This thesis examines representations of nation, race and gender in three postcolonial texts: Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children; Meena Alexander's autobiographical memoirs Fault Lines; and Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi's collection of short stories entitled Imaginary Maps. All three texts reconfigure conventional accounts of nationhood by positing fictions based on what I am calling the poetics of displacement. The diasporic perspective provides Salman Rushdie's novel with the ability to suggest hybrid identities arising from the experience of cultural migration. In Meena Alexander's autobiography, displacement is figured in terms of both a diasporic and feminist vision that allows for the deconstruction of masculinist narratives of identity and nation. Mahasweta Devi's short stories, by contrast, represent displacement in terms of the violences and dislocations suffered by the Indian subaltern as a result of ecological degradation and cultural uprootment. In looking at these differential articulations of displacement, this thesis thus attempts to illustrate that what is often seen as an unified body of postcolonial literature emerges from a heterogeneous set of textual practices which are the products of varying social, cultural, political and economic contexts. In this way, this thesis rethinks the categories of nation, race and gender in order to consider the bases upon which people make claims to identity along with the boundaries of inclusion or exclusion often invoked by such claims.

In the early 1980s Foreskin's Lament swept the country as a major artistic and commercial success. In this play dramatist Greg McGee challenges the traditional New Zealand male role and associated behaviour. Foreskin ends the play searching for a new male identity: "[c]an't play the game or any more wear the one-dimensional mask .... Whaddarya?"¹ Has the massive economic and social change occuring in New Zealand since the early 1980s been responsible for answering Foreskin's question and redefining the male role? Similarly, has feminism resulted in women achieving real freedom from the constraints of traditional expectations? Or, rather, has the uncertainty caused by the constant change and financial insecurity influenced New Zealanders to reactivate or reinforce gender roles from earlier times? It is possible to answer the above questions through a close study of contemporary New Zealand theatre: theatre is influenced and produced by the social and cultural context in which it exists. Within the social context, gender is inextricably linked with sex and violence. As the meeting between society and theatre occurs during the performance of play texts, the performance situation is the dominant concern of this thesis. ¹Greg McGee. Foreskin's Lament. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1985. 96.

The current study examined the degree of role violation necessary to produce social rejection and whether penalties for gender role violations are applied equally to male and female violators. Specifically, it was hypothesized that targets described by equal numbers of male- and female-associated characteristics would be most liked and viewed as better adjusted compared to either stereotype congruent gender role targets and stereotype incongruent gender role targets. Presumed status and presumed sexual orientation were considered as explanations for the penalties gender-role violators incur. This effect was expected to be stronger for male targets than for female targets. Although the current results were unable to clarify why role deviance leads to social rejection, results confirmed prior findings indicating that not all role violations are met with equal derogation and that mixed gender roles can be perceived as psychologically healthy. Ratings of likeability and adjustment were not affected by either mediational variable. Finally, results suggested that male role violation is not regarded more harshly than female role violation when the role violation is based on traits. / Department of Psychological Science

A sample of 791 college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years-old completed an online survey. Respondents were administered a series of measures to determine their sexual identity development status, global self-esteem, global psychological distress, sexual esteem and sexual distress. A 2 X 4 MANOVA (Sexual Orientation X Sexual Identity Development Status) was conducted. Results indicated that no significant difference was observed in terms of psychological distress, global self-esteem, sexual esteem or sexual distress between those who identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual and those who identified as heterosexual. Significant differences were found among participants in relation to sexual identity development status. Specifically, those who were classified as having achieved a sexual identity scored higher on measures of self-esteem and lower on measures of psychological distress. Notably, follow up DFA indicated that sexual distress emerged as a particularly stable and important variable in explaining differences among those in different sexual identity development statuses. Implications for research and practice are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This dissertation investigates how masculinities are understood and practiced through the body and how such practices are shaped and limited by modernist theories about gender. The research argues that postmodern theory allows for a greater inclusivity of genders and bodies otherwise marginalised by modernity. A qualitative postmodern and poststructural methodology, combined with a research method involving the collection of all data via an on-line questionnaire, disrupts modernist, dualistic thinking about the body and gender. By distancing the physical body from the research method, and thus separating, temporarily, discourses of gender which inhabit the body, this research creates counter-hegemonic spaces to re-articulate masculine identities and practices within the postmodern condition. Furthermore, the postmodern theory and methodology informing this work unsettles the belief that physical bodies can be counted on to reveal consistent truths. The contextualisation of this work includes a chapter that recounts various historical moments where technological advancements made way for the re-consideration and re-negotiation of gender and bodies. The intersections of technology and modernity are examined along with the rise of the postmodern condition and the advancement of computer technologies. Shifts in understanding, influenced by postmodern theory and human-computer interaction, are discussed in relation to their challenges to modernist boundaries of ?the real? and, in turn, the possibilities of gender articulations. Additionally, a chapter containing critical researcher reflexivity through an autobiographical account of masculinities and schooling acts to illustrate some of the complexities, contradictions, privileges and counter-hegemonic possibilities of masculinities and bodies. Although the majority of the research participants identified as ?male?, some identified as ?female? and others identified as ?intersex?. The geographic identities of the respondents included Australia, The United Kingdom, Ireland, The United States, and Japan. The data were analysed using postmodern and poststructural theory. The subjectivity and the role of the researcher in the analysis of data were interrogated alongside the words of the participants. The responses were grouped into four areas: Being and Knowing; The Body Engendered; Bodies On-Line and On the Line, and New Articulations. In all four areas the participants? words demonstrate tensions between modern and postmodern understandings of bodies and genders. Computer technologies often replicate modernist images of gender and bodies, yet at the same time they provide a postmodern space of multiplicity, fluidity, and hybridity, where rigid modernist configurations cannot hold. The analysis illuminates, diffracts, disrupts, and highlights disjunctures and new possibilities for gender and bodies mediated by contemporary computer and Internet technologies. Lastly, Benjaminian dialectical images were used to transform fixed modernist beliefs about gender and bodies and to move the reader toward alternative ways of understanding gender which are not body dependent. / thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2002.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-87).

Thesis (Ph. D. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, May 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Waikato, 2007. / Title from PDF cover (viewed February 25, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-146)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 1998. / Thesis submitted to the School of Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 631-679).