This thesis offers an investigation into the roles of slaves and freedmen and the extent of their involvement in the Romans’ legal and literary discourse on adultery and the legislation introduced to address it – the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis. It also seeks to assert their place more firmly within the context of the Roman familia and explore what this means in the context of the adultery statute. This thesis reasserts the position of slaves and freedmen within the Roman familia as a whole and, more specifically, as individuals deserving and requiring of consideration within the context of the analysis of the adultery statute and other social legislation. A multi-disciplinary approach has been adopted in this thesis to address the multiple avenues apparent in the investigation. A detailed analysis of the primary extant source of the statute, found in Justinian’s Digest, was carried out to determine the extent of the inclusion of the servile and freed in adulterous relationships and how much consideration was shown to them by the legal writers, or jurists. As a corollary to this analysis, a range of literary works, from Ovid, the Elder Seneca, Quintilian, Tacitus and Suetonius, was examined to provide a counterpoint to the legal perspective on the inclusion of slaves and freedmen within adulterous relationships, and, subsequently, the familia. Re-assessing the roles of slaves and freedmen within adulterous relationships and the legislation aimed at controlling this crime also necessitates another reassessment – namely, that of the motivations behind the introduction of the statute itself. Notoriously difficult to determine, this thesis posits, in conclusion, that, rather than being an instrument of the moral indignation of the contemporary Roman population, the adultery legislation was instituted as an instrument of economic control to counter the potential dilution of the wealth of the elite of Rome by illegitimate children. Slaves and freedmen were, then, a crucial element of a deceptively complex piece of legislation typically assumed to affect and address members of the Roman elite only.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

M.A. / This study uses the salutogenic model as a departure point to focus on the sense of coherence (SOC) of women who had to overcome a crisis. Stressors come in many forms but this study focuses specifically on the husband's extramarital affair. After (or during) the initial shock the woman has to make a decision regarding her marriage. Women were considered in regard to the decisions they made, namely to stay in the marriage or to leave it. The first hypothesis stated that the SOC of the women who decided to leave the relationship would be higher than that of the other group. The second hypothesis stated that there would be differences amongst the three components of the SOC (meaningfulness, manageability and comprehension) for the two groups. Meaningfulness would measure higher for the group that decided to end their marriages. Manageability and comprehension would measure higher for the group that decided to stay in their marriages. These different components were quantitatively measured using Antonovsky's SOC-scale. A biographical questionnaire and a qualitative question regarding the reason for the decision that was made, was also included. Although the two hypotheses were not supported, important findings did emerge from the study. The women that left their marriages were found to be more satisfied with their decision than the other group. Women's SOC who felt satisfied or very satisfied with their decision measured higher than those that felt neutral, dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their decision. This suggests that it is more important that women make decisions that are congruent with their values and views of the marriage, than whether the decision was to terminate or continue with the marriage. This could be valuable information for practitioners working in the field. In addition, it was also found that women who got married at 22 years or older, had a higher SOC than women who got married before they were 22. This suggests that SOC continues to develop with maturity and challenges the notion that SOC ceases to develop into adulthood. Future longitudinal research covering the changes of SOC during the lifespan of a relationship would probably shed light on this issue.

No description available.

The Drowned Girl is a novel-in-stories that depicts the lives of eight characters living in a small Connecticut town. This work is one told through varying perspectives. Characters are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, daughters, sons, and lovers. Their lives intersect physically, and emotionally, and the separate stories reveal the facets and repercussions of events both past and present: the death of a son and brother in a car accident, the life and death of a notorious town figure, the past and tragic future of a young woman, Jules, whose body is found one spring in the Connecticut river. The Jules stories, six in all, document her spiral into despair, and involve the other characters as friends, lovers, and parents. As the locus of the cycle, Jules and the mystery of her death prompt characters to re-view their own circumstances, and the way in which past decisions have played a part. These revelations-of betrayal, and loss, and the way they affect key characters, are effectively inscribed in the story cycle's ability to convey a communal disparateness. Each character's story brings a new perspective, and the accumulation of the parts provides a more encompassing view of the whole. The focus on an upper middle class neighborhood called Ridgewood-a subdivision built on dairy farm land in the mid-sixties-is key to the thematic link that ties the stories together. I am interested in revealing the corruption of the natural landscape, the carving up of rural areas after World War II to create suburban communities in which family incomes and demographics are almost completely homogenous. The suburb of Ridgewood is mapped by roads designed to conform to a hierarchy that includes cul-de-sacs, and a pattern leading to residential areas of greater affluence. This setting serves as a backdrop to the complex disintegration of the family.

These collected stories represent a culling from a portion of work that shares a similar theme of loss--its manifestation, its channeling, by various fictional characters, into the palpable and sensate, into the physical world of the body. They are people, mostly women, who have lost their hold on the world to which they are accustomed, who become entangled in situations where their bearings are skewed, their judgment faulty, their decisions based solely on a physical, most often sexual, attraction that simultaneously depletes a sense of worth, while providing its semblance. The loss stems, at times, as in "Manifold," from beyond the control of the character, from the world of adults who cannot, for their own reasons, handle their own despair. It comes from the unavoidable presence of mental illness, and the inability of the character to perceive, amidst the confusion of change, a stable view. Often, as in "She Fell to Her Knees," there is no reference point upon which to base a way to live. Memory is only a trigger for more loss. The characters' own choices bring about loss in other ways--an abandoned infant, promiscuity, an encounter with a stranger--all choices made in an effort to ease, and which result in compounding precarious situations. Brief solace in sex results in inevitable emptiness. Relationships are sought for the safety of their impermanence. The respite from loneliness is always temporary, and almost always sought with the hope that from the physical will emerge the gift of emotional commitment. The stories seek to reveal, not the histories of the characters, but the maps of their emotional pasts. They attempt to portray the routes from which the women have stumbled, and in this way illuminate the emotional present of each story.

This dissertation compares representations of women in erotic triangles. I contend that despite the stability implied by the triangular shape, the erotic triangle can be made unstable through women’s language. The first chapter examines medieval and contemporary writing on an essential relationship in the triangle: the friendship between the husband and the lover. Amicitia, chaste friendships between men, had its roots in Greek and Latin philosophy, and recently these relationships have been investigated according to mimetic desire (Girard) or homosocial desire (Sedgwick). In both medieval and modern configurations, these relationships are usually predicated upon the exchange of women. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gayle Rubin and Luce Irigaray provide anthropological and literary explorations of the economic model where men exchange women to strengthen their homosocial bond. In the three texts, women use linguistic techniques to destabilize the erotic triangle. One is irony: frequently, one character does not understand an ironic statement and is excluded from the relationship between the other two participants. A second is pragmatic implicature, which is also used for exclusionary purposes. Other women adopt economic terminology to negotiate with their husbands or lovers for control of their bodies. Through these linguistic devices women speak exclusively to another member of the triangle, thereby undermining male friendships and denying their bodies be used as objects of exchange. Although their strategies are not always successful and some women remain exchangeable objects, we nevertheless see that erotic triangles can be destabilized. Furthermore, counter to the prevailing anthropological theory, certain women are aware of their position as commodities. From this insight, a new perspective on sexuality is exposed. The formerly strong male relationship, built on classical ideals and predicated on equality, breaks down when one man’s virility is pitted against his rival’s. Sometimes even, the supposedly chaste male relationship reveals erotic undertones. Women’s sexuality is also transformed when certain women prove to be desiring subjects, able to manipulate the system of exchange. In the end, institutionalized notions of chaste male friendships and women as objects of exchange are disrupted, sometimes even undermined, by capable women who determine who should have access to their bodies.

This dissertation compares representations of women in erotic triangles. I contend that despite the stability implied by the triangular shape, the erotic triangle can be made unstable through women’s language. The first chapter examines medieval and contemporary writing on an essential relationship in the triangle: the friendship between the husband and the lover. Amicitia, chaste friendships between men, had its roots in Greek and Latin philosophy, and recently these relationships have been investigated according to mimetic desire (Girard) or homosocial desire (Sedgwick). In both medieval and modern configurations, these relationships are usually predicated upon the exchange of women. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gayle Rubin and Luce Irigaray provide anthropological and literary explorations of the economic model where men exchange women to strengthen their homosocial bond. In the three texts, women use linguistic techniques to destabilize the erotic triangle. One is irony: frequently, one character does not understand an ironic statement and is excluded from the relationship between the other two participants. A second is pragmatic implicature, which is also used for exclusionary purposes. Other women adopt economic terminology to negotiate with their husbands or lovers for control of their bodies. Through these linguistic devices women speak exclusively to another member of the triangle, thereby undermining male friendships and denying their bodies be used as objects of exchange. Although their strategies are not always successful and some women remain exchangeable objects, we nevertheless see that erotic triangles can be destabilized. Furthermore, counter to the prevailing anthropological theory, certain women are aware of their position as commodities. From this insight, a new perspective on sexuality is exposed. The formerly strong male relationship, built on classical ideals and predicated on equality, breaks down when one man’s virility is pitted against his rival’s. Sometimes even, the supposedly chaste male relationship reveals erotic undertones. Women’s sexuality is also transformed when certain women prove to be desiring subjects, able to manipulate the system of exchange. In the end, institutionalized notions of chaste male friendships and women as objects of exchange are disrupted, sometimes even undermined, by capable women who determine who should have access to their bodies.