Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Parody And Satire In Hanns Eisler's Palmström And Zeitungsausschnitte, Alyssa Wells

Masters Theses

Hanns Eisler routinely expressed his discontent with the state of music and society in the late 1920s in Die Rote Fahne—an organ of the Marxist revolutionary organization, the Spartakusbund, to which he often contributed. His 1928 essay “Man baut um,” among the most notable of these writings, declares that the high expenditures in art—such as the construction of a fourteen-million Mark opera house—to be the result of capitalist greed rather than a reflection of the desire for musical performances, as had been suggested. Although the cost of the new venue is the subject in this satirical passage, this …

The Merchant Of Venice At Umass: An Exploration In Collaboration And Representation, Elizabeth L. Pangburn

Masters Theses

Through an analysis of the details of The Merchant of Venice, I will show that a costume design which only satisfies the basic role of articulating the relationships, status, time and place, etc of the play but has no point of view regarding that text’s inherent assumptions will always support, rather than subvert, any problematic issues present therein. Secondly, I will show that without tandem movement from the creative team, no rehabilitation or subversion is possible.

The Collaborative Process In Directing A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Jared L. Culverhouse

Masters Theses

With this thesis I will explore the many challenges that confront a leader on a creative project, the difficulties that prevent open communication, and the discoveries that I will use to serve myself on future projects. Through diligent notes during the multiple months that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof took to produce, I was able to re-create what my experience was and how it benefitted me moving forward.

This thesis will document the entire process from play selection, through the final product including the response from the audience. Through this document I will try and highlight, how my own …

La Imposible Serenidad De Michi Panero. Una Historia Y Análisis De El Desencanto, Documental Creativo En El Tiempo De La Transición, Albert Asuncion Benedito

Masters Theses

El Desencanto es una pelicula de tipo documental creativo dirigida por Jaime Chavarri en 1976 que retrata a la familia Panero. Por su tematica y estetica contrasta con la ideologia franquista, y fue leida como un simbolo de su tiempo. A traves del analisis de sus personajes y distintas obras de ese periodo historico, este trabajo trata de analizar este componente simbolico y ofrece una lectura politica de la obra.

Discerning Harmonic Progressions In The First Movement Of Zoltán Kodály's String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2 In C Minor (1910), Martin Ross

Masters Theses

Zoltán Kodály’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor is one of his earliest compositions. Kodály composed this as a tonal work, emulating the style used by nineteenth century composers. Kodály creates highly polyphonic textures and a complex harmonic language within the C minor tonality. Although this piece is considered tonal, Kodály deviates from the prototypical norms of tonal composition. As in most tonal music, harmonic progressions tend to support the overall tonal syntax. This includes chords, chord progressions, and key areas.

The goal of this thesis is to categorize harmonic progressions in the first movement of Kodály’s String Quartet. …

Building A Democratic Consciousness In Taiwan: An Analysis Of Lung Ying-Tai’S Political Essays Over Three Decades (1984–2003), Conrad W. Bauer

Masters Theses

Throughout her writing career, the Taiwan intellectual Lung Ying-tai (1952– ) has elaborated a distinct vision of how her country could realize the civic foundations of a democratic society. This ambition began with “Wild Fire,” an editorial column that ran in the Taiwan newspaper The China Times from 1984 to 1986, which was later compiled into a 1986 book, Wild Fire Collection. At this time, Taiwan’s political structure had just begun a process of liberalization. Under increasing international and domestic pressure, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party eased its authoritarian control over the island. Lung took advantage of this unique …

Blundered By The Borrower, Eben A. Kling

Masters Theses

Blundered by the Borrower attempts to illustrate the potential loneliness and anxiety that is experienced by the individual, amidst the contemporary and panicked social climate, domestically and globally--using the mediated jetsam of everyday life, violent entertainment and the disarming characteristics of cartoons to better understand and possibly illuminate a chronic lack of empathy in American society and popular culture.

Navigating The Interim, Joseph E. Saphire Jr

Masters Theses

Navigating the Interim attempts to build a framework for the ways in which visual art, media studies, and forms of social practice might intermingle within a career in the arts, as well as within a thorough art education curriculum. From broad theoretical analysis to the specificity of technical exercises and prompts, this paper serves as a roadmap for the ways in which production, teaching, and organizing might begin to merge into a single holistic practice. The author’s projects provide an anchor from which to analyze the various conceptual trajectories of art that have stemmed from modernism throughout the 20th century, …

The Flight From Despair: A Translation And Critical Exploration Of Hagiwara Sakutarō'S Zetsubō No Tōsō, Samik N. Sikand

Masters Theses

The text that I have translated below, and for which the paper that precedes it is a critical introduction, is Hagiwara Sakutarō's Zetsubō no Tōsō, a collection of 204 aphorisms which I have translated as The Flight from Despair. My introduction concentrates on Sakutarō's use of the aphoristic form in order to show how he both follows and subverts the genre's conventions. First, I concentrate on the author's goal to tackle the "everyday" matters of life through his text rather than intellectual abstractions. I also bring attention to the concision of Sakutarō's style and the protean nature of …

Sound-Off! An Introduction To The Study Of American Military Marching Cadences, Travis G. Salley

Masters Theses

Cadences are call and response marching songs sung by military personnel during drill and ceremony. This music originated in the United States in 1943 and has spread to militaries across the world. It is typically heard at basic training installations where it is used to help resocialize trainees into soldiers and during unit physical training. The lyrics of cadences often engage with facts of military culture: exploring the reality of combat and military life, instilling motivation, and developing unit cohesion.

Scholarship in this field displays significant gaps when it comes to the development of the military cadence, which my thesis …

A Brief Introduction To Aoki Rosui And Annotated Translation Of His Text Otogi Hyaku Monogatari, David Reeves

Masters Theses

The world of Japanese literature spans a vast number of genres and media, so much that while it makes sense that English speaking academia is unaware of many prolific and influential authors and works, it might be surprising that some of those same people and publications are not well studied in their original language. Even though this is common among many languages, older Japanese texts have the added challenge of a variant grammar structure and writing style that forces scholars to be aware of the differences in the classical variation of the language. To that end, the author named Aoki …

The Linguistic Analysis Of Chinese Emoticon, Xiangxi Liu

Masters Theses

When the emoticon was created in 1980s, many commentators have even described this creation as futile effort for improving internet communication efficiency. Even in the famous “language and the internet” (Crystal, 2001), the finder of internet linguistic, David Crystal argues that emoticons at the time “are a potentially helpful but extremely crude way of capturing some of the basic features of facial expression, but their semantic role is limited.” Nevertheless, after two decades have passed, emoticon not only survived but turned into an irreplaceable linguistic aspect in the internet language. During its evolution process, emoticon was also transmuted …

Dwelling In The Vision Of Utopia: A Politico-Religious Reading Of Tao Qian, Jiani Lian

Masters Theses

The present work offers a critical analysis of Tao Qian’s political and religious thought from readings of his poetic works. Focused on Tao Qian’s writings about the “Way” and the crisis of the “Way”, I examine how he constructs his political utopia and religious utopia that stand out as his response to the multidimensional existential crisis. Chapter 1 provides a summary of Tao’s depictions of the “Way” and the crisis of the “Way”, which serves as the textual ground of this study. Chapter 2 introduces the interdisciplinary methods that I have adopted to read and understand Tao Qian. Basically this …

Mindful Theatremaking: Reflections Of A New Brain And Dead Man's Cell Phone, And The Art Of Applying Mindfulness In A Directorial Process, Glenn W. Proud Iii

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I seek to answer if applying the art of mindfulness to my directorial process can provide a greater experience of satisfaction and promote stronger effectiveness in the level of communication and cooperation amongst the collaborative artists in our theatremaking process, compared to previous departmental productions.

This thesis will explore my journey and cultivation of mindfulness from both a personal and artistic perspective. I define the mindfulness-based principles of Mindful Decision Making, Mindful Listening & Loving Speech, and Shifting Negatives to Positives, and provide case studies of their application in my two production processes William Finn’s A New …

Publishing Networks In Edo Japan, Hisako Kobayashi

Masters Theses

The publishing business in the Edo period (1603 – 1868) was very unique since it was divided into two genres: shomotsu mononohon and jihon kusazōshi. Publishers had their specialties and their business strategies varied. In this research paper, I examine the publishing strategies from the view of the network system. First, I state the definition of this network. Next, I study the publishing history of the Edo period to gain a general understanding. Lastly, I examine the network systems of the shomotsu publishers and the jihon kusazōshi publishers. I use examples from Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Suharaya Mohē, Tsuruya Kiemon, …

Exploration Of Connectivity Between Urban Plaza And Mixed Use Buildings, Youngduk Kim

Masters Theses

Urbanization and development of cities is necessary in contemporary society, however, these advancements are also causing urban problems, such as lack of open green space, density problems, traffic problems, and over population.Also, existing buildings are often lacking certain functions that are currently needed since they have been designed in the past. Thus, plaza and mixed used buildings, which are considered as a unit space, are needed to mention for 'publicity' that is a part of urban components as a wide spatial concept. In particular, mixed used buildings as multiply functioned facilities are needed a specific study for 'publicity' and 'urban …

The Effectiveness Of Explicit Instruction Versus Implicit Instruction Method On Chinese Grammar Acquisition, Fuyang Peng

Masters Theses

In the past century, grammar instruction has aroused debate among scholars and instructors in the field of second language teaching and acquisition without absolute consensus. However, for the acquisition of Chinese grammar by adult L2 learners, there is wider acceptance that grammar should be taught due to the unique Chinese grammatical features. The issue in question is merely on how to teach Chinese grammar effectively. Hence, inspired by many other comparative studies on explicit and implicit instruction methods for teaching Western languages such as English, French, Spanish and so forth, the researcher conducted an empirical study to investigate the effectiveness …

Hanns Eisler's "Das Vorbild" And The Rebuilding Of Musical Culture In The German Democratic Republic, Alyssa Wells

Masters Theses

In his essay, “Musik und Musikverständnis” (1927), Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) wrote that "the evaluation of a piece of music calls for the understanding of the elements of harmony, polyphony, and form," and that one who is not privy to this understanding will "be in the same situation as one who hears a speech in Chinese, without an understanding of Chinese.” Eisler maintained that music could be rendered intelligible through “a gradual rebuilding of musical culture.” This new musical culture, which he believed could only occur after the proletariat seized societal power from the bourgeoisie, would promote musical education and encourage …

Translating Travel In The Spanish Sahara: English Versions Of Sanmao's Stories Of The Sahara, Ying Xu

Masters Theses

Sanmao (1943-91), author of over 19 books, is well known in Chinese-speaking communities for her travel writing. The present work offers a critical introduction to Sanmao’s life and work as well as an English translation of three selections from her most recognized travelogue, among both general readers and critics, Stories of the Sahara (1976). This text recounts her experience of travelling in the Western Sahara with her husband José María Quero y Ruíz from Spain. Chapter 1 introduces Sanmao’s career, her travel narratives, and the extant scholarship on her work to the English-speaking audience. More specifically, it highlights her time …

How Strange! Are My Eyes Mistaken?": A Study Of Arakida Reijo And Her Book Of Fantastic Tales, Ayashi No Yogatari, Miriam Karavias

Masters Theses

Arakida Reijo has been described as the most prolific female writer in Japanese premodern history, with her literary output encompassing a huge number of texts in a variety of genres. However, her works remain for the most part untranslated from the original classical Japanese, and she is almost a nonentity in modern literary academia. Given the widespread lack of female education in the Tokugawa period combined with the era’s general image of male societal domination, an argument might be made for Reijo’s inclusion in modern scholarship due to her status as an educated woman alone. However, Reijo’s masterful handling of …

The Evolution Of Yōkai In Relationship To The Japanese Horror Genre, Adam J. Johnson

Masters Theses

In 2007, popular mystery author Kyōgoku Natsuhiko attempted to adapt a collection of random stories known as the Mimi bukuro or Tales Heard into kaidan, tales of the strange and mysterious for today’s readership. The writing experiment ended with Kyōgoku questioning his own writing abilities and publishing his small collection of adapted stories into a book that was not considered very frightening. Although the experiment failed, Kyōgoku’s efforts raise the question, “if not kaidan, what is frightening in the twentieth century?”

The reason why kaidan are no longer frightening is because their central characters, yōkai, have been displaced …

Combating Slavery And Colonization: Student Abolitionism And The Politics Of Antislavery In Higher Education, 1833-1841, Michael E. Jirik

Masters Theses

During the early 1830’s, the nascent American Antislavery Society needed support at the local level. This thesis argues that college and seminary students were a crucial demographic that helped garner support for, and spread, abolitionism. Examining the proliferation of radical abolitionism at three locations, Lane Seminary, Andover Theological Seminary, and Amherst College, reveals that students developed intellectual and moral arguments to justify their abolitionist sentiments. Typically, student abolitionists rhetorically battled with faculty, administration, and other students, who all supported colonization, over competing solutions to the problem of slavery. At all three locations, faculty and administration sought to suppress student abolitionism …

Recast And Elicitation: The Effectiveness Of Corrective Feedback On Japanese Language Learners, Kinji Ito

Masters Theses

This paper examines the effectiveness of corrective feedback on learners of the Japanese language. The current study had a total of 25 students who agreed to participate, consisting of both advanced and intermediate levels. There are six main types of corrective feedback established and defined by Lyster and Ranta (1997), this study focused on two particular types, recast (a category of implicit) and elicitation (a category of prompt). Comparing a particular feedback or a category of feedback with another has been one of the ongoing topics in the field of second language (L2) learning.

The present study is intended to …

An Evaluation Of The Lighting Design Process And Composition For "A New Brain" By William Finn, James Horban

Masters Theses

The following pages will explore and evaluate the process and composition of my lighting design for the musical A New Brain produced by the UMass Amherst Theater Department in November 2014. This analysis will begin with an overall assessment of my lighting-design work and working methods throughout my career up to this production in order to identify the areas of personal growth that were focal points for this production. A reflection upon the design, collaborative, and technical process, and how the lessons learned from these processes apply to my career goal as an educator of theatrical design, will round out …

A Step Of Two Or The Pas De Deux, Molly A. Hoisington

Masters Theses

The second part of a two-part MFA Thesis presentation, this paper distills the content from the preceding exhibition A Step of Two or The Pas de Deux: an installation of paintings, drawings and projected video. It touches on various themes that surround [well researched] ideas about perception, dissociation, the gaze, and relationships. Most of all, this paper and the body of work it describes is about the visual representation of a sensual understanding of the world.

An Eerie Jungle Filled With Dragonflies, Sniper Bullets And Ghosts: Changing Perceptions Of Vietnam And The Vietnamese Through The Eyes Of American Troops, Matthew M. Herrera

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the changing perceptions of Vietnam’s landscape and the Vietnamese in the eyes of American troops throughout the Vietnam War. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Vietnamese were depicted as a people misguided by the French and in need of political mobilization by the American media and government. Following heavy investment and a rigged election in 1956, South Vietnam was painted as a beacon of democracy in Southeast Asia and an example of what American aid is capable of. As an increasing American military presence was being established in South Vietnam in the early 1960s, American …

Analyzing Two Key Points Of The Huaihai Campaign Using Sun Tzu's Net Assessment, Jimmy Chien

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the Huaihai Campaign (Nov. 6 1948 - Jan.10 1949) in the Chinese Civil War (1927-1936, 1949-1950). This war involved the Republic of China’s (ROC) Kuomintang Party (KMT) and the emerging Communist Party of China (CPC). Over the course of a few months and around one million combatants, the Communists pulled off a resounding victory dealing the final blow to the KMT which led to the CPC’s governance over mainland China. This case study of two key turning points in the Huaihai Campaign is analyzed using Sun Tzu’s five net assessments from The Art of War. …

The Practice And Evolution Of Video Game Translation: Expanding The Definition Of Translation, Elizabeth Bushouse

Masters Theses

This paper looks at the practice and history of video game translation, with the goal of expanding the definition of translation. Video game translation is a complex process that incorporates a number of aspects from other types of translation, such as literary, audiovisual, and software translation, to form a dynamic whole. As a new medium, video games also present their own challenges to translation in the form of interactivity, technology, non-textual and extra-textual elements, audience involvement, and new business practices. Even though video games are a relatively new medium, the practice of translating them has undergone drastic transformations over the …

"Who's Hiring The Indochinese Worker? Your Competition, Probably": Work, Welfare Dependency, And Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement In Lowell, Massachusetts, 1975-1985, Janelle Bourgeois

Masters Theses

This Master’s thesis uses the Indochinese Refugee Foundation of Lowell, Massachusetts, a federally funded social service provider, as a case study in the local politics of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement. I argue that the Foundation’s archives offered an opportunity to study the local implementation of the “economic self-sufficiency” mandate of the 1980 Refugee Act, which led the Foundation to increasingly scramble to get refugees off of the welfare rolls and in the labor market as quickly as possible. I conclude that this served to push refugees into low-wage, unskilled, insecure positions such as electronics assembly, and also led to an …

A Lighting Design Concept For The Lighting For William Shakespeare's: The Merchant Of Venice, Michael Blagys

Masters Theses

I designed the lighting for William Shakespeare's complex piece, The Merchant of Venice, which was produced by the UMass Amherst Theater Department. In this thesis paper, I will discuss the creative process from start to finish, including relevant lighting paperwork and production photographs.