Matching Items (4)
Filtering by
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
Vivid illuminations of the aristocratic hunt decorate Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. fr. 616, an early fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript of Le livre de chasse composed by Gaston Fébus, Count of Foix and Viscount of Béarn (1331-1391 C.E.), in 1389. Gilded miniatures visualize the medieval park, an artificial landscape designed to facilitate the ideal noble chase, depicting the various methods to pursue, capture, and kill the prey within as well as the ritual dismemberment of animals. Medieval nobles participated in the social performance of the hunt to demonstrate their inclusion in the collective identity of the aristocracy. The text and illuminations of Le livre de chasse contributed to the codification of the medieval noble hunt and became integral to the formation of cultural memory which served as the foundation for the establishment of the aristocracy as different from other parts of society in the Middle Ages. This study contributes new information through examination of previously ignored sources as well as new analysis through application of critical theoretical frameworks to interpret the manuscript as a meaning-making object within the visual culture of the Middle Ages and analysis of the illuminations reveals the complexities surrounding one of the most important acts of performance for the medieval elite.
ContributorsPratt-Sturges, Rebekah (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis advisor) / Cruse, Markus (Committee member) / Cuneo, Pia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Women have long made textiles to navigate identity and exercise agency at revolutionary moments in history. To consider the powerful potential of the textile arts, psychoanalytical theories elucidate the ways in which the distaff, and the fiber arts more generally, has historically been a symbol of female agency and autonomy. To frame this project and investigate the history of scholarship about artworks produced by medieval nuns, I employ a critical historiographic method to explore the use of the enigmatic German term “Nonnenarbeit,” literally “nuns’ work.” After establishing the larger context of the historical relationship between women and textiles, I analyze three specific case studies, instances in which nuns took up the needle and thread at pivotal moments in the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. As expressions of their communal identity and agency in the wake of observant reform movements, nuns at Kloster Lüne stitched colorful klosterstich embroideries and Benedictines at St. Walburg in Eichstätt wove tapestries featuring the sisters and celebrating the history of the community. Birgittine nuns at Vadstena Abbey in southern Sweden gained metaphorical access to the Eucharist at the altar through embroidered silk altar frontlets and lavish reliquary containers, made in accordance with St. Birgitta of Sweden’s visionary new order. I apply postmodern theories such as Actor-Network Theory to leverage my interpretation of nuns’ networks at Kloster Lüne and St. Walburg, and Thing Theory to elucidate the materiality of the Birgittine embroideries.
The technical proficiency of the textiles in my project has been well-established. Using critical theories and feminist methodologies, I add to the existing scholarship with an investigation into the revolutionary spirit of textile production in these women’s monasteries during the late Middle Ages.
ContributorsButler, Kelly Bevin (Author) / Schleif, Corine (Thesis advisor) / Green, Monica (Committee member) / Easton, Martha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This dissertation concerns “revelations to others” in medieval hagiographical and visionary texts. Revelations to others take many forms—spiritual visions, dreams, visual and tactile witnessing of miracles, auditions—but they all are experienced by someone other than, or in addition to, the holy person who is the subject of the text. This type of revelatory experience is common and, I argue, highly significant. Most straightforwardly, revelations to others serve to further authenticate holy women or men, confirming their devotion to God, their miraculous abilities, and/or their favored position with Christ. But revelations to others do much more than authorize the visionary. They voice the possibility that one could learn to have visions, which has interesting connections to modern ideas of guided seeing, such as meditation. They suggest circumstances in which holy persons served as devotional objects, helping their viewers achieve a higher level of religious experience in a similar manner to stained glass windows, crucifixes, or images of Veronica’s veil. For women, revelations to others sometimes offer access to spaces in which they could not physically step foot, such as the altar or the bedrooms of abbots. Moreover, by showcasing the variety of persons participating in divine experiences (monks and nuns, lay persons, nobility, and sometimes other holy persons), revelations to others speak to the larger visionary communities in which these holy persons lived. Through a series of close readings, this dissertation creates a taxonomy of revelations to others and argues for their necessity in understanding the collaborative nature of medieval spirituality.
ContributorsNestel, Meghan Leigh (Author) / Sturges, Robert S (Thesis advisor) / Schleif, Corine (Committee member) / Koopmans, Rachel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Western cultures on the whole have a particular fascination surrounding tattoos, and academia is no different. There are numerous studies that discuss why people get tattoos and what peoples’ perceptions of those with tattoos are. However, there has only been a minuscule amount of research on the ones who even make tattoos possible: Tattoo artists. This work endeavors to provide a platform for tattoo artists to share their stories and experiences, and, in turn, help provide academia and the public at-large with a better understanding of tattoo artist identity and how the tattoo artist residual community functions and defines itself. Through ethnography, ethnographic interviews, and autoethnography, the everyday lives of tattoo artists will be explored. This work also seeks to provide an understanding of the history, skillsets, artistry, and creativity of Western tattoo artists, while simultaneously arguing for how tattoos and their creators can open the world of “fine art” to a broader audience and make it more accessible for all.
ContributorsHawn, Allison (Author) / Mean, Lindsey (Thesis advisor) / Schleif, Corine (Committee member) / Guerrero, Laura (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022