History Commons^™

Jean-Luc Godard And Francois Truffaut: The Influence Of Hollywood, Modernization And Radical Politics On Their Films And Friendship, Caroline Glenn

All Theses

During the late 1950's the French film industry's hard-won financial stability during the Occupation and liberation years had all but disappeared. Combined with the dwindling, unpredictable nature of French audiences, the multi-star, literary adaptation dramas French studios produced were no longer reliable. In response to these dilemmas a transformation took place in French cinema. Known as the nouvelle vague (or French New Wave), the movement was largely, but not completely, a reaction to France's declining film industry. The nation as a whole was undergoing significant change and growth during the 1950s. From the Algerian conflict, the Fourth Republic's collapse and …

The Ha-Ha Holocaust: Exploring Levity Amidst The Ruins And Beyond In Testimony, Literature And Film, Aviva Atlani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

ABSTRACT

Jewish humour sheds a crude light on the social, political, and historical realities of the Holocaust. Paradoxically, contentiously, doses of levity during this period were very much a reality, and even a psychological necessity. The purpose of my thesis is to explore the historical, social, and political ramifications of such laughter provoking manifestations. In doing so, the nuances are highlighted which are found within the laughter of the ghettos, the transit camps, and the concentration camps. Furthermore, some of these jokes, and their subsequent variations, reappear within the discourse of children of survivors. The dissertation explores how some of …

The Cable Network In An Era Of Digital Media: Bravo And The Constraints Of Consumer Citizenship, Alison D. Brzenchek

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation takes a historiographical approach to the evolution of cable television over thirty years. Case analysis of archival data is used to trace the trajectory of the Bravo cable network from 1980 through 2010. My dissertation is a vital contribution to critical cultural studies, feminist studies, citizenship studies, and media history because it historicizes the role branding, commodification, and convergence played in Bravo’s evolution from a highbrow arts programmer guided by bourgeois consumer citizenship, to a affluent lifestyle network guided by nouveau riche consumer citizenship. My combination of production studies and political economic analysis gives visibility to the interpenetrating …

The [Ftaires!] To Remembrance: Language, Memory, And Visual Rhetoric In Chaucer's House Of Fame And Danielewski's House Of Leaves, Shannon Danae Kilgore

Honors Program Theses

Geoffrey Chaucer's dream poem The House of Fame explores virtual technologies of memory and reading, which are similar to the themes explored in Danielewski's House of Leaves. "[ftaires!]", apart from referencing the anecdotal (and humorous) misspelling of "stairs" in House of Leaves, is one such linguistically and visually informed phenomenon that speaks directly to how we think about, and give remembrance to, our own digital and textual culture. This paper posits that graphic design, illustrations, and other textual cues (such as the [ftaires!] mispelling in House of Leaves] have a subtle yet powerful psychological influence on our reading and …

Evangelizing The ‘Gallery Of The Future’: A Critical Analysis Of The Google Art Project Narrative And Its Political, Cultural And Technological Stakes, Alanna Bayer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the digitization initiative Google Art Project and the ways in which the Project negotiates its place between rapidly developing Web technologies and the often-contradictory fine art tradition. Through the Project’s marketing and website design, Google constructs a narrative that emphasizes the democratization of culture, universal accessibility and a new progressive future for the art world while obscuring more complex political, social and cultural questions. Bringing together scholarship from various disciplines including library studies, digital studies, art history, and cultural studies this thesis highlights how the Project might open up a space to talk about art publics and …

The Adversity Pop Culture Has Posed, Darel Joseph

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I am a collage artist working with multiple mediums such as paint, photography, video, audio, and performance. As a New Orleans’ native, I have a unique history that is unflattering, for my history echoes that of America’s historical misdeeds. I make sociopolitical art because I am of a historically oppressed people. I make art that celebrates my diverse culture that is a collage of Native American, African, and New Orleans’ French Creole.

Covers Uncovered: A History Of The "Cover Version," From Bing Crosby To The Flaming Lips, Sean Dineley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis engages with the “cover version” as it has developed since the mid-1940s. This single term has survived across historical eras “so that it now indiscriminately designates any occasion of rerecording” (Coyle 2002, 134). This thesis views changing cover trends as aspects of broader cultural changes. In order to effectively illustrate the wide scope of practices to which this term has referred, the history of cover versions is separated into three broad periods: pre-rock, rock, and post-rock. This thesis explores the shifting attitudes toward, and motivations for, cover recording across these periods. It argues that it is more useful …

Revolution Or Reform: Contradictions Within The Ideology And Actions Of The Black Panther Party, 1969-1970, Jana Cary-Alvarez

Honors Program Theses

Surprisingly limited scholarship exists on the Black Panther Party, and much of that scholarship has an extremely divided view of the Party; either the Party is separatist or built alliances, either the Party is revolutionary or reformist. By studying the Black Panther newspaper in the year 1969, "The Year of the Panther," it becomes clear that the Party was all of these things. The party created alliances with a wide variety of groups while maintaining that they were a Black Power organization. It practiced revolutionary Communism while advocating reform of the American system. In short, the Black Panther Party was …

Wobblies In Washington: The Radicalism And Downfall Of The Iww In The Northwest, Zachary A. Smith

History Undergraduate Theses

This paper is an examination of the radical philosophy and propaganda of the Industrial Workers of The World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies, during the period of 1909-1919. in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on the State of Washington. In order to accomplish this, the paper examines several key Wobbly political cartoons, and explains the impact that their propaganda had on union organizing and labor movements in the Northwest. Additionally, The political atmosphere of the time period and the many clashes between the radical IWW and the mainstream American society of the time. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the way in …

Spartacus The Liberator: Modern Reception Of An Ancient Narrative, Charlotte Lehman

Honors Theses

Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator who led the rebels of the Third Servile War, is one of the most widely known figures of Ancient Rome. Despite the lack of ancient sources describing him, Spartacus has become popular in modern society. After being held as a slave in a gladiator training school, Spartacus inspired a revolt in which almost 100,000 slaves stood before several Roman legions and won. Before being subdued by the praetor Marcus Licinius Crassus, the escaped slaves won many battles against the powerful Roman army. Spartacus’ story has been adapted in novels, films, and even ballets. This thesis examines …

Comparing Hitler And Stalin: Certain Cultural Considerations, Phillip W. Weiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There is a great temptation to compare the Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. This is true for two reasons: first, the careers of both men converged at the same point in history, thus doubling the impact both made and second, because the names Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin have become metaphors for ideologies and crimes that today are reviled. The question then arises: who was worse, Hitler or Stalin? This project shows that there is no viable, credible, definitive, or final answer to this question, and that prevailing attitudes about Hitler and Stalin have become so ingrained in contemporary society …

How To Protect A Literary Character Through Copyright And Trademark, Annie Provenzano

Journalism

This paper is about finding the best practices in which to protect a literary character as an individual and help authors keep the rights to their characters when the characters are taken out of the original work. It focuses on the basic copyright and trademark laws, how they apply to a literary character, what is afforded to the character for protection, and the lack of protection by the courts. The research helps facilitate ideas and advice on how to better protect a literary character before and after the process of copyrighting or trademarking the work.

Hollywood’S Invention Of The Native American, And The Myth Of The Cowboy As A History, Kathleen Labbe

All Theses And Dissertations

A major institution in perpetuating beliefs of Native Americans as the “other” during the Twentieth Century was the Hollywood Western. This highly popular genre perpetuated the myth of Native Americans as the “other,” an animal like savage that could be saved only with the intervention and assimilation of White ideals and society. This paper focuses on the following questions. Firstly, why and how has the Native American been continuingly labeled, invented, and accepted as the other both in American academia and the cultural consciousness? Lastly, how has the myth of the good, white, rugged pioneer cowboy versus the savage Native …

Send In The Mouse: How American Politicians Used Walt Disney Productions To Safeguard The American Home Front In Wwii, Jordan M. Winters

History Undergraduate Theses

Despite the success of Disney’s first full length featured film Snow White in 1937[1], the animators’ strike of the late 1930s and the war in Europe cutting of international profits brought the Walt Disney Company was near bankruptcy by 1941. Walt Disney was faced with the possibility of closing down his studio. However, the entrance of the United States into WWII and the rising threat of the spread of Nazism became the saving grace to the Walt Disney Studio. This essay explores the collaborations between Disney, businessman and politician Nelson Rockefeller, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the …

The Evoluion Of Pacific War Cinema, Dylan J. Eldridge

History Undergraduate Theses

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th 1942, the United States became involved in World War II. Over the last seventy years film makers have attempted to chronicle the events of this war. As society changed and grew so did the interpretations of the Pacific War. Today we are left with four distinct eras of Pacific War cinema.

"Die Mauer Im Kopf": Aesthetic Resistance Against West-German Take-Over, Arwen Puteri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Even 24 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, modern day Germans are still preoccupied with the contentious dynamics of the post-Wall unification process. Concern with geo-political fractiousness is deeply rooted in German history and the reason for Germany's desire to become a unified nation. The Fall of the Wall, and the subsequent rejection of socialism, was a chance to recover and unify what was perceived to be an "incomplete" nation. Yet, despite these actions, social unity between East and West Germans has never occurred and the Wall still persists as a metaphorical barrier in the minds of German …

Pratfalls, Seduction And The Farce Of Marriage: How The Screwball Comedy Redefined American Preconceptions Of Traditional Feminine Morality, Fletcher Parrott Thornton Iv

History

No abstract provided.

"The Last Of The Great Bohemians": Film Poetry, Myth, And Sexuality In Greenwich Village And The Atlantic, 1930-1975, Thomas Winfield Hafer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In Greenwich Village, a final generation of bohemians contested the rise and trajectory of gay liberation. During the 1930s, this generation blended modernist poetry and sexuality to develop a new manifestation of bohemia. In the postwar period, they transformed modern poetry into the new artistic medium of film that was critical to shaping postwar American art and culture. This wave of bohemia was built on certain modernist principles, including a universalist understanding of sexuality and identity that was different from, and incompatible with, the growth of identity politics in the 1960s. This dissertation argues that this was a last gasp …

Nonfiction, Documentary And Family Narrative: An Intersection Of Representational Discourses And Creative Practices, Kristine T. Weatherston

Theses and Dissertations

Nonfiction, Documentary, and Family Narrative:
 An Intersection of Representational Discourses and Creative Practices explores the role of personal memory, family history, and inter-generational storytelling as the basis for making a nonfiction film. The film, American Boy, tells the story of my mother’s immigration to the United States after the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, opening a discussion of four generations of my family life in the context of historical events, exile, self re-invention, and identity formation. As a media producer and nonfiction author, I narrate my understanding of these events to my infant son, as a way of communicating …

Knowing And Being Known: Sexual Delinquency, Stardom, And Adolescent Girlhood In Midcentury American Film, Michael Todd Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations--English

Sexual delinquency marked midcentury cinematic representations of adolescent girls in 1940s, 50, and early 60s. Drawing from the history of adolescence and the context of midcentury female juvenile delinquency, I argue that studios and teen girl stars struggled for decades with publicity, censorship, and social expectations regarding the sexual license of teenage girls. Until the late 1950s, exploitation films and B movies exploited teen sex and pregnancy while mainstream Hollywood ignored those issues, struggling to promote teen girl stars by tightly controlling their private lives but depriving fan magazines of the gossip and scandals that normally fueled the machinery of …

'I Get A Kick Out Of You': Cinematic Revisions Of The History Of The African American Cowboy In The American West, Stephanie Anne Maguire

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

"You'll Have To Take It: Urban Vigilantism And American Film, 1967-1985", Joseph E. Roskos

Masters Theses

My thesis shows how vigilantism as expressed through the politics of race interacted from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, serving to support a culture of backlash that drew from the public’s mistrust of government institutions and authorities, and its reactions to crime, class conflict, and racial tensions. Vigilante films served as the battleground where class conflicts were played out; violent backlash was realized; historical wars were refought; cultures and principles clashed; and people cleansed their communities of crime and illegal drug-use. The culture of backlash as portrayed in vigilante films as well as historical events showed how their relationship …

Edward Steichen And Hollywood Glamour, Alisa Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

As a word, glamour is hard to define, but is instantly recognizable. Its association with Hollywood movie stars fully emerged in the 1930s in the close-up celebrity portraits by photographers like George Hurrell. The aesthetic properties in these images that help create glamour are characterized by the Modernist style, known for sharp focus, high contrast, seductive poses, and the close-up (tight framing). My essay will explore the origins of the visual aesthetics of glamour, arguing that their roots can be found in the still life photographs of the 1910s, produced by fine art photographers such as Edward Steichen. This essay …