The main goal of this thesis is to question in what way the concept of urban rewilding can be redefined, based on its inherent narrative, aesthetic goals, and location-bound desires. This thesis...Show moreThe main goal of this thesis is to question in what way the concept of urban rewilding can be redefined, based on its inherent narrative, aesthetic goals, and location-bound desires. This thesis will attempt to show how both projects of urban rewilding and Elizabeth Kent’s Flora Domestica can be exemplary of a right way to interact with nature in city environments: one that should inspire not just a change in policy, but an ethical and cultural change of heart.Show less
This thesis demonstrates that the famous British painter J.M.W. Turner should not just be seen as a painter of landscapes and marine paintings, but also as a topographical artist. Topography, the...Show moreThis thesis demonstrates that the famous British painter J.M.W. Turner should not just be seen as a painter of landscapes and marine paintings, but also as a topographical artist. Topography, the representation of specific places or monuments, played a major role throughout his career. Proof of this can be found not only in the sketches, drawings, and paintings that he produced, but also in his training and teaching. Moreover, this thesis touches upon the influence of reproduction techniques and the importance of his social network for Turner's topographical production.Show less
The Decembrist movement produced a large quantity of civic poetry with utopian elements, but hardly any full-blown and self-contained literary utopias. This is surprising given the utopian ideals...Show moreThe Decembrist movement produced a large quantity of civic poetry with utopian elements, but hardly any full-blown and self-contained literary utopias. This is surprising given the utopian ideals of its adherents and sympathizers. One of them, Vil’gelm Kjuxel’beker, produced two short utopian stories, i.e. European Letters and The Land of the Headless. Obscure and seemingly unfinished as these works are, they have hardly received any serious scholarly attention. In my thesis, I argue that these works are certainly socially relevant, and should be interpreted as patriotic documents that reflect the Decembrist discourse. European Letters, written in 1819, paints a rosy picture of Russia’s future, which has become the world’s superior civilization after Europe and America and is inhabited by morally perfected human beings that remind one of the “new man.” On the eve of the Decembrist revolt, when the initial naïve optimism had disappeared, Kjuxel’beker wrote a second, negative utopia under the title The Land of the Headless. This work criticizes trends in contemporary Russian society, satirically exaggerating their possible harmful consequences and pleaing for national self-liberation and preservation of the (patriarchal) national traditions.Show less
