações do corpo, o da medicalização da gestação e do feto e, finalmente, o da construção do feto como Pessoa antes de seu nascimento. Estudos antropológicos produzidos no exterior, ao longo da década de 1990, apontaram que o fenômeno envolvendo as imagens fetais encontrava-se inscrito nos e delimitado pelos códigos socioculturais específicos de onde ocorriam. A inexistência de pesquisas acerca do tema, no contexto brasileiro, foi o ponto de partida para uma investigação empírica. Foi realizada uma observação antropológica de ultra-sonografias obstétricas, em abordagem etnográfica, em três clínicas privadas de imagem, ao longo de 2003, no Rio de Janeiro, visando compreender como tal fenômeno se dava, de que modo era produzido e significado pelos atores e quais os desdobramentos de tais práticas, modelados por especificidades culturais locais. O trabalho de campo evidenciou que a ultra-sonografia obstétrica caracteriza-se por ser uma tecnologia de imagem interativa, em contraste com outras técnicas de imageamento médico, uma peculiaridade que propicia a construção de diversos significados a partir das imagens fetais cinzentas e esfumaçadas. A produção do prazer de ver o feto é a pedra de toque que une o útil ao agradável, e o consumo de imagens é um ponto de articulação de diversas questões expostas ao longo da tese. Pode-se pensar nesta situação como parte de um panopticismo que devassa corpos femininos e fetais, em um mesmo processo normatizando-os e construindo novos sujeitos calcados em corporalidades virtuais. / The central focus of this thesis consists of seeking to understand a phenomenon which is presently taking place in the area of fetal ultrasound images. What began as a medical imaging technology, invented for diagnostic purposes, gradually became an object of consumption and leisure. In order to investigate this phenomenon, the theoretical investigation looks at how the modern mode of seeing and the observer were constructed, and in what way technologies of medical imaging impact the social construction of the body. Another theoretical aspect consists of the investigation, from a socio-historical point of view, of the production of pregnancy and of the fetus as medical subjects, and in what way the technology of ultra-sound applied to obstetrics is situated at the nexus of various processes: the process of constructing a new mode of seeing, of the reconfigurations of the body, of the medicalization of gestation and of the fetus, and, finally, of the construction of the fetus as a person before its birth. Anthropological studies carried out abroad, during the nineties, show that the phenomenon involving fetal images was inscribed in and delimited by the specific socio-cultural codes where the imaging was done. The lack of research in this area in the Brazilian context was the point of departure for an empirical investigation. An anthropological observation of obstetric ultra-sounds, with an ethnographic approach, was carried out in three private imaging clinics, during the course of 2003, in Rio de Janeiro, with the intention of understanding how this phenomenon took place, in what way it was produced and signified by those involved, and what were the ramifications of these practices, modeled by local cultural particularities. The field work showed that obstetric ultrasonography can be characterized as an interactive imaging technique, in contrast to other medical imaging techniques, a peculiarity which lends itself to the construction of various significations having as their origin gray and hazy fetal images. The production of the pleasure of seeing the fetus is the touchstone which links the useful to the pleasing, and the consumption of images is point of connection for various questions raised in the thesis. One can think of this situation as part of a panopticism which scans female and fetal bodies, at one and the same time normatizing them and constructing new subjects shaped by virtual corporalities.

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

Cette recherche s’est initialement constituée autour de la réalisation de films documentaires et d’une collecte d’images vernaculaires produites dans le « quartier tsigane » (une « ţigănie ») du village de Dițești, au sud de la Roumanie. Dès le début de l’enquête, mes interlocuteurs m’indiquent que leur tsiganie est peuplée d’images ; des telenovelas, des images domestiques, des « films de commande familiaux », etc. Chaque situation filmée fait ainsi l’objet d’intenses négociations entre des pratiques et des expériences filmiques contrastées. Ce travail de description et de reconstitution de l’expérience vécue et sédimentée des images de mes interlocuteurs, par l’observation de ses ramifications à la fois dans le monde social et dans une histoire et une écologie des images, a successivement pris la forme d’une enquête par les arts filmiques, d’une histoire visuelle et numérique des figures tsiganes des industries culturelles roumaines, et enfin d’une archéologie des pratiques filmiques vernaculaires en ţigănie.Bien que l’échelle de l’analyse soit celle de la monographie, l’enjeu de ce travail est de montrer combien cette forme d’expérience reconfigure la pratique des arts filmiques et élargit le champ phénoménal des différentes traditions de recherche qui composent le domaine de l’anthropologie visuelle (« ethnographie expérimentale », Indigenous media et film ethnographique). En somme, cet ensemble de propositions visuelles et manuscrites considère les arts filmiques comme des outils analytiques permettant de comprendre et faire comprendre l’expérience vécue des personnes filmées et l’agentivité des images dans le monde social que nous habitons. Ce qui implique, c’est à la fois la conclusion de cette recherche et le postulat du manuscrit, de considérer les cinéastes et les interlocuteurs de l’anthropologue comme de véritables observateurs et théoriciens des images et des réalités vécues. Ainsi, en appréhendant les images au prisme de l’expérience des images des enquêtés, cette recherche expose la manière dont les arts filmiques – en tant que pratique et discipline – produisent de nouveaux questionnements anthropologiques. Complémentairement, et de manière plus critique, ce savoir des images invite à reconsidérer avec attention la manière dont les anthropologues (et les cinéastes) délèguent parfois aux technologies de l’image des fonctions descriptives, mémorielles, ou transactionnelles. / This research initially consisted of the production of documentary films and a collection of vernacular images produced in the "Gypsy Quarter" ( "ţigănie") of Diţeşti, a village in the south of Romania. From the start of this investigation, my interlocutors informed me that their ţigănie is populated by images; telenovelas, domestic pictures, “commissioned home movies”, etc. Each filmed situation is therefore the subject of intense negotiations between practices and contrasting filmic experiences. This work is based on a description and the reconstruction of the lived experiences, sedimented with images of my interlocutors. By observing the ramifications of this work, both in the social world and in a history and ecology of images, it has progressively taken the form of an investigation by the filmic arts, a visual and digital history of Gypsy figures of the Romanian cultural industries and an archeology of vernacular film practices in ţigănie. Although the scale of the analysis is that of a monograph, the challenge of this work is to show how this form of experience reconfigures the practice of filmic arts and broadens the phenomenal field of different research traditions that constitute the field of Visual Anthropology ("experimental ethnography", Indigenous media and ethnographic film). In short, this set of visual and textual proposals considers the filmic arts as analytical tools for understanding and making understood the lived experience of filmed people and the agentivity of images in the social world we inhabit. What this thesis proposes, both in its hypothesis and conclusion, is to consider both filmmakers and the anthropologist’s interlocutors as true observers and theoreticians of images and experienced realities. Thus, by understanding images through the experience of the respondents’ images, this research demonstrates the way in which the filmic arts - as a practice and a discipline - generate new anthropological questions. In addition, and more critically, this knowledge of images invites us to reconsider attentively the way in which anthropologists (and filmmakers) sometimes delegate the descriptive, memorial or transactional functions of images to visual technologies.

No description available.

The diploma project Move is a simple 3D digital game in the genre typology of platform games, specifically of an atmospheric-meditative nature, with elements of a walking simulator from a third-person perspective shooter (TPS). Its interactive content is based on topics such as portraits, wandering, meditation, painting and personal mythology. Through the author's stylization of the theme and graphic processing, my goal is to create a playable prototype of a digital game containing interactive elements, with a controllable character named Mo and the atmospheric environment of the levels through which the player passes. Using the medium of digital games, I would like to point out the possibilities of communication means, that it offers within the art world.

Digitalisering har lett till att kunder fått ökade möjligheter att välja mellan produkter från olika leverantörer. Inte minst inom tillverkande industrier har man sett en skiftning från massproduktion till alltmer kundstyrd produktion, där utbudet av varor är större och kunden nästan helt ligger i fokus vid produktion av varor. Detta har tvingat tillverkande företag att hitta nya strategier för att förbättra och effektivisera sin produktion för att möta dessa behov.   En av de strategier som blivit allt vanligare som företaget använt för att uppnå detta har blivit att implementera ”Lean production”. En strategi som bygger på att man arbetar med ständiga förbättringar för att minska slöseri men som ställer stora krav på att ledningen lyckas utföra den kulturförändring som krävs för att uppnå detta. För att hjälpa ledningen med detta har allt fler företag börjat använda sig av dagligt styrningsverktyg som att mäta och presentera KPI:er men också genom möten för daglig styrning där man presenterar daglig ansvarsfördelning. Att implementera dessa verktyg skapar däremot nya frågor och utmaningar, vad ska man tänka på när man väljer KPI:er, hur ska man presentera dessa och finns det en metodik man kan använda sig av för att välja KPI:er? Ovanstående frågeställningar presenteras i studien och summeras med syftet av studien ” Utforma en metodik för att identifiera viktiga parametrar för att visualisera produktionsstatus vid daglig styrning inom produktion”.    För att kunna besvara dessa frågor har information hämtats både från litteratur och genom intervjuer och observationer på ett företag inom stålindustrin som har implementerat möten för daglig styrning, men som vill utveckla dessa möten med presentation av KPI:er. Problemet är att företaget inte alltid vet vilka KPI:er de bör presentera. Studien handlar om att identifiera viktiga faktorer att tänka på vid framtagning av KPI:er för att visualisera produktionsstatus effektivt. Studien har även behandlat sättet KPI:erna bör visualiseras på, digitalt eller analogt och slutligen har det tagits fram en metodik som ska användas för att identifiera KPI:erna.    Vid utformning av metodiken har litteraturen kombinerats med intervjuer och observationer hos de anställda på fallföretaget där man identifierat de viktigaste punkterna enligt följande: Att presentera KPI:er vid möten för daglig styrning, undvika för många KPI:er, ta hjälp av de anställda vid utformning av KPI:er, att välja KPI:er som ökar transparensen av processer, att mäta och välja KPI:er som ökar företagets konkurrenskraft och som leder företaget i rätt strategisk riktning, att välja KPI:er som främjar förbättringsarbete och som motiverar anställda samt att ge möjlighet för mätning av KPI:er genom IT. Sedan har studien föreslagit att KPI:erna bör presenteras genom digitala tavlor i realtid. / Digitalization has led to increased opportunities for customers to choose between products from different suppliers. Especially in manufacturing industries, there has been a shift from mass production to increasingly customer-driven production, where the range of products is larger, and the customer is almost entirely focused on the production of goods. Manufacturing companies have had to come up with new strategies to improve and streamline their production to meet customer needs and transition from mass production to meet customer needs and transition from mass production to customer-driven production.    One of the strategies that companies have used to achieve this is the implementation of “Lean production”. This strategy is based on continuous improvement to reduce waste but requires significant efforts from management to create a cultural change within the organization that enables this. To assist management in this process, an increasing number of companies have started using daily management tools such as measuring and presenting Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) and holding daily management meetings to present daily responsibilities. However, implementing these tools also creates new questions and challenges, such as what to consider when choosing KPIs, how to present them, and whether there is a methodology to select KPIs. These questions are presented in the study and summarized with the aim of the study, “designing a methodology to identify important parameters for visualizing production status in daily management within production.”   To answer these questions, information has been gathered from both literature and interviews and observations at a steel industry company that has implemented daily management meetings but wants to enhance them with KPI presentations. The problem is that the company does not always know which KPIs they should present. The study is about identifying key factors to consider when choosing KPIs to effectively visualize production status. The study also addresses the way KPIs should be visualized, whether digitally or analogously, and finally a methodology has been developed to be used in identifying the KPIs.   In developing the methodology, literature has been combined with interviews and observations of the employees at the case company, where the most important points have been identified as follows: presenting KPIs at daily management meetings, avoiding excessive KPIs, Involving employees in the design of KPIs, selecting KPIs that increase process transparency, measuring and selecting KPIs that enhance the company´s competitiveness and guide it in the right strategic direction, choosing KPIs that promote improvement work and motivate employees, and providing the opportunity to measure KPIs through IT. The study the suggests that KPIs should be presented through real-time digital dashboards.

Sometimes the concrete form and skill of a work of art stand in a non-arbitrary or non-contingent relationship with the social circumstances of its facture. I hypothesise that this form and such skill was used by Diego Velázquez for artistically, socially and politically subversive purposes. In particular, I show how Velázquez used painting techniques to undermine the constitutional theory—or fiction—of the reigning monarch as mystically having two bodies: one ʻpublic’, sacred and immortal—even deified—, representing and incarnating the commonwealth, one ʻprivate’ and one mortal, capable of naturalist portraiture. In Hall XII at the Madrid Prado there hangs on your right as you exit a rather small bust portrait of the Iberian Habsburg monarch, Philip IV. It was painted in about 1653, during a pivotal period that saw a general climatic, economic, social, cultural, religious and political crisis and powerful intellectual developments that still characterise Western societies. The picture contains two essentially naturalistic motifs which can be seen from two different vantage points: a bust of a middle-aged man (ʻMotif I’) and, obliquely ʻat a glance’, a skull (ʻMotif II’). Both serve to subvert the constitutional fiction of the King’s Two Bodies: Motif I invites the beholder to approach closer to admire and work out the artist’s already at the time famously ʻloose’ technique, the use of manchas or borrones. The motif will then dissolve and show itself to be artifice which requires the beholder’s cooperation to make it look like the King. It suggests that the Monarchy similarly is an arti-fact that is manu-factured by artists in cooperation with the subjects. Motif II is in effect a vanitas, underlining the mortal and therefore human and transient nature of the monarch, and by implication of the monarchy itself. With the ambition of satisfying the Popperian test of hypothesis falsification, I have proceeded on the basis of the time-hallowed method of the connoisseur of looking closely at works of art in situ and, broadly understood, Wölfflin’s and Panofsky’s theoretical models, together with fundamentals of human psychology and physiology of perception and cognition, assuming an interaction of innate Gestalten and historically and culturally contingent habitus. I interpret my findings in the context of 17C Iberia, including intellectual contributions like that of Pacheco, Carducci, Castiglioni and Gracián. I rely on the rich historical literature on the period and on Philip IV and Velázquez (and their relationship). I make some comparisons between Velázquez, his fellow court-painters Hans Holbein, jr, and Anthony van Dyck, and an artist far from the courts but so close to Velázquez in technique and maybe personal convictions, Frans Hals. My hypothesis relies on three fundamental auxiliary claims—wagered against falsification—to support the claim that Velázquez was a subversive and to give the context for the subversiveness of the portrait of Philip IV: (1) Velázquez did have the practical freedom to produce this subversive royal portrait; (2) it is likely that he used that freedom for this purpose; and (3) he actively manipulated vision and visuality. I at least make likely all three claims. On the basis of Velázquez’s œuvre more generally—especially in his portraits of the marginalised—I show that he had a significant degree of freedom and that he consistently worked towards artistic, social and even political subversion (though not necessarily revolution) using his deep knowledge of vision, visuality and optics—science at the cutting edge in the 17C. As he appears to have suffered from the stain (mancha) of deficient limpieza de sangre, Velázquez’s own person and career—culminating in a knighthood—amounted in itself to social and political subversion. It is appropriate to characterise the technically resourceful Velázquez-the-painter as ingenioso. In fact, as the clever and skilled painter’s hidalguía was almost certainly proved with dissembling and falsified evidence, the mancha of his artisan antecedents—and possibly also of Jewish ancestry—makes him a true ingenioso hidalgo de la mancha. / A veces, la forma y la habilidad concretas de una obra de arte guardan una relación no arbitraria ni contingente con las circunstancias sociales de su realización. Mi hipótesis es que esa forma y esa habilidad fueron utilizadas por Diego Velázquez con fines artísticas, sociales y políticamente subversivos. En particular, muestro cómo Velázquez utilizó las técnicas pictóricas para socavar la teoría —o ficción— constitucional del monarca reinante como poseedor místico de dos cuerpos: uno «público», sagrado e inmortal —incluso divinizado—, que representa y encarna la mancomunidad, otro «privado» y mortal, susceptible de retrato naturalista.   En la sala XII del Museo del Prado de Madrid, a la salida, cuelga a la derecha un retrato de busto bastante pequeño del monarca ibérico de los Austrias, Felipe IV. Fue pintado hacia 1653, durante un periodo crucial en el que se produjo una crisis general climática, económica, social, cultural, religiosa y política, así como una poderosa evolución intelectual que aún caracteriza a las sociedades occidentales. El cuadro contiene dos motivos esencialmente naturalistas que pueden contemplarse desde dos puntos de vista diferentes: el busto de un hombre de mediana edad («Motivo I») y, de forma oblicua «en un vistazo», una calavera («Motivo II»). Ambos sirven para subvertir la ficción constitucional de los Dos Cuerpos del Rey: El Motivo I invita al espectador a acercarse para admirar y elaborar la ya entonces famosa técnica «suelta» del artista, el uso de manchas o borrones. El motivo se disolverá entonces y se mostrará como un artificio que requiere la cooperación del espectador para que se parezca al Rey. Sugiere que la Monarquía también es un arti-ficio fabri-cado por artistas en cooperación con los súbditos. El Motivo II es, en efecto, una vanitas, que subraya la naturaleza mortal y, por tanto, humana y transitoria del monarca y, por implicación, de la propia monarquía.  Con la ambición de satisfacer la prueba popperiana de falsación de hipótesis, he procedido basándome en el método consagrado por el tiempo del conocedor de observar de cerca las obras de arte in situ y, en sentido amplio, en los modelos teóricos de Wölfflin y Panofsky, junto con los fundamentos de la psicología humana y la fisiología de la percepción y la cognición, asumiendo una interacción de Gestalten innatas y habitus históricas y culturalmente contingentes. Interpreto mis hallazgos en el contexto de la Iberia del siglo XVII, incluyendo aportaciones intelectuales como las de Pacheco, Carducho, Castiglioni y Gracián. Me baso en la rica literatura histórica sobre el periodo y sobre Felipe IV y Velázquez (y su relación). Hago algunas comparaciones entre Velázquez, sus pares artistas de la corte Hans Holbein, jr, y Anthony van Dyck, y un artista alejado de la corte pero tan cercano a Velázquez en técnica y quizá en convicciones personales, Frans Hals.   Mi hipótesis se basa en tres afirmaciones auxiliares fundamentales —puestas en contra de la falsificación— para apoyar la afirmación de que Velázquez era un subversivo y para dar el contexto de la subversividad del retrato de Felipe IV: (1) Velázquez tenía la libertad práctica para producir este retrato real subversivo; (2) es probable que utilizara esa libertad para este fin; y (3) manipuló activamente la visión y la visualidad. Yo, al menos, hago probables las tres afirmaciones. Sobre la base de la obra de Velázquez en general —especialmente en sus retratos de marginados— demuestro que tenía un grado significativo de libertad y que trabajó constantemente en pro de la subversión artística, social e incluso política (aunque no necesariamente de la revolución) utilizando sus profundos conocimientos de la visión, la visualidad y la óptica, ciencia de vanguardia en el siglo XVII. Como parece haber sufrido la mancha de sangre carente de limpieza, la persona y la carrera de Velázquez —que culminó con el título de caballero— constituyeron en sí mismas una subversión social y política. Resulta apropiado calificar de ingenioso al pintor Velázquez, técnicamente ingenioso. De hecho, como la hidalguía del hábil e ingenioso pintor se probó casi con toda seguridad con pruebas disimuladas y falsificadas, la mancha de sus antecedentes artesanos —y posiblemente también de ascendencia judía— le convierte en un verdadero ingenioso hidalgo de la mancha.

Trots att musik främst är ämnat för örat verkar dagens liveframträdanden mer visuellt stimulerande än någonsin. Livekonserten har utvecklats till en show för publiken att se på likväl som lyssna till, vilket ställer höga krav på visuell framställning. För att undersöka vilken roll seendet spelar för uppfattning av livemusik fick en publik uppleva det omvända, en konsert bakom ögonbindel. Om det visuella tas bort; hur uppfattas liveframträdandet då?Den här studien använder kvalitativa intervjustudier med både artist och publik. Resultaten visar på hur ögonen tenderar att fungera som medium inte bara för att uppfatta musiken, utan också för att förstå sig själv och sin roll i den sociala institution som bildas under en konsert. När visuell uppfattning inte är möjlig tvingas deltagarna omförhandla hur de ser på sig själva som individer och som en del av ett kollektiv. / Although music is primarily intended for the ear, today's live performances seem more visually stimulating than ever. Live performance has evolved into a show for the audience to watch as well as listen to, increasing the demands on visual representation. To further todays understaning of the role vision plays in perception of live music, an audience got to experience the opposite; a live concert behind the blindfold. If visual perception is removed; what does the audience make of the performance? By conducting qualitative interviews with both performer and audience it is possible to distinguish tendencies that show how the eyes act as medium not only to perceive the live performance, but also to aid audience perception of self during the social activity that consitutes a live concert. When visual perception is not possible, the participants are forced to renegotiate how they see themselves as individuals and as part of a collective.

As an alternative to existing research which states that the phenomenon of displacement resists theorisation because of its complex nature, this study conducts a Phenomenological examination of the nature of displacement in which the interlinked losses in the key concepts of the consciousness of the displaced, namely Memory, Land and home and Identity, are navigated. It is shown that the current consciousness of society mimics these losses with the effect of displacement being experienced as a state of mind by contemporary society. By comparing selected artworks of artists Rachel Whiteread and Cornelia Parker, it is established that although manifested in diverse ways, contemporary artworks reflect displacement according to a set of broadly defined visual signifiers. The visual documentation of a site of displacement in the North West Province of South Africa and subsequently produced artworks underline these findings and highlight the elusive attributes of loss inherent in the displacement phenomenon. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604) was a cultured courtesan who lived in the famous pleasure quarter along the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). She was talented in dance and music, painting and poetry, and surprisingly for her time, she was also a playwright. Although she was a celebrity of the prolific Nanjing cultural milieu and there is a good corpus of extant material by and about her, the particular contribution of Ma Shouzhen - her character and her work - have been marginalised, or even neglected, by the previous scholarship. This thesis is a cross-disciplinary study of Ma Shouzhen and is the first in-depth scholarly investigation into the entirety of her activities. It employs material and methods traditionally pertaining to the disciplines of sinology, history, art history, literary and drama studies. The thesis has a dual aim: first, to provide a nuanced understanding of the courtesan, her cultural production and social practice; second, to reclaim the agency and legacy of her character within the cultural milieu of late Ming Nanjing and beyond. These aims will be achieved through two main research objectives: (1) recovering and re-evaluating visual and written sources by and about the courtesan; (2) investigating those sources in order to comprehend her modes of self-representation and strategies of self-fashioning, analysed especially through the lens of gender. The main body of the thesis is composed of an introduction, five core chapters, and an epilogue; the chapters are structured so as to provide as complete a picture of Ma Shouzhen as possible. Chapter Two explores the space of the pleasure quarter, Ma’s biography and its entwinement within the complexities of the historical moment. Chapter Three focuses on her painting, Chapter Four considers her poetry, and Chapter Five explores her theatre practice; Chapter Six extends the investigation to focus on the construction of Ma’s historical character in later decades. In its content and aims, this thesis contributes to women’s and gender history, as well as to studies in visual culture and literature.