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This thesis is aimed at investigating the concepts of otherness and the abject/abjection in the various characters' discourses in the two short stories "Dimensions" and "Child's Play" in Alice Munro's collection Too Much Happiness from a psychoanalytic perspective in conjunction with a Critical Discourse Analysis. Both texts share features of otherness which manifest in various forms in the characters. In "Dimensions" otherness has to do with insanity, domestic terror, and self-alienation in a dysfunctional marriage, whereas in "Child's Play" it concerns children's othering of a disabled young girl which eventually leads to her death. What both stories also show is that certain characters experience a sense of abjection or can be seen as embodying the abject, which eventually make them commit murder. Moreover, this thesis also argues that certain characters in both stories attempt to control and manipulate the course of events in both narratives even retrospectively. A psychoanalytical approach based on Jacques Lacan's and Julia Kristeva's theoretical framework in conjunction with Norman Fariclough's Critrical Discourse Analysis serve as the basis for this investigation.

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Que ce soit en littérature ou en cinéma, bon nombre d’études sur le gothique ont été menées au fil des années. Dans notre thèse, nous nous efforcerons de démontrer la corrélation entre le gothique et la nécessité de certaines formes de transgression, de radicalisme (artistique, esthétique et politique) lorsqu’un sujet (personnage) se retrouve en situation d’altérité. Ces formes de transgression se font par l’entremise du surnaturel que permet le genre du gothique. Ce dernier se voit entre autres marqué par la transgression des limites et des frontières. L’examen de ladite transgression représentera une part importante de notre étude. Les monstres que nous retrouvons dans les œuvres gothiques font fréquemment figure de traduction de bouleversements politiques ou d’inquiétudes sociales face aux divergences par rapport à la norme. Nous nous pencherons donc sur la notion du corps « monstrueux » comme site d’altérité et de menaces surnaturelles. Ce corps peut être individuel, mais aussi social. Dans le cadre de nos analyses filmiques, nous adopterons une posture postmoderne et posthumaniste, voire transhumaniste. Ayant déterminé au préalable ce que nous entendons par gothique, altérité et transgression, cette posture constituera celle adoptée lors de notre première partie. Tout d’abord, nous ferons en sorte de bien définir ces différents concepts afin de mieux les utiliser dans notre étude de certains films gothiques contemporains et des personnages qu’ils mettent en scène. Dans notre deuxième partie, certains de ces personnages nous permettront de traiter de la question du handicap, notamment en lien avec le gothique du 19e siècle et le corps « abject ». Le modèle médical du handicap sera capital dans l’établissement du rapport entre le corps ayant des limitations fonctionnelles (handicapé) et celui qui est monstrueux, difforme, etc. Nous constaterons qu’il reste un vieux fond de religiosité dans le regard sur le handicap même si le milieu de la réadaptation a pris le relais des « bonnes œuvres » depuis plus d’une centaine d’années. Incontestablement, certains tabous demeurent tenaces. L’un de ceux-ci concerne la sexualité, bien que ces derniers changent au cours des décennies et de l’évolution humaine. Comme nous le verrons dans notre thèse, il va sans dire que ce tabou concerne autant la sexualité en général que celle des personnes en situation de handicap lorsqu’elle n’est pas réduite au silence ou à des déviances. Conséquemment, des œuvres gothiques ont mis en lumière des préoccupations en lien avec le genre, l’âge, les classes sociales, la race, l’orientation sexuelle et la santé sexuelle. Nous nous jetterons plus précisément un éclairage sur l’handiphilie (une attirance sexuelle pour le handicap) en brossant un portrait d’autres paraphilies au préalable, dont le BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, soumission, sadomasochisme). Jugeant que l’handiphilie est sous-jacente dans certaines œuvres de notre étude, nous proposerons une nouvelle lecture de films gothiques contemporains tels que An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) de Waller, Underworld (2003) de Wiseman, Underworld : Rise of the Lycans de Tatopoulos, Kiss of the Damned (2012) de Cassavetes et The Shape of Water (2017) de Del Toro. / Whether in literature or cinema, many studies of the Gothic have been carried out over the years. In our thesis, we shall strive to demonstrate the correlation between the Gothic and the need for certain forms of transgression, of radicalism (artistic, aesthetic and political) when a subject (character) finds himself in a situation of otherness. These forms of transgression are achieved through the supernatural, which the Gothic genre makes possible. Among other things, the latter is marked by the transgression of limits and boundaries. Examining this transgression will be an important part of our study. The monsters we find in gothic works frequently represent the translation of political upheavals or social anxieties about deviations from the norm. We’ll be looking at the notion of the “monstrous” body as a site of otherness and supernatural threats. This body can be individual, but also social. For the purposes of our filmic analyses, we will adopt a postmodern and posthumanist, even transhumanist, stance. Having previously determined what we mean by gothic, otherness and transgression, this will be the stance adopted in our first section. We will begin by defining these concepts so as to be able to use them in our study of certain contemporary gothic films and the characters they portray. In our second part, we’ll use some of these characters to address the issue of disability, particularly in relation to the 19th-century Gothic and the “abject” body. The medical model of disability will be crucial in establishing the relationship between the body with functional limitations (handicapped) and the body that is monstrous, deformed, etc. We’ll see that there’s still an old-fashioned religiosity in the way we look at disability, even if the rehabilitation community has been taking over from “good works” for over a hundred years. Unquestionably, certain taboos remain tenacious. One of these concerns sexuality, although this has changed over the decades as a result of human evolution. As we will see in our thesis, it goes without saying that this taboo concerns both sexuality in general and that of people with disabilities, when the latter is not reduced to silence or deviance. As a result, Gothic works have highlighted concerns about gender, age, social class, race, sexual orientation and sexual health. We’ll take a closer look at devoteeism (a sexual attraction to disability), by looking at other paraphilias beforehand, including BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadomasochism). Judging that devoteeism underlies certain works in our study, we will propose a new reading of contemporary gothic films such as Waller’s An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), Wiseman’s Underworld (2003), Tatopoulos’ Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned (2012) and Del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017).

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This academic paper examines the menstrual art that is seen as provocative in the contemporary art debate in Sweden. The paper problematizes menstrual art as a concept. Moreover, it critically examines how the concept of menstrual art has been received by politicians, art theorists and journalists. The ideas and artistic expressions in menstrual art have been analyzed using Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory on abjection and Wasshedes verbalized form abjectification. As well as how the distinction between purity and dirt can be examined by using the ideas found in menstrual art. How do artists challenge prevailing societal structures and norms by creating menstrual art? Which ideas does the concept of menstrual art include? How did the concept of menstrual art become a controversial word in the contemporary debate in Sweden?

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Yes / This paper responds to the dearth of research into women's negative intra-gender relations and lack of understanding as to why and how these relations manifest. Through a qualitative study of women elite leaders' experiences in UK organizations, the research considers how gendered contexts, women doing gender well and differently simultaneously, intra-gender competition and female misogyny may explain negative intra-gender social relations between women. We consider micro-aggression research and women's abjection and offer a unique conceptualization of intra-gender micro-violence with themes of disassociating, suppression of opportunity and abject appearance. The themes illustrate how the masculine symbolic order shapes and constrains women elite leaders' social relations with other women. We conclude that raising consciousness to intra-gender micro-violence between women is important as a means of disruption; to facilitate women and men's acceptance of intra-gender differences between women; and to open up opportunities and possibilities for women in organizations.

La littérature est une source d’où jaillissent les flots intarissables du paradoxe ; c’est dans cet entrelacement de dichotomies que nous nous sommes immergées pour percevoir l’unité sous-jacente derrière l’oxymore que constitue le titre de notre thèse : « une poétique de l’abjection dans la littérature gothique américaine postmoderne. » Si nous nous sommes tournées vers Stephen King, Peter Straub et Chuck Palahniuk et avons mis l’accent sur trois de leurs œuvres précises, notre démonstration se veut être transposable à l’ensemble de leurs écrits. Nous nous sommes interrogées sur la nature de l’abjection et sur sa prééminence dans une société américaine portant le sceau du puritanisme. Marqués par le Romantisme et le Gothique anglais, nos auteurs ont su donner aux thématiques caractérisant ces mouvements une voie nouvelle. Situer nos œuvres dans la lignée du gothique postmoderne nous permet d’osciller sur le paradigme de l’excès et de l’incomplétude, de la déconstruction et de l’unité. Le thème de la fragmentation apparaît comme l’un des fils d’Ariane permettant aux auteurs de tisser autour des lecteurs leur toile arachnéenne. Ce démantèlement qui affecte à la fois la dimension narrative et thématique des récits contribue à leur effet patchwork et subversif, nous liant à notre problématique postmoderne. Les paradoxes engendrés par nos récits leur donnent leur force et expliquent leur fascination sur le public. Nos pérégrinations menant à l’ouverture des différentes portes de l’interprétation révèlent que l’abjection devient source d’une nouvelle esthétique. Le laid peut véhiculer de la beauté et du sublime. L’harmonie qui existe dans le monde de la déchéance qui nous est dépeint explique l’emprise hypnotique de la littérature de l’abjection sur le lecteur. Source de poétique, celle-ci procure un plaisir de la lecture quasi jouissif pour ceux qui se laissent transporter par la magie créatrice de nos auteurs. / Literature is a stream from which gush forth the inexhausting flows of paradoxes; we have immersed ourselves in this entertwining of dichotomies to perceive the underlying unity behind the oxymoron constituting the title of our thesis: “a poetics of the abjection in American postmodern gothic literature.” If we have chosen Stephen King, Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk and have focused on three specific novels, our demonstration intends to be transposed to the whole range of their works. We wondered about the nature of abjection and its pre-eminence in an American society bearing the seal of Puritanism. Marked by Romanticism and the English gothic, our authors have been able to convey to the themes characterizing those movements a new direction. Setting our novels in the wake of postmodern gothic is a way for us to oscillate on the paradigm of excess and incompleteness, deconstruction and unity. The theme of fragmentation appears as one of Ariadne’s clues allowing the authors to weave their gossamery web around the readers. This dismantling which both affects the narrative and thematic dimension of the novels contributes to the patchwork and subversive effect engendered, linking us to our postmodern problematic. The paradoxes engendered by our novels give them their strength and account for their fascination on the audience. Our peregrinations leading to the opening of the various interpretative doors reveal that abjection becomes the source of a new aesthetics. Ugliness can convey beauty and sublime. The harmony which exists in the world of discrepancy depicted to us explains the hypnotic ascendancy of the literature of abjection on the reader. Source of poetry, it brings about a pleasure of reading verging on climax for those who let themselves be carried away by the creative magic of our authors.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I investigate the radical reframing of maternal representation in the photographic series by Cape Town-based artist Svea Josephy (b. 1969), entitled Confinement 2005-ongoing. Using Julia Kristeva’s theorisation of the maternal body’s relation to abjection, as well as its imperative to the remodelling of the relationship between the corporeal and the cultural, I explore how Josephy’s images explicitly engage with the Kristevan abject in order to disrupt cultural inscriptions of maternity and ‘motherhood’. I contend that Confinement situates Josephy’s experience of ‘becoming-mother’ against the dominant discourses of maternity and birth, and thereby uses the maternal subject as a means to interrogate broader issues of gender and identity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis ondersoek ek die radikale herberaming van die moederfiguur in Confinement (2005 tot op hede) – ‘n fotoreeks van die Kaapse kunstenaar Svea Josephy (geb. 1969). Julia Kristeva se teorieë oor die moederlike liggaam, en in besonder die moederliggaam se verhouding tot abjeksie, word aangewend om die verband tussen die liggaamlike en die kulturele te herbedink. Ek ondersoek hoe hierdie fotoreeks Kristeva se konsep van die abjekte benut, ten einde kulturele voorskriftelikheid oor moederskap en 'ma-wees' te ontwrig. Ek argumenteer dat Confinement Josephy se ondervinding van 'wordend-moederskap’ die dominante diskoerse van moederskap en geboorte uitdaag, en sodoende die moederlike subjek gebruik om breër aspekte rondom geslag en identiteit te bevraagteken.