91 research outputs found
Japonisme and gender in the works of Alfred Stevens and William Merritt Chase
No full textJaponisme, a term coined by French critic Phillippe Burty in 1878, describes the Western fascination with Japanese art and culture manifested in the visual and decorative arts, architecture, music, literature, fashion, and graphic design. This thesis examines paintings of women by European artist Alfred Stevens and his friend American painter William Merritt Chase to determine what their representations of japonisme reveal about transatlantic conceptions of female gender and sexuality. I offer a comparative analysis of cultural and artistic norms in Europe and the United States by exploring ephemeral and malleable notions of ideal femininity, whose associations with japonisme include nature, fantasy, and objecthood. In a period characterized by the rise of imperialism, the increased systematic study of ethnography and physiognomy, and the frequency of World’s Fairs, Stevens and Chase maintained eclectic studio collections and rendered them in their paintings. Their pictures-within-pictures in the background of these studio scenes are a tool to assert their artistic alignments, for example, Chase’s inclusion of Stevens’s 1880 La Bête à Bon Dieu in the background of his 1892 In the Studio, Mrs. Chase. In Chase’s borrowing of Stevens’s Parisienne ideal, white, middle-class type, Chase transcribes his own realist tendencies in his images of Japanese-clad Western women. William Merritt Chase takes Alfred Stevens’s essentialized feminine forms clothed in associations of japonisme and transfers them to his uniquely American context, while retaining many of his constructions of femininity
The television work of Alfred Hitchcock
No full textThe thesis uses close textual analysis to study and evaluate the television work of Alfred Hitchcock. The corpus consists of the twenty shows personally directed by Hitchcock, including his appearances before and after those shows. In response to most previous writing, which tends to compare the programmes with Hitchcock’s films (often unfairly) the thesis emphasises them as products of television. Programmes are evaluated on the basis of their perceived success as television- if they harness conditions related to television production and integrate them with narrative themes or to create meaning. Hitchcock is considered to be the major creative force in each programme.
Chapter One provides a variety of important contexts including a brief history of US television of the 1950s, key literature on Hitchcock and analyses of contemporaneous programmes not directed by Hitchcock. The textual analysis chapters (2-8) consider aesthetic or thematic programme aspects. Chapter Two studies the various roles played by Hitchcock’s appearances as series host. Chapter Three considers the impact of censorship on programmes frequently dealing with murder, violence and insanity. Chapter Four analyses Hitchcock’s implementation of varieties of voice-over narration, a common device in short dramatic forms. Chapter Five studies Hitchcock’s use of point-of-view shots, particularly in relation to their role in the delivery of the narrative twist. Chapter Six considers the key Hitchcock theme of detachment from the world. Chapter Seven looks at moments from the programmes which demonstrate how aesthetic is influenced by television production conditions.
Hitchcock created a number of television masterpieces. His achievements in television are in many ways comparable in quality and consistency to his theatrical films. Even when considered in the context of other 1950s US anthology dramas, the Hitchcock-directed programmes are superior on many levels. Elements of his film style were highly suited to television production. Many of his greatest achievements embrace and harness television production conditions in their presentation strategies to create an integration of style and meaning
Peptide-Grafted Nontoxic Cyclodextrins and Nanoparticles against Bacteriophage Infections
No full textOne of the biggest threats for bacteria-based bioreactors in the biotechnology industry is infections caused by bacterial viruses called bacteriophages. More than 70% of companies admitted to encountering this problem. Despite phage infections being such a dangerous and widespread risk, to date, there are no effectiv e methods to avoid them. Here we present a peptide-grafted compounds that irreversibly deacti-vate bacteriophages and remain safe for bacteria and mammalian cells. The active compounds consist of a core (cyclodextrin or gold nanoparticle) coated with a hydrophobic chain terminated with a peptide selective for bacteriophages. Such peptides were selected via a phage display technique. This approach enables irreversible deactivation of the wide range of T-like phages (including the most dangerous in phage infections, phage T1) at 37 degrees C in 1 h. We show that our compounds can be used directly inside the environment of the bioreactor, but they are also a safe additive to stocks of antibiotics and expression inducers (such as isopropyl beta-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside, i.e., IPTG) that cannot be autoclaved and are a common source of phage infections.SUNMI
The Philosophic Background to Wallace Stevens' Early Poetry
No full text104 p.The author cites three main sources of influence: the theory of fictions Stevens appropriated from Santayana and from Vaihinger; the relational aesthetics of John Dewey and William James, which served as a link between the poet's aims and the various general aesthetic advances made by the early modern painters; and the cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead, which underlay his "naturalistic system," his formulations for the relations of soul and body, man and world, and the numerous expressions for what he considered the "valid purpose” of poetry to be, to give a sense of the freshness or vividness of life
Citizenship-in-Question: Evidentiary Encounters with Blood, Birthright, and Bureaucracy
No full textAlfred Babo is a contributing author, “Ivoirité and Citizenship in Ivory Coast: The Controversial Policy of Ivorian Authenticité, p.200-216
BOOK DESCRIPTION Citizenship is often assumed to be a clear cut issue—either one has it—or one does not. However, as the contributors to Citizenship in Question demonstrate, citizenship is not self-evident; it emerges from often obscure written records and is interpreted through ambiguous and dynamic laws. In case studies that analyze the legal barriers to citizenship rights in over twenty countries, the contributors explore how states use evidentiary requirements to create and police citizenship, often based on fictions of racial, ethnic, class, and religious differences. Whether examining the United States’ deportation of its own citizens, the selective use of DNA tests and secret results in Thailand, or laws that have stripped entire populations of citizenship, the contributors emphasize the political, psychological, and personal impact of citizenship policies. Citizenship in Question incites scholars to revisit long-standing political theories and debates about nationality, free movement, and immigration premised on the assumption of clear demarcations between citizens and noncitizens
Self-assembly of protein-polymer conjugates for drug delivery
No full textProtein-polymer conjugates are a class of molecules that combine the stability of polymers with the diversity, specificity, and functionality of biomolecules. These bioconjugates can result in hybrid materials that display properties not found in their individual components and can be particularly relevant for drug delivery applications. Engineering amphiphilicity into these bioconjugate materials can lead to phase separation and the assembly of high-order structures. The assembly, termed self-assembly, of these hierarchical structures entails multiple levels of organization: at each level, new properties emerge, which are, in turn, influenced by lower levels. Here, we provide a critical review of protein-polymer conjugate self-assembly and how these materials can be used for therapeutic applications and drug delivery. In addition, we discuss central bioconjugate design questions and propose future perspectives for the field of protein-polymer conjugate self-assembly.LPThis is an Open Access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Cello techniques and performing practices in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
No full textThis thesis comprises a study of cello performance practices throughout the nineteenth century and into the early decades of the twentieth. It is organised in terms of the increasing complexity of the concepts which it examines, as they are to be found in printed and manuscript music, instrumental methods and larger treatises, early recordings, concert reviews and pictures. Basic posture is considered along with different ways of holding the
bow. The development of the tail-pin shows that even when it was widely used, the older posture was still referred to as a model. Some implications for tone quality and tonal
projection are considered in the light of the shape of the arms. Some connections between the cellist's posture and that recommended by etiquette books are explored. The
functionality of the left hand and arm, and the development of modem scale fingerings, show that there was a considerable period of overlap between newer and older practices, with modern scale fingerings evolving over a long period of time. Similarly, views on the function of the right wrist in bowing are shown to change gradually, moving towards a more active upper arm movement with less extreme flexibility of the wrist. Two central expressive techniques especially associated with string playing arc considered in the context of the cello, namely vibrato and portamento. These topics are examined in the light of written indications in music, recommendations in cello treatises, and the practices evidenced in early recordings. The sources for this study can be brought into an overall
framework of a constant dialogue between `theory', as expressed in verbal instructions to the learner, or general a priori reflections about the cello, and `practice', manifested in performing editions and early recordings, or in individual acts of reception. A wide divergence is noted, both between theory and practice in general, and in terms of different styles of playing observable at any one time. It is suggested that tensions between practice
and critical disapproval can be resolved in terms of Lacanian discourse. Several test cases are used in order to compare several different recordings of the same works. The question of the musical character of the cello is discussed in terms of widespread assumptions about its gendered identity. A wide range of sources suggest that this moved from a straightforwardly `masculine' identity expressed through a controlling, elevated eloquence to a less clearly defined one, incorporating the 'feminine', with a greater stress on uninhibited emotional expression. Some performance implications for this change of view are pursued with respect to specific repertoires. Broad conclusions stress the importance of the diversity of performance practices as opposed to unifying generalisations
Adomo's physiognomical image of Mahler: the convergence of music, painting, and language
No full textThis study makes a case for the manifestation of mannerism in the music of Mahler through a close reading of Adomo's monograph on the composer, concurrently supporting the theory that mannerism is a distinct style, not limited to fixed periods, conditions in art, or media. The label 'Mannerism' connotes the style of sixteenth century Italian fine art, circumscribed by various art historians in the twentieth century. This study argues that the style is evident beyond the constraints of the sixteenth century, through the investigation of its manifestations in different artworks, created both in earlier and more contemporary times. The argument is constructed from a detailed comparison of the characteristics of the style in the paintings of sixteenth century Italian artists Arcimboldo and Parmigianino, the early twentieth century music by Schoenberg and Mahler, and Virginia Woolfs last novel. The comparison is facilitated by the utilisation of Barthes's writings on Arcimboldo, John Ashbery's poem about one of Parmigianino's paintings, and, predominantly, Adomo's interpretation of Mahler. The study also addresses issues that concern a comparison between different media, such as the problematical nature of the convergence of the arts. For example, the comparison of linguistic elements in both Arcimboldo's and Mahler's artworks is difficult to conduct without implying that art or music become language; the notion of a painterly language, or a musical language is complex and ambiguous. The study deals with the issue of whether one medium has to be fundamentally similar to another, in order to identify common characteristics between the two. In accordance with Adorno's writings on this paradigm, the conclusion drawn supports the position that the style of mannerism can be identified as manifesting itself in different mediums, without the necessity to scrutinise the fundamental connection between music, painting and literary forms
The modernist angel: Art at the Limits of the Human in D. H. Lawrence, H. D. and Mina Loy
No full textPhDThe subject of this thesis is a figure that might provisionally be called the *modemist
angel'. Focusing on modernist literature, and more particularly on the work of D. H.
Lawrence, H. D. and Mina Loy, it aims to isolate from the many angels found in all periods
and all types of art a historically specific and intellectually coherent paradigm: an angel of
and for its modernist times. A figure of precisely this type could be said to exist in the
form of Walter Benjamin's 'angel of history'. Critics who address the question of the
modern angel in texts by Franz Kafka and Rainer Maria Rilke often do so in conjunction
with the problem posed by the angel of history. Beginning with a chapter on Benjamin,
this thesis nevertheless follows a different trajectory. Over five chapters, it explores a
modernist landscape formed not only by Lawrence, H. D. and Loy, but also by European
and American writers such as A. R. Orage, Allen Upward, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens,
Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. Although the
angel that emerges from this investigation might, in some respects, be said to anticipate
Benjamin's later version, this figure is also very different, standing for a project that is
distinctively, and recognisably, modernist in nature. He/she (the sex of the modernist
angel is often open to question) represents an attempt to reconcile the divine
responsibilities of the artist with the material and gendered conditions of being,
specifically of being human, in the modem world. This thesis looks again at the clash of
intellectual paradigms in the early-twentieth century - notably, the confrontation of the
Romantic view of art as a superhuman or sacred undertaking with the psychoanalytical or
evolutionary idea that all human endeavour is underpinned by sub-human motives - and
suggests the angel as a new and instructive figure through which to think the perilous
limits between the human and the divine in modernist literature
Geomorphology of the middle Mississippi River
No full textDBS-SAS-MAS 9.Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-80).Prepared for U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, Mississippi under Contract No. DACW39-73-C- 0026 by Engineering Research Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.January 1974.Sponsored by U.S. Army Engineer District, St. Louis
- …
