Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gothic Literature And The Politics Of Indistinction, Nicholas Everett Miller

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I recover the Gothic as a literature of political possibility. While scholars have long associated the Gothic tradition with political fear, I argue that Gothic novels challenge liberal ideas of the self to produce a sometimes radically egalitarian politics of freedom in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. Edmund Burke made much of the fearfulness of an egalitarian politics in the 1790s, and literary historians have relied on his influence to argue that Gothic fiction is primarily an expression of the fear that comes with the collapse of familial, social, and political distinctions. But fear is not all that accompanies such …

A Liberal State Of Mind: Formal Reconstructions Of Statehood In The Anglophone African Novel, Maya Ganapathy

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the idea of the nation and national identity is often taken as the starting point for examinations of the African state, this dissertation explores the transnational dimensions of the African novel and the way in which English-language writers from Africa imagine a state that more adequately captures their desire to freely inhabit a global literary marketplace. Although critics of the Anglophone African novel tend to understand the fictional state as an object of unremitting political critique (often simply as a reflection of its real-world counterpart), the African state, when viewed through the methodological lens of narrative form, becomes the …

The Boundaries Of Youth: Labor, Maturity, And Coming Of Age In Early Nineteenth-Century New England, 1790-1850, Jane Fiegen Green

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project uses the experiences of young men and women to show how the language of maturity laid a foundation for the mythology of democratic capitalism in nineteenth-century America. Freed from the bounds of the household but left to the mercy of the emerging capitalist economy, young New Englanders struggled to reconcile the democratic ideals of work with the realities of class stratification. Expected to show their self-ownership through the performance of gender-defined employment, young men and women used their work experiences to display their maturity. Recognition as competent, mature adults required young people to find and demonstrate independence through …

Commentary, Illustration, And Cross-Generic Writing In Paired Editions Of Xixiang Ji And Pipa Ji, Yinghui Wu

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the reproduction and consumption of popular playsXixiang ji(The Story of the Western Wing) andPipa ji(The Lute) as a related pair in seventeenth-century China. During this period, a thriving economy and rapid urbanization stimulated the expansion of commercial publishing. A book market flourished with a bewildering variety of texts and pictures and inventive regroupings of existing materials. Seventeenth-century China has long been recognized as an age of individual creativity, with the elite literati as primary agents, but this study revises the picture by directing attention to the appropriation and transformation of the cultural ideal of "creativity" through the …

Bio-Enhanced Constructivism: Moral Facts For The Naturalistic But Morally Serious Philosopher, Jason Gardner

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Bio-Enhanced Constructivism: Moral Facts for the Naturalistic but Morally Serious Philosopher

by

Jason Gardner

Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy

Washington University in St. Louis, 2014

Professor Eric Brown, Chair

There is a tension between being both morally and naturalistically serious because it is doubtful that features philosophers have ascribed to moral facts in order to explain why we should take them seriously can be given a naturalistic accounting. Yet even serious naturalists who think the tension is real and troubling persist in trying to be serious moralists. I do not think they can do so on their own terms. …

Feeling Doctrine: Religious Meanings Of Emotion In Sixteenth-Century German Literature, Georgia Anna Leeper

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the intersections of emotion and Protestant theology in late-16th-century German literature. The project demonstrates the availability of even secular texts to confessional readings through the analysis of representations of emotions. Post-Reformation texts practice an emotional exemplarity that highlights the effects - including the spiritual effects - which emotional experiences have on the individual. I argue that narrative representations of emotions at this moment reflect anxieties about the nebulous nature of faith, and its central role in Protestant salvation. Close readings of widely-read texts such as the 1587 Faustbuch, Melusine, and Hans Sach's Judith: ein Comedi, among others …

The Rise Of Anti-Semitism In Post Cold War Western Europe: The Effect On Current Jewish Populations In Europe, Jewish Human Rights, And The Role Of The Jewish Religion Within Western Europe, Johnathan Eftink

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the ending of World War II and the Cold War, anti-Semitism has been prevalent within Western Europe even though the political atmosphere has tried to dissuade and even punish those that harbored such views. The rise of anti-Semitism in Western Europe in contemporary times as evolved into a dangerous atmosphere for Jews in regards to their human rights, their freedom, and their safety.

In this paper, the question of why anti-Semitism is re-emerging will be addressed as well how it is being tackled by the respective countries in which it is prevalent. Poland, Hungary, Greece, France, and Germany are …

Full Symposium Program, Symposium Organizers

Women in Architecture <br />1974 | 2014

Pdf of the complete symposium schedule

Final Biographies Handout, Symposium Organizers

Women in Architecture <br />1974 | 2014

No abstract provided.

Timeline 2 Close Reading 45 Years Of Women In Architecture, Symposium Organizers

Women in Architecture <br />1974 | 2014

No abstract provided.

Timeline 1 Cause And Effect Contextualizing Women In Architecture, Symposium Organizers

Women in Architecture <br />1974 | 2014

No abstract provided.

Bibliography, Symposium Organizers

Women in Architecture <br />1974 | 2014

No abstract provided.

The James Merrill Digital Archive: Channeling The Collaborative Spirit(S), Shannon Davis, Joel Minor

University Libraries Presentations

The James Merrill Digital Archive, comprised of Merrill’s poetry drafts, typescripts, and Ouija board session transcripts, is the result of expertise and input of many collaborators across the Washington University campus. Shannon Davis and Joel Minor will speak on various aspects of the project, including successful cross-campus collaboration, employing student workers to perform high level encoding and exhibit curation, and how Omeka was used to develop the digital archive. - Shannon Davis, Digital Projects Librarian, and Joel Minor, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts

Benign Imperialists: Ethnographic (Mis)Representation By German Painter-Adventurers, 1840-1890, Sarah Hermes Griesbach

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the mid to late nineteenth century, a new group of academic painters trained in Germany emerged as self-appointed ethnographic experts who sketched and painted heroic visions of a wild American West, and a similarly wild North Africa and Middle East. This group of artists, like their literary analog, traveled to the places they depicted. Artists Adolf Hoeffler (1825-1898), Carl Wimar (1828-1862), Friedrich Frisch (1813-1886), Adolf Schreyer (1828-1899) and Eugen Bracht (1842-1921) fused their artistic personae with their subjects to present themselves as ethnographic experts depicting scenes that asserted their own empirical authority as observers. They not only exhibited their …

Observance: A Record Of Experiments, Olivia L. Mosley

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Thesis writing on the work of Olivia Mosley, Bachelor of Fine Arts candidate in Printmaking at Washington University in St. Louis. Engaging with a diverse history of photography and observation through the theoretical writings of Barthes, Berger, Didi-Huberman and others, Mosley conducts a series of visual experiments as part of her art practice in an attempt to expand her visual knowledge. Exploring the concepts of visualization, observation and the role technology plays in both of the aforementioned activities, Mosley’s work is discussed alongside the visual contributions of scientists, artists and hobbyists experimenting with the photographic medium throughout history, including, Wilhelm …

Re-Enchanting The Spectacle, Shayna Cohn

Graduate School of Art Theses

“Re-Enchanting the Spectacle” explores guiding notions and central themes within the art practice of Shayna Cohn. Cohn’s installation spaces and sculptures within them, evoke a type of fabricated aura and melodramatic attitude of entertainment sites. By isolating the affect outside of the original environment, Cohn references the perceptual duality of entertainment sites within this “post-sacred” era. Entertainment venues become sites of potential transcendence, yet are also inextricably tied to their automated mechanization. Drawing on the Peter Brooks’ analysis of the historical and poetic relationship between melodrama and the sacred, Cohn argues that contemporary notions of melodrama can be found within …

Paiting, Lucas Page

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

My work is motivated by the painting “as such” – as an inquiry into and intervention upon what constitutes a painting, how they are constructed, how they function, etc. Through an investigation of painting as a genre, both in its historical canon and contemporary forms, I deconstruct the formal and cultural elements surrounding the field. Four major axes serve as the basis for my inquiry and intervention of painting: Painting, Abstraction, Representation, Control. Taking as a point of departure the comment, “Your work is a representation of abstraction,” I aim to figure out how “the painting” (in all of its …

Something Gained: Translation As Process, Amanda V. Rothschild

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

This statement examines translation as a way to explore the act of painting. Drawing from theories of literary translation as discussed by Walter Benjamin, this essay looks at the ways in which the process of translating an image from a photograph into a painting echoes many ideas that come from the approach of translating between languages. The theme of translation is discussed first through an examination of the role of the photograph in determining the content of the paintings, using Gerhard Richter as a reference. The role of material and the physicality of paint in the translation of a space …

Wouldn't It Be Funny If, Taryn Sirias

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Examining both historical comedic development and personal conceptions of comedy in art, “Wouldn’t It Be Funny If…” explores the validity of the joke as a means of critical inquiry and communication between artist and viewer, and attempts to figure my own artistic practice in this larger tradition.

Experiments In Remix And Worldmaking, Jesse Firestone

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

The rate of consumption is at an all time high and cultural attributes are endlessly appropriated in order to make fresh, new products. The market can bring the marginalized into the mainstream and expedite the process of assimilation; however, in the process, cultural symbols/ideas/identities are depoliticized and removed from their origins, leaving only a hollow shell. In Gimme $helter, Jesse Bandler brings together clothing, posters, blankets, and chackis, effectively turning the Des Lee Gallery into a place of commerce. Gimme $helter is able to seamlessly occupy two distinct spheres of culture: within the gallery, Gimme $helter offers an intimate critique …

Creatures Of Habit, Joyce Hankins

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Creatures of Habit is a body of artwork that explores how patterns, habits and records relate to the human desire to find fulfillment and understanding. The work was approached using two distinct ways of making. The first draws upon the concept of a “closed system” to create my own self-contained processes to work within and form imagery around. The second way is responding to pre-existing patterns, or open systems, that allow for a transfer of internal and external information. Open and closed systems represent the human struggle to find control as well as feel connected to the surrounding world. The …

Making It Harder Than It Has To Be Or This Is The Sculpture Or *Sigh, Todd Barry

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

You will be punched in the face and then poked in the side

(it seems, someone, has something, to say)

You start off with a slow looking-back – making a steady assumption

You take that assumption, o p e n it up ~ into elaboration, and sing the thing

RIGHT ON out of itself

You sculpt

You step back

You say, ‘wait a minute – relax’

You wake up, wiggle toes, wait for [something], move, make~ into

[something], and stand by it

You laugh, get grounded, fight your way outside, come

back, and take care of things

You feel, in …

A Face With A View, Cassie S. Jones

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis serves to examine my practice as a visual artist. In its contents I consider both the internal image and the external image and the constant negotiation that happens between these two sets of images. What comes to represent the internal is my own image, in particular, my face. What comes to represent the external are prevailing images of socially idealized beauty. Likewise, I argue that the face becomes especially important in this negotiation as it is the intersection between the internal and the external; the self and the social. Using artists such as Vito Acconci, Orlan, and Andy …

Fuck Yeah, Thesis!, Marianne R. Laury

Graduate School of Art Theses

Fandom is a feature of American popular culture that takes elements from specific genres, and reworks them into an individual to formulate an identity. Clothing, music style, meeting places, and even drink choices can be the defining factors for determining which particular group one might associate with. Focusing on groups within fandom culture, I work to disprove the phrase “you can’t judge a book by its cover” by discussing embedded stereotypes common to dedicated fans. As I am not elevating or undermining these groups, I describe their attributes in a non-discriminatory way, and relate them to my own work.

I …

Video Science: Cinema As Sense Organ, Rosalynn Stovall

Graduate School of Art Theses

The moving image exists at the interstice of art and science not only because it acts as a representation of human sight but also because it exemplifies the observational processes related to the scientific gaze. As such, film and video have extended human sense-perception properties by mimicking and manipulating the natural processes of the optic nerve. The capture – and in many cases, the simulation – of movement generated from the progression of images reveals a new sphere of human consciousness as it relates to the dimensions of motion, space, and time.

The conceptualization of the time-element present in film …

Remixing Remix Remixed, Joshua Cornelis

Graduate School of Art Theses

Remix culture plays an important role in the expression and communication of visual art. It is a discourse by which I strive to directly engage culture by cutting and pasting together already existing visual information. By doing so, I strive to promote an exchange of ideas and feelings between juxtaposed pieces. In this age of post-digital era collage, I am interested in the meaning and propaganda associated with collage and assemblage and the modes of disseminating messages via cut-and-paste.

By juxtaposing images that differ in style, content, and meaning, I am able to build panoramas of fractured identities that manifest …

Finding Cathartic Beauty In Trauma And Abjection, Christy R. Kirk

Graduate School of Art Theses

Inspired by the dichotomy of beauty and the grotesque in relation to the female body, I set out to both find a balance and interrupt the balance between the two with my artistic practice. Defining beauty as something more significant and meaningful than a pretty image and the abject as something that inspires repulsion, I sought to find connection between the two. Through creating abject textures surrounding nude female forms, I discovered an underlying trauma latent in the artistic expressions of my work. The process of creating abject works of art has lead to catharsis and posttraumatic growth in my …

The Thing You Are Looking For, Jessie Shinn

Graduate School of Art Theses

This thesis document explores the influences and content of visual artist Jessie Shinn’s work, in particular the photography she has done as part of her Master of Fine Arts degree program at Washington University in St. Louis. Ideas discussed include phenomenology, phenomenophilia, affect, defamiliarization, the everyday, space, emptiness and boredom. Important artists and movements mentioned are Caspar David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner and Romanticism; Alfred Stieglitz and Modernism; and contemporary artists Hiroshi Sugimoto, Uta Barth and Wolfgang Tillmans. Writers and philosophers Samuel Coleridge, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rei Terada, Kathleen Stewart, David Markson, David Foster Wallace, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze are …

Seth Czaplewski Thesis, Seth P. Czaplewski

Graduate School of Art Theses

My work investigates the history of production and how human interactions have been affected by shifts in production over the course of the past two hundred years in the United States: the pre-industrial, Industrial Revolution, and the post-industrial age. The changes that occurred in society as a result of how production shifted from era to era informs my artistic practice and productions, which address areas neglected in the wake of progress. At the onset of each era, the technological advances initially appeared to be beneficial to society and people shifted from being locally oriented to being globally oriented.

My historical …

A Composed Space, Adam S. Hogan

Graduate School of Art Theses

My practice is invested in expanding our conscious scope—revealing phenomena and observations, and presenting the information to the viewer through auxiliary channels. Using the language of minimalism, cinema, and abstraction I create technologically sophisticated systems to produce spaces of contemplation (a meditative space challenging the ephemeral relationships between our sensorial perceptions, space, and time).

Material, space, and technology become instruments for composition manifesting as silent experimental cinema (created and controlled sonically). My work seeks to illuminate our conscious scope through the succession of frames.