Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-86).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 302-317).

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University. 2015 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Seeking to explore modes of self-representation in women’s life writing and the ways in which these subjects manipulate the autobiographical ‘I’ to write about gender, the body, race and ethnic related issues, this thesis interrogates the autobiographies of three renegade women whose works were birthed out of the de/colonial South African context between 1854-1948. The chosen texts are: Marina King’s Sunrise to Evening Star: My Seventy Years in South Africa (1935), Melina Rorke’s Melina Rorke: Her Amazing Experiences in the Stormy Nineties of South-African History (1938), and two memoirs by Petronella van Heerden, Kerssnuitsels (1962) and Die 16de Koppie (1965). My analysis is underpinned by relevant life writing and feminist criticism, such as the notion of female autobiographical “embodiment” (239) and the ‘I’s reliance on “relationality” (248) as discussed in the work of Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson (Reading Autobiography). I further draw on Judith Butler’s concept of “performativity” (Bodies that Matter 234) in my analysis in order to suggest that there is a performative aspect to the female ‘I’ in these texts. The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how these self-representations of women can be read as counter-conventional, speaking out against stereotypical perceptions and conventions of their time and in literatures (fiction and criticism) which cast women as tractable, compliant pertaining to patriarchal oversight, as narrow-minded and apathetic regarding achieving notoriety and prominence beyond their ascribed position in their separate societies. I argue that these works are representative of alternative female subjectivities and are examples of South African women’s life writing which lie ‘dusty’ and forgotten in archives; voices that are worthy of further scholarly research which would draw the stories of women’s lives back into the literary consciousness. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In ‘n poging om metodes van self-uitbeelding te bespreek en die manier waarop die ‘ek’ van vroulike ego-tekste manipuleer om sodoende te skryf oor geslagsrolle, die liggaam, ras en ander etniese kwessies, ondersoek hierdie verhandeling die outbiografieë van drie onkonvensionele vrouens se werk, gebore vanuit die de/koloniale konteks in Suid-Afrika tussen 1854-1948. Die ego-tekste wat in hierdie navorsingstuk ondersoek word, sluit in: Marina King se Sunrise to Evening Star: My Seventy Years in South Africa (1935), Melina Rorke se Melina Rorke: Her Amazing Experiences in the Stormy Nineties of South-African History (1938), en twee memoirs geskryf deur Petronella van Heerden, Kerssnuitsels (1962) en Die 16de Koppie (1965). My analise word ondersteun deur relevante kritici van feministiese en outobiografiese velde. Ek bespreek onder andere die idee dat die vroulike ‘ek’ liggaamlik “vergestalt” (239) is in outobiografie, asook die ‘ek’ se afhanklikheid van “relasionaliteit” (248) soos uiteengesit in die werk van Sidonie Smith en Julia Watson (Reading Autobiography). Verder stel ek voor, met verwysing na Judith Butler, dat daar ‘n “performative” (Bodies that Matter 234) aspek na vore kom in die vroulike ‘ek’ van Suid- Afrikaanse outobiografie. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om uit te lig dat hierdie selfvoorstellings van vroue gelees kan word as kontra-konvensioneel; dat die stereotipiese uitbeelding van vroue as skroomhartig, nougeset, gedweë ten opsigte van patriargale oorsig, en willoos om meer te vermag as wat hul onderskeie gemeenskappe vir hul voorskryf, weerspreek word deur hierdie ego-tekste. Die doel is om sodanige outobiografiese vertellings en -uitbeeldings te vergelyk en sodoende uiteenlopende vroulike subjektiwiteite gedurende die periode 1854-1948 te belig. Ek verwys deurlopend na voorbeelde van ander gemarginaliseerde Suid-Afrikaanse vroulike ego-tekse om aan te dui dat daar weliswaar ‘n magdom ‘vergete’ en ‘stof-bedekte’ vrouetekste geskryf is in die afgebakende periode. Ek voor aan dat die ‘stem’ van die vroulike ‘ek’ allermins stagneer het, en dat verdere bestudering waarskynlik nodig is.

Les membres de la « seconde génération » de l’élite dirigeante du Parti communiste italien (PCI) se forment sous le fascisme. Pendant les années 1930, ce sont de jeunes intellectuels qui adhèrent au « fascisme de gauche ». A partir du milieu de cette décennie-là, ils commencent à s’éloigner du fascisme. Ils rejoindront ensuite le PCI. Entre 1944 et 2006, une vingtaine d’entre eux publient des « écritures de soi » (des ouvrages autobiographiques et personnels), dans lesquelles ils expliquent leur itinéraire politique. Ils y revendiquent leur cohérence : les principales raisons pour lesquelles ils ont adhéré au fascisme coïncident avec les raisons de leur engagement dans le PCI.Ils écrivent également que leur soutien au régime mussolinien a été le résultat de la tromperie dont ils ont été victimes sous le fascisme, qui leur a imposé une fausse image de lui. La jeunesse intellectuelle n’a pas adhéré au « vrai » fascisme, mais à une représentation erronée de celui-ci. En conséquence, ils ont toujours été antifascistes tout en se croyant fascistes.Le contenu de ces ouvrages est influencé par le leader du PCI, Palmiro Togliatti, qui utilise les « écritures de soi » datant des années 1940 pour attirer les jeunes ex-fascistes, dont son parti a besoin pour former une nouvelle classe dirigeante et gagner le combat pour la conquête du pouvoir.Ces « écritures de soi » influencent à leur tour plusieurs historiens et l’opinion italienne qui, pendant longtemps, ont accepté leurs thèses sans les remettre en question et ont fondé sur elles la façon de représenter et décrire l’engagement politique et culturelle dont la jeunesse intellectuelle a fait preuve sous le fascisme. / The members of the ''second generation'' of the ruling elite of the Italian Communist Party (ICP) come together under fascism. During the 1930s they are young intellectuals who belong to ''left-wing fascism''. From the middle of this decade they start to move away from fascism. They will later join the ICP.Between 1944 and 2006 twenty of them publish ''personal texts'' (personal and autobiographical works), in which they explain their political itinerary. In them they claim to be coherent: the main reasons for which they followed fascism are the reasons for their commitment to the ICP.They also write that their support for the Mussolini regime was the result of the fact that they were deceived under fascism which gave them a false impression of itself. The young intellectuals did not adhere to the ''real'' fascism, but a false representation of it. Consequently they had always been antifascists while believing themselves to be fascists.The content of these publications is influenced by the leader of the ICP, Palmiro Togliatti, who uses the ''personal texts'' dating from the 1940s to attract young ex-fascists whom his party needs to form a new ruling class and to win the battle for the conquest of power.These ''personal texts" in turn influence several historians and Italian opinion which, for a long time, accepted their theses without calling them into question, and based their way of representing and describing the political and cultural commitment shown by young intellectuals under fascism on them.

Si Charles Bukowski n’a jamais énoncé de théorie présidant a son œuvre, ni fait de recherche métrique explicite, et ne s’est jamais réclamé d’une quelconque école littéraire, ce rejet de toute forme d’élitisme littéraire relève en réalité d’une poétique paradoxale, qui cherche à faire s’effondrer les barrières entre écriture et oralité, entre l’œuvre et le corps qui l’a produite, entre l’œuvre et la vie de son auteur. Une poétique de la présence est portée par une utopie où la frontière entre monde et langage disparait, pour remettre le corps du poète au centre du processus littéraire. L’écriture poétique refuse sa part d’absence, celle du corps et de la voix, celle du moment d’écriture, pour devenir presque performance. Il en résulte une transparence trompeuse, dont la clarté est si éblouissante que, plutôt que de l’exposer, elle dissimule sa profondeur entre les lignes du texte. / If Charles Bukowski never formulated a theory presiding over his work, nor made explicit metrical research, and never claimed any literary school, this rejection of any form of literary elitism is, in fact, a paradoxical poetics, which seeks to break down the barriers between writing and orality, between the work and the body that produced it, between the work and the life of its author. A poetics of presence is carried by a utopia where the boundary between world and language disappears, to put the poet's body at the center of the literary process. The poetic writing refuses its share of absence, that of the body and the voice, that of the moment of writing, to become almost a performance. The result is a deceptive transparency, the clarity of which is so dazzling that, rather than exposing it, it conceals its depth between the lines of the text.

This qualitative study sets out to explore the experiences of secondary school students while they are learning mathematics in school. By using student stories of learning mathematics as my main data collection method I began to understand the view of mathematics that my students were constructing as they negotiated the complicated terrain that I know as the mathematics classroom. This method of student stories to communicate student voice was selected by me to allow the students the freedom to express themselves in a variety of comfortable, differentiated formats. My methodological approach evolved as the action research phases progressed, allowing for methodological inventiveness (Dadds and Hart 2001). This was a deliberate decision by me so that my research progress could be best served by a suitable methodological approach. The end result was a qualitative study that embraced a living theory model of action research (McNiff 2013), where practitioners can develop their own personal theories of practice (Whitehead 1999). Within this action research structure I used a narrative approach, considering narratives both as a data collection method and as a transformative phenomenon. Using the ideas of narrative research for data collection, I facilitated storytelling workshops with my students, collecting stories to inform the research interest. In this research, using narratives was also considered as a phenomenon because of their influence in allowing authors to model and re-model their experiences through their stories. I found that considering narrative as phenomenon complemented and supported a portraiture methodological stance (Lawrence-Lightfoot 2005). Narrative as a phenomenon also became apparent by the influence the student stories had on my 9 ability to understand my classroom and my subsequent teaching practice. To analyse the story data I utilised the ideas of Anderson (2011) who developed a transpersonal research method that incorporates the researcher's intuition, emotional and personal capacities into the research process. By using a multi-method approach of thematic analysis, symbolic interactionist perspective, input from colleagues and my reflexive intuition, I formed an analysis of the data that could be used to look at similarities and trends in the student stories. In addition, working with the student stories encouraged levels of empathy between the reader and the student author that transformed classroom practice and understandings. There are several ways that this thesis can contribute to practice. Firstly this research develops a pedagogical tool that encourages student voice, celebrates individuality and helps create an approachable interface between mathematics teacher and student. Secondly, it models how this way of working could be used to inform the practice of the classroom teacher by developing a deeper understanding of their students. Thirdly, the identification of particular themes is invaluable to subject department development and planning, and these themes can feed into a department and whole school ethos. Finally, it models a form of action research that encourages critical reflexive practice and utilises the knowledge, experience and intuition of the researcher with the sole purpose of improving the experiences of their students.

O presente trabalho objetiva refletir acerca da importância do método (auto)biográfico para a formação docente. Tomando como base os trabalhos de autores como Souza, Josso e Nóvoa, entre outros, busca discutir a relevância encontrada nos trabalhos de formação baseados nas Histórias de Vida nos quais se valoriza a subjetividade e a singularidade dessas histórias contrapondo-se a um modelo de formação docente cartesiano, no qual o professor não passa de um mero transmissor do conhecimento e o mesmo não se sente sujeito da sua própria formação. As discussões são pautadas também na tentativa de compreender de que forma o itinerário escolar de duas professoras negras de uma comunidade quilombola norteia e orienta sua práxis pedagógica. Nessa mudança de paradigma, deixa-se para trás um modelo formativo centrado no que alguns autores chamam de racionalidade técnica e dá-se espaço à(s) subjetividade(s), por se acreditar que não exista docência sem discência e vice-versa. Trata-se de uma pesquisa do tipo etnográfica com uma abordagem qualitativa. / This paper aims to reflect on the importance of (self) biographical method for teacher training. Based on the works of authors such as Souza, Josso and Nóvoa, among others, it seeks to discuss the relevance found in the training work based on Life Stories which appreciates the subjectivity and uniqueness of these stories in contrast to a Cartesian teacher training model, in which the teacher is a mere transmitter of knowledge and does not feel themselves as the actors of their own training. The discussions are also guided by the attempt to understand how the journey of two black school teachers of a Quilombola community guides and directs their pedagogical praxis. In this paradigm shift, it is let behind a formative model centered in what some authors call technical rationality and subjectivity (s) is encouraged, because it is believed that there is no teaching without learning and vice versa. This is a survey of an ethnographical type with a qualitative approach.

Escritor de renome, Erico Verissimo, após resistir à ideia, acaba por escrever sua autobiografia. Uma das razões mencionadas para que o escritor mudasse de ideia foi a de que haviam muitas histórias sendo contadas a seu respeito e que ele, então, resolvera contar sua versão como que para colocar um ponto final nas especulações. O texto foi dividido em dois volumes, cada um com uma ênfase diferente. No primeiro encontramos principalmente a formação do escritor: as suas leituras, as suas influências, amizades, primeiros passos como escritor, publicações, concomitante com aspectos de sua vida pessoal e familiar. O segundo volume apresenta fundamentalmente a sua posição político-ideológica, principalmente no contexto da primeira viagem a Portugal. Suas críticas aos regimes totalitários e sua defesa à liberdade humana em todos os aspectos, seja física ou de livre expressão de seus pensamentos, estão muito claras como uma resposta àqueles que lhe diziam que ele não tinha posição política clara e definida. Ao ler seu texto, porém, percebe-se que há, no decorrer dos dois volumes, um tema recorrente, uma espécie de busca realizada pelo autor, não uma busca direta por si mesmo, que é um dos atributos da autobiografia, mas uma busca que acaba sendo definida pelo próprio autor como uma busca pelo seu pai, pela figura paterna que deixou o lar após a separação de sua mãe. / Erico Verissimo, a very well-known writer, resisted for a long time to the idea of writing his autobiography, but, eventually, changed his mind. One of the reasons for that change was the fact there were many stories being told about him, so, he decided to write his own version in order to end up speculations. The text was divided into two tomes, each one emphasizing a different aspect of his life. The first one focuses on the process of the writer formation: his readings, his influences, relationships with friends, his first steps as a writer, his published works, alongside with aspects of his personal and familiar life. The second tome presents mainly his political-ideological positions, especially regarding his first trip to Portugal. His criticism towards totalitarian regimes and his defense to human liberty, no matter if related to physical aspects or to the free expression of thoughts, are very clear as an answer to those who used to say that he did not have any clear and defined political position. While reading his text, though, it is clear that there is, along both tomes, a recurrent subject, a type of search held by the author. It is not related to a search for the self, which is one of the characteristics of the autobiography, but it is a search for what was defined by the author himself as a search for his father, for the father figure who left home after divorcing his mother.

O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar o viés coletivo da autobiografia ficcional de Face of an angel, da escritora estadunidense e de origem mexicana Denise Chávez. Desse modo, o trabalho pretende discutir a sociedade chicana descrita sob a ótica da narradora/protagonista, Soveida Dosamantes, investigando desde o processo histórico de que é resultado, passando pela iniquidade entre os papéis desempenhados por homens e mulheres até chegar ao discurso autorreferencial com que a narradora/protagonista representa o ambiente cultural em que se insere. Antes da narrativa propriamente dita, há a árvore genealógica da narradora/protagonista, assinalando que o que vai se descortinar ao longo da leitura é uma saga de família. Assim, Soveida Dosamantes utiliza a sua ambiência doméstica, bem como a comunidade da fictícia cidade de Água Oscura, sua cidade natal, como recorte de uma estrutura social maior. Fazendo uso do discurso autobiográfico, a narradora/protagonista criada por Denise Chávez expõe as mazelas de uma comunidade que, em virtude ser produto do colonialismo e do neocolonialismo, perdeu sua identidade cultural. Em Face of an angel, através do relato em primeira pessoa de sua narradora/protagonista, a autora Denise Chávez reproduz o universo em que nasceu e cresceu. Cedendo a Soveida Dosamantes componentes autobiográficos como complicadas relações familiares, personagens femininas nativas que funcionam como sentinelas de práticas ancestrais que o domínio europeu apagou, personagens masculinos que mascaram sua fragilidade por trás de uma força e de um poder aparentes, Chávez representa em Face of an Angel o microcosmos de uma comunidade que vem, aos poucos, subvertendo o discurso oficial e conquistando o seu terreno no panorama político e social estadunidense / The present dissertation aims to investigate the collective hue of Face of an angel, a fictional autobiography by Mexican American writer Denise Chávez. Therefore, this research intends to discuss the Chicano society described under the lens of its narrator/protagonist, Soveida Dosamantes, investigating it since the historical process it resulted from, moving to the iniquity between mens and womens roles, and finally reaching the self-referential discourse with which the narrator/protagonist represents the cultural environment she is inserted in. Before the narrative itself, the reader is presented to the narrator/protagonists genealogic tree, signaling that what is going to develop throughout the novel is a family saga. Thus, Soveida Dosamantes makes use of her domestic ambience and also the community of the fictional town of Agua Oscura, her homeland, as the cutout of a major social framework. Employing autobiographical discourse, the narrator/protagonist created by Denise Chávez exposes the ills of a community that, as a product of colonialism and neocolonialism, has lost its cultural identity. In Face of an Angel, by means of the narrator/protagonists first person account, Denise Chávez reproduces the ethos she was born and grew up in. Endowing Soveida Dosamantes with autobiographical components such as complicated family relations, native women characters who work as gatekeepers of ancestral practices erased by European domination, as well as men characters who mask frailty underneath the appearance of strength and power, Chávez represents in Face of an angel a microcosm of a group which little by little has been subverting the official discourse and gaining terrain in the U.S. political and social panorama

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how ethos and choice of persona are used for self-representation in the autobiography Kriget är slut (2010) by Morgan Alling. The essay uses theories of self-representation in accordance with Aristotle and Roger D. Cherry, among others. The method of the essay is a thorough close textual analysis, mainly in accordance with Stephen Browne's definitions. The result shows that Alling uses the persona to give a voice of narration and attitude to the story and that ethos is used to write narration convincingly.