The Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This... Show moreThe Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This study aimed to explain the popularity of this genre. The conclusion is that the emotional effects were responsible for the popularity of these plays that were translated from Spanish. These tragicomedies by Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio and Pedro Calderón de la Barca offered a drastic alternative for the emotional prescriptions found in the oeuvre of Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel, and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. This way, comedia nueva offered Dutch and Flemish spectators a refuge from emotional and social expectations. Show less
This study by artist Jonas Staal explores the development of propaganda art from the 20th to the 21st century. Staal defines propaganda as the performance of power by means of the equation... Show moreThis study by artist Jonas Staal explores the development of propaganda art from the 20th to the 21st century. Staal defines propaganda as the performance of power by means of the equation propaganda = power + performance. Through his work as a propaganda researcher and practice as a propaganda artist, he argues that different structures of power generate different forms of propaganda and therefore different forms of propaganda art. Whereas in the context of the 20th century Staal discusses the differences between avant-garde, totalitarian, and modernist propaganda art, in the 21st century he proposes the categories of War on Terror Propaganda Art, Popular Propaganda Art, and Stateless Propaganda Art. By means of concrete examples of artists and artworks within each of these categories, he attempts to show how the performance of power in the 21st century translates into different visual forms, and how they shape and direct our reality. Staal’s study shows that power and art exist in continuous interaction. Propaganda and propaganda art are not terms that only refer to the past, but concepts and practices through which we can understand the construction of reality in the present. Show less
This dissertation is about Peking Opera in Hong Kong. I (re)construct its history, from the early twentieth century to the present day, through the life stories of six individuals who are... Show moreThis dissertation is about Peking Opera in Hong Kong. I (re)construct its history, from the early twentieth century to the present day, through the life stories of six individuals who are significant to the topic in various periods and respects. The theoretical base of this project derives from Igor Kopytoff’s notion of Cultural Biography and from (qualitative) Social Network Analysis. I collect my data by ethnographic methods, which include interviews, participant observation and archival research. In addition to the production of a critical history of Peking Opera in Hong Kong, this dissertation shows how various individual and institutional stakeholders envision and embody their versions of “Chinese-ness” through Peking Opera. I argue that after the 1997 handover, Peking Opera has become a space for the authorities and performers to negotiate their Chinese identities between the “local” (i.e. Hong Kong) and the “national” (i.e. The People’s Republic of China). This identity-building consequently affects their stance toward, or practice of, Peking Opera. My research also shows that some of these identity-driven practices have made a “reverse impact” on presentational conventions in the Chinese mainland. Show less
In their performance Timelining, Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly explore the ways in which intimate relationships are constituted in time. The performance consists of a memory game in which two... Show moreIn their performance Timelining, Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly explore the ways in which intimate relationships are constituted in time. The performance consists of a memory game in which two performers retrace their shared history as a couple. Throughout the performance, the various actions prompted by the memory game question the unity of the couple, instead casting the performers’ relationship as what I will call a two-togetherness. This article looks at Timelining through the lens of queer temporality to scrutinize the operations of different social experiences of time in the constitution of the couple as a twotogetherness. It then interrogates, investigates, and explores the ways in which the performance undermines normative assumptions about the constitution of intimate relationships within time. By breaking down categories of time and memory, Gerard and Kelly suggest that each intimate relationship, whether normative or queer, is constituted through the impossibility of conforming to normative conceptions of time. Show less
