Adapting Arthur: The transformations and adaptations of Wirnt von Graffenberg's Wigalois

The stories of King Arthur and his noble knights have fascinated audiences for many centuries and continue to being retold and fashioned to attract modern audiences. Amongst these stories is the tale of Wigalois, the son of the reputable Gawain. This dissertation traces the story of Wigalois across different languages, cultures, and media in order to show how this is a shared German-Yiddish narrative. Furthermore, this dissertations challenges traditional understanding of adaptation within a diachronic and teleological framework by uncovering dialogical and dynamic processes inherent in this narrative tradition. Using the theoretical framework of a combined Adaptation Studies and Medieval Literature Studies’ notions of unstable texts my argumentation focuses on eight specific examples: Wirnt von Grafenberg’s Wigalois (1st half 13th ct.), Italian murals from the fourteenth century, Wigoleis von dem Rade (1483/93), Viduvilt (Yiddish, 16th ct.), Johann Christoph Wagenseil’s Belehrung der Jüdisch-Teutschen Red- und Schreibart (Yiddish and German, 1715), Gabein (Yiddish, 1789), the illustrations by Ludwig Richter (before 1851), and Die phantastischen Abenteuer der Glücksritters Wigalois (Comic, German, 2011).

Monsters Take to the Streets! Monstrous Street-Art as Pedagogy of Resistance to Post-Olympic Regeneration in Hackney Wick?

This chapter explores geographies of gentrification and resistance in relation to the monstrous through the lens of street-art in post-Olympic London. It takes as a geographic case study Hackney Wick, which has for a long time been a bastion of alternative and creative living due to cheap rents in large, ex-industrial warehouse spaces. The artistic sociality of the area is imbued within its landscape, as prolific street artists have adorned ex-industrial warehouses and canal-side walls with graffiti and murals. Since the announcement of the 2012 Olympic Games, the area has been a site of intense political and aesthetic contestation. The post-Olympic legacy means that the area has been earmarked for redevelopment, with current residents facing the possibility of joining thousands already displaced by the games. The anxiety of dispossession is reflected by monstrous characters and sinister disembodied teeth, eyes and fingers embedded within the landscape, painted by local artists. Using geographically sensitive mobile and visual methodology to document the landscape and artwork, the chapter analyses and interprets the monstrous themes using a range of theorists including Mikhail Bakhtin, Georges Bataille and Nick Land. I argue that monstrous street-art lays visible claim to public territory for aesthetic purposes at odds with the visions of redevelopers and the needs of capital. Whilst street-art and graffiti do not fit easily within frameworks of organized political resistance or collective social movements, they operate as a kind of epistemological transgression that triggers transformative affects in the viewer. This creates conditions for pedagogies of resistance to gentrification by expressing and mobilizing political affects such as anger and anxiety, raising awareness of geographical politics, and encouraging the viewer to question the status quo of the built environment.

A MORE COMPLETE STREET A STREET FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY, NORTH EAST STREET, FREDERICK, MARYLAND – A DESIGN INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENT STREET DESIGN THEORIES

This design-research thesis suggests that the improvement of North East Street performances by using Complete Streets, Green Street, Place Making and Context Sensitive Solution principles and practices. Heavily used by a variety of users, often conflicting with one another, University of Maryland Campus Drive would benefit from a major planning and design amelioration to meet the increasing demands of serving as a city main street. The goal of this thesis project is to prioritize the benefits for pedestrians in the right-of-way and improve the pedestrian experience. This goal also responds to the recent North East Street Extension Phrase I of economic renaissances. The goal of this design-research thesis will be achieved focusing on four aspects. First, the plans and designs will suggest to building mixed use blocks, increase the diversity of street economic types and convenience of people’s living. Second, design and plans will propose bike lanes, separate driving lanes from sidewalks and bike lanes by street tree planters, and narrow driving lanes to reduce vehicular traffic volume and speed in order to reduce pedestrian and vehicle conflicts. Third, plans and designs will introduce bioswales, living walls and raingardens to treat and reuse rain water. Finally, the plans and designs will seek to preserve local culture and history by adding murals and farmers market. The outcome of the design-research thesis project is expected to serve as an example of implementing Complete Streets, Green Street, Place Making and Context Sensitive Solution principles and practices in urban landscape, where transportation, environment and social needs interact with each other.

Coexistir: libro de producción audiovisual de formato documental

Coexistir cuenta cinco historias de lo que piensan del perdón víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia. En 2006, grupos paramilitares se desmovilizaron y se encontraron con sus víctimas para responder sus preguntas y pedirles perdón. En 2012, el Gobierno inició un proceso de paz con las FARC, durante el cual se ha puesto en discusión las intenciones de reconciliación de la guerrilla. A partir de casos en Magdalena Medio y Caquetá, Coexistir es un reflejo de los dilemas que enfrentan cientos de víctimas a nivel nacional para lidiar con su dolor, no olvidar y pedir que no se repita la historia.