Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 411-424).

Bibliography: pages 102-112. / This dissertation locates Olive Schreiner as a nineteenth-century colonial woman writer who challenges the traditional association of men with culture, and women with nature. In Schreiner's writing the oppression of women is situated within an understanding of the social construction of "woman" as closer to nature than man. Through the lives of her central female characters, Schreiner shows how this definition of "woman" works to position women as "other" to culture, both preventing their access to public power and marginalising their fully social activities within culture. Schreiner attempts to displace definitions of culture constituted through a system of binary oppositions which inevitably privilege masculinity as opposed to femininity by redefining culture in three distinct ways. The patriarchal conception culture as the sole preserve of men is rejected in Schreiner's demands for women's educational and legal equality, and for their right to economic independence. Conventional notions of culture are equally refused in Schreiner's stress on women's traditional domestic labour as essential to the very emergence and continuation of culture. Finally, the deconstruction of sexual difference as a fixed immutable category within Schreiner's writing exposes the definition of "woman" as socially constructed and legitimated. The contradictions and tensions within and between these demands illustrate the limits of Schreiner's feminist and socialist politics, and point to how her writing both challenges and articulates aspects of dominant nineteenth-century ideology. At the same time, such contradictions were vitally important in motivating Schreiner's on-going attempt to change radically the position of women within culture. Moreover, the co-existence of apparently conflicting demands within Schreiner's redefinition of culture suggests the terms of a resolution of the perennial problem within feminist discourse around competing claims for women's equality or for a recognition of their difference.

Thesis (M.A.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert Bennett. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-59).

In the minds of many people all over the world, women are ‘second class citizens’, standing accused of the downfall of mankind ever since Eve allegedly ate the apple. Even amongst those who do not openly denigrate women, there are many who do so in other, more subtle ways even if they are unaware of it. This study proposes to challenge such a view of women by exposing the ways in which perceptions of women are constructed by society, which frequently wants to maintain the status quo of male dominance. This study employs a feminist approach in examining this gynocentric theme, along with cultural studies which, with its focus on power relations and ways of decentring power structures, is also clearly of use. In addition, this multidisciplinary approach of cultural studies offers the possibility of studying literary texts as well as popular culture. Three specific time periods are examined, with a view to uncovering negative perceptions of women and ways that women can resist such attempts to control them. In chapter one, the focus turns to contemporary perceptions of prehistoric women and the ways that so-called ‘objective’ science has failed to represent women accurately. Similarly, ‘objective’ accounts of Goddess-worship – which frequently fail to examine this phenomenon adequately – are revisited. Alice Walker’s The Temple of My Familiar (1989) is discussed as a text which acts as a site of resistance to societally-informed perceptions. Chapter two continues this investigation by turning to the concept of the witch and its maligned association with women. Woman and witchcraft, having been associated for centuries, are investigated as a pairing which frequently results because iii of attempts to control women by androcentric society. In such situations, the practising of witchcraft can actually become a form of resistance to patriarchy. The pernicious effect of society’s need to purge itself – by witch hunts – of witches is also investigated. The Devil’s Chimney (1997) by Anne Landsman and “The prophetess” (1994) by Njabulo S. Ndebele are discussed as texts which examine fictionalised South African versions of this phenomenon. Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer, is the ‘bitch’ discussed in chapter three. She is examined as a woman who offers strong and on-going resistance to patriarchal ways of thinking which would ‘box’ women in. This singer refuses to accept societal roles which are offered to women and so offers means of resistance to patriarchy, many of which are discussed in this chapter. This study concludes that it is the responsibility of women to resist patriarchy and to define roles for themselves. The three chapters examine various means of resistance and offer women insight into the forms of opposition they themselves can take.

There are two branches of scholarship on Edith Wharton. One branch tends to focus upon a comparison of her novels with her life, and tends to document her work as that of a social historian and custodian of manners of old New York. The other branch, represented by feminist critics, uses a Marxist approach to read the thematics of Wharton's novels, and argues that her heroines are perched between the cusp of the "old" and the "new" woman. This study of Wharton extends and intertwines both these lines of scholarship to argue that Wharton's novels must be read against her life, and that the critical focus must be kept on her "new" woman, who, as the gendered speaking subject, speaks from the margins of cultural edifices. This study will focus on the idea of the splintered self, particularly the quandaries of the gendered self, an issue that shapes and determines the form of her narratives. This analysis shows that in the intersection of her fiction, her letters, and her autobiography, Wharton's gendered speaking subject enunciates a radical critique of the culture in which she lived.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains 145 p. Includes bibliographical references p.145.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Carrie Sandahl, Florida State University, School of Theatre. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 2, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-247).

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Karen Weyler; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 19, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-77).