Feminist “Sisterhood” has been a debatable term throughout multiple generations and its ideology is mostly rejected by feminists in the younger generation. The concept mainly denotes a sense of collectivity and it is viewed as a gendered term due to its coinage by second wave feminists as a response to patriarchy. Hence, “Sisterhood” authorizes a collective identity that portrays women as victims and thereby the ideology that is associated with this term reduces the complexity and fluidity of female identity. Various representations of female bonds, in the political, literary and filmic spheres, have valued the idea of collectivity among females, even up to our present day. In order to deconstruct the attempts to redeem “Sisterhood” as an all-inclusive term, I trace representations of the ideology of “Sisterhood” in selected literary, theatrical and televisual works from multiple generations to argue for the rejection of this term and the inability to validate it as inclusive due to its insistence on a collective identity that imposes a blindness to and an underrepresentation of otherness. I explore how “Sisterhood” results in the objectification of females’ experiences in order to serve identity molds that restrict a female’s representation as an individual. I highlight this problematic ideology in Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë and a theatrical adaptation of the novel by James Willing and Leonard Rae (1879); The Women of Brewster Place (1982) by Gloria Naylor; Big Little Lies (2014) by Liane Moriarty and an adaptation of the novel as a miniseries on HBO (2017). While deconstructing the ideology of perceiving female bonds through the lens of “Sisterhood,” I conclude that the concept is problematic in relation to the portrayal of “other” females, and I demonstrate how it is also flawed on a general level since it takes away from the individuality of each woman portrayed throughout this ideology in order to meet specific commonalities among her “sisters.” Although the ideology of “Sisterhood” is outdated and restrictive, we can’t deny, as I further explore, that the investment in portraying it has contributed to raising important female issues.

This thesis is an investigation of the journeys towards a sense of identity or selfhood, achieved through honest and accurate appreciation of the lives of others, made by several female characters in the fiction of A.S. Byatt and the late Iris Murdoch. I believe that because Byatt and Murdoch value literature as a serious business that teaches as well as entertains, their writing can play a significant role in illuminating the lives of women by means of its portrayal of the resolution of women’s struggles. Women’s lives, despite the rise of feminism, are still not equitable. While many women strive to attain a balance of independence and intimacy – what Thelma Shinn calls a “meronymic” relationship – and connection within community, many do not succeed in this endeavour. The numerous challenges they face are difficult and confronting, and the stories of their efforts resemble journeys through a labyrinth or maze. Byatt acknowledges Murdoch as her literary mother, frequently citing Murdoch’s belief in the ability of literature to improve human life. While Byatt and Murdoch are interested in what characters learn about their relations to others and the world, they make it clear that characters are constructs, not real people. Yet their fiction is an ongoing exploration of the nature of reality and the nature of selfhood, particularly that of women. According to feminist theories, women are more constrained than men, and are therefore the focus of this study, but their experience of constraint is a more complex matter than experience of mere undifferentiated oppression, and is better represented by the structure of the labyrinth than that of the simple, linear journey. I agree with Byatt’s and Murdoch’s view of the importance of fiction as a means of commenting on human relationships, particularly with the notion of the need for connection within community. The labyrinth, together with the Bildungsroman, provides a paradigm for the complex experiences of Byatt’s and Murdoch’s female characters. All the characters in this study struggle to flee from restraint, seek purpose and agency in the world through interaction with others, and escape a feminised Plato’s Cave by learning to see more accurately, and all but one emerge from the maze into an autonomous and independent existence in community with others.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to chart the development of an ambivalent female identity in the Gothic genre, as exemplified by Ann Radcliffe&rsquo / s late eighteenth century fictions. The thesis examines the social and literary context of the emergence of the Gothic in English literature and argues that it is intimately tied up with changes in social, political and gender relations in the period.</p>

This thesis aims to analyse the construction of female identity from the beginning of the feminist activism in Victorian era whose rationale was formed during the eighteenth century, to the contemporary times in terms of patriarchy and motherhood in Timberlake Wertenbaker&rsquo / s The Grace of Mary Traverse and The Break of Day. This study is conducted with the historical development of the feminist movement that has had different agendas at different periods of history being taken into account. Fighting for women&rsquo / s emancipation and equality, feminism has helped women attain certain rights / however certain roles imposed on women that have been designed to define fema le identity cannot be said to have been eliminated. Rather, as this study shows, the oppression women have faced has just changed direction / but its nature is still the same. To this end, Wertenbaker presents the situation of women in different contexts of time and circumstances in her plays. Women&rsquo / s quest for identity has been interrupted and diverted by various oppressive mechanisms and institutions which are patriarchy and motherhood as the major focus of analysis throughout this thesis in Wertenbaker&rsquo / s plays.

This thesis carries out an analysis of social pressure and the alienation of women in Angela Carter&rsquo / s The Magic Toyshop and Jeanette Winterson&rsquo / s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. It discusses the effect of social pressure on woman whose sexuality is ignored. This study initially focuses on the development of woman&rsquo / s sexuality in relation to the female model described by heterosexual hegemony. It aims at taking a closer look at the alienation of conformist and non-conformist female characters under patriarchal force in Carter&rsquo / s and Winterson&rsquo / s works. In relation to women&rsquo / s sexual identity, the thesis examines gender roles in the particular works. It discusses how women under patriarchal oppression are identified with passive female roles while men are associated with superior male roles. Thus this study iterates how women are alienated as a result of patriarchal gendering. With this aim, it questions the ways to destroy the patriarchal oppression for Carter and Winterson.

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented incorporation of women within the Spanish film industry. This is part of a general increase in newcomers since the beginning of the 1990s, when the industry was undergoing a deep restructuring. The media has celebrated this incorporation of women filmmakers, recurrently referring to their different sensibility, a feminine perspective noticeable in their films. Despite the socio-cultural interest of this incorporation, no thorough study of their work has been completed. This research project surveys the extent and scope of these women's incorporation within the industry, and explores the varied ways that their films engage with the main discursive trends that define femininity in Spanish cinema and mass media. Femininity is broadly understood here as the socio-cultural interpretations of what constitutes 'correct womanhood', but, also, discursively: as the space of struggle wherein individual (fictional) women engage with these constructions, by contesting and / or adopting some of their elements. Further attention is given to the ways that these new filmmakers's films engage with traditional and modern formulations of femininity, as articulated in implicit relation to, respectively, Francoism and postfeminism. In the core chapters, several detailed analyses are given of especially relevant films by these women, using a critical discourse analysis approach. These chapters address topics that are foregrounded in these women’s films and that have been central to feminine experience, namely: the family and motherhood, romanticism and sexuality, and the ‘Other’. From the study it emerges that these women’s films adopt a different perspective if only because they often render visible discriminatory behaviours (e.g. discrimination at work) and representational practices (e.g. the sexual objectification of women). Regarding their treatment of the aforementioned ‘feminine themes’ (i.e. family and romanticism), these filmmakers self-consciously engage with the conventions that have constructed femininity in the media.

Ramunė Bleizgienė‘s dissertaiton Female Identity Problem in Lithuanian Women’s Creative Writing in the Late 19th – Early 20th Century analyses identity as a result of an interaction between a person and his/her socio-cultural context, by raising a question how the development of modern Lithuanian society influenced the forms of female identity. A heterogeneous methodological perspective introduces a shift in female identity as an inseparable part of the process of women becoming public individuals. The exploration of creative texts by Žemaitė, Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Šatrijos Ragana, Ona Pleirytės-Puidienė Vaidilutė and Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė reveals how the writing women bring up and establish themselves as a speaking public subject. A thorough analysis of women’s writing, their diaries, letters, and memoirs reveals the ways in which the writing women experience their sociability, and emphasizes the impact that socio-cultural definitions of an individual/woman made on women’s self-perception. Structural changes in female identity undergo analysis in a condensed socio-cultural context with a review and a presentation of many texts by female authors that were circulating in public space, which gives a view of the multiple nature and complexity of the process. The study presents a lot of journalistic and fiction texts that were written in the late 19th – early 20th century, but were not in the scope of analysis up to the present moment. Ramunė Bleizgienė‘s... [to full text] / Ramunės Bleizgienės disertacijoje „Moters tapatybės problema XIX a. pabaigos–XX a. pradžios moterų kūryboje“ tapatumas nagrinėjamas kaip abipusės asmens ir sociokultūrinio konteksto sąveikos rezultatas, klausiant, kaip vykęs modernios lietuviškos visuomenės kūrimasis veikė moters tapatumo formas. Remiantis keleriopa metodologine perspektyva, moterų tapatybės kaita pristatoma kaip neatsiejama moterų tapimo viešais asmenimis proceso dalis. Analizuojant Žemaitės, Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės, Šatrijos Raganos, Onos Pleirytės-Puidienės Vaidilutės ir Sofijos Kymantaitės-Čiurlionienės kūrybą siekiama išsiaiškinti, kaip rašydamos moterys įsteigia ir įtvirtina save kaip kalbantįjį viešumos subjektą. Nuodugniai nagrinėjant moterų kūrinius, daugiausia – pirminius variantus, dienoraščius, laiškus, atsiminimus, stebima, kaip rašančiosios patyrė savąjį socialumą, ryškinama, kaip moterų savivoka buvo veikiama sociokultūrinių asmens / moters apibrėžčių. Moters tapatybės struktūriniai pokyčiai tyrinėjami sutankintame sociokultūriniame kontekste, apžvelgiant ir pristatant daugybę viešojoje erdvėje cirkuliavusių moterų tekstų, padedančių įsivaizduoti vykusio proceso daugialypiškumą ir kompleksiškumą. Disertacijoje pristatoma nemažai XIX a. pabaigos–XX a. pradžios moterų publicistikos ir grožinės kūrybos tekstų, kurie iki šiol nebuvo patekę į tyrinėjimų akiratį.

<p>The purpose of this dissertation is to chart the development of an ambivalent female identity in the Gothic genre, as exemplified by Ann Radcliffe&rsquo / s late eighteenth century fictions. The thesis examines the social and literary context of the emergence of the Gothic in English literature and argues that it is intimately tied up with changes in social, political and gender relations in the period.</p>

abstract: This study explored female identity formation, of Ethiopian women and women of Ethiopian heritage as they participate in a coffee (buna) ceremony ritual. The study is anchored in the theoretical framework of a sociocultural perspective which enabled an examination of culture as what individuals do and believe as they participate in mutually constituted activities. Participants in Ethiopia were asked to photograph their daily routine beginning from the time they awoke until they retired for the night. Thematic analysis of the photographs determined that all participants depicted participation in the Ethiopian coffee ceremony in their photo study. Utilizing the photographs which specifically depicted the ceremony, eight focus groups and one interview consisting of women who have migrated from Ethiopia to Arizona, responded to the typicality of the photographs, as well as what they liked or did not like about the photographs. Focus groups were digitally recorded then transcribed for analysis. A combination of coding, extrapolation of rich texts, and identifying themes and patterns were used to analyze transcripts of the focus groups and interview. The findings suggest that this context is rich with shared meanings pertaining to: material artifacts, gender socialization, creation of a space for free expression, social expectations for communal contributions, and a female rite of passage. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2011

Orientadora: Profª Drª Ana Keila Mosca Pinezi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, 2015. / O câncer de mama é o segundo mais frequente no mundo e o mais comum entre as mulheres, sendo que a mastectomia é o principal tratamento proposto. Considerando todas as alterações que podem ocorrer no corpo da mulher, submetida à mastectomia e ao tratamento quimioterápico, buscou-se, neste trabalho, compreender a relação entre o corpo, identidade e gênero a partir do contexto sociocultural de mulheres nessa condição. Procurou-se, neste trabalho, uma perspectiva que se desvinculasse da ideia de que corpo e doença são produções puramente biológicas. As questões relativas a corpo, gênero e identidade são, neste trabalho, vistas por meio de uma perspectiva relacional e em curso, em processo. Os objetivos desta pesquisa, portanto, foram conhecer os mecanismos ocioculturais de construção identitária de gênero de mulheres mastectomizadas; compreender como as mulheres mastectomizadas reelaboram a noção de corpo e do seu próprio diante da mastectomia e da quimioterapia e observar como elas definem sua identidade de gênero. Para atingir tais objetivos optou-se pela etnografia com um pequeno grupo de mulheres que passaram por cirurgia de mama e encontravam-se em tratamento quimioterápico. A pesquisa evidenciou que em um primeiro momento há um sentimento de "luto" relacionado ao diagnóstico. Porém, as questões relacionadas às modificações corporais vão se tornando mais relevantes que o próprio diagnóstico. As limitações para o trabalho manual, as relações familiares e a força da mulher mostraram-se pontos centrais para a (re)construção da identidade feminina. Além disso, a questão do "outro", ou seja, das pessoas consideradas "normais", que não está em tratamento, ou não tem câncer, como espelho, sempre surge no discurso das entrevistadas. O momento de raspar a cabeça surge como um ritual de passagem da mulher fragilizada pela doença para a mulher "guerreira" e forte. / The breast cancer is the second most common kind of cancer in the world and the most common among women, and the mastectomy is the main proposed treatment. Considering all alterations that can occur in the woman body submitted by mastectomy and the chemotherapy treatment, , was sought, in this study to understand the relationship between the body, identity and gender from the sociocultural context of the social individual, trying to separate the idea that body and disease are strictly biological productions. The issues relating to the body, gender and identity have been seen through a relational perspective and ongoing process. The goals of this research. were to know the socio-cultural mechanisms of the identity construction of mastectomized women gender; to understand how the mastectomized women remake your own body notion due to the mastectomy and the chemotherapy and to observe how they define their gender identity. To reach those objectives the ethnography was chosen in a small group of women which had breast surgery and were in chemotherapy treatment. However, issues related to physical modifications are becoming more relevant than the diagnosis itself. The manual working limitations, family relationships and the woman's strength proved to be focal points for (re) construction of female identity. In addition, the issue of the "other", in other words, people considered "normal", who is not being on treatment, or does not have cancer, as a reference, always appears in the discourse of the interviewees. The time to shave the head appears as a rite of the passage from fragile woman to a "warrior" and strong women.