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This thesis examines the play Qian Dayin zhichong Xie Tianxiang, written by the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) playwright Guan Hanqing (c.1225-1302). The first chapter of this paper provides brief background information about northern style Yuan drama (zaju) as well as a plot summary and notes about the analysis and translation. Through

This thesis examines the play Qian Dayin zhichong Xie Tianxiang, written by the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) playwright Guan Hanqing (c.1225-1302). The first chapter of this paper provides brief background information about northern style Yuan drama (zaju) as well as a plot summary and notes about the analysis and translation. Through a close reading of the play, I hope to illustrate how the play's complicated ending and lack of complete resolution reveals why it has received relatively little attention from scholars who have previously discussed other strong, intelligent female characters in Guan Hanqing's plays. The second chapter of this thesis includes translation of the play that is comprised of a wedge preceding the four acts. Before each act of the play is a critical introduction and analysis of the act to follow. Although many of Guan Hanqing's plays have been translated into English, this play has never been translated.
ContributorsByrnes, Kelli (Author) / West, Stephen H. (Thesis advisor) / Zou, Yu (Committee member) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Peacocks are ubiquitous in art. Artists from societies across the globe, undoubtedly attracted to the male peafowl’s colorful plumage and unique characteristics, used images of the bird to form visual semantics intended to aid in the understanding of a work of art. This was particularly the case in Europe,

Peacocks are ubiquitous in art. Artists from societies across the globe, undoubtedly attracted to the male peafowl’s colorful plumage and unique characteristics, used images of the bird to form visual semantics intended to aid in the understanding of a work of art. This was particularly the case in Europe, where depictions of peacocks appeared in Christian art from the onset of the continent’s dominant religion. Beginning in Early Christianity, peacocks symbolized the opportunity for an eternal life in heaven enabled by Christ’s sacrificial death. Illustrations of peacocks were so frequent and widespread that they became the standard symbol for eternal life in Christian art consistently centered on recounting the stories of Christ’s birth and death.

Overtime, peacock iconography evolved to include thematic diversity, as artists used the peacock’s recognizable physical attributes for the representation of new themes based on traditional ideas. Numerous paintings contain angels wings covered in the iridescent eyespots located on the male peafowl’s tail feathers. Scientifically known as ocelli, eyespots painted on the wings of angels became a widespread motif during the Renaissance. Artists also recurrently depicted the peacock’s crest on figures of Satan or Lucifer in both paintings and prints. Indicative of excessive pride, a believed characteristic of peacocks, the crest is used as an identifying characteristic of the fallen angel, who was cast from heaven because of his pride.

Although the peacock is a known iconographic motif in medieval and Renaissance art history, no specific monographic study on peacock iconography exists. Likewise, representations of separate and distinctive peacock characteristics in Christian

art have been considerably ignored. Yet, the numerous artworks depicting the peacock and its attributes speak to the need to gain a better understanding of the different strategies for peacock allegory in Christian art. This thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of peacock iconography, minimizing the mystery behind the artistic intentions for depicting peacocks, and allowing for more thorough readings of medieval and Renaissance works that utilize peafowl imagery.
ContributorsHarris, Kereese (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis advisor) / Brown, Claudia (Committee member) / Baldasso, Renzo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Many religious textual accounts describe provocative women: The Great Whore

from the Apocalypse, Saint Mary Magdalene from the New Testament, and the

Daughters of Mara from the Buddhist tradition are all accused of fornication or the

seduction of men. However, when artists have depicted these subjects, the women are

rarely shown transgressing in the

Many religious textual accounts describe provocative women: The Great Whore

from the Apocalypse, Saint Mary Magdalene from the New Testament, and the

Daughters of Mara from the Buddhist tradition are all accused of fornication or the

seduction of men. However, when artists have depicted these subjects, the women are

rarely shown transgressing in the ways the texts describe. The Great Whore is often

masculinized and shown as the equal of kings, Mary Magdalene assumes divergent

attitudes about prostitution in early Renaissance Europe, and the Daughters of Mara are

comparable to other Buddhist deities, recognizable only from the surrounding narrative.

Therefore, in this inquiry, I seek out the ways that artists have manipulated misogynistic

religious narratives and introduced their own fears, concerns, and interpretations.

Artistic deviations from the text indicate a sensitivity to cultural values beyond

the substance of their roles within the narrative. Both the Great Whore and her virtuous

counterpart, the Woman Clothed in the Sun, have agency, and the ways they are shown to

use their agency determines their moral status. Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of

prostitutes and a reformed sinner, is shown with iconographical markers beyond just

prostitution, and reveals the ways in which Renaissance artists conceptualized prostitution. In

the last case study, the comparison between the Daughters and the Buddhist savioresses,

the Taras, demonstrates that Himalayan artists did not completely subscribe to the textual

formulations of women as inherently iniquitous. Ultimately, these works of art divulge

not just interpretations of the religious traditions, but attitudes about women in general,

and the power they wielded in their respective contexts.
ContributorsBerg, Cortney Anne (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis advisor) / Mesch, Ulrike Claudia (Committee member) / Brown, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
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Description

This dissertation explores the representation of female imagery associated with the Yuan pleasure quarters by examining a reservoir of Yuan sanqu. Previous scholarship has studied this topic using either historical material or zaju drama texts but has more or less ignored the voluminous corpus of sanqu. Furthermore, scholarly inquiries of

This dissertation explores the representation of female imagery associated with the Yuan pleasure quarters by examining a reservoir of Yuan sanqu. Previous scholarship has studied this topic using either historical material or zaju drama texts but has more or less ignored the voluminous corpus of sanqu. Furthermore, scholarly inquiries of Yuan sanqu either have emphasized its development from the Song ci lyrical tradition or its colloquial features. In consequence, the complexity of sanqu as an independent literary genre has been neglected. Using the representation of female imagery of the pleasure quarters in Yuan sanqu as an entry point, on one hand, this dissertation examines the dynamics of this urban and textual space. On the other, it focuses on rarely-studied sanqu pieces and analyzes them in a new light. The pleasure quarters and the production of Yuan sanqu are closely related to each other. In particular, the pleasure quarters are both revealed through the creative process of sanqu and have established sanqu as a distinctive aesthetic experience. The first chapter will focus on women of the pleasure quarters from the perspective of their hierarchical distinctions in terms of beauty, performative nature, and desirability as companions. Chapter two discusses the representation of women of the pleasure quarters in Yuan sanqu. Distinctive from the exclusive focus on privileged outstanding courtesans in poetic and lyrical tradition, Yuan sanqu depicted women from different registers of pleasure quarters. Thus, the genre formulated a diverse picture of images, rhetoric, and modalities. Chapter three examines a major literary tradition mainly sustained by the Yuan sanqu tradition, which is the story of Shuang Jian and Su Xiaoqing. As one of the most important and widespread literary traditions at play during the Yuan, Yuan sanqu writers’ representation of this pleasure-quarters-based story manifests the fulness and diversity of Yuan sanqu as a distinctive literary genre. In the epilogue, I focus on a zaju script by Ma Zhiyuan and an anonymous song suite in relation to this story. By so doing, I intend to show how Yuan qu lyrics incorporated the poetic, lyrical, and dramatic traditions in a somewhat promiscuous way.

ContributorsChen, Tianjun (Author) / West, Stephen H (Thesis advisor) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Thesis advisor) / Oh, Young (Committee member) / Brown, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021