This thesis explores the role and representation of the natural world in a selection of Canadian dystopian novels: After the Fact (1986) by Hélène Holden, Voices in Time (1986) by Hugh MacLennan, Oryx and Crake (2004) and The Handmaid's Taie (1985) by Margaret Atwood. In order to argue that Canadian dystopian fiction varies from conventional literary dystopias because of its predominant use of nature, this thesis first examines the influence that archetypal images and symbols of nature have on specific dystopian conventions in Holden's and MacLennan's respective novels. Then, this study looks at how Atwood's critique of nature as a victim in Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Taie engages with ecocritic and ecofeminist ideas causing a breakdown in the generic conventions of Atwood's dystopian novels. / Cette thèse explore le rôle et la représentation de la nature dans les romans dystopiques canadiens suivants: After the Fact (1986) d'Hélène Holden, Voices in Time (1986) de Hugh MacLennan, Oryx andCrake (2004) et The Handmaid's Taie (1985) de Margaret Atwood. Ayant pour objectif de démontrer que la fiction canadienne dystopique se distingue de la littérature dystopique traditionnelle en fonction de son utilisation dominante de la nature, cette thèse examine l'influence des images, des symboles et des archétypes de la nature sur les conventions dystopiques spécifiques à After the Fact de Holden et Voices in Time de MacLennan. Ensuite, cette étude analyse la représentation de la nature comme victime dans Oryx and Crake et dans The Handmaid's Taie de Atwood qui diffère des conventions traditionnelles du roman dystopique en s'inspirant des idées découlant de l'écoféminisme et de l'écocritique.

Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing has received considerable critical attention on the issue of “a positive female identity” in a patriarchal society. However, given Atwood’s own stress on the fact that the novel is about the ways both genders work in relation to each other, this criticism has lacked in scrutiny of the novel’s male characters. With a relational approach to the female and male characters, this thesis argues that while creating a positive identity for its female protagonist, the novel effectively creates a rather negative one for its male characters. In order to examine certain sets of relations and the qualities which represent the most honored way of being a man in the novel, I apply the concept of “hegemonic masculinity,” which can be understood as the pattern of practices that explain male domination over women. It is indeed this hegemonic masculinity that the Surfacer rejects in her quest for emancipation. By looking at the hegemonic masculinity in Surfacing, I argue that the novel depicts very typically patriarchal characters in Joe and David and that the society is typically patriarchal. The thesis is divided into three main sections, each examining the most important sets of relations concerning Atwood’s female emancipation. First, I analyze hegemonic structures in the world of the protagonist, including the issues of power, emancipation, and complicity. Then I look into the sexual division of labor to show that the characters assume their default roles without much reflection. Finally, I scrutinize the characters’ relation to the Symbolic and how it affects their sense of identity. In each section, the analyses show that the male characters are reduced to tropes who only serve one function: to be stereotypically oppressive, patriarchal figures in order to facilitate the protagonist’s positive change and empowerment. I argue that Atwood’s failure to imagine male emancipation somewhat taints the development of female identity because the female emancipation becomes arrested.

Cette thèse analyse le corps dystopique dans La Servante Ecarlate. Elle vise à examiner les façons dont le pouvoir masculiniste subjugue les servantes à travers l'objectivation et l'effacement de leur corps, puis à analyser le corps féminin comme un élément perturbateur, un site où se produit une constante subversion du pouvoir tout au long du roman. L'introduction offre une brève discussion sur la raison derrière le choix de La Servante Ecarlate comme une étude de cas, qui est dans le but de développer le concept du corps dystopique à partir d'un point de vue féministe. Elle délimite aussi mon argument sur le corps dystopique et le pouvoir. Le premier chapitre intitulé ‟Perspectives Critiques” présente une revue critique de la littérature, introduit ma contribution à l'étude du roman, et expose mes arguments sur l'utopie féministe, la dystopie, le corps dystopique et la circulation du pouvoir. Dans le deuxième chapitre intitulé ‟Le Corps Dystopique” je démontre que la dystopie dans une certaine mesure est déjà profondément enracinée dans le présent. Cette section se concentre sur les différents aspects de la dystopie principalement la reproduction, la sexualité, la surveillance et le code vestimentaire tout en étudiant leur impact sur le corps de la servante. Ces aspects sont abordés en détail dans des sous-chapitres séparés. Le dernier chapitre intitulé ‟La Subversion du Pouvoir” examine dans un premier lieu le mode d'échange de pouvoir entre le commandant et son épouse Serena Joy. Il étudie les façons dont chacun des personnages se positionne par rapport au pouvoir afin d’exploiter le corps d’Offred. Puis, il examine l'ironie qui se cache derrière le jeu de pouvoir constant dans le roman, dévoilant ainsi la perpétuation de la dystopie corporelle étant donné que le corps de la femme ne cesse d'être l'objet de la lutte. Ce travail étudie l'expérience corporelle de la femme dans un régime totalitaire et les façons dont le corps féminin devient dystopique. Il présente le corps féminin comme la proie des hommes et des femmes, et la dystopie comme étroitement dépendante et générée par la conception de ce corps dans la société de Gilead. Mots clés: Dystopie, Corps, Pouvoir, Féminisme, Ironie, Margaret Atwood / The present thesis analyzes the dystopic body in The Handmaid’s Tale. It aims at examining the ways with which the masculinist power subjugates Handmaids through the objectification and erasure of their bodies, then analyzing the female body as a disruptive force, a site where constant powerplay occurs throughout the novel. The introduction provides a brief discussion of my reasons for choosing The Handmaid’s Tale as a case study, which includes a desire to develop the concept of the dystopic body from a feminist standpoint. It also delineates my argument on the dystopic body and power. In the first chapter entitled “Critical Perspectives”, I present a critical review of literature, introduce my contribution to the study of the novel, and expose my arguments on feminist utopia, dystopia, the dystopic body and power play. The second chapter entitled “The Dystopic Body” demonstrates that dystopia is already deep-rooted in the present. It focuses on the different aspects of dystopia mainly reproduction, sexuality, surveillance and the dress code, and studies their impact on the Handmaid’s body. These aspects are discussed in detail in separate subchapters. The final chapter entitled “Power Subversion” examines at one level the mode of power exchange between the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. It investigates the ways with which each of the characters positions themselves to power in order to take ownership of Offred’s body. At another level, it studies the irony that lies behind the constant power play in the novel, uncovering the perpetuation of bodily dystopia since the female body never ceases to be the object of struggle. This thesis examines the bodily experience of women under such totalitarian regimes and the ways in which the female body becomes dystopic. It presents the female body as the prey of both men and women, and dystopia as closely dependent on and generated by the conception of that body in the society of Gilead. Keywords: Dystopia, Body, Power, Feminism, Irony, Margaret Atwood

Huvudsyftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur elever och lärare i svenska 2 på gymnasiet tillsammans kan arbeta med skönlitterära verk inom sciencefiction-genren för att utveckla ett nyanserat perspektiv på omvärlden. Utöver detta har vi också undersökt målen med läsning i gy 11 och jämfört dem med målen i lpf94, för att ta reda på hur läsandets syfte och mål har motiverats och förändrats.För att exemplifiera sciencefiction-genrens potential att påverka elevers syn på omvärlden har vi valt att analysera två skönlitterära verk av Margaret Atwood: Oryx och Crake och Syndaflodens år. I analysen har tematiken analyserats med ett ekokritiskt perspektiv. För att stödja analysen har vi använt Grimbeeks (2017) avhandling Margaret Atwood’s Environmentalism: Apocalypse and Satire in the MaddAddam Trilogy och Peter Barrys (2009) Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory. Vi har kommit fram till att tematiken som återfinns i båda verken kan användas didaktiskt för att utveckla elevers kritiska och kreativa tänkande.För att ta reda på hur elever kan påverkas av läsandet av skönlitteratur i sciencefiction-genren har vi undersökt de olika läsarterna efferent, estetisk och kreativ läsning då sättet att läsa på påverkar resultatet av läsningen. Vi har även kommit fram till tre steg som går att följa i arbetet med skönlitteratur: att leda in elever i skönlitteraturen, under läsandets gång och efter läsandet. Utifrån dessa tre steg har vi undersökt olika teorier för lärande, tänkande och läsning. För att beskriva hur elever kan ledas in i skönlitteraturen har vi tagit stöd av bland andra Collie och Slater (1987) som menar att noveller och utdrag kan fungera väl när det handlar om att leda in elever i skönlitteraturen. Vi har även tagit stöd av Bommarco och Parmenius Swärd (2018) som menar att elever kan “skriva sig in i litteraturen” (2018, s. 58). Elever behöver även stöd och motivation under läsandets gång. För att beskriva hur lärare och elever tillsammans kan gå tillväga för att stödja och motivera läsningen har vi tagit stöd av Edvardsson (2016) som menar att elever behöver lära sig olika lässtrategier. Vi har även tagit stöd av Murphy et al. (2016) som menar att litteratursamtal är en viktig del av läsningen och bidrar till en utveckling av nya perspektiv på omvärlden.

"2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-239). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

This thesis project is centered on the female body, specifically body image, in relation to Western, cultural images of women. This is a problem that has been around, essentially, since the beginning of Western art. While different scholars argue whether or not this problem has become worse, it is nonetheless problematic that we are still, in 2018, fighting patriarchy’s control of our bodies via body image. Grounding my project in Susan Bordo’s 1993 text Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, this thesis explores Bordo’s argument that the female body is culturally produced through the lens of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacra. Reading Bordo via Baudrillard allows us to explore this age-old problem at a new angle, giving us new reasons that explain why we are still stuck in patriarchy’s chains. Through this lens, I demonstrate how and why Third-wave feminist activism (I focus specifically on the Body Positive Movement) is failing in their attempts to reclaim the female body: the issue lies within Third-wave activism’s desire to portray othered bodies as beautiful and desirable. This becomes problematic in the era of simulacra: abject bodies do not resemble the (un)real ideal so they become “unreal” in the eyes of society. This attempt to represent abject bodies (obese, racialized, trans, disabled) as beautiful results in stigmatization and disgust towards said bodies, and thus the Body Positive Movement leaves out abject bodies because these abject bodies cannot be seen as beautiful in a society that deems them unreal. I argue that in order to reclaim the female body, we must first reclaim the mind side of the mind/body dualism before we can successfully reclaim our bodies. To demonstrate how this is possible, I use Margaret Atwood’s novel Lady Oracle as a case study that not only shows how the female body is culturally produced in the era of simulacra, but also allows us to see how reclaiming the mind side of the binary does allow the protagonist, Joan, to reclaim her past and body as her own, without shame. It is through fiction that reality is represented, and I conclude my thesis with my own personal anecdotes, showing how resistance via fiction can transcend into real life and point to a new, hopeful future.

This study examines the use of the fairy tale intertext in contemporary Canadian womens fiction. In using specific fairy tale plots, themes, motifs, and/or characters within their works of fiction, women writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries purposefully express their goal for the revival and continuity of the female narrative voice and sense of agency. To explore the fairy tale-fiction relationship, Margaret Atwoods Alias Grace and Anne Hberts Kamouraska are approached from what fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes has constructed as the theory of contamination of the fairy tale genre. The fairy tale genres integration into contemporary fiction represents an important development where fairy tale narratives are critically reread so as to bring out deeper meanings for the contemporary audience. / Comparative Literature

This study examines the three novels Cat s Eye, The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. It focuses on the female characters and their relationships to each other: Their friendships are formed in a patriarchally structured environment and are therefore arenas for defending and controlling the norms of such a structure. The women continually watch each other and themselves, and through the power exercise of watching, femininity is constructed. Atwood describes acts of dialogic storytelling as a means to find options to gendered behavior. / digitalisering@umu

La presente tesis doctoral "Deconstrucción literaria de los trastornos de la alimentación y de la cirugía estética en las novelas de Margaret Atwood y Fay Weldon" intenta hallar una respuesta a la acusada diferencia de género que presentan los trastornos de la alimentación: anorexia, bulimia y sobreingesta compulsiva. La mera explicación por parte del discurso médico y socio-cultural de que estas patologías son el resultado de la interiorización por parte de las adolescentes del mensaje mediático de que la delgadez es sinónimo de belleza, no satisfacían el interrogante ante la continua proliferación de mujeres anoréxicas y bulímicas. Este trabajo consta de tres capítulos: el primero introduce y establece la genealogía de los trastornos de la alimentación. La teoría freudiana y lacaniana en que se basa este primer capítulo ejemplifica que la mujer ha sido creada dentro de un sistema falócrata como "la otra". El hecho de que Foucault subraye que a través del lenguaje se construyen los objetos y que se necesitan los binomios para que uno de los elementos adquiera significado, corrobora la construcción patriarcal que necesita convertir a la mujer en pasiva para que el hombre adquiera preponderancia. Las novelas The Edible Woman (1969) y Lady Oracle (1976) de Atwood; The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) y The Fat Woman's Joke (1967) de Weldon son analizadas en este primer capítulo desde las perspectivas freudiana y lacaniana con el propósito de ejemplificar cómo el sistema patriarcal es el que convierte a la mujer en un sujeto pasivo carente de poder, y donde la herramienta utilizada para este cometido es el logos falócrata.Tras la presentación en el primer capítulo de la carencia de las mujeres de un discurso propio, se analiza la novela The Edible Woman, desde una perspectiva postestructural feminista. El corpus teórico de este segundo capítulo es la deconstrucción que Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva y Hélène Cixous hacen de las teorías freudianas y lacanianas. Irigaray pone en tela de juicio la esquematización del orden simbólico hecha por Lacan y otorga a las mujeres la posibilidad de ascender a la parte superior de la pirámide simbólica; lugar desde donde éstas procederán a la construcción de un logos diferente. Cixous enfatiza la necesidad de deconstruir los binomios imperantes y Kristeva señala la necesidad de una unión "empoderante", es decir, de una "sororidad" entre mujeres. Este trabajo ha intentado verter dichas teorías en la novela de Atwood por medio del análisis de sus personajes. Marian, personaje principal, carece de un lenguaje propio y su anorexia se convierte en la respuesta subversiva que expresa su yo auténtico, aparentemente carente de voz y, por tanto, de poder, pero que es, como se demuestra a lo largo de este segundo capítulo, un potente lenguaje de resistencia. A través de la literatura y pese a utilizar necesariamente un discurso falócrata, Atwood es capaz de hacer ver a sus lectoras la falacia del sistema y la necesidad de un logos femenino propio. Es en este punto de la tesis donde se cuestiona el significado de "cultural dope" asociado a las anoréxicas y bulímicas. El objetivo de esta investigación, ofrecer una explicación alternativa a la acusada diferencia de género en los trastornos alimentarios, queda así establecido. El propósito del tercer capítulo es el de utilizar el mismo marco teórico, pero en otro ámbito: el de la cirugía estética. La novela de Weldon The Life and Loves of a She-Devil es el marco idóneo para ejemplificar la teoría explicada en este tercer capítulo puesto que es una sátira feminista de la calología que subraya la opresión femenina y la tiranía patriarcal. Esta novela ofrece una nueva perspectiva de la cirugía estética como lenguaje feminista reivindicativo a la vez que subvierte el discurso falócrata.

An experimental study of the effect of initial conditions on the development of Rayleigh Taylor Instabilities (RTI) at low Atwood numbers (order of 10-4) was performed in the water channel facility at TAMU. Initial conditions of the flow were generated using a controllable, highly reliable Servo motor. The uniqueness of the study is the system’s capability of generating the required initial conditions precisely as compared to the previous endeavors. Backlit photography was used for imaging and ensemble averaging of the images was performed to study mixing width characteristics in different regimes of evolution of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability (RTI). High-speed imaging of the flows was performed to provide insights into the growth of bubble and spikes in the linear and non-linear regime of instability development. RTI are observed in astrophysics, geophysics and in many instances in nature. The vital role of RTI in the feasibility and efficiency of the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiment warrants a comprehensive study of the effect of mixing characteristics of RTI and its dependence on defining parameters. With this broader objective in perspective, the objectives of this present investigation were mainly threefold: First was the validation of the novel setup of the Water channel system. Towards this objective, validation of Servo motor, splitter plate thickness effects, density and temperature measurements and single-mode experiments were performed. The second objective was to study the mixing and growth characteristics of binary and multi-mode initial perturbations seeking an explanation of behavior of the resultant flow structures by performing the first ever set of such highly controlled experiments. The first-ever set of experiments with highly controlled multi-mode initial conditions was performed. The final objective of this study was to measure and compare the bubble and spike velocities with single-mode initial conditions with existing analytical models. The data derived from these experiments would qualitatively and quantitatively enhance the understanding of dependence of mixing width on parametric initial conditions. The knowledge would contribute towards a generalized theory for RTI mixing with specified dependence on various parameters, which has a wide range of applications. The system setup was validated to provide a reliable platform for the novel multi-modal experiments to be performed in the future. It was observed that the ensemble averaged mixing width of the binary system does not vary significantly with the phase-difference between the modes of a binary mode initial condition experiment, whereas it varies with the amplitudes of the component modes. In the exponential and non-linear regimes of evolution, growth rates of multi-mode perturbations were found to be higher than the component modes, whereas saturation growth rates correspond to the dominant wavelength. Quadratic saturation growth rate constants, alpha were found to be about 0.07 ± 0.01 for binary and multi modes whereas single-mode data measured alpha about 0.06 ± 0.01. High-speed imaging was performed to measure bubble and spike amplitudes to obtain velocities and growth rates. It was concluded that higher temporal and spatial resolution was required for accurate measurement. The knowledge gained from the above study will facilitate a better understanding of the physics underlying Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The results of this study will also help validating numerical models for simulation of this instability, thereby providing predictive capability for more complex configurations.