This paper uses two related case studies to critique emerging gender relations with particular reference to the influence of institutional conventions (the art academy). It utilises the theoretical...Show moreThis paper uses two related case studies to critique emerging gender relations with particular reference to the influence of institutional conventions (the art academy). It utilises the theoretical frameworks of Linda Nochlin, Alice Walker, Bell Hooks and Eliza Steinbock in order to interpret the gender relations represented by Narges Mohammadi and Quentley Barbara while still students at The Royal Academy of Art The Hague. Through the objective analysis of ‘How to Travel Safe’ (2016) and ‘Myself and I’ (2016) this paper will demonstrate how the artworks are of particular importance as representations of an emerging inclusivity within gender relations. The results and conclusions of these analysis show a movement away from the masculine ‘greatness’ observed by Nochlin (1971), toward an emerging inclusive ‘greatness’.Show less
Most Serbs hold strong opinions on Kosovo: they see Kosovo as a mythical cradle of the Serbian nation and, more recently, a place of mythical Serbian suffering. While these beliefs have reinforced...Show moreMost Serbs hold strong opinions on Kosovo: they see Kosovo as a mythical cradle of the Serbian nation and, more recently, a place of mythical Serbian suffering. While these beliefs have reinforced the Serbian nation, they also fuelled the Serbia-Kosovo conflict. Historiography has helped create and reinforce these myths and has as such played an important role in the conflict. This thesis researches myth-forming on Kosovo through the eyes of one Serb historian: Dusan T. Batakovic (1957-2017).Show less
The trigger of this thesis is the war movie ’28 Panfilovcev’ by director and scriptwriter Andrey Shalyopa, released in Russia in November 2016. The movie is about the heroic story of General...Show moreThe trigger of this thesis is the war movie ’28 Panfilovcev’ by director and scriptwriter Andrey Shalyopa, released in Russia in November 2016. The movie is about the heroic story of General Panfilov’s 28 soldiers of the 316th Rifle Division and their defense of Moscow in November 1941. To mirror the heroic tale of the Battle for Moscow, the first-hand account of battalion commander Baurdzhan Momysh-Uly on the battle near Volokolamsk is used, written down by Russian reporter and writer Alexander Bek in 1943. Two primary sources that represent the October and November fighting in the Battle for Moscow in 1941, but from two different perspectives, a blockbuster movie one and a classic literary one. The research question of this thesis consisted of three questions: how can the nearly collapse of the Soviet state by Unternehmen Barbarossa (June-December 1941) historically be explained? How is its overarching symbol, the heroic story of Panfilov’s 28, presented in the war movie ‘28 Panfilovcev’? How do in comparison contemporary firsthand accounts of Red Army soldiers reflect to this heroic picture? This thesis will examine the heroic story of Panfilov’s 28 from its early roots of a newspaper article to its modern day presentation in a blockbuster movie, catapulted to the mass consumers in the large cinemas of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The conclusions of this research of the story Panfilov’s 28 and its political use of the past will make a contribution to the academic debate of the disastrous early war months for the Soviet Union in 1941 as well as in understanding the movie ’28 Panfilovcev’ as an example of present day Russian cultural policy.Show less
In the late sixties and early seventies the myths of motherhood, the stereotypical ‘eternal feminine’ and a caricutural or dismissive understanding of women’s physiology were elements of an...Show moreIn the late sixties and early seventies the myths of motherhood, the stereotypical ‘eternal feminine’ and a caricutural or dismissive understanding of women’s physiology were elements of an underlying ideology which hampered the achievement of full equality for women. This thesis investigates the subversive nature of these myths in a literary analysis of three dystopian novels by women authors published in this period. It also draws on the key ideas of major women theorists central to feminism’s ‘second wave’. Examining the dystopias of Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains (1969), Pamela Kettle’s The Day of the Women (1969) and Emma Tennant’s The Time of the Crack (1973), I argue that that the possibilities open to the female characters to (re)claim their womanhood are not only undermined by their inability to recognize the deceptive facets of the myths of femininity fabricated in patriarchal societies, but also by their own unwillingness to renounce the dubious privileges that these myths bestow on the stereotypical female.Show less
This thesis argues that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as part of the War on Terror declared by President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11 can be seen in the light of American Exceptionalism. American...Show moreThis thesis argues that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as part of the War on Terror declared by President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11 can be seen in the light of American Exceptionalism. American Exceptionalism has actively been used as a discursive tool to justify US foreign intervention in the past. By looking at the historical context of American Exceptionalism one will see how American Exceptionalism originated, how it was adapted and how it was often manipulated by prominent figures in a way that served national interests throughout time. Myths and illusions surrounding American Exceptionalism were created which became part of a discourse that shaped and strengthened US national identity over the centuries. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, these pre-existing beliefs were shattered and a national identity crisis followed. Nonetheless, President Bush managed to once again accommodate and reaffirm the pre-existing national truths and to simultaneously reshape and reform them in a way that made American Exceptionalism become a state fantasy. The discourse surrounding this state fantasy became an important tool for President Bush to justify the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.Show less
