<p>The Subaltern Clinic explores a certain legacy of unreason that Sigmund Freud identified throughout the course of his writings as the "death drive," or the compulsion to repeat. In Freud's work, the death drive is often thought as the opposite of the pleasure principle, which situates the pleasure-unpleasure binary at the center of psychoanalytical thinking and Freud's conceptualization of the psyche as well as morality, ethics, and civilization. The Subaltern Clinic traces a legacy of the death drive and a series of thematic concerns that emerge from it, specifically the instability of the pleasure-unpleasure binary that ostensibly upholds the "principle of reason," through a colonial-postcolonial archive. In doing so, the dissertation attends to those subaltern figures who are constituted as the "unreason" of society, particularly the mentally ill, women, and homosexuals. </p><p>In particular, the dissertation looks to the intersection of psychoanalysis and deconstruction, specifically to Jacques Derrida's engagements with Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," to argue that deconstruction needs to be thought of as a marginal and politicized form of psychoanalytic thinking, the stakes of which emerge through Derrida's readings of Freud's death drive. The dissertation follows the thread of these readings to consider the problems of difference, violence, sadism and masochism, and anxiety in the work of colonial and postcolonial practitioners of psychoanalysis as well as postcolonial artists and novelists. The Subaltern Clinic makes the argument that an attention to the legacy of the death drive in the postcolonial archive allows for a more robust critique of postcolonial reason, which would attend to questions of ethics and aesthetics.</p> / Dissertation

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study investigated the semiotic resources used by Vagina Varsity, a campaign by sanitary towel brand Libresse on the social media platform YouTube to construct meanings around the female body. Vagina Varsity is a South African online advertising campaign on YouTube which marketed their sanitary products, whilst educating, as well as breaking the social stigma, around the black female body. In this study, YouTube was utilized as a space in which to analyze online identities and communication. The study was located within the field of linguistic landscape (LL) studies, including the sub-field virtual linguistic landscapes (VLL), later reformulated as virtual semioscapes. The conceptual framework was undergirded by multimodality/multisemioticity and feminist theory. The study used a mixed methods approach to data collection, and used a virtual linguistic ethnography (VLE) framework to collect the data sources, which included YouTube videos, YouTube comments, and emails. A focus group interview was also conducted, where the Vagina Varsity videos were shown to a group of diverse youth at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. The embodied discourses which emerged, as well as the discourse strategies of the commentators, were multimodally analysed. The study found that the Vagina Varsity course makes use of multiple modes, including embodied semiotics such as gestures and stylizations of voice, visual modes such as cartoon figures, as well as the strategic use of sound. In addition, the study found that educational content and marketing strategies are both embedded in this campaign, with the educational content overshadowing the advertising aspect. It is for this reason that the YouTube comments and focus group interview were centered on the program itself and not the advertisement. Furthermore, when looking at the medium this campaign used, one sees that the virtual space allows for the teaching of taboo topics, which would not be allowed in traditional educational domains. The virtual space is not only bridging the knowledge gap in the topic of sex education, it also bridges the gap between different communities, as the YouTube comment section allows for people to interact across regional, national and even cultural boundaries. This study also found that Vagina Varsity not only recontextualized the educational genre, but they have also recontextualized the production and consumption of a topic which would otherwise be considered taboo. In terms of the implications for the study, one finds that the stigma that is attached to this subject is removed from this content. Although one cannot say for certain that this type of education will take over the African traditional initiation ceremonies for girls, for example, it can be used to complement some of the content that traditional counselors and social workers use to teach young African women. The fact that the program is formalized in a curriculum that can be found online opens up possibilities for open dialogue across cultures and nations in terms of feminine hygiene. This study contributes to the field of Linguistic Landscapes studies, with specific focus on virtual linguistic landscapes. The study also illustrates that the affordances of the online space allows for a hybrid edutainment space where people can learn about topics which are considered taboo in the domain of formal education. This study also extends the concept of multimodality, by including notions such as semiotic remediation and resemiotization, as well as immediacy and hypermediacy, as tools of multimodal analysis. This study also contributes to studies on gender and sexuality. / 2022-08-31

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Law, 2014 / This study is interested in questions of law and social change, with a particular focus on how litigation can be used strategically to change the law to benefit women. Given law’s patriarchal nature, feminist litigators have often asked questions about whether, and how the law can be used to reflect women’s experience and to improve women’s lives. In this sense, the feminist project in law considers how feminist theory and methodology can be used in constructing legal arguments that seek the improvement of women’s rights and gender equality. The focal point of this study is amicus curiae participation and how this participation is employed by means of feminist litigation strategy so that it enhances rights-claiming and advances gender equality for women within the court system. I examine the way in which amicus curiae participation promotes litigation from a feminist and gendered viewpoint and validates the employment of feminist method to create effective arguments. The main body of the dissertation is dedicated to a case analysis of the Constitutional Court’s core gender jurisprudence and the amici curiae that have participated in these matters. The case discussions are divided into three categories: violence against women, women as part of cultural communities, and specific areas of vulnerability including prostitution and domestic partnerships (between heterosexual couples). The purpose of this analysis is to establish whether the amici curiae that have participated in these matters were able to influence judicial decisions, and how the amici used litigation to communicate a feminist and gendered viewpoint. The study concludes that, whether the relevant amici curiae participation had a direct or indirect impact on judicial decisions or not, its importance lies in engaging the law from a feminist and gendered viewpoint to create awareness of gender inequality, how this inequality is entrenched in the legal system and how it might be remedied.

This study uses Karlyn Campbell's concept of feminine rhetorical style as a theoretical framework for analyzing the rhetoric of Barbara Bush's 1990 Wellesley College commencement address. Through a systematic evaluation of Barbara Bush's speech, this study reveals that her rhetoric exemplifies feminine rhetorical style. The analysis also concludes that Barbara Bush's personal tone, specifically her use of narrative and humor, is the most useful and effective characteristic of her feminine rhetorical style. Using feminine rhetorical style, Barbara Bush successfully dissipates some of the tension she faced prior to the graduation ceremony at Wellesley College. Therefore, this study reveals that feminine rhetorical style is an attractive alternative for speakers seeking to build identification in hostile situations when identification is, or appears to be, lacking. / by Bethany Lynne Doran. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Sowle Cahill / The existence of moral and tragic dilemmas is highly debated within philosophy. Tragic dilemmas are a special kind of moral dilemma that involve great tragedy. Traditionally, philosophy tends to deny dilemmas because obligations cannot truly conflict and an ethical system must always guide agents in deliberation. For the most part, Christian theology dismisses the possibility of moral dilemmas. A highly influential theological rejection comes from Aquinas. Philosopher Bernard Williams famously challenged traditional ideas, worrying that a focus on reason to the exclusion of feelings has prevented ethicists from recognizing important aspects of the moral life, including the existence of moral and tragic dilemmas. This omission renders ethics unable to capture moral experience, and what good is ethics if it doesn’t speak to the moral life as we experience it? This presents a challenge for theology as well. This dissertation takes seriously Williams’s concerns and investigates the possibility of tragic dilemmas within a Christian context. I develop a defense of tragic dilemmas within a Christian virtue framework using feminist insights. I argue that in a tragic dilemma an agent deliberates on, with sufficient knowledge, an issue that involves non-negotiable moral requirements in line with Christian obligations to protect human life and the vulnerable. A tragic dilemma causes great harm and can “mar” the agent’s life. The agent is morally responsible for the harm caused and/or the obligation not acted upon. However, culpability is mitigated due to the constraints of the situation as long as the agent acts with “repugnance of the will.” When involvement in a tragic dilemma produces emotional harm this has the power to undermine character because, as I argue, passions and the moral life are inextricably related. In turn, the agent’s life is “marred.” In light of this, Christian healing is necessary after involvement in a tragic dilemma. In the first half of this dissertation, I investigate moral dilemmas in general. In Chapter 1, I layout the major philosophical debates surrounding moral dilemmas and I highlight touchstones, questions, ambiguities, and problems to bring to theology—issues around logic, autonomy, the nature of moral requirements, blame, restitution, and what constitutes a tragic dilemma. In Chapter 2, I assess the theological response to moral dilemmas vis-à-vis Aquinas. Although Aquinas explicitly denies the possibility for moral dilemmas that are not the agent’s fault, I find new points of contact between Aquinas and moral dilemma theorists. In light of this, there is space for the possibility of moral dilemmas in a Christian virtue context, but this understanding is beyond the boundaries set-up by Aquinas. In the second half of the dissertation, I move to discuss tragic dilemmas, specifically. In Chapter 3, I use Christian thought and feminist insights to develop my definition of tragic dilemmas. As real-life cases of moral injury from war show, tragic dilemmas can cause emotional harm. In Chapter 4, I offer Christian strategies for healing from tragic dilemmas. Because we are social beings and because society often bears some blame for the occurrence of tragic dilemmas, healing must also happen in, with, and among the community member. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

This dissertation examines humor as a situated practice of reappropriation and transformation undertaken by a subject within a social world. I bring together insights from humor studies, philosophy of humor, and feminist philosophy (especially feminist continental philosophy) to introduce the concept of humorwork as an unstable political practice of reappropriating and transforming existing images, speech, and situations. I argue that humorwork is an unstable politics because the practice of reappropriation and transformation often exceeds the intentions of the subject practicing humor, taking on a continued life beyond the humorist’s intentions. By focusing on the practice of humor, the subject who produces it, their social and political world, the affects circulated through political humor, and the politics of popular and scholarly discourse about humor, I push against a reductive, depoliticized concept of humor and the trivializing gesture of “it’s just a joke.” Instead, I argue that humorists are responsible and connected to (if not always blameable) for the social and political life of their humorwork, despite the unstable and unpredictable uptake of humor against a humorist’s intentions.

In 2008, Women’s Studies in Communication released a special issue entitled “Conversations and Commentary on Redefining the Professor(iate): Valuing Commitments to Care and Career in Academe” where the authors discussed how a lack of support for multiple and competing roles related to care and career responsibilities negatively impacted the careers of women faculty members. Today, women faculty members still experience more challenges associated with advancement, tenure, and promotion compared to their male counterparts and are also more likely to leave academia as leaks in the pipeline. Previous research has demonstrated that these challenges are due to organizational barriers rather than individual choices and abilities (McMurtrie, 2013; Slaughter, 2012). As such, this study employs two theoretical frameworks to explore career challenges in more detail: structuration theory (Giddens 1979; 1984) and feminist intersectional theory (Crenshaw, 1988; 1989/1993; 1991). Coupled together, structuration theory and feminist intersectional theory enable the researcher to understand what structures enable and constrain tenure/promotion and care needs/responsibilities and to be critical of those structures and who they privilege along the way. Semi-structured interviews (n=49), in combination with document collection (n=433) and logging, were used to assess the organizational structure and the movement of participants through the structure. Analysis of the documents and interviews illustrate rules and resources that both enable and constrain tenure, promotion, and care work for female faculty.

This dissertation draws on feminist theory and ecofeminist philosophy to examine the connections between understandings of women and nature and the construction of pervasive conceptualizations and practices of childbirth. It also examines the relationship between conceptualizations of men and masculinity, culture and nature, and childbirth. In order to conduct such an examination, this study explores the dominant Western discourse around gender and childbirth. Specifically, the work aims to identify prominent characteristics and themes related to childbirth in both popular culture, such as Hollywood films (Knocked Up, The Backup Plan), documentaries (The Business of Being Born), birth guides, magazines, news articles, websites, and scholarly, medical and alternative healthcare discourse. This work seeks to consider how various conceptualizations of childbirth are used to legitimate, or, alternately, to undermine, patriarchal gender norms such as emphasized femininity and patriarchal (hegemonic) masculinity and, more generally, what ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood calls "master consciousness" (Val Plumwood 1993), a way of understanding the world that is reliant on an unjustifiably dualistic thinking and that is responsible for fostering social practices of domination. In particular, this work seeks to determine to what extent is our conceptualization of childbirth, and subsequent practice, based on potentially erroneous presumptions about the hierarchical division between the realms of culture and nature and masculinity and femininity? Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation sets out to consider the implications of alternative conceptualizations of childbirth emerging in the context of the natural birth movement. Specifically, I aim to determine whether or not these alternatives interpretations of childbirth counteract patriarchal gender categories and the culture/nature dualism. / Jeff Nall. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Wiccan witchcraft, a contemporary religion, frequently suffers from misunderstandings; the worst of which, arguably, being that it thrives in a postfeminist society. Although it remains unclear why witches, despite their specific traditions, would not immediately embrace feminism, this study claims that whether practitioners agree or disagree, they are performing feminism. In this study, I argue that Wiccan rhetoric (both discursive and non-discursive) functions epistemically to encourage feminist values. The thesis analyzes three typical forms of Wiccan rhetoric using Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin’s approach of invitational rhetoric and the values of equality, immanent value, and self-determination. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Rape play is a type of consensual, ritualistic domination and submission, developed and enacted in a sado-masochistic (S/M) sex culture, which involves the appearance of force. There are two feminist theories that can be employed in a feminist analysis of rape play: dominance/radical feminism and libertarian/"sex positive" feminism. Libertarian/"sex positive" feminism holds that S/M, including rape play, is potentially compatible with feminism because the power dynamic between a dominant/"rapist" and submissive/"victim" does not draw on either practitioners' actual social identity and the power it possesses or lacks. Dominance/radical feminism argues that gender, which is socially constructed, can best be understood as a form of sexualized domination and submission, so social identity could not be dissociated from power in S/M. My reading of guidebooks and narratives about rape play suggests that the dominance/radical feminist position is more accurate in the case of rape play, though not necessarily all of S/M culture. / by Megan Halena. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.