Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

This thesis will examine the trope of the outsider figure in Lewis Nkosi's two novels, Mating Birds (1986) and Underground People (2002). Since both novels are set in South Africa and are informed by the political context of this country at particular junctures, the thesis will focus on the. effects of apartheid on the two black protagonists - central characters yet 'outsider figures' - in these novels. This thesis will argue that Lewis Nkosi's own position as an 'outsider figure' in South African letters plays an important function in his writing. In support of this point, I will therefore also refer to his non fictional books, Home and Exile and Other Selections (1965) and Tasks and Masks: themes and styles of African Literature (1981). These books are particularly important because they document Nkosi's comments on South African literature and his position as the 'outsider' acerbic critic. Nkosi can be seen as an outsider figure being a young, black South African living in an apartheid South Africa, and also, later, as a writer in exile. I have chosen Mating Birds and Underground People to illustrate my argument because they are not simply 'protest' novels, (in the sense Nkosi argued in Home and Exile and Tasks and Masks that so much black South African literature of a certain era was), but rather they examine the complex effects of exclusion, with regard to race and politics, on the individual. As the 'outsider' figure found full expression in French existentialist writing, I will also look at constructions of the outsider figure from an existentialist perspective. In his preface to the 2002 edition of Mating Birds, Nkosi reveals that the novel was to a large extent influenced by Albert Camus' The Outsider (1942). In writing The Outsider, Camus explores questions raised by the philosophy of existentialism. Similarly, Nkosi looks at black existence in a hostile apartheid environment, the absurdity of Sibiya's predicament and how he came to be there. He also explores the harshness of the physical environment which is a literal representation of Sibiya's anguish. Postcolonial analysis of 'othering', a logical extension of existentialism's 'outsider' figure will be used to support my argument. Mating Birds (1986), among other accolades, won the prestigious Macmillan International Pen Prize. Set between the 1950's and 1960's, it explores the divisions and prejudices that were experienced between white and black in a country steeped in racism and division. It deals primarily with the obsession an educated, young, black man, Ndi Sibiya, has for a white woman, Veronica Slater. Their illicit sexual relationship results in Sibiya being tried and convicted, by a white court, for rape. Underground People (2002), Nkosi's second novel, set in the late 1980's and early 1990's, takes the reader into the world of politics and underground resistance during the apartheid regime in South Africa. It narrates the adventures of Cornelius Molapo, an awkward member of the "National Liberation Movement", the fictional name of the African National Congress. Chapter One of this mini-dissertation will focus on a definition and exploration of the outsider figure in selected literary and theoretical works. Chapter Two will focus on the life and works of Lewis Nkosi in an effort to link the trope of the outsider figure to Nkosi's own life experience. His books, Tasks and Masks and Home and Exile, both collections of essays, help the reader to develop a picture of Nkosi, not only as a writer but also as a literary critic whose writing developed while in exile. Chapter Three and Four will provide a literary analysis of Mating Birds and Underground People, respectively. The analysis will deal with the outsider figure as a prominent feature of both these novels. Post-colonial analyses such as forwarded by Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha will be used to advance the thesis. The conclusion (Chapter Five) will refer briefly to Nkosi's current writing projects and situate them in the post-apartheid South African context. An assessment of the on-going potential for the 'outsider' figure in Nkosi's contemporary work will be made. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Durban Westville, 2005.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the trailblazing work of C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry in light of themes of queerness, gender, and female masculinity, which has seldom been analyzed. In this thesis, I will juxtapose Moore’s work with other contemporaries like Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Éowyn to highlight Moore’s trailblazing gendered portrayal. This thesis utilizes Judith Butler’s Undoing Gender and Jack Halberstam’s Female Masculinity as lenses to codify the uniquely gendered portrayal that Moore has left for us to interpret. Furthermore, through examining Jacques Lacan’s interpretation of phallocentricity, this thesis will argue that the art of being a warrior (or warriorship) should be a non-binary conception. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the ways in which the American Western genre has been reworked in an Anglophone Caribbean context. This paper focuses on the role of the cowboy figure as it pertains to both a postcolonial Jamaican context a more globalized, diasporic Anglophone Caribbean setting. The Western genre, while not typically associated with the Caribbean, has tropes that certainly occur in both film and literature. There is not much scholarship that details the importance of this reimagination as a positive association in the region, and I have chosen both the film and novel The Harder They Come by Perry Henzell and Michael Thelwell, respectively, and Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall to trace these ideas. Together, these works provide a multifaceted understanding of how the American Western helps to interpret the Anglophone Caribbean as a participant in an increasingly globalized world. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis explores W.P. Kinsella's emphasis on love for land, family, and baseball in discussing relationships between characters in his short story "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa". Chapter I introduces the characters, their role in establishing this as a tale of conservation through agrarianism, and how Kinsella's choice to write a positive story creates unique potential for healing. Chapter II establishes similarities between the father's war experiences and Jackson's exile from baseball, underscoring its mythic importance. Chapter III examines the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, and how their relationship symbolically fosters love for nature through farming, and can be used to reconcile modern agrarianism with ecocriticism. Chapter IV discusses how connection with the earth brings healing. The final chapter underscores the worthiness of this work to be a cherished part of the American literary canon. / by Ashley Santy. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

In this thesis I will examine Marguerite Poland's two novels, Shades (1993) and Iron Love (1999) in terms of how they provide constructions of identity in a particular milieu and at a particular time. In order to do this; the thesis will focus on Poland's historical context and that of her fiction as represented in these two works. My primary aim is not to present a particular interpretation of colonial history, but rather to put into perspective personal, social and cultural identities that emerge from particular periods in South African history, especially as pertains to the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal, and particularly as illustrated in Poland's fiction. My approach would be to look at constructions of identity from a feminist as well as a Marxist perspective: "To Marx, man was a being whose identity and nature arose out of his purely practical attempts to make his livelihood in what amounts almost to a struggle with a hostile, physical environment" (Robertson 1985:204). This implies that socio-historical conditions are largely responsible for forming ideology and consciousness, which I will argue, is true for Poland's fiction under discussion. Poland's own position as a broadly liberal feminist will also be discussed. I have chosen the above-mentioned novels of Marguerite Poland not only because she is one of South Africa's leading contemporary writers of children's literature and adult fiction and has received numerous awards for her books and stories; but also because she is a most inspirational and perceptive writer meriting serious academic study. Her novel Shades (1993) - a matric setwork in 1998, 2001 and 2002 - proved highly successful as a setwork and was nominated for the MNet Fiction Award. Shades deals primarily with love, dispossession and identity, and the title itself refers to the spiritual manifestation of those gone before. Poland chose the title because she was writing about her own 'shades', her ancestors and the role they played in the small valley of the Mtwaku River in the Eastern Cape at the end of the nineteenth century (Poland 2000). Her core source was her great-grandmother's diaries, which related anecdotes about life at the St. Matthew's Mission. In 1999, Poland wrote Iron Love, again using her great-grandmother's diaries, but she insists that this book is not a sequel to Shades (Jacob 2002). Furthermore, the main character, Charlie Fraser, is a descendant of Poland's ancestors. In Iron Love (1999) Poland depicts the role of colonial private schools in indoctrinating young colonial leaders. The book \\ subtly questions the humanity inherent in a system teaching the suppression of emotions, sexuality, individuality, freedom"(Webster 2000:8). The thesis will open with an introduction outlining reasons for my choice of writer, her novels to be discussed, and the theoretical approaches I intend using. I will discuss the life and works of Marguerite Poland in an historical context and discuss the factors that influenced her in the writing of her novels. In this chapter I will also discuss identity construction in terms of feminist and Marxist ideology on patriarchy, religion, and capitalism. Chapter Two and Chapter Three will focus on a literary analysis of Shades (1993) and Iron Love (1999) respectively. Both novels demonstrate how identity is shaped by socio-historicaI forces, which I will analyse in depth in this thesis. Chapter Four will conclude my thesis further confirming the importance of socio-economic forces in determining ideology as manifested in Poland's fictional characters and in her own life. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

My thesis discusses male identity in contemporary culture in relation to work by Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk. Such work reflects the problems, anxieties, and dilemmas of the masculine subject in American culture. The characters in my six selected texts, namely, Ellis' Less Than Zero, American Psycho, and Glamorama, and Palahniuk's Fight Club, Survivor, and Choke, symbolize a generation with no discernible future. Each male protagonist finds himself in a place of no time and no meaning because image and illusion have supplanted essence. These characters combat culture-prevalent emptiness in the sense that each ironically re-asserts his so-called individuality against the dogmas of the establishment. Each, furthermore, is aware that his existence is not subject to a higher order or preset goal: traditional morality thereby has no meaning. My selected texts feature masculine subjects struggling with their own contingencies once stripped of given privileges (gender, class, race, and otherwise). To examine the notion of masculinity, I emphasize the role of power relations in gender construction. Bret Easton Ellis characterizes a world of appearance defined by particular styles. Chuck Palahniuk's males are empty--they do not have any definitive meaning. Judith Butler challenges the proposition of a fixed identity, or an essential permanent masculinity or femininity as structured and reified by social norms. Therefore, we should not view masculinity as a cohesive and homogeneous category. Following Foucault, I examine the relationship between masculine subjects and social practices. At stake here, is how the performative articulation of proper masculinity disempowers and imprisons the masculine subject in a material form over which he has no control. The body becomes the object of desire and thus the vehicle/preserve of the sense of powerlessness that the masculine subject experiences daily within a hegemonic culture. Power is exercised through a dominant presence. This presence structures as a binary classification serving to underscore differences and ensure particular privileged social positioning. The proposition of a fixed identity, or an essential permanent masculinity or femininity, is structured and reified by social norms. Masculinity as a cohesive and homogeneous category is historically represented as an unstable center from which all other identities are defined.

The genre of the "picaresque" (romances of roguery), which were popular in sixteenth-century Spain, contain the literary type of the "picaro" or rogue, which can appear at times as a "student." The current work presents the historical context of the Spanish university and of the student's life as well as the representation of the "student" in several picaresque novels, namely, Mateo Aleman's El Guzman de Alfarache, Vicente Espinel's Marcos de Obregâon, Jerâonimo de Alcalâa y Yâanez's El donoso hablador, and Francisco de Quevedo's El Buscâon, in order to contrast the social reality of the student and its literary representation. The literary character of the "student" does not depart only from its reality. Its characteristics are based on the student stories from the oral medieval tradition, a residual cultural elements, as described by Maxime Chevalier, as well as the emerging picaresque narratives. / by Javier Fernândez del Pâramo. / Abstract in Engllsh. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

O tema da presente dissertação consiste na análise da construção da identidade e da subjetividade femininas da personagem Clara, narradora-protagonista da obra Duas iguais, de Cíntia Moscovich. Nesse sentido, observa-se como ocorre o processo de afirmação identitária do sujeito feminino representado na obra, considerando-se o contexto sócio-histórico-cultural em que está inserido: uma comunidade regional judaica, à época da ditadura militar brasileira (1964-1985). Para tanto, são discutidos aspectos como memória, região cultural, judaísmo, patriarcalismo, homossexualidade, preconceito, amor, subjetividade e identidade. Servem como aporte teórico a este trabalho os estudos culturais de gênero e a crítica literária feminista, bem como estudos acerca de cultura, identidade e regionalidade. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-02-09T11:55:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Manuela Matté.pdf: 2308167 bytes, checksum: 040b4dc6a0a32f6ebd59c3f16cf317bd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-09T11:55:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Manuela Matté.pdf: 2308167 bytes, checksum: 040b4dc6a0a32f6ebd59c3f16cf317bd (MD5) / The subject of this dissertation consists of analyzing the female identity and subjectivity construction of the character Clara, protagonist-narrator of the novel Duas iguais, by Cíntia Moscovich. Therefore, it is observed how the process of identity affirmation of the female subject represented in the novel occurs, considering the social, historical and cultural context in which this subject is inserted: a Jewish regional community, during Brazilian military dictatorship years (1964-1985). Aspects regarding memory, cultural region, Judaism, patriarchy, homosexuality, prejudice, love, subjectivity and identity are discussed. Gender studies and feminist critics, studies about culture, identity and regionality are used as theoretical support for this work.

O tema da presente dissertação consiste na análise da construção da identidade e da subjetividade femininas da personagem Clara, narradora-protagonista da obra Duas iguais, de Cíntia Moscovich. Nesse sentido, observa-se como ocorre o processo de afirmação identitária do sujeito feminino representado na obra, considerando-se o contexto sócio-histórico-cultural em que está inserido: uma comunidade regional judaica, à época da ditadura militar brasileira (1964-1985). Para tanto, são discutidos aspectos como memória, região cultural, judaísmo, patriarcalismo, homossexualidade, preconceito, amor, subjetividade e identidade. Servem como aporte teórico a este trabalho os estudos culturais de gênero e a crítica literária feminista, bem como estudos acerca de cultura, identidade e regionalidade. / The subject of this dissertation consists of analyzing the female identity and subjectivity construction of the character Clara, protagonist-narrator of the novel Duas iguais, by Cíntia Moscovich. Therefore, it is observed how the process of identity affirmation of the female subject represented in the novel occurs, considering the social, historical and cultural context in which this subject is inserted: a Jewish regional community, during Brazilian military dictatorship years (1964-1985). Aspects regarding memory, cultural region, Judaism, patriarchy, homosexuality, prejudice, love, subjectivity and identity are discussed. Gender studies and feminist critics, studies about culture, identity and regionality are used as theoretical support for this work.