Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Levant: France’S Colonial Crucible, Michael Adelson

French Summer Fellows

In the medieval era of religious and political tumult that culminated with the Crusades, (mostly) Roman Catholic Western European citizens from all walks of life committed themselves to conquer Jerusalem and wrest control of historically Christian lands from the Muslim polities that claimed the region. The historical Kingdom of France was a major contributor to the Crusades, and as such, the feudal realms established in the Levant in the wake of the First Crusade were dominated by former French crusaders and citizenry. The geographic boundaries and demography of these Crusader States are reminiscent of French hegemony in the Middle East …

Coke Family Papers (Mss 737), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 737. Correspondence and papers of the Coke family of Logan County, Kentucky and related families, principally the Guthrie and McCutchen families. Includes materials on the historic family homestead, McCutchen Meadows, near Auburn, Kentucky. Also includes J. Guthrie Coke's letters to his wife Carrie, January-February 1914, written in the form of journals describing his experiences as a state legislator in Frankfort, Kentucky (Click on "Additional Files" below).

The Lost And Forgotten Plants: French Botanical Networks In Provincial And Colonial France (1760–1825), Sophie R. Tunney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the eighteenth century, the Jardin du Roi in Paris was the leading monarchical institution for the collection and categorization of plants. A global network emerged that circulated thousands of plants and seeds. Historians of botany have focused on the Jardin du Roi in Paris and the centralization of the network in the hands of different actors, including André Thouin. The dissertation shifts away from a Paris-centered model to one that includes gardens across the metropole and the colonial world. It focuses on the histories of the botanical gardens in l’Ile de France (Mauritius), Cayenne (French Guiana), Brest, Bordeaux, Paris, …

Rethinking Watteau In The Context Of Early Eighteenth-Century Bourgeois Culture, Bronwyn C. Roe

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reexamines the work of Antoine Watteau through a social-art historical lens. Traditionally, Watteau's fêtes galantes have been closely aligned to the culture of the French nobility. However, a closer look into the artist's background, training, social milieu, and the class identity of his primary buyers reveals an alternative class alignment, inviting new interpretations for Watteau's most elusive work. This thesis challenges the close association between Watteau and the French nobility and aims to broaden the socio-visual landscape from which Watteau was drawing, namely that of a burgeoning bourgeois consumer culture. In particular, the culture of emulation, with its …

An Imaginary Man, Benjamin Bouvet-Boisclair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Novella about an American expat nicknamed Tintin and his search for intimacy in all the wrong places. While teaching English in South West France, Tintin struggles to confront his mother tongue, the deaths of his grandfather and great-grandfather, and the end of his long-distance relationship with Ela. Brushes with violence, French history, and other lonely, wayward men, frame an exploration of masculinity, desire, and loss.

Pushing At The Seams: French Zines & Bricolage As A Liberatory Act, Shayna M. Davidson

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines the contemporary literary value posed by independently produced French fanzines. French fanzines represent a convergence of textual and graphic narratives, echoing la bande dessinée in many senses. I argue that the liberty of form and expression utilized by the fanzine creator permits a more nuanced iteration of life-writing. The circulation of texts amongst informal economies based in social networks suggests that creators are able to explore narratives of self-hood that do not conform to neoliberal market-oriented categories of identity. Furthermore, the influx of digitally stored and distributed French fanzines confounds their traditional categorization as ephemeral text-objects; as …

Negotiating Nationalism: Camille Saint-Saëns, Neoclassicism, And The Early Music Renaissance In France, Joshua Arin Harton

Theses and Dissertations

The music of Camille Saint-Saëns hints at modernism. Musicologists have largely avoided describing Saint-Saëns as a neoclassical or modernist composer, since much of his musical output occurred during the Romantic era. However, Saint-Saëns appears to have already been engaging with the nationalist and revivalist concerns which drove later twentieth-century French composers toward neoclassicism and other forms of musical modernism. Revivals of la musique ancienne (‘ancient’ music) and la musique française (“French” music) were well underway when Saint-Saëns began composing, and they continued throughout his career. Scholars have largely pursued these two revivals separately, with early music revival in France following …

Jackson, Harry Lucellus, 1907-1985 (Mss 171), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 171. Correspondence and papers of Harry L. Jackson, a Warren County, Kentucky native and Cleveland, Ohio executive. Includes his World War II correspondence, genealogical research, and papers of his wife Evelyn’s family, the Minshalls of Ohio. A sampling of Jackson's World War II letters to sisters Sallie and Bernice can be viewed under "Additional Files" below.

Interview With Clinton Hines, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

Clinton Hines was interviewed by Esther Mallard, November 11, 1987. Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog!

Foreign Interventionism In The Sahel Against Violent Extremism: The French Dilemma, Andrews Nii Amaah Amartey

Major Papers

The Sahel region is progressively becoming a hot zone for violent extremist activities and the consistent splintering of groups keeps facilitating its spread into sub-Saharan Africa. This ever-growing threat has triggered varied responses from both states, regional and international actors respectively. As far as international response goes, France plays a leading role in the fight against violent extremism with the basis of its intervention hinged on the 'special relationship' France has with the affected countries in the Sahel which are all French-speaking states. This has eventually led many to question France's commitment to a joint multilateral response as this is …

Interview With William Brannen, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

A part of the "Our Hometown Heroes" series. William Brannen interviewed by Linda Awe, November 13, 1999.

Interview With Carl Atwell, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections Oral History collection

A part of the "Our Home Town Heroes" series. Carl Atwell interviewed by Linda Awe, November 13, 1999. Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog!

Portrait Of Same-Sex Desire: Lesbian (Mis)Representations In Nineteenth-Century French Art, Jessica N. Mummert

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

In late nineteenth-century France, lesbianism became a heightened topic of interest due to scientific, social, and political discourse surrounding female sexuality. From this discourse stemmed a small but significant outpouring of lesbian artworks by male artists. Rendering the lesbian as a hypervisible, hypersexual figure for men to project their desires and fears onto, these artworks communicated concerns over sexuality, morality, feminism, class, and gender roles. Traditionally, historiography on this topic tends to focus on one mode of lesbian representation at a time or discusses lesbian art en masse. This scholarship has highlighted some different representations and the social circumstances that …

"Nothing ‘Personal’ To Lose": Alice Notley’S “I” And The Poetics Of Encounter In Disobedience, Christina T. Baulch

Theses and Dissertations

Though the lyric-I has often been perceived as an isolated ego, Alice Notley's "I" in her long poem Disobedience (2001) necessitates plurality through what I call a "poetics of encounter." In response to the 1978 Language poetry manifesto "Aesthetic Tendency and the Politics of Poetry," and to the larger well-rehearsed debate about vocal homogeneity and persona centrism in poetry, this paper argues that Notley's poetics of encounter brings the "I" of Disobedience into continual and complex conversation with material history, politics, and mass culture, thus situating it within, and not sequestered from, the world and its mediation.

The Bittersweet Tooth: Understanding French Identity Through The Colonial Empire, Commodity Fetishism, And Pâtisserie, Clarisse D. Allehaut

Honors Theses

This thesis argues that patisserie and the French relationship with dessert are a part of national identity. The historical context of patisserie runs parallel to the growth and power of the French colonial empire. Patisserie feels removed from the empire, and yet the two show how gastronomy, luxury, and exploitative power in the form of empire are components of French history and identity. Marx’s theory on commodity fetishism serves as the backbone for this argument. This theoretical idea supposes that value is an objective concept and society attributes importance and perceived meaning. Patisserie exemplifies commodity fetishism as a good with …

Les Six Continents: An Exploration Of Political Visual Rhetoric In Public Sculpture, Olivia Liu Guillotin

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Les six continents series stands as remnants of the 1878 Exposition Universelle and as a visual marker of the cultural, social, and economic culture of the time period. The series, serving as public art, continues to inform and participate in its environment and space, as it is on display by the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay today. Personified representations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania as allegorical female figures, the series offers insight into the colonial world where it emerged, and how its impact has visually been ingrained in contemporary society. By using these six statues …

The French Conundrum: The Unsettled Relationship Between The Colonial Past, Identity Construction, And Immigration In The Musée National De L’Histoire De L’Immigration, Sierra Ruby Newby-Smith

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This paper focuses on the intersection of identity, the colonial past, and immigration in France through the lens of the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration. The museum, which opened in 2007 and is currently redesigning its permanent exhibition, has struggled to come to terms with France’s colonial past, a defining aspect of the museum as a result of its location and theme. This paper argues that the museum functions as a microcosm of France’s difficulty to address its colonial past while still maintaining its current national identity construction. Thus, this paper explores how the Immigration Museum is and has …

Is France Having A Populist Moment?, Emma Gilmore

Honors Theses

The word populism is often thrown around in news media and academic scholarship, but there is a lack of understanding of what it actually means as a political theory. In France, the two presidential candidates that made it to the second round in 2017, Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen, were both called populist, despite having vastly different campaign strategies and messages. This study used a computer-based method to analyze Campaign books from 24 candidates beginning in 1981 that determined that Populist language is on the rise, but not as aggressively as news media suggests.

The Private Art Collector’S Foundation In France: Issues And Implications For The Cultural Landscape, Milena Berman

MA Theses

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion in the number of private art spaces worldwide. From Bentonville, Arkansas, to Naoshima, Japan, hundreds of impressive structures built by star architects have been funded by private individuals and corporations to house collections of modern and contemporary art, often in unlikely places. The famously-termed “Bilbao effect” in which a grand museum structure is set up outside of the established art capitals of the world, thus putting the city “on the map” of cultural tourism, has become a widespread trend. The examples vary greatly and range from small private “home museums”
made to …

Leroy N. Suddath, Sr. Papers, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of the personal papers of Lieutenant Leroy N. Suddath, Sr. during his service in the U.S. Army during World War I from 1917-1918. Materials include a handwritten diary and a bound book of reproduced letters from Suddath to his wife, Lucille Howle Suddath. Also included are diary transcripts and digital reproductions of created in 2022.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Moulder-Campbell Family Papers (Mss 734), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 734. Correspondence and papers of the Moulder, Campbell and related families of Warren County, Kentucky. Includes genealogical data.

Gentry, Martha Beck "Mattie" (Spangler), 1862-1940 (Mss 733), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 733. Journal, 1878-1880, of Mattie (Spangler) Gentry, Covington, Kentucky, chronicling her attendance at Lexington’s Hamilton Female College and at boarding school in Orléans, France; also her journal, 1889-1898, recording her life as a music teacher and her courtship and marriage. Includes photographs and a letter to Mattie in France from the president of Hamilton College (Click on "Additional Files" for typescript).

Water As A Weapon Of War In The Tigris-Euphrates Basin, Adam Krzymowski

All Works

The article’s scientific goal is to investigate the Weimar Triangle countries’ relations with the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, the author asks the research question. Are the Weimar Triangle states’ role and significance increasing in the external dimension of the European Union? Based on the example of the United Arab Emirates, the research adopted a hypothesis. It is the statement that after Brexit, the Weimar Triangle countries have a chance to improve their importance in the EU external activities. Apart from case studies, to revise the hypothesis, the author performed a meticulous comparative analysis. Moreover, the research implemented International Practice Theory …

Allure Of The Supernatural: South Korean Realities And The French Interest In The Private Lives Of Plants And The Vegetarian [L’Attrait Du Surnaturel : Les Réalités Sud-Coréennes Et L’Intérêt Des Français Pour La Vie Rêvée Des Plantes Et La Végétarienne], Adelaide Choi

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Since establishing diplomatic relations in the nineteenth century, South Korea and France have seen excellent bilateral ties and cultural exchanges through the present day. The vibrant nature of this exchange reveals itself in the translation of French literature into Korean and in the increasing demand for Korean literature in France, where occidental and francophone influences have traditionally flourished. In this thesis I interrogate the French interest in Korean culture, using translated novels as vehicles of exploration: Lee Seung-u’s The Private Lives of Plants and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. I propose three analytical lenses through which to examine the appeal …

La Fille Publique: Depictions Of Sex Work In Fin-De-Siècle Literature, Nicole Araujo

All Student Scholarship

This thesis conducts a feminist analysis of depictions of sex work in fin-de-siècle, or turn of the19th-century, French literature. It draws connections between literature from this time period and the social and political forces that sought to eradicate female sexual autonomy. In the introduction, the political and social setting of fin-de-siècle France is explored, when sex work was widely prevalent and for many women offered a route to sexual and financial autonomy that was otherwise unattainable, much to the anxiety and irritation of the patriarchal forces in place.The first chapter analyzes Emile Zola’s Nana as a classic representation of the …

La Méditerranée De Tériade Pendant L’Entre-Deux Guerres, Poppy Sfakianaki

Artl@s Bulletin

Cet article traite de l’utilisation de l’idée de la Méditerranée par le critique d’art Tériade en France de l’entre-deux-guerres. En s’alignant avec le courant intellectuel et artistique dominant à l’époque qui considérait l’art du Sud/méditerranéen supérieur à l’art du nord/allemand, il a souligné dans ses écrits l’origine méditerranéenne des artistes qu’il souhaitait promouvoir ainsi que les caractéristiques méditerranéennes de leur art. Étant lui-même d’origine grecque, ses arguments sur la méditerranéité de l’art et des artistes reflétèrent tout autant chez Tériade un outil d’intégration dans l’establishment culturel français.

Hines, Duncan, 1880-1959 (Mss 731), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 731. Correspondence, biographical data, planning and publicity materials relating to Duncan Hines Week on 9-15 November 1986 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hines’s guidebook Adventures in Good Eating, and material relating to subsequent annual events under the names Duncan Hines Celebration and Duncan Hines Festival.

Book Review: Last Train To Auschwitz The French National Railways And The Journey To Accountability, Timothy Plum

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The book Last Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability, written by Sarah Federman traces the SNCF’s journey toward accountability in France and the United States. Told from the Holocaust survivors’ perspective the volume illustrates the long-term effects of the railroad’s complicity with the Nazis on individuals, and transitional justice that leads to corporate accountability. In a time when corporations are increasingly granted the same rights as people, Federman’s detailed account demonstrates the obligations businesses to atone for aiding and abetting governments in committing atrocities.

From Stasis To Ecstasy: Tracing Bernard Of Clairvaux's "Queer" Influence On French Gothic Art, Jackson O. Larson

Art & Art History ETDs

I trace the progression of figural sculpture in the Latin West from the static statues of the late-tenth century to the ecstatic statues of the mid-thirteenth century. I explore the various reasons for the return of freestanding figural sculpture and suggest that the return is indicative of an eroticization of the Christian holy figures. I suggest that Bernard of Clairvaux’s erotic theology in the twelfth century resulted in a synthesis of eros and Christian devotion that allowed latent classicism to find purchase in Christian art. I submit that Bernard’s influence on European art is a form of “queering”—a process by …

Intolerable Histories And Imperfect Narratives: Nationhood, Identity, And The Integrity Of Law In Post-Vichy France And Beyond, Kaela S. Holmen

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

The principal aim of this thesis project is to examine the socio-legal context of the Vichy regime in World War II France, and to provide an understanding of how that context informed, and continues to inform, the integrity of French nationhood. With Ernest Renan’s oubli serving as a framework for the solidification of nationhood, I will demonstrate that the betrayals to French law and custom that were committed in an attempt to right the wrongs of the Vichy resulted in an imperfect forgetting, and ultimately, a more fragmented national sense of self. I contend that this imperfect oubli resulting from …