Suchergebnisse

Maruja Mallo's life (1902-1995) and art represent one woman's odyssey from the European vanguards to political commitment during the Spanish Republic (1931-1939) and finally to a unique transcendent art form after her wrenching exile from Spain and her residence in Latin America from 1937 to 1965. In her early career she was a leader among the avant-garde painters when few Spanish women were recognized as creative artists. In Latin America, her work diverged radically from European avant-garde trends and from her ideologically oriented subject matter of the 1930s; Mallo not only reflects the impact of her discovery of the Pacific Ocean and her newfound "zest for life," but also clearly defines a new language that celebrates the female body and female sexuality. This essay traces Mallo's personal and artistic journey from Spain to Latin America and back.

Durant la dècada de 1960, algunes artistes catalanes van entrar en contacte amb la tendència del pop art. En aquest article reconstruïm fragments dels inicis de les trajectòries de tres d'elles, pintores reconegudes recentment en la història de les segones avantguardes: Carme Aguadé, Silvia Gubern i Mari Chordà. Argumentem que en les seues obres d'estètica pop s'inicien iconografies i debats sobre la seua identitat com a artistes i la política sexual de la seua època, abans que aquests temes foren centrals en l'art feminista de les següents dècades. Aquesta lectura proto-feminista ha sigut obviada per les narratives crítiques que van estudiar el «pop polític» a Espanya. Des de les investigacions feministes sobre el pop art i les artistes, iniciades per la investigadora Kalliopi Minioudaki (2010, 2015), proposem reconèixer que aquestes artistes van iniciar processos d'autoconsciència femenina, van explorar la seua identitat com a pintores i van plantejar idees artístiques, polítiques i espirituals pròpies a través de la seua producció d'estètica pop. ; During the 1960s, some Catalan women artists came into contact with pop art. In this article we reconstruct fragments of the initial trajectories of three painters recently recognized in the history of the second avant-garde: Carme Aguadé, Silvia Gubern and Mari Chordà. We argue that pop aesthetic was used in their art works to create iconographies and debates on identity and sexual politics, before these themes were central to feminist art in the following decades. This proto-feminist reading has been obviated by the critical narratives that studied «political pop» in Spain. From feminist research on pop art and female artists, initiated by researcher Kalliopi Minioudaki (2010, 2015), we propose to recognize that, through the production of pop aesthetics in their work, these artists initiated processes of female self-awareness, explored their own identity as women and painters and raised their own artistic, political and spiritual ideas. ; Desde un marco crítico feminista, el artículo descubre que en Cataluña, durante la década del 60, algunas artistas entraron en contacto con la tendencia del pop art y, a través de la nueva estética, iniciaron procesos de autoconciencia femenina, exploraron su identidad como mujeres pintoras y plantearon ideas artísticas, políticas y espirituales propias. Las autoras reconstruyen fragmentos de las trayectorias de tres artistas catalanas reconocidas recientemente en la historia de las segundas vanguardias en Catalunya: Carme Aguadé, Silvia Gubern y Mari Chordà. Argumentan que estas obras de estética pop inician iconografías y debates sobre la identidad y la «política sexual» que se desarrollaran con fuerza en la siguiente década por otras artistas. El artículo denota que este marco «protofeminista» de lectura ha sido obviado en las narrativas críticas que estudiaron el «pop político» en España porque los historiadores de izquierdas no consideraron significativa ni política la diferencia sexual femenina.

This book investigates the aesthetic and conceptual characteristics of fifteenth-century female portraiture on panel. Portraits of women increased substantially during this century. They formed part of a material and a visual culture borne out of the rapid rise of an oligarchy from entrepreneurial activities that was especially advanced in the urbanised territories of Italy and Flanders. For this reason, the portraits in this book are by Netherlandish and Italian painters. They are simultaneously illustrative of the emancipation of the genre from its medieval idiom, and of the responses to the matrix of patriarchy, under which society was organised. Patriarchy is an androcentric structure that places women in a paradoxical situation of legal and social disenfranchisement on the account of purported psychophysical inadequacy, whilst making them the catalysts, through arranged marriages, for the success of the spheres of power, which are controlled by men. Thus, these portraits are also a window into women's lives in this structure. This book is the first systematic study of their sign-system and of the feminine experience of seeing and being seen, at the intersection of disciplines that include art history, anthropology, legal history, philosophy. The surprising results suggest new interpretations of form and function in female portraiture, women's active role in the imaging process and the early instances of a pro-women ideology.

Rintasyöpä on maailmanlaajuisesti naisten yleisin syöpätauti ja valtava kansanterveydellinen haaste. Vaikka rintasyövän syistä on tehty paljon tutkimusta, harvassa ovat isoihin aineistoihin perustuvat tutkimukset, joissa olisi kyetty selvittämään monien riskitekijöiden itsenäisiä vaikutuksia yhtä aikaa. Tämä väitöskirjakokonaisuus pyrkii konkretisoimaan, miten rintasyövän syitä on selvitettävissä eritasoisin tyypillisin tutkimusasetelmin. Tutkimus I etsii vihjeitä etiologisista syistä epäsuorien riski-indikaattoreiden avulla, mikä on tyypillistä tilanteissa, joissa yksilötason tietoja suorista riskitekijöistä ei ole saatavilla. Tutkimus II on esimerkki tilanteesta, jossa keskitytään yhden tekijän yhteyteen rintasyöpäriskiin. Tutkimus III puolestaan hyödyntää tietoja useista potentiaalisia riskitekijöistä mutta rajoittuu poikkeukselliseen väestöosaan eikä siten välttämättä tarjoa koko väestöön yleistettävissä olevia tuloksia. Tutkimus IV on viimein esimerkki asetelmasta, jossa on onnistuttu kokoamaan suomalaisista rekistereistä yksilötason tietoa useimmista rintasyövän keskeisistä riskitekijöistä ja selvittämään niiden itsenäiset vaikutukset tavalla, joka tuottaa väestökattavia ja jopa maailmanlaajuisiksi yleistettäviä tuloksia asioista, joita kukaan ei ole aiemmin pystynyt konkretisoimaan vastaavalla tavalla. Tutkimuksessa I tarkasteltiin rintasyöpäpotilaiden kuolleisuutta muihin syihin kuin rintasyöpään itseensä. Havaittiin lisääntynyttä kuolleisuutta verenkiertoelinten tauteihin samoin kuin maha-, keuhko- ja munasarjasyöpään. Pääasiallinen selitys näille havainnoille on, että rintasyövällä ja lisääntyneeseen kuolleisuuteen johtavilla taudeilla on samoja riskitekijöitä, esimerkiksi alkoholi, tupakointi ja hormonaaliset seikat. Rintasyövän riskiä lisäävät geenimutaatiot suurentavat todennäköisesti myös sydämen toimintahäiriöiden ja mahasyövän riskiä. Tutkimus II perustuu yhteispohjoismaisen NOCCA (Nordic Occupational Cancer) -tutkimuksen 7,5 miljoonan naisen aineistoon ja tarkastelee rintasyövän ilmaantuvuuden vaihtelua ammattiryhmien välillä. Sairastuvuus oli suurta sotilastyössä, hammaslääkäreillä ja lääkäreillä ja pienintä maanviljelys- ja puutyöammateissa. Riskivaihtelu oli samansuuntaista rintasyövän tärkeimmissä histologisissa alalajeissa, duktaalisessa ja lobulaarisessa rintasyövässä. Yleensä ammattien rintasyöpäriski pysyi samantasoisena väestön keskiarvoon verrattuna koko 45-vuotisen tarkastelujakson ajan, mutta esimerkiksi laboratoriotyöntekijöillä havaittiin riskin kohoaminen vasta jakson viimeisellä kolmanneksella. Tutkimuksessa III aineistona olivat vähintään viisi lasta synnyttäneet suomalaisnaiset, joita oli runsaat 47 000. Tutkimus selvitti synnytysten välisten ajanjaksojen pituuden merkitystä rintasyövän riskiin. Tiheät synnytykset pienensivät lobulaarisen rintasyövän riskiä mutta lisäsivät duktaalisen syövän riskiä. Tutkimus IV käytti aineistonaan vuosien 1994–2013 rintasyöpäpotilaita, joita oli reilut 19 000, ja heille poimittuja väestöverrokkeja, joita oli runsaat 96 000. Tutkimushenkilöille haettiin tiedot lasten synnytyksistä, vaihdevuosien hormonihoidoista, sosioekonomisesta asemasta ja ammattihistoriasta, ja selvitettiin monimuuttuja-analyysin keinoin rintasyövän vaaraan vaikuttavien tekijöiden riskikertoimet. Korkea sosioekonominen asema ja istumatyö lisäsivät riskiä. Vaihdevuosien hormonihoitoa saaneilla naisilla rintasyöpää todettiin tavanomaista useammin. Yli viisi vuotta kestänyt hormonihoito, joka sisälsi estradiolin ohella myös keltarauhashormia, yli kaksinkertaisti todettujen rintasyöpien määrän. Hormonikierukka lisäsi kaikentyyppisten rintasyöpien riskiä. Tutkimus IV onnistui myös mallintamaan synnytyksiin liittyvän rintasyövän ns. kaksoisvaikutusteorian, jonka mukaan välittömästi kunkin synnytyksen jälkeen riski kohoaa mutta ajan myötä synnytykset tuottavat suojavaikutuksen. Ensimmäisen synnytyksen jälkeen naisilla oli korkeimmillaan noin kaksinkertainen rintasyöpäriski samankaltaisiin synnyttämättömiin naisiin verrattuna, mutta 7–8 vuotta synnytyksen jälkeen synnyttäneiden riski laski synnyttämättömien naisten riskin alle. Koska lisäsynnytykset tuovat enenevää suojaa rintasyöpää vastaan, viidennen synnytyksen jälkeen synnytyksen jälkeinen riskin tilapäinen kohoaminen oli enää 20 prosentin luokkaa ja suojavaikutus alkoi jo 2–3 vuotta synnytyksen jälkeen. Tämä väitöskirja havainnollistaa, miten monet synnytyshistorian piirteet (lasten lukumäärä, ensisynnytysikä, viimeisen synnytyksen ikä, synnytystiheys), sosioekonominen asema, ammattiin liittyvät tekijät (erityisesti fyysinen aktiivisuus), elämäntapavalinnat ja vaihdevuosien hormonihoidot vaikuttavat suuresti rintasyöpäriskiin. Synnytyksiin liittyvä kaksoisvaikutusmalli kuvastaa sitä, että yhdenkin tekijän vaikutukset voivat olla monimutkaisia, ja lukuisten eri tekijöiden toinen toisiinsa kietoutuneiden vaikutusmekanismien ymmärtäminen vaatii suuria, laadukkaita tutkimusaineistoja ja edistyneitä tutkimusmenetelmiä. Tässä tutkimussarjassa pyrittiin osoittamaan esimerkein, miten tuloksia on löydettävissä jopa asetelmassa, jossa yksilötason tietoja riskitekijöistä ei ole lainkaan saatavilla. Pohjoismaissa, joissa on ollut hyvät mahdollisuudet yhdistellä rekisteripohjaisia tietoja tutkimusaineistoiksi, yksilötason muuttujia on hyvin saatavissa ja ryhmätason muuttujien käyttö on harvoin tarpeen. ; Female breast cancer is the leading cancer and a global public health problem. Although extensive research work has been done on epidemiology of breast cancer, a gap has been identified in implementing a multifactorial approach with many etiological factors simultaneously included in analyses of large study populations. This doctoral dissertation aimed to evaluate breast cancer risk with a series of typical study settings in etiological research, starting with the search for etiological clues of risk factors with indirect indicators (Study I in this thesis), then concentrating on one direct risk factor at a time (Study II) or a specific subset of the population (Study III). Finally, Study IV combines many relevant elements of the research question available from the registries in Finland. Study I of this thesis demonstrates the possibilities and difficulties in exploring and interpreting the etiology of breast cancer from the mortality pattern of breast cancer patients. We observed excess mortality for diseases of the circulatory system, as well as for cancers of the stomach, lung, and ovary. It is not plausible that this excess mortality would be to a large extent related to breast cancer or its treatment, and therefore the findings were interpreted as suggestions to joint etiology. Factors associated with causes of death among breast cancer patients, such as reproductive history, lifestyle factors including alcohol consumption, smoking, physical inactivity, and the use of hormonal therapy are also risk factors for breast cancer. Genetic mutations causing breast cancer may also increase risk of stomach cancer and cardiac dysfunction. Our findings indicated a possible joint etiology of breast cancer and cause of mortality among breast cancer patients. Study II is a population-based cohort study based on data from the Nordic Occupational Cancer (NOCCA) study incorporating five Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. This study was applied to explore occupational variations in the incidence of female breast cancer in Nordic countries and included the follow up of 7.5 million females in the Nordic population. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) of breast cancer was calculated for each of the 54 occupational categories expressed as the ratio of observed to the expected number of cases. The expected number of cases for each country was estimated by multiplying the incidence rates by the respective numbers of person years at risk in the NOCCA Study by country. Overall, the highest risk elevations were observed among military personnel, dentists and physicians, while the lowest risks were observed among gardeners, farmers, and woodworkers. Histologically, no substantial variation in the incidence of breast cancer was observed. Occupational groups such as welders, tobacco workers, and painters had elevated SIRs for breast cancer diagnosed at age <50 but not at older ages. Occupations such as farming, gardening, forestry, and driving had decreased SIRs of breast cancer in all observation periods (1961–1975, 1976–1990, and 1991– 2005) while, for example, laboratory workers showed an increased SIR only in the most recent period (1991–2005). In Study III, a nested case control design was applied on a cohort of 47,479 Finnish women with at least five childbirths. This study assessed the role of the length of birth intervals on the risk of breast cancer and reflected on distinct differentiation and functional roles of lobular and ductal cells, and different responses to hormonal exposure. Shorter birth intervals had a protective effect on the lobular breast among postmenopausal women, while an opposite effect was observed for lobular breast cancer among premenopausal women. Study IV explored the roles of numerous components of reproductive history, postmenopausal hormonal therapy (HT), socioeconomic position, and occupational history on the risk of breast cancer, stratified according to characteristics of breast cancer such as histology and age at diagnosis. The study included 19,253 cases of breast cancer between 1994 and 2013 and, 96,265 controls. High socio-economic status and occupational sedentariness were associated with elevated risk of breast cancer even after adjustment for the use of postmenopausal HT. Increasing age at first and last birth was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. In general, the use of HT was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Combined estradiol-progestin HT was more strongly associated with breast cancer risk (OR 1.15, 1.37 and 2.26 for <1 year, 1– <5 years and 5+ years of use, respectively) than estradiol- only therapy which only showed an elevated risk of breast cancer after long term use of 5+ years (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.10–1.27). LNG-IUS showed increased risk irrespective of the histology of the cancer. Study IV also confirmed the dual effect theory of pregnancy: increasing parity was protective against breast cancer in the long term, preceded by a short-term increase in risk. Our data allowed us to estimate the heights and durations of breast cancer risk peaks after each childbirth. Among premenopausal women for example, the transient increase in risk of breast cancer was two-fold immediately after the first birth as compared to nulliparous women, and the effect turned protective 7–8 years after the birth of the child. After the fifth birth, there was only a 20% excess risk peak, and a protective effect began within 2–3 years. This dissertation illustrates that the various components of the individual's reproductive history (number of children, age at first birth, age at last birth, birth intervals), socioeconomic status, occupational exposures, including occupational physical activity, and lifestyle factors such as postmenopausal HT selection, markedly affect the risk of breast cancer. Especially the possibility to model the dual effect theory of parity for all age groups as well as by age at diagnosis was a novel feature of this dissertation. We exemplified that in a situation where direct information on risk factors for breast cancer patients is not available, mortality patterns could be used as a surrogate to obtain information on possible etiology. In the Nordic countries, individual-level data on many risk factors can be found from various precise and complete registries, and hence the use of surrogate variables is not often needed. The use of the NOCCA job exposure matrix to estimate occupation-specific quantitative measure of physical activity is an example of combining aggregate level information of an occupational category with individual level information of durations of occupations held by the person.

Examines how the case of artist Marie Laurencin reveals limitations in feminist theories of avant-gardism, focusing on her relation to the cubist avant-garde & how signs of her femininity were mobilized by the artist as well as her colleagues, critics, & patrons. It is observed that current feminist theories of avant-gardism either celebrate Laurencin as an example of transgressive femininity or criticize her as an example of a modernist construction that works to exclude women. Here, it is shown that Laurencin's femininity was at times wielded as an exception to prove the rule that women were not serious avant-garde painters & at others was considered disconcertingly feminist. Drawing on Michel de Certeau's (1984) account of the oppositional practices of everyday life, it is argued that Laurencin's relationship to cubist avant-gardism was at once enabling & alienating, as the unstable modernist discourses of the early 20th century opened a space in which even someone as relatively disadvantaged as Laurencin was able to maneuver. 9 Figures. D. M. Smith

ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine occupational variations in the incidence of breast cancer in the population-based cohort of Nordic Occupational Cancer Study (NOCCA).MethodsThe study included long-term follow-up data from almost 7.5million Nordic women. Participants were assigned to one of the 54 occupational categories based on census records at the ages of 30-64years. Sixty-two thousand cases of breast cancer were identified through record linkages between nationwide cancer registries in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, followed up between 1961 and 2005. Country-specific standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) with 95% confidence intervals were estimated.ResultsOverall, the highest risk elevations were seen among military personnel (SIR 1.58, 95% CI 1.03-2.32), dentists (SIR 1.43, 95% CI 1.31-1.56), and physicians (SIR 1.35, 95% CI 1.26-1.46). The lowest risks were observed among gardeners (SIR 0.76, 95% CI 0.74-0.78), farmers (SIR 0.80, 95% CI 0.78-0.82), and woodworkers (SIR 0.75, 95% CI 0.70-0.81). Welders, tobacco workers, and painters had higher SIRs for breast cancer diagnosed at age ; Peer reviewed

Intro -- CONTENTS -- EINLEITUNG -- MITTELALTERLICHE ZÜNFTE UND HANDWERKER IM LICHTE WIRTSCHAFTS-, SOZIAL- UND KULTURWISSENSCHAFTLICHER THEORIEN -- GUILDS AND POLITICS IN MEDIEVAL URBAN EUROPE -- SOCIAL MOBILITY IN THE CRAFT GUILDS OF MASONS AND CARPENTERS IN LATE MEDIEVAL GHENT -- GUILD AUTHORITIES IN LATE MEDIEVAL SPAIN -- WOMEN IN CRAFT ORGANISATIONS IN ROUEN (14TH-15TH CENTURY) -- HANDLUNGSSPIELRÄUME VON KÖLNER ZUNFTHANDWERKERINNEN IN DER FRÜHEN NEUZEIT -- SEX MATTERS? ARTISAN WIDOWS AND THE URBAN LABOUR MARKET IN NORTHERN EUROPE -- VATER, MUTTER, KIND: DIE ZUNFTFAMILIE ALS WIRTSCHAFTSEINHEIT -- DIVERSITY AND INTERNAL HETEROGENEITY OF PREMODERN PAINTERS' GUILDS. THE GERMAN-SPEAKING REGIONS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE WITH FOCUS ON AUGSBURG -- GOLDSMITHS, GOLDBEATERS AND OTHER GOLD WORKERS IN EARLY RENAISSANCE FLORENCE 1378-1433* -- BÜCHSENMEISTER DES SPÄTMITTELALTERS MIGRATION UND AUSBREITUNG DES NEUEN WISSENS -- LOHNFORMEN UND LOHNBILDUNG IM HANDWERK DES 18. JAHRHUNDERTS -- WORKING FOR SOMEONE ELSE: ADULT APPRENTICES AND DEPENDENT WORK (ROME, 17TH TO EARLY 18TH CENTURY) -- LES MÉTIERS DES CHANTIERS DU BÂTIMENT ENTRE REPRÉSENTATION ET RÉALITÉ (TURIN, 18E SIÈCLE) -- APPENDIX -- INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS -- INDEX OF PERSONS AND PLACES.

Ensconced in the tight kinship network of a local household in Oaxaca, Mexico, the author embarked on a challenging study of a radical ethnic political movement, COCEI. An anthropologist who married a Zapotec Women, the author chronicles his fieldwork in this memoir. His research is interwoven with his personal experiences, addressing the political and ethical dilemmas of contemporary ethnography. Campbell's informants are internationally known politicians, poets, and painters who live in Juchitán, a large city controlled by indigenous activists. While adopting aspects of the postmodern critique of ethnography, the author proposes and illustrates a collaborative form of research based on partisan political commitment. Through a candid and intimate account, he portrays his informants and research site, and his direct involvement in Zapotec society. The book is both a highly readable ethnography of Southern Mexico and a contribution to debates about current anthropology.

"Screening the Creative Process" examines how biographical films about painters and writers depict the notoriously unfilmable process of artistic creation and asks what role gender plays in the conceptualisation of creativity and genius. Through the discussion of three very different 21st-century biopics focused on heterosexual artist couples, "Pollock", "Frida", and "Bright Star", the book follows the hypothesis that the paradigm of creative genius remains uniquely powerful in this film genre. This distinguishes the biopic from other contemporary media and discourses in which the idea of singular, inborn genius has largely been replaced by the concept of creativity as a universal, trainable skill. The biopic's adherence to an emphatic notion of genius - a notion that appears not only obsolete but also politically problematic due to its historical exclusion of women - is especially relevant in light of how deeply these popular films shape public notions about history and art

Intro -- Half-title Page -- Title Page -- Epigraph -- Contents -- Author's note -- On learning how to see (an introduction) -- 1. The Cave Painters: Our first journey to the cold north and the Ice Age of the mind -- 2. The Revenants: Time travelling via ice -- 3. The Revellers: The Little Ice Age, sport and frost fairs -- 4. The Buccaneers: Adventure capitalism and Sir Humphrey Gilbert -- 5. The Scientists and Gourmets: The new science of cold and pagophagia -- 6. The Sheep Shifters: Manufactured ice, food preservation and the birth of the 'coldscape' -- 7. The Tourists: The Mer de Glace: men and women in the upper ice world -- 8. The Pachyderm: Palaeontology and geology -- or, ice kills Adam and Eve -- 9. Dr Sawbones: Ice, medicine and the body -- 10. The Fighters: Ice in war, war in ice -- 11. The Meddlers: Ice in the Anthropocene -- Sky glow snatched from heaven (an afterword) -- General bibliography, notes and further reading -- Acknowledgements -- Index -- Image Credits -- A Note on the Author -- Plates Section -- Copyright Page.

Kunang Helmi
Ratna Cartier-Bresson was born in Batavia in 1904 and spent her formative years on Java. She changed her name several times when she trained as a dancer in both traditional Javanese and modern contemporary dance forms while still in the Netherlands East Indies. Ratna was not only attractive, but also endowed with a quicksilver temperament and lively intelligence, accentuated by a great sense of humour. It was thus she appeared on the scene in the Paris of the 1930s where artists, writers and painters congregated in the cafés of Montparnasse. She was destined to make Paris her home for the rest of her life when she married the now famous photographer Henri Cartier- Bresson in 1937. Ratna was to die in 1988 far away from those islands bathed in sunlight where she had spent her youth. Her travels had taken her all over the globe during the struggle for indépendance of many new nations in Asia and Africa. A surprising and unusual life for a woman in the days when Indonesian women were very rarely seen outside of the former Dutch colony.

The paper written by a single person or a group of people to the government bodies about declarations, demands, complaints is called "arzuhal" (petition). For illiterate people or the ones who don't know the proper style of a petition, these are written by an "arzuhalci" (scrivener) who makes his living by this way. So they are supposed to know law and rules, legible in writings, have a fluent, correct and strong expression, and also be honest and reliable as a person. Besides, personal letters to the parents, spouses, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers are also written by scriveners. Looking at the scriveners in orientalist paintings, we observe that they are especially visualised with their women clients in most cases. By pointing at these paintings I will be trying to reach to the conclusion that the reason for these painters interests in the subject is attributable not only to their interest in showing men and women together in the same painting but also their wishes to point out the low literacy rate in the community, the women's role in public and their desires to have their private letters scribed. Even though the scriveners are observed a lot in the Turkish stories, novels, poems, and songs, their appearance in Turkish paintings are not very many. After the declaration of Turkish Republic, with the acceptance of Latin alphabet in 1928 and the great advances in education of the people, the works and the importance of the scriveners are started to decline. ; Arzuhal, halktan kişilerin padişaha, devlet dairelerine yönelik yazdığı istek ya da şikayet mektupları; arzuhalci de, okuma yazma oranının düşük olduğu dönemde bu mektupları yazarak para kazanan kişidir. Dolayısıyla arzuhalcilerin, kanunları ve kuralları iyi bilmesi, doğru, akıcı ve kuvvetli bir ifadeye sahip olması, güvenilir bir insan olması gerekmektedir. Arzuhalcilerin, bu tür resmi arzuhaller dışında özel mektupları da kaleme aldıkları görülmektedir. Batılı gezginlerin anılarında, günlüklerinde ve seyahatnamelerinde sözü geçen arzuhalciler, Oryantalist resimde de karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Tüm bunlarda, kadınların ön planda olması dikkat çekicidir ve kadınların eğitim konusunu, toplumsal yaşamdaki yerini ve bir anlamda estetik görünümünü akla getirmektedir. Diğer taraftan Türk edebiyatında, şarkılarında ve resminde de arzuhalciler görülmektedir. 1928'de Latin alfabesine geçilmesi ve eğitimin yaygınlaşması ile arzuhalcilere duyulan gereksinim gittikçe azalmıştır; ama günümüzde özellikle adliye binaları yakınında varlıklarını sürdürmektedirler.

This Biographical Dictionary describes the lives, works and aspirations of more than 150 women and men who were active in, or part of, women's movements and feminisms in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Thus, it challenges the widely held belief that there was no historical feminism in this part of Europe. These innovative and often moving biographical portraits not only show that feminists existed here, but also that they were widespread and diverse, and included Romanian princesses, Serbian philosophers and peasants, Latvian and Slovakian novelists, Albanian teachers, Hungarian Christian social workers and activists of the Catholic women's movement, Austrian factory workers, Bulgarian feminist scientists and socialist feminists, Russian radicals, philanthropists, militant suffragists and Bolshevik activists, prominent writers and philosophers of the Ottoman era, as well as Turkish republican leftist political activists and nationalists, internationally recognized Greek feminist leaders, Estonian pharmacologists and science historians, Slovenian 'literary feminists,' Czech avant-garde painters, Ukrainian feminist scholars, Polish and Czech Senate Members, and many more. Their stories together constitute a rich tapestry of feminist activity and redress a serious imbalance in the historiography of women's movements and feminisms.

The exchange of portraits between the two branches of the House of Austria provides invaluable information about the royal family, the role played by women as agents of cultural exchange, and the similarities between the two courts in their modes of representation. By shedding equal light on portraits produced in Vienna and Madrid, I hope to clarify the formulas used by the painters as well as the emotive, political and cultural practices that shaped the daily lives of the paintings' sitters, patrons and recipients. ; Los intercambios de retratos entre las dos ramas de la Casa de Austria proporcionan una valiosa información sobre la familia real, el papel que ejercían las mujeres como embajadoras y agentes de intercambio cultural, y las similitudes entre ambas cortes en cuanto a sus modos de representación. De este modo, prestando la misma atención a los retratos producidos en Viena que a los de Madrid, se pueden comprender mejor las fórmulas que utilizaban los pintores y los usos afectivos, políticos y culturales que tenían en la vida cotidiana de sus comitentes y destinatarios.