Built heritage plays an important role in the urban planning context, interestingly enough to shifting social and environmental concepts within a community. With the objective of providing...Show moreBuilt heritage plays an important role in the urban planning context, interestingly enough to shifting social and environmental concepts within a community. With the objective of providing alternative perspectives on prior assessments of the value of historical city identity for a sense of place in cities, this thesis provides a discussion and analysis of a contrasting modern-day city like Rotterdam. The research is useful for cities that have undergone mass destruction and are in need of general reconstruction in answering questions on how to (re)build a sense of place for their population. Additionally, the findings are written upon existing literature, interviews conducted with local architects and urban designers, as well as a survey of Rotterdammers living and working within the city center. Reflecting on the urban planning practices, it becomes evident that Rotterdammers’ grew their appreciation and awareness of historical value. Findings show, that historical city identity has the potential to foster a sense of belonging, connectedness, familiarity, and continuity and through that alter Rotterdammers’ sense of place. However, it fails to provide distinctiveness and support the community’s multicultural identity.Show less
Built heritage plays an important role in the urban planning context, interestingly enough to shift social and environmental concepts within a community. With the objective of providing alternative...Show moreBuilt heritage plays an important role in the urban planning context, interestingly enough to shift social and environmental concepts within a community. With the objective of providing alternative perspectives on prior assessments of the value of historical city identity for a sense of place in cities, this thesis provides a discussion and analysis of a contrasting modern-day city like Rotterdam. The research is useful for cities that have undergone mass destruction and are in need of general reconstruction in answering questions on how to (re)build a sense of place for their population. Additionally, the findings are written upon existing literature, interviews conducted with local architects and urban designers, as well as a survey of Rotterdammers living and working within the city center. Reflecting on the urban planning practices, it becomes evident that Rotterdammers’ grew their appreciation and awareness towards historical value. Findings show, historical city identity has the potential to foster a sense of belonging, connectedness, familiarity, continuity and through that alter Rotterdammers’ sense of place. However, it fails to provide distinctiveness and support the community’s multicultural identity.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis explores Woolf’s relationship with eugenics, illness, and disability, a relationship that is characterized by ambiguity and contradictions, and has divided the critics in their...Show moreThis thesis explores Woolf’s relationship with eugenics, illness, and disability, a relationship that is characterized by ambiguity and contradictions, and has divided the critics in their assessment of Woolf’s work in relation to disability and illness. This thesis is an intervention in this debate by analyzing how Woolf conceives of and conceptualizes notions of illness and disability. This thesis further aims to investigate whether she can be considered a proto-crip theorist. It argues that Woolf’s ambiguity and contradiction in her attitudes towards disability allow for and encourage a crip theoretical reading, and that ultimately, Woolf can certainly be called a nascent crip theorist in her rejection of bodily normativity and in her celebration of non-normative bodyminds, as well as in the ways in which she deconstructs ableist ideologies. The result is a thesis that offers us significant insights into how Woolf in particular and modernist art, literature, and culture in general, conceived of disability, but it also allows us to trace the continuities and differences between attitudes toward disability during the early twentieth century and these attitudes in the present day.Show less
A negative and controversial stigma shrouds the notion of tattoos globally. As of recently, societies globally have increasingly become more tolerant of the exposure of tattoos in public and in...Show moreA negative and controversial stigma shrouds the notion of tattoos globally. As of recently, societies globally have increasingly become more tolerant of the exposure of tattoos in public and in particular, professional environments or workplaces. This increased tolerance can predominantly be found in Western society. Often times, this increased tolerance is perceived to be applicable globally, credited largely to Western-dominated mainstream media. However, the negative stigma associated with tattoos persists in many East Asian societies and is largely regarded as taboo. These notions of taboo are largely attributed to associations with gangs, violence and criminal activities represented through different mediums like movies, newspapers, and word of mouth (see Figure 2). Despite this, East Asian societies like that of Japan's, still possess dedicated tattoo artist that practice tattooing, whether this is in "Japanese-style" tattooing or numerous other styles. The idea of Japanese tattoos is a largely sought-after style of tattooing not only within Japan but also in numerous Western societies, such as the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). It would not be in the wrong to presume that in fact, Japanese-style tattoos are in greater demand outside of Japan than within and are seen in less-controversial limelight than that of Japan, which leads us to a possible inquiry and the investigation of this thesis, how can there be such a difference of perspective of tattoos between Japan and Western nations like the US and UK in Japan-style tattoos? I use aspects of Edward Said's notion of Orientalism (1978) and Primitivism as the theoretical framework into three distinct periods: Meiji era (1868-1912) and the Contemporary era (1945-2020), and implement Richard Rogers' theory of cultural appropriation (2006) as a methodology to dissect ukiyo-e art, diaries from royal "western" figures, interviews and documentaries that depict experiences with Japanese tattooing practices. In the postwar era (1945-) Japan underwent tremendous political, cultural, and economic change under the Allied powers as a result of World War II. It is for this reason that the contemporary era is framed from 1945-2020 to portray the approach Japan took when it came to Japanese-style tattoos. As well as how Western society, in particular the United States, exported Japanese-style tattoos to audiences globally, due to American tattoo artists coming in contact with Japanese tattoo artists first. The overall aim of the investigation will shed light on how the previous mediums have historically engaged with cultural appropriation and orientalism in Japan, to create what we know of today as Japanese-style tattoos.Show less
In this thesis I analyse T. S. Eliot's ""The Waste Land"" in an ecocritical manner. By making use of contemporary theory on the relation between human and environment I shed new light on the...Show moreIn this thesis I analyse T. S. Eliot's ""The Waste Land"" in an ecocritical manner. By making use of contemporary theory on the relation between human and environment I shed new light on the conceptualization and representation of the environment in ""The Waste Land."" I do this by close reading descriptions of the environment in the poem, analyzing the struggle between the material and the spiritual, and analyzing language and agency.Show less
De privéruimte van een woning kan de identiteit van de bewoner representeren. De gekozen meubels, aankleding en decoratie hebben de capaciteit om de persoonlijkheid van een persoon te spiegelen,...Show moreDe privéruimte van een woning kan de identiteit van de bewoner representeren. De gekozen meubels, aankleding en decoratie hebben de capaciteit om de persoonlijkheid van een persoon te spiegelen, omdat deze voorwerpen allemaal door de vrije hand van de persoon zijn gekozen. Het werk van een professioneel interieurdecorateur kan echter ook de identiteit van de ontworpen ruimte bevragen. Het interieur kan namelijk een spiegeling zijn van de identiteit van de opdrachtgever, of juist een constructie van de artistieke identiteit van de decorateur. Deze kwestie speelt als het gaat om de duiding van het oeuvre van de toonaangevende Parijse interieurdecorateur Jean-Michel Frank (1895-1941), de achterneef van de wereldberoemde dagboekschrijfster Anne Frank (1929-1945), wiens ontwerpen een belangrijke sleutelstuk vormen in de opkomst van het moderne interieurdesign.Show less
This thesis investigates the reasons for the reappearance of late modernist utopian architectural projects in recent artist films. Three films by three different artists (Martha Rosler, Dorit...Show moreThis thesis investigates the reasons for the reappearance of late modernist utopian architectural projects in recent artist films. Three films by three different artists (Martha Rosler, Dorit Margreiter and Patrick Keiller) have been selected for their critical use of post-war architecture in film or video and the way they look specifically at suggestions of revolutionary social changes to the concept of the house. In each chapter one film or video is examined in relation to the architectural project(s) it discusses, specifically with regards to the intentions of the architect. Rosler, Margreiter and Keiller show three ways of reflecting upon the way we think about late modernist housing, a type of housing that was extremely ambitious in attempting to change the way we think about shelter and social communities, and is, at least stylistically, still of great influence to the architectural projects that are built today. All three artists have a distinct political awareness that appears in the way they discuss architecture. Consisting of structures that consolidate ideology, architecture is fascinating for the profound influence it has on our everyday life. I argue that the return of modernist utopias in the collective cultural imagination shows a need for a cautiously hopeful attitude towards a future that moves beyond the so-called end of history. These three artists look towards futures that were suggested in the recent past, futures that have been long since dismissed, and try to find elements that may be salvaged from their way of looking towards structural social change that might be of use for us today in combating the effects of neo-liberal influence on everyday life. Because of its contingent, disembodied and fragmented nature, film proves to be the ideal medium for investigation and can be seen as creating its own version of radically subjective utopia in each case study.Show less
“One needs a lot of courage, to live”, observes Jean Rhys in Good Morning Midnight (1939) (16). It may just be the credo of her protagonist, Sasha Jansen, but could as easily have been that of Lady...Show more“One needs a lot of courage, to live”, observes Jean Rhys in Good Morning Midnight (1939) (16). It may just be the credo of her protagonist, Sasha Jansen, but could as easily have been that of Lady Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926). In fact, it is the very observation that implies the scorn and ridicule that the modern woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century faced as she pushed the boundaries of a male-dominated world. The ‘New Woman’, as she was called, spread out from the United Kingdom to Western Europe and the United States and demanded the right to vote, an equal share in jobs and education, and sexual freedom. She drove herself into public visibility and in turn made way for the ‘vamp’ and the ‘flapper’. In this essay I will take a closer look at the New Woman of the twenties and thirties and explore her different types through an analysis of Brett Ashley and Sasha Jansen. In doing so I attempt to determine where the New Woman could flourish and where she could not, what her internal, psychological problems were, which external challenges she met and how the texts represent these matters. Ever since their existence, Brett and Sasha have been critically and often acerbically labelled and categorised. “Bitch woman”, “prostitute” and “failure”, are just a few of a long list of derogatory terms that have been applied by their contemporaries and critics up to date. In this essay I will counteract such descriptions and argue that Brett Ashley and Sasha Jansen are, in fact, each in their own way, a late version of the ‘New Woman’ pushing the limits of their restrictions and struggling with the contemporary difficulties they encountered in this role. While the term New Woman is associated with a more serious and intellectual activist, concerned with education and politics, both the flapper and vamp connote fun. Both types take an aspect of the New Woman’s endeavours and magnify it. For the vamp this is seduction, for the flapper it is post-war hedonism in its broadest sense. It is no coincidence, then, that it is precisely this pursuit of pleasure that connects Brett Ashley and Sasha Jansen. Neither Brett nor Sasha pursues a structured path or noble purpose, neither aspire to a career, both, in fact, do whatever they want, whether society approves or not. However, in doing so Brett and Sasha do contribute to the process of women’s liberation. Not because they participate in feminist campaigns or operations – they don’t – but purely because they live how they choose to live. With their chosen acts both women rebel against male domination in general and the prevailing social norms of their respective decades. For Brett, the norms are a product of Victorian heritage, for Sasha they are the standards of a sober and sensible thirties conservatism.Show less
