Arts (Faculty of)

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9865

Welcome to the Faculty of Arts community.

This community and it’s collections are organized using the University of Waterloo's Faculties and Academics structure. In this structure:

Communities are Faculties or Affiliated Institutions
Collections are Departments or Research Centres

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

New collections following this structure will be created UPON REQUEST.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Another Life, Another World: The Spiritual Origins of Spaceflight
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-26) Snopek, Ryan; Statiev, Alexander
This work reassesses the origins of the idea of humanity’s destiny in outer space, examining the development of popular enthusiasm about extraterrestrial life and reincarnation in Europe and America from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. It connects popular interest in the afterlife to transcendental and spiritualistic perceptions of outer space, which originated as mystical and theological ideas which over the course of the nineteenth century became increasingly secular and scientific. The result was a utopian view of humanity’s future on other planets, one which transformed from the spiritual to the physical and inspired early rocket pioneers to seriously theorise and advocate for spaceflight, leading to the ultimate achievement of this goal in the 1960s.
Public Servants or Professional Alienists?: Medical Superintendents and the Early Professionalization of Asylum Management and Insanity Treatment in Upper Canada, 1840-1865
(University of Waterloo, 2011-08-30T18:27:31Z) Terbenche, Danielle Alana
In nineteenth-century Upper Canada (Ontario), professional work was a primary means by which men could improve their social status and class position. As increasing numbers of men sought entry into these learned occupations, current practitioners sought new ways of securing prominent positions in their chosen professions and asserting themselves as having expertise. This dissertation studies the activities and experiences of the five physicians who, as the first medical superintendents (head physicians) at the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, Toronto from 1840 to 1865, sought such enhanced professional status. Opened in January 1841 as a public welfare institution, the Toronto asylum was housed initially in a former jail; in 1850 it was relocated to a permanent building on Queen Street West. During the asylum’s first twenty-five years of operation physicians Drs. William Rees, Walter Telfer, George Hamilton Park, John Scott, and Joseph Workman successively held the position of medical superintendent at the institution. Given the often insecure status of physicians working in private practice, these doctors hoped that government employment at the asylum would bring greater stability and prestige by establishing them as experts in the treatment of insanity. Yet professional growth in Upper Canada during the Union period (1840-1867) occurred within the context of the colony’s rapidly changing socio-political culture and processes of state development, factors that contributed to the ability of these doctors to “professionalize” as medical superintendents. Rees, Telfer, Park, and Scott would never realize enhanced status largely due to the constraints of Upper Canada’s Georgian social culture in the 1840s and early 1850s. During the 1850s, however, demographic, political, and religious changes in the colony brought about a cultural transition, introducing social values that were more characteristically Victorian. For Joseph Workman, whose beliefs more reflected the new Victorian culture, this cultural shift initially involved him in professional conflicts brought about by the social tensions occurring as part of the transition. Nevertheless, by the 1860s, changes in government led to the development of new legislation and departmentalization of welfare and the public service that led him to gain recognition as a medical expert in a unique field.
Writing identity - Negotiating Gender in Leopold von Sacher Masoch's "Venus im Pelz" and Robert Musil's "Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß"
(University of Waterloo, 2020-09-29) Wolfhard, Caroline Sarah; Wortmann, Thomas; Skidmore, James Martin, 1961-
The age of the Industrial Revolution has led to a variety of changes in human society. One of these changes was a shift in gender-roles for men and women. The social role and the behavior of people became a consequence of their biological sex. Hence, men and women were seen as entirely different regarding their character, abilities and duties. Furthermore, stereotypical parameters of what makes one a ‘real’ man or ‘real’ woman were discursively constructed and spread. The goal of this thesis is to develop a new approach to gender relations in Leopold von Sacher-Masoch´s Venus im Pelz and Robert Musil´s Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß. A lot of the already existing research of these two 19th century novels include definitions of masochism and sadism. The concept of masochism and sadism works by distinguishing between what is considered normal and what is not – especially when it comes to sexuality and gender. I argue that these novels show that gender is a socially constructed category and not based on the biological sex of a person. The gender-roles in the novels do not go along with the expectations of the 19th century society, hence, they show that the character´s identity is not linked to their sex. Therefore, the interplay of power and subjugation in the novels is closely analyzed. I argue that the characters do not portray stereotypical versions of masculinity and femininity and/or their failure, which makes them behave in a certain way. Rather, they challenge gender-stereotypes.

Browse

Browsing Arts (Faculty of) by Subject "19th century"