Library: Communications and the Arts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential for increasing informal music-making in elementary school culture, and create a model of such music-making. Precedence for this model can be found in the literature of ethnomusicology, educational psychology and learning theory, multicultural music education, and cultural anthropology. Literature from four distinct traditions and contexts of music-making in integrative sociocultural contexts—sub-Saharan African ngoma, and Community Music as manifested in New Orleans second lines, old-time music and dance, and summer camp music-making—w...

Despite the growing popularity and influence of Japanese animation in America and other parts of the world, the importance of anime studies as audio-visual translation has not been well-recognized academically. In order to throw new light on this problem, the author attempts to clarify distinctive characteristics of English dubs of Japanese animated films between the 1980s and the 2000s, including Hayao Miyazaki's, in descriptive ways: through a corpus-based statistical analysis of vocabulary and a qualitative case study approach to the multimodal text from a synchronic and diachronic point of...

The majority of scientific research on teen magazines has been conducted from a single-country perspective, even though the experience of sex and sexuality is known to vary by country. Moreover, no research to date has analyzed the sexual content of teen magazines and directly linked it to how young people think or feel about sex. In response to these shortcomings, this book analyzes the topics of sexual desire, sexual danger, virginity loss, pregnancy, and the hook-up culture in the most popular teen magazines of the United States and the Netherlands. Results are then linked to US and Dutch y...

Since the 1960s, a new subgenre (cruel-Jidaigeki) has been introduced to Japanese period films, with its own rules. This subgenre requires a new hero. During this research, I found out that Sanjuro, the first recognised hero of this genre, who appears in Yojimbo for the first time and stands as the model for the other cruel-period films, is indeed a complicated man. Firstly, he is after money. The idea is that because he exemplifies the modern Japanese man who is trapped in a new money-oriented society, he needs to represent the financial difficulties of common men. Secondly, in the course of ...

The purpose of the present dissertation is to determine whether the viewing of two particular prime-time television programs, ER and The X-Files, increases viewer knowledge of science and to identify factors that may influence learning from entertainment television programming. Viewer knowledge of scientific dialogue from two science-based prime-time television programs, ER, a serial drama in a hospital emergency room and The X-Files, a drama about two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who pursue alleged extraterrestrial life and paranormal activity, is studied. Level of viewing, educa...

Political Cartoons, otherwise known as Editorial Cartoons, are single panels of graphics that are satires of political events. Apart from serving as a corrective measure, they also serve as historical documents and are a 'snapshot' of the political climate of a given period. Over the years cartoons have shaped public opinions on societal issues that have sometimes resulted in tragedies in the manner in which information is transmitted to the public. In 2005, over 300 people were killed in the Northern part of Nigeria during a religious riot fueled by a Danish Editorial Cartoon publication w...

This research examines the string literature of American composer and violist Louise Lincoln Kerr. A biography of Mrs. Kerr is given, emphasizing compositional training and skill, her style of composition, contributions to musical organizations in the Phoenix area, and her donation of the Kerr Cultural Center and her manuscripts to the Arizona State University College of Fine Arts. Selected string compositions are examined for their historical significance, compositional style, performer accessibility, and significance to the repertoire. Kerr made use of Native American and Spanish folk melodi...

This thesis provides an examination of Disc Jockey (DJ) technology, technique, and aesthetics. The history of popular dance music is explored in an attempt to demonstrate the role that technology has played in the development and future of the DJ aesthetic. Criteria for evaluating and producing Disc Jockey Music Technology is pursued in order to define the fundamentals of dance music and the essence of an authentic DJ performance.

The Dutch-born English Baroque portrait painter Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) is chiefly known for his drowsy, sensual beauties and bewigged courtiers associated with the Restoration court of Charles II. He is often seen as merely successor or "imitator" of Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), with a common resemblance in all his sitters and an inability to capture a true likeness, as well as an absence of any personal characterization or psychological interest. Alternately, this dissertation aims to reveal Lely's genius of superb draughtsmanship, fine color and lively composition, as well as to e...

The aim of this dissertation is to present a study and an historical-musicological analysis of the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra of Sir William Walton, discussing more specifically the shape of the Concerto for Violin in England between 1900 and 1940, taking into consideration the works of Charles Villiers Stanford, Edward Elgar, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Somervell, Arnold Bax and Benjamin Britten. The thesis is divided in three parts: - the first discusses the Concertos for Violin and Orchestra of the composers active in England between 19...