Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item On the Threshold: Visualizing Ambiguity in the Art and Experience of Ancient Roman Doorways(2022) Chen, Amanda Kane; Gensheimer, Maryl B.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Neither interior nor exterior, doors, thresholds, and passageways were regarded as powerful, yet ambiguous areas by the ancient Romans. Ancient myths and texts characterize thresholds as sites of magic and ritual and record that improper movements or interactions could enact misfortune or physical peril for those who transgressed the space. These concerns about the liminal nature of doorways are reflected in the art historical and archaeological records, where corridors are often decorated with charged images or inscriptions. This dissertation examines the wide variety of efficacious images that accompany domestic doorways in the cities of ancient south Italy (Campania) from the second century BCE through the first century CE. The project investigates the painting, mosaic, architectural features, and surrounding urban landscape of domestic doorways to understand how images were used to mark and mediate transitional spaces, and to reconstruct the ancient experience of moving through spatially ambiguous areas. In doing so, it offers new insights into the active nature of Roman images and the mechanism of this “superstitious” practice. The phenomenon of decorating spaces of passage with powerful imagery existed throughout the ancient Mediterranean and reveals not only Roman concerns with the uncertainties of liminal space, but also that images were considered an effective tool for mitigating the perceived vulnerabilities of thresholds. This dissertation demonstrates that homeowners in ancient Campania safeguarded their thresholds by embellishing their entrance corridors with images that themselves possessed ambiguous or transitional qualities and associations. By addressing spatial ambiguity with its visual and ideological counterparts, the Romans developed a visual language that they used to mediate transitional areas. The efficacious images also physically engaged viewers in these protective mechanisms through pointed visual details that encouraged reciprocal interactions and activated the images. This project draws on data collected from a survey of all domestic doorways in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. It combines wide-ranging philosophical, anthropological, art historical, and archaeological theories to assess the material, and offers a new methodology for understanding and evaluating spatial ambiguity. The conclusions, methodology, and datasets presented in this dissertation exhibit the importance of a comprehensive contextual approach to the art and archaeology of ancient Campania, while they also demonstrate the interconnected nature of art, space, and spiritual practice in ancient south Italy. The project thus carries important implications for studies of Roman art, archaeology, and space, but also for perceptions of and responses to ambiguity and uncertainty more broadly.Item CHOOSING ONE’S WORDS: HOW JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS COMMANDED THEIR ELITE SUBJECTS IN THE WORKS OF LATIN HISTORIANS(2022) Abrams, Brian Michael; Eckstein, Arthur; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Roman emperors acted within a culture deeply concerned with personal honor. In this environment issuing commands to aristocratic subjects presented the potential for conflict, as the honor of the commanded subject was at risk. One technique adopted by some of the Julio-Claudian dynasty was to embrace ambiguity in how they phrased their commands. Through an examination of the verbs used by Latin historians to describe the emperor issuing a command, it becomes clear that emperors relied upon this type of ambiguous phrasing when dealing with elite subjects. However, there was little use of ambiguity when dealing with non-elite subjects. There is a generational divide in the use of ambiguity, and it is argued here that this was because the elder Julio-Claudians had been present for the genesis of this strategy during the reign of Augustus, while the younger members of the dynasty had not. Strategic ambiguity was a method by which the emperor could fashion himself as first citizen rather than as a master.Item An Operatic Contribution to a Literary Conversation: Locating Henry James' Ambiguity in Benjamin Britten and Myfanwy Piper's "The Turn of the Screw"(2018) Athanasiou, Evangeline Katerina; Haldey, Olga; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 1954, Benjamin Britten and Myfanwy Piper’s chamber opera, "The Turn of the Screw," premiered at the Venice Biennale. They adapted their story from the late eighteenth-century Henry James novella of the same title. Soon after its publication in 1898, James’ "The Turn of the Screw" sparked a literary debate focusing on the credibility of the main narrator, a young governess who claims to see ghosts while in charge of two children isolated in a country house. During the 1950s, when Britten’s musical career was steadily advancing, the literary debate moved in the direction of reconciling the argument over the governess’ credibility. This study primarily expands upon musicological scholarship from Philip Rupprecht as well as literary scholarship by Shlomith Rimmon, along with various other studies concerning music, literature, and adaptation. Through a textual and musical analysis of James’ ambiguity as realized in Britten and Piper’s "The Turn of the Screw," this study demonstrates that the opera should be considered among the contributions to the mid-century critical trend toward the synthesis of the two dominating interpretations of the novel from the twentieth century.