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Cette thèse porte sur les représentations culturelles dans les romans produits par des écrivaines d'origine vietnamienne qui écrivent en français. Deux écrivaines seront étudiées en particulier: Kim Lefèvre et Anna Moï. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser comment ces écrivaines se représentent en tant que produits des projets coloniaux, et ce que ces représentations nous indiquent au sujet des relations de puissance entre les colonisateurs et les colonisés. Nous voyons qu'en général, les Vietnamiens sont décrits comme des sous habitus, ce qui montre que les représentations fournies par la perspective des colonisateurs dans les textes colonialistes étaient décentrées et assez racistes. Cette thèse va également discuter du rôle des influences coloniales dans l'évolution de la langue et de la littérature vietnamiennes, et de la manière dont le roman vietnamien écrit en français était utilisé comme réponse à la colonisation. / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This study looks at print media projects by and for people with HlV/AIDS. Three types of publications are examined: newsletters; treatment publications; and general interest magazines. Each of these media began as part of political organizing by people with HIV in the context of the community-based response to the AIDS epidemic. The argument is made that those involved in contemporary social movements produce their own media as a means of constructing an alternative public sphere. The significance and function of this public realm is twofold. First, it is a social space for people with HIV/AIDS that is independent of forms of institutional influence and control. Second, it invites not only the articulation of opposition to the dominant social order but an alternative to the status quo. This study demonstrates the role of communication media - forums through which people can share their experiences and knowledge - in the struggle for self representation and survival among people with HIV/AIDs.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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This essay explores gender roles in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by American author Carson McCullers. Theories and texts by Judith Butler, Nancy Chodorow, Raewyn Connell, Don Zimmerman, and Candice West among others, are used to support the thesis statement that stereotypical gender norms serve to compromise the main character Mick Kelly’s identity formation and her early sexual experiences. One important element of this discussion is the idea that gender is socially constructed rather than biologically given. Moreover, it is argued that gender is something that a person does repeatedly according to a strict set of socially constructed regulations. Based on the premise that gender is performativity, the conclusion is drawn that Mick Kelly’s ability to create her own identity within her gender-free world of music is severely diminished. In short, adherence to conventional gender norms makes her go from being a loner to being socially accepted as an equal among her peers; and from being a leader to being a follower, especially regarding her sexual relations.

This study is an analysis of the social construction of lesbian and gay identities within the immediate family. The analysis draws on the insights obtained from in-depth interviews conducted with 39 individual lesbian and gay respondents and 22 parents. The thesis is organised into six chapters. In Chapter 1, I review past work on lesbian and gay identity formation and the disclosure of a lesbian or gay identity to members of the family. I argue that past research on lesbian and gay identity formation has not paid sufficient attention to the influence of the family on sexual identity construction. I also argue that past research on lesbians and gays and the family has only focused on initial disclosure of sexual identity to parents. I suggest that we can proceed beyond these limitations by examining the social construction of lesbian and gay identities in the family by focusing on two research themes: the internal theme which explores individual sexual identity formation, coming out to parents and developments in familial relations from initial disclosure to the present; and the external theme which examines lesbian and gays experiences beyond the family, for instance, the lesbian and gay communities and work. It also considers how lesbian and gay involvement beyond the family affects parents. The research is then related to a broad theoretical framework concerning the construction and negotiation of identities in postmodernity. The methodology for the research is explored in Chapter 2. I review etiological and structural approaches to lesbians and gays and the family and argue that if we are to consider sexual identity and family relationships, then it is best achieved through a qualitative approach based on grounded theory. This approach would focus on meaning, interaction and the negotiation of relationships between lesbians and gays and their families. The design and uses of the research tools, the sampling procedure, the pilot and main studies and data analysis are also outlined. The findings of the research are reported in Chapters 3,4 and 5. Chapters 3 and 4 examine the internal theme of the research. Chapter 5 explores the external theme. Finally, three conceptual themes are identified in Chapter 6, based on the findings reported throughout the thesis. This is consistent with the grounded theory approach, which seeks to theorise on the basis of empirical data. Firstly, I suggest that individuals are active strategists in the production of postmodern identities; secondly, family relations are constructed through discourse and social practices; lastly, familial and sexual identities and relationships are constructed in wider contexts beyond the family. The chapter ends by attempting to make some recommendations for further research.

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Although social research on sexuality is growing in Latin America, studies into tolerance are scarce. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between queer male practices and tolerance amongst a group of gay, bisexual and travesti men in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To explore this issue 83 men were interviewed and ethnographic research was carried out with the gay rights organisation Arco-Íris and AIDS organisation ABIA. Whilst current literature generally positions the queer community as requiring tolerance from an intolerant society, this study suggests that intolerance of certain gendered and sexualised behaviours is produced within the queer community and affects queer male behaviours. It is suggested that factors such as race, class, religious belief and notions of beauty, style and respect influence the construction and experience of various sites across the city, such as the home, the workplace, the gay scene and the street as tolerant and intolerant. Current work is expanded through exploring the relationship between gendered and sexualised behaviours and (in)tolerance in understudied spaces, such as LGBT organisations, religious spaces and online communities. It is argued that future work must consider the way in which tolerance and intolerance function within the queer community as this study has done, rather than relying on taken-for-granted assumptions that intolerance towards queers originates from those outwith the queer community.

Five-hundred forty four students from an urban southwestern University underwent a sexual aggression beliefs and behaviors evaluation and subsequent online intervention. Approximately three-quarters of male and female students experienced a sexual boundary violation during the past year. Though male and female students were equally as likely to experience inappropriate sexual attention and/or contact, female students were significantly more likely to experience attempted and/or completed anal and vaginal rape and significantly most frequently after an explicit verbal indication of objection such as "no." Less than 10% of persons who experienced or enacted acts that met the legal threshold of a crime reported that the act would be defined as such. Thus, it may be that a large amount of college students are incapable of identifying personal victimizations or that sexually aggressive behavior has become more normative in the typical college sexual escapade. The modalities that were implemented exceeded those previously explored (i.e. lying and manipulating the victim directly) to include the use of technology, bets or dares, sexual scare tactics, and social vengeance. When the mechanisms for sexual aggression were explored, it appeared that aggressors typically acted out due to availability of victims and difficulty controlling their sexual urges, thus, traditional awareness efforts that attempt to alter attitudes in an effort to prevent sexual aggression seem ill-fitted to the college population. However, difficulty discerning objection from consent was associated with an increased risk of victimization, self-blame for victimization, and cognitive justification for aggressive behavior. Personality played a major role in intervention receptivity; students who were conscientious were more capable of changing and sensing personal change. Feeling `changed', being high on Psychopathy, and having pre-set ideas regarding rape myths of the opposite sex or pre-existing difficulties deciphering objection from consent impeded intervention receptivity.

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