Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Bouguereau's 'Nymphs and satyr' : a new interpretation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2011) Anderson, Erin Walsh; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Todd LarkinWilliam-Adolphe Bouguereau's sensual painting 'Nymphs and Satyr' (1873) has long stood as a sign of bourgeois frivolity, and an anti-avant garde work often dismissed by artists and critics alike. The subject matter is often incorrectly labeled as being in ideological conflict with Modern works of the period, which were steeped in honest visual representations of daily life. Recent scholars have interpreted the nude female figures in this painting as evidence of nineteenth century female economical and sexual emancipation. No painting can escape polyvalency throughout its lifetime, and therefore will encounter multiple interpretations within the changing cultures it inhabits. This thesis uses theoretical paradigms introduced by psychoanalysis and feminist art historians to seek the truth in the plurality of meanings assigned by cultural determinants. Viewers, regardless of period, are inescapably bound by their own experiences and thus, no singular construction holds universal meaning.Item Appropriate disruptions(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2011) Hoffman, Lorie Ann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gesine JanzenArt is a vehicle for me to better understand the many feminist movements, and to clear and navigate a path through this body of social thought. Making art is my way of negotiating the feminist thought and theories that I was born into. We all come into culture mid-stream, and I have come of age during a time when shelves of books have been written about women and gender roles, but I as an individual need to find my own way of wading through all these complex, and sometimes contradictory thoughts, and deciding what they mean to me. What is relevant to me? What is not? My opinions are fluid, and sometimes my thoughts about a subject have a great degree of variation. Sometimes I contradict myself. We are all complex beings capable of holding conflicting beliefs about the world around us. The question I'm exploring is a question of who am I as an individual navigating a world of thought that I didn't know was already in place. Women today cannot, and should not, be thrown into categories. Am I third wave, am I forth wave? What does it matter? I'm a complex individual made up of contradictory ideas, and so are the other women I know. We don't fit into neat little categories. I become enraged when I hear the media ask if feminism is dead. Of course it's not, we're just not as easy to pin-hole. That's how we know that feminism is working, when women can no longer be seen as a faceless-sub-class, but instead as individuals who have legitimate disagreements on the details. The stories of everyday lives, the struggles and triumphs, is the focus of my feminism. This is where women are powerful, not in statistics or facts, but in the individual truth of our lives. Every story contains its own truths, and has common ground with the others. One of the most significant ways we connect to, and empathize with, others is through shared and common narratives.