This dissertation explores Virginia Woolf¡¦s concept of ¡§a woman¡¦s sentence¡¨ and the significance and possibility of ¡§a woman¡¦s language.¡¨ It demonstrates how Woolf finds a new way to write fiction that expresses women¡¦s values and her resistance and disruption of a traditional discourse.

This research is shaped by the actual experience of practice: as painter and writer. My preoccupation is with the nodal moment when conscious awareness is suspended, and both the corporal and psychic involvement in realising the work almost transport one to another zone of effectiveness. This zone, which I name as the poetic zone, is where the numinous enters the ordinary. The investigation for a space/place/moment that lies beyond the logic of acceptable discourse can help initiate and give shape to a new vocabulary - visual or literary. By orchestrating a methodology, which functions on several layers, I have endeavoured to create a synthesis between painting and writing. My method in all the aspects of this research - the thesis, play scripts, studio paintings, and albums - is firmly rooted in the conscious and critical intellect, as the vehicle that helps facilitate my need in establishing a personal arena for Becoming: - a deliberate yet semi-controlled state of charged eidetic experience, whereby the 'other' of the self is met with and (perhaps) named. By probing into the specific makeup or anatomy of the poetic moment, and coming to understand how it functions within both the pragmatic and the apparently undecipherable creative processes, the artist/poet, like the mystic visionary, may give an affirmative answer to the Self, as /-that-is-not-the-other. Thus I hope that this research will contribute to the feminist project engaged in trying to delineate the divine presence in 'feminine writing', as a powerful guise and method for a clearer understanding of the psychological other.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Orientador: Heloisa Costa Milton / Resumo: Neste trabalho, procura-se estudar a escritura feminina de Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892) e de Martha Mercader (1926). Juana Manuela Gorriti é uma das fundadoras da literatura feminina na Argentina e graças à reelaboração poética de suas obras por Mercader é que se pode reavaliar sua contribuição para a criação dessa modalidade narrativa. Nosso propósito é verificar como o espaço feminino vai-se formando ao longo do século XIX, por meio da análise de quatro obras de Juana Manuela Gorriti - Oasis en la vida (1888), Peregrinaciones de una alma triste (1876), Cocina ecléctica (1890) e Lo íntimo (1892). Os três primeiros livros referendam os espaços exteriores enquanto o último revela os espaços interiores, o lado íntimo, narrado de forma autobiográfica pela escritora argentina nascida em Salta. Em seguida, analisamos o romance Juanamanuela mucha mujer, de Martha Mercader (1980), o qual narra a vida de Juana Manuela Gorriti e relê suas obras. Trata-se de uma obra que consideramos como um romance histórico contemporâneo, que recria a trajetória da escritora saltenha no campo ficcional, revelando, para o leitor, aspectos e idéias que estavam implícitos no discurso da romancista do século XIX. Dessa forma, é possível concluir que a conquista do espaço feminino beneficiou-se das colocações e proposições de Juana Manuela Gorriti, as quais alcançaram um posicionamento explícito sobre as questões e o universo feminino no relato de Martha Mercader, obra que reafirma e solidifica as vitórias e avanços femininos iniciados nos século XIX e assegura a existência de uma escritura feminina que, a cada dia, amplia-se e se torna mais abrangente. / Abstract: In this work we intend to study the feminine writing of Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892) and Martha Mercader (1926). Juana Manuela Gorriti is one of the founders of the feminine literature in Argentina and because of the poetical re-elaboration of her writings done by Mercader is that we can re-evaluate Gorriti's contribution to the creation of this modality of narrative. Our purpose is to verify how the feminine space is built up during the nineteenth century. This is accomplished by us through the anlysis of four books by Juana Manuela Gorriti - Oasis en la vida (1888), Peregrinaciones de una alma triste (1876), Cocina ecléctica (1890) and Lo íntimo (1892). The three first books show to us the exterior spaces while the last one reveals the interior spaces - the private ones -, described in an autobiographical way by the Argentinian writer born in Salta. After that we analyse the novel Juanamanuela mucha mujer (1980), by Martha Mercader, in which she tells the life of Juana Manuela Gorriti and re-reads her writings. This is a book we consider a contemporary historical novel, in which the lifetime of the writer from Salta is recreated in a fiction revealing to the readers aspects and ideas already implicit in the own discourse of this novelist of the nineteenth century. In this way, it is possible to conclude that the conquest of the feminine space benefited itself with the positions and propositions of Juana Manuela Gorriti. It is possible to be said once they reached an explicit position about the questions and the feminine universe in Martha Mercader's narrative, whose book reaffirms and solidifies the feminine victories and advances already begun in the ninenteenth century besides asseverating the existence of a feminine writing which has been amplified and enlarges itself more and more. / Doutor

This thesis explores the oppression of women within the gender institution of patriarchy in Margaret Atwood¡¦s dystopian novel The Handmaid¡¦s Tale, and their resistance to this male-dominated society. As a feminist writer, Atwood is very much concerned about the issue of gender, which she foregrounds in The Handmaid¡¦s Tale. In my analysis, I apply some theories of radical feminists and the French feminist who devote themselves to the study of gender--Kate Millett, Adrienne Rich, Catherine MacKinnon, and Hélène Cixous. Millett focuses on women¡¦s subordinated position that leads to women¡¦s oppression in patriarchy. Rich and MacKinnon focus on how women are controlled and oppressed in maternity and sexuality within the patriarchal society of gender inequality. Cixous challenges the validity of gender by pointing out its characteristic fluidity through creating woman¡¦s own writing in order to redefine female selfhood for women¡¦s resistance. The thesis is composed of five chapters. The Introduction presents the background materials about Atwood and The Handmaid¡¦s Tale, the motivation of the thesis, and the resonance between The Handmaid¡¦s Tale and certain feminists¡¦ theories. The first chapter analyzes the formation of the unbalanced power relations between the sexes in which women are subordinated to men through the socialization. Moreover, because of women¡¦s subordination, women are modulated as mothers through socially institutionalized motherhood such as the Wives and the Handmaids in Gilead. The second chapter further analyzes how women are formulated as sexual objects through the experience of sexual objectification within the institution of heterosexuality, such as the mistresses and the prostitutes of Gilead. The third chapter discusses how female orality empowers women to resist their patriarchal society in The Handmaid¡¦s Tale. The protagonist Offred, by ¡§writing her voice¡¨ through storytelling, resists patriarchal oppression, restores her body and self, and transforms herself from a victim in a claustrophobic world of male domination to a heroine of femininity. Moreover, her act of writing by her voice also reflects women¡¦s histories of repression, which should be reconstructed in a culture in which only males are literate. Offred¡¦s oral act of storytelling, to the reader, may also signify her resistance to reconstruct women¡¦s repressed histories. The concluding chapter reiterates the research of The Handmaid¡¦s Tale with a synthesis of Atwood¡¦s and some of the prominent feminists¡¦ points of view, namely Millett¡¦s, Rich¡¦s, MacKinnon¡¦s and Cixous¡¦s, toward the oppression and resistance of women within the institution of gender. This study hopes to explore and thus illuminate the nature, the functioning, the operation of socially constructed male domination, and then proceed to search the possible solution, or the ¡§voice;¡¨ however feeble it is, the author, or the protagonist conceives to defy the oppression imposed on women.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-12-19Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:03:26Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cruz_caas_dr_assis.pdf: 659742 bytes, checksum: 222912ff4eff7dd7b002344a977d6732 (MD5) / Neste trabalho, procura-se estudar a escritura feminina de Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892) e de Martha Mercader (1926). Juana Manuela Gorriti é uma das fundadoras da literatura feminina na Argentina e graças à reelaboração poética de suas obras por Mercader é que se pode reavaliar sua contribuição para a criação dessa modalidade narrativa. Nosso propósito é verificar como o espaço feminino vai-se formando ao longo do século XIX, por meio da análise de quatro obras de Juana Manuela Gorriti - Oasis en la vida (1888), Peregrinaciones de una alma triste (1876), Cocina ecléctica (1890) e Lo íntimo (1892). Os três primeiros livros referendam os espaços exteriores enquanto o último revela os espaços interiores, o lado íntimo, narrado de forma autobiográfica pela escritora argentina nascida em Salta. Em seguida, analisamos o romance Juanamanuela mucha mujer, de Martha Mercader (1980), o qual narra a vida de Juana Manuela Gorriti e relê suas obras. Trata-se de uma obra que consideramos como um romance histórico contemporâneo, que recria a trajetória da escritora saltenha no campo ficcional, revelando, para o leitor, aspectos e idéias que estavam implícitos no discurso da romancista do século XIX. Dessa forma, é possível concluir que a conquista do espaço feminino beneficiou-se das colocações e proposições de Juana Manuela Gorriti, as quais alcançaram um posicionamento explícito sobre as questões e o universo feminino no relato de Martha Mercader, obra que reafirma e solidifica as vitórias e avanços femininos iniciados nos século XIX e assegura a existência de uma escritura feminina que, a cada dia, amplia-se e se torna mais abrangente. / In this work we intend to study the feminine writing of Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818-1892) and Martha Mercader (1926). Juana Manuela Gorriti is one of the founders of the feminine literature in Argentina and because of the poetical re-elaboration of her writings done by Mercader is that we can re-evaluate Gorriti's contribution to the creation of this modality of narrative. Our purpose is to verify how the feminine space is built up during the nineteenth century. This is accomplished by us through the anlysis of four books by Juana Manuela Gorriti - Oasis en la vida (1888), Peregrinaciones de una alma triste (1876), Cocina ecléctica (1890) and Lo íntimo (1892). The three first books show to us the exterior spaces while the last one reveals the interior spaces - the private ones -, described in an autobiographical way by the Argentinian writer born in Salta. After that we analyse the novel Juanamanuela mucha mujer (1980), by Martha Mercader, in which she tells the life of Juana Manuela Gorriti and re-reads her writings. This is a book we consider a contemporary historical novel, in which the lifetime of the writer from Salta is recreated in a fiction revealing to the readers aspects and ideas already implicit in the own discourse of this novelist of the nineteenth century. In this way, it is possible to conclude that the conquest of the feminine space benefited itself with the positions and propositions of Juana Manuela Gorriti. It is possible to be said once they reached an explicit position about the questions and the feminine universe in Martha Mercader's narrative, whose book reaffirms and solidifies the feminine victories and advances already begun in the ninenteenth century besides asseverating the existence of a feminine writing which has been amplified and enlarges itself more and more.

The master's thesis The Concept of Violence in Kobold, a Novel by Radka Denemarková inquires into a representation of violence in the selected literary text, written by a Czech author, from the perspective of gender analysis. Integral part of the master's thesis is the writing style "feminine writing", in which the double-novel Kobold is written. The analysis is carried out in the context of feminist literary theories. The work is therefore based on the concept of resistant reading, which is inseparably associated with the name of Judith Fetterley, and which allows us to examine the text without being influenced by the author's concept. Other inseparable pillars of this master's thesis are the works of literary theorists Pam Morris, Elain Showalter, Jan Matonoha and Hélène Cixous. Keywords: gender, resistant reading, "feminine writing", violence

This master thesis constitutes the feminist archetypal analyses of a novel Příspěvek k dějinám radosti written by Radka Denemarková. It approaches the problematics with an intesectional point of view focused on rape-revenge. The methodological and theoretical part introduces the work of the novelist Radka Denemarková and her style of writting that is characterized as feminine writting, which is also defined in the thesis and specified by examples. Besides analysis of archetypes which are part of feminist theoretical texts, the analytical part analyses particular characters of the novel that are divided in three groups: the characters that take revenge on rape, those characters who rape or are part of groups that rapes others, the third group links previous two and the characters are part of police investigations of a murder. The thesis analyses archetypes of femininity that prevail in the novel and masculinity that are in minority.

This thesis explores the construction of masculinity in Argentina, as represented in two plays by Susana Torres Molina, _...Y a otra cosa mariposa_ (1981) and _Una noche cualquiera_ (1999). In these two plays, the construction of sexual difference is portrayed as occurring within a masculine point of view, wherein it is explicit that men have the power to define, from a self-referential standpoint, their masculine identity, through contrast with a construction of the female. Rather than consider masculine and feminine as two parts of the same whole, gender, Torres Molina's works represent machismo as a two-part system, with masculine and female as distinct wholes, fundamentally different. The self-referentiality of machismo rejects the participation of women, subordinating and reducing them to the level of the object of conversation, characterized by biological essentialisms, instead of a constructed, subjective identity. / Master of Arts