Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-147).

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 187-196. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2006. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-151). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The main aim of this thesis is the literal analysis of the chosen works of Irish writer Edna O'Brien and Canadian Margaret Atwood. The main focus is on the novels, The Country Girls trilogy, The Edible Woman and the autobiographical memoir, Mother Ireland which are analysed on the cultural, historical and social backgrounds. The brief introduction into Irish and Canadian history and literature is added as well. The thesis also deals with history and various approaches to feministic theories and terminology. The main female and male protagonists are described as well as the historical settings and plots. It also tries to seek the purposes why our characters feel frustrated and depressed and in which they might seek hope.

Speculative fiction is a genre that is gaining urgency in the contemporary Canadian literary scene as authors and readers become increasingly concerned with what it means to live in a nation implicated in globalization. This genre is useful because with it, authors can extrapolate from the present to explore what some of the long-term effects of globalization might be. This thesis specifically considers the long-term effects of globalization on communities, a theme that speculative fictions return to frequently. The selected speculative fictions engage with current theory on globalization and community in their explorations of how globalization might affect the types of communities that can be enacted. This thesis argues that these texts demonstrate how Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s notion of “cooperative autonomy” can be uniquely cultivated in the conditions of globalization – despite the fact that those conditions are characterized by the fragmentation of traditional forms of community (Empire 392).

Uppsatsen jämför berättarteknikerna i romanen Alias Grace respektive dess adaptation, teveserien Alias Grace i en adaptationsanalys. Undersökningens fokus har lagts på en av de manliga huvudkaraktärerna, Simon Jordan. Analysen har jämfört hur denna karaktär har, genom de olika berättarteknikerna, konstruerats och vilka konsekvenser skillnaderna i konstruktionen får för berättelsen. Uppsatsen kommer fram till att en av de stora skillnaderna är att Jordans perspektiv i romanen är konstruerat genom en intern fokalisation. Denna fokalisation har inte översats i serien. Istället hålls många aspekter av Jordans personlighet dolda för publiken. Detta resulterar i att seriens Jordan skildras som en relativt platt karaktär i jämförelse med sin litterära motsvarighet. Uppsatsen diskuterar även det sexuella övergreppet i seriens sista avsnitt som begås av Jordan. Eftersom att övergreppet saknas i romanen debatteras dess roll som konsumtionsvåld och chockfaktor.

This essay deals with how Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) works as a critique of the patriarchal hierarchy and the values it brings. This is portrayed in a dystopic setting in which women are subordinate to men, but also men being subordinate and marginalized by other men. Based on a gender theory on masculinities, an analysis is made on two male characters; Luke and the Commander. Both characters gain advantages in society because of hegemonic masculinity. One of them gains advantages in pre-Gilead society, and the other in the Gilead society. The focus of the analysis is on the similarities of the two characters’ connection to hegemonic masculinity. Even though, they live in different periods of history. / Denna uppsats behandlar hur Margaret Atwoods roman En Tjänarinnas Bekännelse (1985) fungerar som en kritik mot det patriarkala samhället och de värderingar som det medför. Detta porträtteras i en dystopisk miljö där kvinnor är underlydande till män, men också där män är underlydande och marginaliserade av andra män. Baserat på en könsanalys om maskuliniteter, så görs en analys av två karaktärer. Luke och the Befälhavaren. Båda karaktärer får fördelar i samhället på grund av hegemonisk maskulinitet. En av dem får fördelar i samhället före skapandet av Gilead, och den andra i Gileads samhälle. Analysen fokuserar på de likheter som finns i kopplingen till hegemonisk maskulinitet hos dem två karaktärerna. Även fast, de lever i två olika tider av historien.

This paper analyses the feminist revisionism of the Circe-myth in the rewritings by Eudora Welty, Margaret Atwood, and Madeline Miller. To that end, the paper first examines three different ways of discussing rewritings: Jeremy M. Rosen’s genre of minor-character elaboration, Linda Hutcheon’s take on postmodern parody, and Alicia Ostriker’s feminist revisionist mythmaking. Then, after positioning itself with the feminist revisionism, the paper conducts a brief reading of the myth as it appears in the Odyssey, followed by readings of the three rewritings: Welty’s short story “Circe,” Atwood’s poetry cycle “Circe/Mud Poems,” and Miller’s novel Circe. Through the reading of these works together, a pattern emerges of criticising former representations, exploring why they are problematic, and resisting them in order to create change.

This thesis explores Atwood's depiction of gender in Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. In an interview from 1972, Margaret Atwood spoke on survival: "People see two alternatives. You can be part of the machine or you can be something that gets run over by it. And I think there has to be a third thing." I assert that Atwood depicts this "third thing" through her characters who navigate between the binaries of "masculine" and "feminine" in a third realm of gender. As the female characters—regardless of their passive or aggressive behavior—engage in a quest for agency, they must overcome bodily limitations. Oryx—the quintessential problematic, oppressed feminine figure—and Ren are both associated with sex as they are passed from man to man throughout their lives. Furthermore, as other females (namely, Amanda and Toby) adopt masculine traits associated with power in an attempt at self-preservation both before and after the waterless flood, men in the novels strive to subvert this power through rape to remind these women of their confinement within their physical bodies and to reinstitute the binary gender system. The men also span the gender continuum, with Crake representing the masculine "machine" and Jimmy gravitating toward the feminine victim. Crake, who seems to live life uninhibited from his body, appears to escape the bodily confinements that the women experience, while Jimmy's relationship to his body is more complex. As Jimmy competes to "out-masculinize" Crake, and Amanda and Toby struggle to avoid both identification with and demolition by the machine, readers of the novels are invited to think beyond the "machinery" of gender norms to consider gender as a continuum instead of a dualistic factor.