153 research outputs found

    "Disney is the Tiffany’s and I am the Woolworth's of the business": A critical re-analysis of the business philosophies, production values and studio practices of animator-producer Paul Houlton Terry

    No full text
    This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Animator-producer Paul Houlton Terry has been portrayed as having little passion for the animation he produced and being more concerned with making a profit than producing entertaining cartoons with high production values. The purpose of the dissertation is to re-evaluate Terry‘s legacy to animated cartooning by analyzing his business philosophies, production values, and studio practices. Application of four psychodynamic factors to the early life and career of Terry, 1887-1929, found that his economic decision making was characterized by: an external locus of control, risk-averse financial behaviour, extreme saving behaviour through precaution, and shrewd money management practices. Based on Terry‘s historical responses to twelve major economic, technological, or institutional forces of change for the period 1929-1955, the psychodynamic factors were found to provide accurate explanations for his studio practices and production decisions. There was no evidence to support the conclusion that three early career disappointments undermined Terry‘s intrinsic motivation to create animated cartoons. Rather, Terry‘s lack of risk taking, external locus of control, tight studio production schedule, desire to compete with neighbour studio Fleischer, difficulty in separating financial rewards from creative processes in animation, and practice of undertaking surveillance measures on staff may have undermined his and his studio‘s creativity. Archival research found Terry to possess strong passions for and to have made significant creative contributions to the field of animation. Biographical research found that Terry retained a stable nucleus of highly talented artists who dedicated a significant portion of their working careers to the studio. An analysis of the cel aesthetics of a random sample of animated cartoons produced during the years 1930-1955 found that Terry created animated cartoons with above average cel aesthetics when compared to the other studios thereby supporting an inference that Terry was motivated to producing quality crafted animation. Further research is suggested into the role psychodynamic factors and economic decision-making play in the film production process and a clarification of Terry‘s legacy to the field of animated cartoons

    The influence of African sculpture on British art, 1910-1930

    No full text
    This thesis aims to discuss the influence of African wood sculpture on British art from 1910 to 1930. It proposes that the works, tastes and pronouncements of various 20th century British artists betray this influence and that although the British artists did not initially understand the conceptual foundations of African sculpture their limited knowledge was just sufficient for the modernization of British art through the adaptation of the formal qualities of African art. In assessing the validity of these propositions the thesis examines the factors and issues that facilitated the influence. Chapter 1 discusses the formal qualities of African wood sculpture that attracted the British artists. It outlines the unusual figural proportions, the free and direct use of planar, linear and solid geometry, the treatment of material and its surfaces. The conceptual foundations of African sculpture are generally outlined in Chapter 2. The extent to which the British artists understood these foundations is also discussed. Chapter 3 concerns the introduction of African sculpture to Britain and discusses the development of the anthropological and subsequent aesthetic interest that it aroused. Both the Post-Impressionist Exhibitions and the Omega Workshops which facilitated its influence are examined. Chapter 4 examines the concept and attempts to categorize the nature of this influence. The last three chapters act as case studies in which the impact of African sculpture on Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Henry Moore is examined. The conclusion discusses the term 'Primitive' and the British artists and the 'Primitive

    Gender and the politics of the gaze in Bronte's Wuthering Heights

    Get PDF
    Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2009.O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar uma análise de como a imagem de Catherine é moldada pelo olhar masculino, como ela enfrenta os três tipos de olhar - o olhar dos personagens, o olhar do leitor, e o olhar do autor - e finalmente, se o olhar masculino é interrompido. O parâmetro teórico desta análise, o conceito do olhar masculino, é teorizado por Laura Mulvey no artigo "Prazer Visual e Cinema Narrativo" (1975) o qual critica a relação entre o olhar masculino e a imagem feminina do prazer visual moldado pela sociedade patriarcal. Através da crítica de Mulvey do prazer visual generizado em filmes, que pertence ao contexto do cinema clássico de Hollywood, articulo sua teoria em relação ao romance Wuthering Heights de Emily Brontë para examinar a dinâmica do olhar masculino em relação à personagem feminina Catherine. Este estudo teve também por objetivo analisar o quanto o paradigma teórico de Mulvey produzido para cinema poderia ser aplicado especificamente em um texto literário escrito no século XIX.The objective of this thesis is to present an analysis of whether Catherine's image has been shaped by the male gaze, how she contends with the three looks of the male gaze - the look of the characters, the look of the reader, and the look of the author - and finally, how the male gaze is broken. The theoretical parameter of this analysis, the concept of the male gaze, is theorized by Laura Mulvey in the article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1975) which critiques the relation between the male gaze and the female image within the patriarchal molding of visual pleasure. Borrowing Mulvey's critique of the gendering of visual pleasure in films, which pertains to the context of classical Hollywood cinema, I have articulated her theory in relation to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, to examine the dynamics of the male gaze regarding the female character, Catherine. This study also aimed at examing the extent to which Mulvey's theoretical paradigm produced for cinema could be articulated specifically in relation to a literary text written in the nineteenth century

    Nikolai Evreinov and Edith Craig as Mediums of Modernist Sensibility

    Get PDF
    Nikolai Evreinov (1870-1953) was a Russian playwright, director, and theorist of the theatre who played a leading part in the modernist movement of Russian theatre. Evreinov's 1911 monodrama The Theatre of the Soul (V kulisakh dushi) was staged by the Crooked Mirror theatre in St Petersburg in 1912. It was also performed in London (1915) and Rome (1929), and inspired Man Ray to create his aerograph The Theatre of the Soul (1917). In this article Alexandra Smith links Evreinov's play to Russian modernist thought shaped by the atmosphere of crisis associated with the Russo-Japanese War and the first Russian Revolution. It demonstrates that Edith Craig's production of Evreinov's play suggests that the philosophy of theatricalization of everyday life might enable modern subjects to overcome the fragmentation of modern society. Craig's use of the montage-like techniques of Evreinov's play prefigures cinematographic experiments of the 1920s and Marinetti's notion of synthetic theatre. Alexandra Smith is a Reader in Russian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is the author of The Song of the Mockingbird: Pushkin in the Works of Marina Tsvetaeva (1994) and Montaging Pushkin: Pushkin and Visions of Modernity in Russian Twentieth-Century Poetry (2006), as well as numerous articles on Russian literature and culture.</p

    Tetraria triangularis (Boeck.) C.B. Clarke and the Cape fold archipelago : an analysis of genetic and morphological variation in a high-altitude species native to the moutains of the Cape floristic region

    No full text
    Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-127).The Cape Floristic Region (CPR) is renowned for its high plant species richness and high floristic endemism (Marloth 1929, Takahatjan, 1986, Goldblatt and Manning 2000, Linder 2003). A small number of clades (33) account for 50% of the species diversity, indicating that much of the diversification has occurred in situ, rendering it reminiscent of island archipelago radiations (Marloth 1929, Linder 2003). At a higher taxonomic level, 16.2 % of genera and four families are endemic to the area (Goldblatt et al. 2005

    Reputations made and lost: the writing of histories of early twentieth-century British photography and the case of Walter Benington

    No full text
    Walter Benington (1872-1936) was a major British photographer, a member of the Linked Ring and a colleague of international figures such as F H Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen and Alvin Langdon Coburn. He was also a noted portrait photographer whose sitters included Albert Einstein, Dame Ellen Terry, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and many others. He is, however, rarely noted in current histories of photography. Beaumont Newhall’s 1937 exhibition Photography 1839-1937 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is regarded by many respected critics as one of the foundation-stones of the writing of the history of photography. To establish photography as modern art, Newhall believed it was necessary to create a direct link between the master-works of the earliest photographers and the photographic work of his modernist contemporaries in the USA. He argued that any work which demonstrated intervention by the photographer such as the use of soft-focus lenses was a deviation from the direct path of photographic progress and must therefore be eliminated from the history of photography. A consequence of this was that he rejected much British photography as being “unphotographic” and dangerously irrelevant. Newhall’s writings inspired many other historians and have helped to perpetuate the neglect of an important period of British photography. As a result, the work of key photographers such as Walter Benington is now virtually unknown. Benington’s central involvement with the Linked Ring and his national and international exhibition successes demonstrate his significance within post-1890 British photography. Recent moves in the writing of histories of photography have called for the exploration of previously unknown archives and collections. A detailed examination of a cross-section of Benington’s work will illustrate that he was a photographer of great distinction and marked individuality fully worthy of a major reappraisal

    The development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England 1834-1939

    No full text
    This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As indicated by the title the purpose of the thesis is to trace the development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England between 1834 and 1939. No attempt is made to deal with assistance whether from statutory or voluntary sources for war blinded or deafened persons. In the first chapter a survey is made of the position of the blind or deaf under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and succeeding Poor Law legislation up to 1919. Chapter two deals with the enquiry into the condition of the blind carried out in 1874-75 by the Charity Organisation Society and the much more comprehensive survey of the state of the blind or deaf made between 1884 and 1888 by the Royal Commission on the Blind, Deaf and Dumb which reported in 1889. The latter enquiry resulted in the passing of the Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of 1893 and also provided the essential data on which state action for the two disabilities could be based. The third chapter gives an account of the campaign to secure legislation for the blind which culminated in the Blind Persons Act of 1920. How the Blind Persons Act was implemented at the local level and the effect on blind welfare of the work of the Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind and the passing of the Local Government Act of 1929, is the concern of chapter four. Chapter five describes the events leading up to the enactment of legislation relating to the issue of free dog licences in respect of guide dogs for the blind, concessionary postal rates, reduced fees in respect of wireless receiving licences, and the Blind Voters Act of 1933. In Chapter six the story of the campaign for legislation for the blind is continued up to the passing of the Blind Persons Act of 1938. The penultimate chapter relates the attempts made to secure legislation provision for the deaf in the form of a Deaf Persons Act broadly similar in scope to the Acts on behalf of the blind. The thesis concludes with a consideration of certain conclusions drawn from the subject matter presented in the preceding chapters

    Heartsill Ragon papers, 1919-1943

    No full text
    This collection contains the papers, chiefly correspondence, of Hiram Heartsill Ragon, U.S. district judge for the Western District of Arkansas from 1933 to 1940.; Series I: Judicial Papers. This series contains papers related to Ragon's official duties as district judge. The correspondence relates to court operations and personnel as well as requests for leniency, pardons, parole, and jury duty exemption. Other correspondence relates to such topics as construction of the Fort Smith federal building and court positions over which Ragon had direct power of appointment. This series also contains court documents arising from the S. R. Morgan bankruptcy case,; Series II: Political Papers. This series contains papers related to Ragon's political activities. Most of the correspondence relates to government positions over which Ragon had no direct power of appointment. Other correspondence relates to the Arkansas Democratic Party and national politics. The series also includes a collection of speeches delivered by Homer Adkins during his gubernatorial campaign and some assorted political materials (including materials from Ragon's congressional campaign).; Series III: Personal Papers. The correspondence in this series includes invitations and speech requests from various groups; requests for personal favors and loans; letters from family and friends; and correspondence related to Ragon's business affairs, including his rental properties and his interest in the Diamond Cave Corporation. The series also contains a collection of tributes and memorials that were issued upon Ragon's death, personal financial records, information on the Fort Smith Boys Club, and a 1938 Arkansas Education Association tour of Mexico. A booklet detailing the Ragon family's genealogy completes the series.; The collection includes correspondence from a number of prominent politicians, such as Homer Adkins, Carl E. Bailey, Hattie W. Caraway, Ben Cravens, Fadjo Cravens, J. William Fulbright, John E. Martineau, Joe T. Robinson, Tom J. Terral, Wallace Townsend, Claude A. Fuller, J. M. Futrell, David D. Terry and others.; UALR holds the papers of several people whose correspondence appears in this collection. See the Carl E. Bailey Papers (UALR.MS.0005 and UALR.MS.0072); Bailey Family Papers (UALR.MS.0073); Cravens Family Papers (UALR.MS.0027); W.H. Dunblazier Papers (UALR.MS.0042); Ira D. Oglesby, Jr., Papers (UALR.MS.0125); Wallace Townsend Papers (UALR.MS.0009); Fletcher-Terry Family Papers (UALR.MS.0013); Harvey Couch Papers (UALR.MS.0128); John Merrick Moore Papers (UALR.MS.0024); and Joseph S. Utley Records (UALR.MS.0059).Heartsill Ragon papers, 1919-194

    Raymond Williams and the limits of cultural materialism

    Get PDF
    Cultural materialism has become an influential discipline in recent years, particularly so in 'Renaissance' studies, but also more generally in 'English', as well as departments defined as practising 'cultural' or 'communications' studies. The phrase is usually linked with the name of Raymond Williams, but a cursory examination of Williams's own work quickly establishes that it is a phrase he rarely uses, and only schematically attempts to define. The thesis therefore takes the form of an investigation into the way cultural materialism has come to be understood, by examining in detail the trajectory of Raymond Williams's theoretical development, and how his own engagement with various theoretical positions has helped to set 'limits' on the meaning of cultural materialism. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with some of Williams's earliest work, particularly Reading and Criticism, as a way of investigating how reasonable it is to tag him as a 'Left-Leavisite', arguing that Leavis's undoubted influence is resisted (though not entirely rejected) from a very early stage. The first chapter considers in detail Leavis's work at Cambridge, the influence of Eliot, and the significance of the 'Organic Community'. Chapter 2, which is based around a comparative analysis of Williams's and Leavis's readings of Dickens, argues that Williams rejects the 'organic community' in favour of his 'knowable community'. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with specific 'theoretical' issues: the first, based around a reading of Terry Eagleton's critique of Williams's use of the Marxist metaphor of 'base and superstructure', shows some of the problems which arise from Williams's cultural model, as well as suggesting refinements; the second deals with the influence of Volosinov's theories on Williams. Chapter 6 comes out of Williams's readings of the 'Country-House' poems in The Country and the City, showing how his practice of literary criticism relies on an acceptance of 'ideology' apparently denied in his more 'theoretical' writings. This analysis is extended as a result of investigations into the 'De L'Isle' manuscripts relating to the Penshurst estate. Chapter 7 argues that it is possible to see the work of Fredric Jameson as developing Williams's cultural materialism into Jameson's debates on postmodernism. In the Introduction and Conclusion, I have taken the opportunity to look briefly at the activity of cultural materialism as it has developed since Raymond Williams's death in 1988. The Introduction emphasizes what I see to be important methodological differences between 'cultural materialism' and 'new historicism'; the Conclusion deals with the continuing debate over the value of a cultural materialist approach by considering the 'appropriation' of Shakespeare
    corecore