Browsing by Subject "Iconography"
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Item Abu Ghraib and torture porn cinema : how the Saw, Hostel, and I Spit on Your Grave series manifested social fears of torture following the release of the Abu Ghraib photographs(2015-05) Rico, Andrew Ryan; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Bock, Mary AThis qualitative study examines how the 'torture porn' film franchises Saw (2004-2010), Hostel (2006, 2007), and I Spit on Your Grave (2010, 2013) manifested societal fears of torture following the release of the Abu Ghraib photographs in April of 2004. These photos depicted U.S. soldiers torturing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners and served as a flashpoint within a larger narrative on torture, morality, and the War on Terror. This study is divided into two main chapters: a textual analysis and a paratextual analysis. The textual analysis chapter examines the major thematic connections between the three torture porn series and the issues surrounding Abu Ghraib, and is supported by a study of the stylistic choices of each movie and how these choices supported key themes from Abu Ghraib by challenging viewers' identification with characters. The second chapter examines Abu Ghraib iconography present in torture porn to consider how symbolic imagery such as the Hooded Man photo manifested larger social issues of torture, as well as how this iconography permeated the public sphere via graphic movie posters and suggestive trailers that encouraged Western viewers to address the threat of torture at a paratextual level. Previous research has examined how the horror genre adapted to a post-9/11 society, though far fewer studies have directly connected these movies to the events at Abu Ghraib. This study contributes to existing literature by combining the two research methods to consider how the Saw, Hostel, and I Spit on Your Grave torture porn series not only continued the horror genre's tradition of tapping into social anxieties, but also how these movies pushed this relationship into a more direct place by exploiting fears of torture following Abu Ghraib.Item A city of laughter: assessing Tarentine comedy from the fourth century to the Roman stage(2009-05) Maclellan, Jonathan; Hubbard, Thomas K.; Moore, Timothy J.Following the publication of Trendall’s Phlyax Vases, the history of comedic theatre in Magna Graecia received a great amount of scholarly attention, culminating in such important works as Taplin’s Comic Angels, Green’s Theatre in Ancient Greek Society and most recently Bosher’s dissertation, Theater on the Periphery. This work is, in many ways, a supplement to their collective research, and assesses the literary and material evidence for the development of comedy in the Apulian city of Tarentum. The analysis of textual evidence will begin by investigating Tarentine interactions with Attic theatre in the beginning of the fourth century and leading to the influence of its comic tradition on the early stages of Republican Rome through the works of Rhinthon and Livius Andronicus. An assessment of the Roman historiographical treatment of Greek theatrical influence and the vibrant Bacchic cult practices observed in the festivals of Tarentum will round out discussion of literary and textual evidence A general overview of fourth century comedic iconography production will begin the section on material culture. In this context, some notable individual pieces adduced by Taplin and Green will be addressed before other iconographpic material from Tarentine coinage and other sources will be presented. The conclusion from this body of evidence affirms a vibrant and independent tradition of comedic theatre in Tarentum that was at once amalgamative through its interactions with the festivals of the Hellenistic period and conceptually autochthonic for the Tarentines themselves.Item Cupisnique culture : the development of ideology in the ancient Andes(2010-05) Jones, Kimberly L., 1979-; Bourget, Steve, 1956-; Stuart, David; Leoshko, Janice; Papalexandrou, Athanasio; Knapp, Gregory; Burger, Richard L.Cupisnique culture was first identified by Rafael Larco Hoyle in the 1930s through his encounter with an early ceramic style in the Cupisnique Quebrada on the north coast of Peru. Since that time, the ceramic styles, region and time period to which the term ‘Cupisnique’ pertains have remained loosely defined, associated with northern Peru and the Middle Formative Period (1200-900 BCE). The interpretation of Cupisnique culture has further relied on research at the highland site of Chavín de Huántar and a presumed Chavín style horizon. Cupisnique visual materials, however, provide a rich corpus from which to advance analysis of this cultural tradition. In this dissertation, I group the chapters into two parts – background information and substantive material analyses. In Part I, I begin with a concise history of Cupisnique studies, which review permits to establish the objectives and methodology of the investigation. The latter includes archaeological and visual approaches to Cupisnique culture, as well as the geographic, environmental and ecological conditions pertinent to northern Peru. In Part II, I present the results of archaeological fieldwork at the Cumbemayo Canal, near the city of Cajamarca, Peru. Based on the field research, I examine the impact of coastal Cupisnique culture into this north highland region, and I discuss the symbolic role of monumental water management and the creation of a ritualized landscape. The intricate design of the Cumbemayo Canal segues conceptually to the exploration of a larger visual system. Based on a defined corpus of ‘Classic’ Cupisnique stirrup spout bottles, I venture a comprehensive examination of prominent themes, motifs and scenes in Cupisnique iconography. I argue that the latter comprises a reticular visual program that serves to instantiate a complex and developing ideological system. Given the common visual motifs, the tenets of this ideology consist in concepts of capture, sacrifice and fertility, interwoven through a structure of symbolic dualities. In the conclusion, I demonstrate how this proposed Cupisnique ideology conceptually fits with the development of social complexity in northern Peru through and following the Formative Period in the Andes.Item The iconography of Moche winged figures(2010-08) Earle, Wendy Rose; Bourget, Steve, 1956-; Guernsey, JuliaThe Moche fineline painting corpus contains hundreds of representations of winged figures, but these have never been analyzed as a group. This thesis is an investigation of these winged figures, focusing on iconographic methodology. I have identified and categorized representations of birds (ducks, the Falconidae family, owls,hummingbirds, vultures and condors, etc.), mammals (bats) and insects (dragonflies) in the fineline paintings. Special attention has been paid to genus and family, including the attributes and behaviors of these animals. This has yielded several important observations about how the Moche represented and linked winged figures. In the second part of this thesis I use semiotic analysis to consider winged figures as symbols rather than naturalistic representations. I also examine anthropomorphic winged figures, and analyze the interpretive possibilities and the implications of these interpretations.Item Malinalco : an expression of Mexica political and religious dominance in a subject territory(2012-05) King, Virginia Walker; Stuart, David, 1965-; Diel, Lori Boornazian, 1970-Near the edge of the Aztec empire, about sixty-eight miles from Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, the temple complex Malinalco (built 1501 -- ca. 1519) comprises a tiny portion of an eponymous town and has the only known monolithic temple in Mesoamerica. The Mexica tlatoani Ahuitzotl (r. 1486-1502) commissioned the complex in 1501, and his successor Moctezuma II (r. 1502-1520) renewed the work order at least once. The site remained unfinished after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521. The remarkable preservation of Structure I offers a unique view of a Mexica temple interior, and the eagle and jaguar seats carved within that temple led to the traditional interpretation of the site as a haven for eagle and jaguar warriors. In contrast, I contend that Malinalco's ceremonial center was a Mexica space for politico-religious rituals likely performed by the tlatoani or his proxies. My analysis of Malinalco's pre-Mexica history (Chapter 2) examines the mythical history of the Malinalca and their possible dual Mexica-Toltec heritage. Malinalco's now-lost mural of Toltec warriors situates the site within the larger corpus of Tula-inspired procession scenes, and links it iconographically to Tenochtitlan monuments that legitimated imperial power. Through a close analysis of early colonial texts and pictographic sources, I show that the eagle and jaguar seats in Structure I were not used by warriors, but rather were the purview of the tlatoque. An analysis of Malinalco's sacred landscape features demonstrates that the Mexica did not simply build a temple complex in the sacred space of a subject territory, but rather transformed the shape of a sacred mountain in declaration of a god-like imperial power. Finally, Malinalco's famous upright drum, often cited as proof that the site was for warriors, actually shows eagle and jaguar warriors weeping as they sing a war song, perhaps alluding to the martial sacrifices of the empire as it fought to preserve and expand its boundaries. I conclude that the Mexica designed Malinalco as a space for the performance of politico-religious regime-legitimating rituals, permanently declaring their dominance in their empire's hinterland.Item Religious hybridity in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters and Ana Castillo's So far from God(2011-05) Nevárez, Arturo; Lee, Julia H.; Gonzalez, John M.This master’s report presents an examination of hybridic religious practices, ritual and iconography as depicted in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters and Ana Castillo's So far from God. In particular, it treats the role of religious hybridity--the imbrication of folkloric, indigenous and secular traditions with orthodox Catholicism--as an important source of cultural, political and social resistance within postcolonial Chicana/o and Filipino communities that are still dealing with, or attempting to escape their colonial pasts.Item The Borobudur Vessels in Context(2014-07-28) Inglis, Douglas AndrewEleven boats are depicted in the bas-reliefs that cover the walls of Borobudur, a ninth century C.E. Buddhist monument located in central Java. These vessels are an important source of information about the complexities of classical Indonesian shipbuilding, and contain data about rigging elements, rope use, fastening, rowing configurations, and outrigger construction. They represent critical evidence of physical structures that have not survived in the archaeological record. Scholars such as Hornell, Mookerji, Needham, Horridge, Manguin, Ray, and others have used the reliefs to improve our understanding of maritime trade, seafaring, and ship construction in ancient Southeast Asia. While the technical merits of the Borobudur Ships have been thoroughly discussed, a great deal of cultural data has been overlooked. The objective of this thesis is to place the Borobudur Vessels in their proper religious, artistic, and narrative context. It addresses three central questions: 1.) What can the Buddhist narratives tell us about the seafaring scenes depicted at Borobudur? 2.) How did the artistic framework influence the representation of the vessels in the reliefs? 3.) What do Borobudur?s reliefs tell us about contemporaneous seafaring in the region? This study will demonstrate that the narrative and religious context of the Borobudur Vessels directly influenced how the panels were designed, how the ships were portrayed, and how we should interpret them. The Buddhist narratives associated with the vessels provide deeper context for everything we see happening on board. The stories reveal the stakes involved in seafaring, explain what was expected of a mariner, and illustrate the skills and mindset needed to survive on an ocean-going vessel. The reliefs themselves provide a window on how seafaring stories were envisioned in ninth century C.E. Java. The 94 mariners depicted aboard the ships portray emotions, such as fear, courage, torpor, and astonishment, as well as abstract concepts such a teamwork, self-sacrifice, and leadership. This thesis will show that the Borobudur Vessels represent a concentrated effort to capture the struggles, heroism, and drama of sailing. They are material evidence of the intimate connection between Buddhism and seafaring, and provide unique insights into the Javanese perception of sailing, the ocean, and its dangers.