<p>Ulla Isaksson (1916 – 2000) wrote many novels, often with a woman or several women as protagonists. In <em>Dit du icke vill</em> (“Where Thou Willst Not”) from 1956 she depicts a crisis of faith in a woman, which would not have been successful had she chosen a contemporary setting. She uses an adequate historical framework, the prosecution of witches in Sweden in the 17^th century, well documented in reliable sources. Her novel includes a message about oppression of women, manifest in patriarchal ambition to control ancient wisdom about healing and herbs and the denial of pre-Christian habits that include knowledge about female fertility, earlier exercised by midwives and wise women and men.</p><p>In “The Root of Evil” the novel is placed in a feminist tradition, where the author, like older writers like Fredrika Bremer, Ellen Key and Elin Wägner, pleads for “social mothering”.  A major difference is that, in her own life, Ulla Isaksson has experienced pregnancy, giving birth and breastfeeding which none of the pioneering Swedish feminist writers had. Emilia Fogelklou, pioneering theologian, wrote about witches as wise women, a study that influenced Ulla Isaksson. The witches are described as mirroring Hanna “the Good Mother”. Their fantasies about life at “Blåkulla” are similar to the everyday life at a wealthy farmstead. This kind of mirroring reminds of the theories of Gilbert and Gubar, who assume that female writers in the 19^th Century hid their revolt against patriarchy in mad women, like “The Madwoman in the Attic” in Jane Eyre. In the 1950s, golden age of the Swedish housewife, a female writer might well hide her anger at the circumscribed role model dedicated to women in a similar use of Anti-Women. The real witches clearly contrast the obedient protagonist, a true “Angel in the house”.</p><p>The villagers´ struggle to clear the ground from the ensnaring roots that hinder the male prosecution of witches imply a symbolic reading: this evil root is ancient matriarchal knowledge of childbearing and birth control. A theory on the original causes for the witch hunts in western Europe is introduced: the population sank in the 15^th century and one reason, beside plagues, starvation and warfare, was that women aware of how to prevent childbearing and giving birth to a lot of children were killed during the witch hunt. Churches and kings introduced the prosecution of witches and wise women, including midwives.</p>

Ulla Isaksson (1916 – 2000) wrote many novels, often with a woman or several women as protagonists. In Dit du icke vill (“Where Thou Willst Not”) from 1956 she depicts a crisis of faith in a woman, which would not have been successful had she chosen a contemporary setting. She uses an adequate historical framework, the prosecution of witches in Sweden in the 17th century, well documented in reliable sources. Her novel includes a message about oppression of women, manifest in patriarchal ambition to control ancient wisdom about healing and herbs and the denial of pre-Christian habits that include knowledge about female fertility, earlier exercised by midwives and wise women and men. In “The Root of Evil” the novel is placed in a feminist tradition, where the author, like older writers like Fredrika Bremer, Ellen Key and Elin Wägner, pleads for “social mothering”.  A major difference is that, in her own life, Ulla Isaksson has experienced pregnancy, giving birth and breastfeeding which none of the pioneering Swedish feminist writers had. Emilia Fogelklou, pioneering theologian, wrote about witches as wise women, a study that influenced Ulla Isaksson. The witches are described as mirroring Hanna “the Good Mother”. Their fantasies about life at “Blåkulla” are similar to the everyday life at a wealthy farmstead. This kind of mirroring reminds of the theories of Gilbert and Gubar, who assume that female writers in the 19th Century hid their revolt against patriarchy in mad women, like “The Madwoman in the Attic” in Jane Eyre. In the 1950s, golden age of the Swedish housewife, a female writer might well hide her anger at the circumscribed role model dedicated to women in a similar use of Anti-Women. The real witches clearly contrast the obedient protagonist, a true “Angel in the house”. The villagers´ struggle to clear the ground from the ensnaring roots that hinder the male prosecution of witches imply a symbolic reading: this evil root is ancient matriarchal knowledge of childbearing and birth control. A theory on the original causes for the witch hunts in western Europe is introduced: the population sank in the 15th century and one reason, beside plagues, starvation and warfare, was that women aware of how to prevent childbearing and giving birth to a lot of children were killed during the witch hunt. Churches and kings introduced the prosecution of witches and wise women, including midwives.

This paper is an interview study with 12 women between the ages of 17-88 from Bohuslän, Sweden and their thoughts about female virginity and the hymen. Today it has been proven that there exists no hymen that breaks at a woman’s first sexual intercourse. Nonetheless, the study shows that the myth of the hymen is still alive even though it is fading in the younger generations. All the women in the study have at some point in their lives believed there was a hymen but many have via education or media been informed that that’s not the case. Despite education, the hymen was still related to blood, pain, difficulties using feminine care products, or thoughts that something might rupture due to sport activities, like horse riding. Based on the women’s reports, this paper interprets why female virginity has become something that is in need of surveillance and control. As understood from Lévi-Strauss’s theories on the kinship system, the woman becomes a gift unit through the ritual of marriage. The alleged presence of the intact hymen is the valorizing factor in said structure.      The semi-structured interviews were analyzed through a content analysis and interpreted by using the post-modernistic theoretical frameworks, with focus on the ideas of Michel Foucault. Further post-structuralist theories are applied to interpret how language and action create norms and truths. The results indicate that the belief in the existence of the hymen as an anatomical structure took hold in medical science and popular culture in line with the hypothesis that power creates knowledge. The results also show that knowledge is not constant: from being an established truth among the older participants in the study, to the youngest generation expressing that the hymen is something “old”. Simultaneously, all women expressed that the hymen and female virginity are connected to discipline and power asymmetries. The results show that the hymen, in this specific context can be seen as a social construction with the aim of maintaining unity and discipline.

The Sound and the Fury is William Faulkner’s story of the Compson family’s downfall in the American South during the early 20th century. The novel illustrates the impact on the cultural identity of the South of strictly defined social roles and the tension they created in the aftermath of slavery and defeat in the Civil War. In my analysis, I have chosen to focus on gender issues, especially in their Southern manifestation. The Compsons’ daughter, Caddy, figures prominently in the sons’ narratives, but is only portrayed through their perceptions and memories. My aim is to determine Caddy’s significance in the novel by exploring her relationships with her brothers, as seen through their eyes, and how she is characterized by them. In Benjy’s narrative, I examine her actions as a little girl in light of the Eve myth and the icon of the virgin mother. Quentin’s obsession with Caddy's sexuality as a teenager reveals the implications of associating female sexuality with death, the role of language in reproducing and combating established gender power structures, and the impact of traditional gender roles on women and men. Jason’s binary categorization of women as virgins or whores turns the few glimpses of Caddy as a mother into that of a woman treated as a commodity of exchange. In each of their narratives, Caddy is a dynamic character whose words, body, and actions expose prevailing social and gender power struggles. By conjuring her presence through her absence, her brothers reveal the depth and destructiveness of the social imperatives that underlie their attempts to control her. I suggest that Caddy’s role in the novel is to disrupt the brothers’ narratives and challenge the underlying Southern social and gender constructs that imbue them.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar as repercussões do declínio da lógica fálico-edípica sobre a produção psicanalítica a respeito da sexualidade feminina. Para tanto, traça o perfil do lugar do pai na modernidade e a fragilização deste lugar na contemporaneidade. A seguir mostra os reflexos desse estado de coisas na teorização psicanalítica atual sobre a mulher através da apresentação e discussão dos conceitos de objeto a, por um lado, e feminilidade, por outro, representativos de duas teorias psicanalíticas contemporâneas que estudam a questão da mulher. / [en] This dissertation has the purpose of analyzing the consequences of the decline of the phallic logic on the psychoanalytic theory about female sexuality. In order to do so, it discusses the role of the father in modernity and its weakening in contemporary society. Next it shows the effects of this state of affairs on current psychoanalytic ideas about women by introducing and discussing the concepts of object a, on one hand, and femininity, on the other hand which represent two different contemporary psychoanalytic theories that study female sexuality.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Ce mémoire a étudié les perceptions de femmes haïtiennes vivant au Québec depuis moins de cinq ans de leurs relations sexuelles avec les hommes et de leurs rapports de couple. Après avoir opté pour une méthodologie de recherche qualitative, la théorie féministe intersectionnelle a été retenue comme cadre d’analyse. Des entretiens individuels semi-dirigés ont été menés auprès de 9 femmes haïtiennes, âgées de 18 à 60 ans et ayant immigré au Québec depuis moins de cinq ans. Les perceptions des femmes de la sexualité ont été appréhendées comme étant un ensemble de discours et de pratiques inter reliés, qui se construit dès l’enfance, et qui reproduit les types de rapports inégalitaires entre hommes et femmes qui existent dans la société haïtienne et dans leur couple. Ces rapports inégalitaires sont véhiculés entre les générations à travers la plupart des institutions sociales comme la famille, l’école, la culture, la législation. Ce processus de construction des perceptions de la sexualité est également influencé par des enjeux socio-économiques et de pouvoir. Les résultats de cette recherche permettent de disposer de données scientifiques sur la sexualité des femmes et les rapports de couple en Haïti et l’influence du processus migratoire. Ces résultats soulignent également la nécessité pour le travail social haïtien d’encourager le développement de l’empowerment économique des femmes et leur participation aux débats actuels de la société sur l’évolution de la condition féminine. / The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of Haitian women that had immigrated to Quebec in the past five years, of their sexual relationships with men and the extent to which it is reflected in the different types of conjugal relationships. After choosing a qualitative research method, the intersectional feminist theory has been adopted for the analysis. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 Haitian women, aged 18 and 60 years and having immigrated to Quebec in the past five years. The women’s perceptions of sexual relationships have been reported as being a set of practices and discourses interrelated built since childhood and reproducing the unequal relationships between men and women that exist in the Haitian society and in the couples. These unequal relationships are transmitted through the generations and through most of the social institutions such as family, school, culture, laws. This process is also influenced by socio-economic and power issues. The results of this research give scientific data on women sexuality and couple relationships as well as the influence of immigration process. These results also emphasize the need for the Haitian social work to encourage the development of economic empowerment of women and their participation in current debates in society on the development of women. / Memwa sa a vle etidye ki pèsepsyon fanm ayisyèn yo genyen de rapò seksyel yo ak gason, e nan ki mezi pèsepsyon sa yo repwodwi kalite relasyon ki egziste ant yomenm ak nèg yo. Rechèch la chwazi yon metodoloji kalitativ, apresa li kenbe teyori feminis entèseksyonèl kom kad ki pou pemet li analize done li yo. Rechèch la nenen 9 antrevi mwatye ouvè, mwatye fèmen ak 9 fanm ayisyèn, ki genyen ant 18 ak 60 lane, epi ki imigre nan pwovens kebèk, nan peyi Kanada depi mwens pase 5 lane. Dapre rezilta rechèch la, pèsepsyon medanm yo genyen de seksyalite yo tradwi pa yon pakèt pawòl ak yon pakèt abitid ki mare ansanm. Medanm yo komanse ranmase bagay sayo depilè yo te timoun lakay paran yo pou jiskaske yo vin granmoun lakay pa yo. Fason sa yo medanm yo konprann seksyalite a tou, se yon bagay ki soti nan relasyon fòskote ki egziste ant fanm ak gason, ni nan sosyete ayisyènn nan, ni nan relayon konjigal yo. Bagay sa yo transmèt de generasyon an generasyon gras ak lafanmi, lekol, lakilti, lwa peyia. Pou fini, pèsepsyon sa yo medanm yo gen de seksyalite yo a makonen ak yon seri de enterè ekonomik ak politik ki gen nan sosyete a. Resilta rechèch sa a fe plizyè bagay. Premyèman li pemèt nou genyen dokiman syantifik sou seksyalite fanm ak relasyon ki genyen ant fanm ak gason lè yap viv andedan kay, nan peyia. Dezyèmman, rezilta yo montre travayèz ak travayè sosyal yo an ayiti, kouma li enpotan pou yo ankourage medanm yo devlope pouvwa lajan lakay yo. Rezilta yo montre tou kouman li enpotan pou medanm ayisyènn yo chache rantre nan tout diskisyon kap fet nan sosyete ayisyèn nan sou kondisyon lavi fanm yo.

My dissertation offers a new look at how women authors used popular genres to negotiate their economic, artistic, and sexual autonomy, as well as their national and imperial identities, in the context of the changes brought by modernity. As medical science and popular media attempted to delineate women’s sexual natures, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Winifred Holtby, Kate O’Brien, and Molly Keane created narratives which challenged not only psychoanalytic proscriptions about the need for sexual satisfaction, but traditional ideas about women’s inherent modesty. They absorbed, revised, and occasionally rejected outright the discourses of sexology in order to advocate a more diffuse sensuality; for these writers, adventure, travel, independence, creativity, and love between women provided satisfactions as rich as those ascribed to normative heterosexuality. I identify a history of queer sexuality in both Irish and English contexts, one which does not conform to emergent lesbian identity while still exceeding the limits of heteronormativity. / text