L’argument de cette recherche propose d’étudier le concept du pouvoir et ses manifestations chez les héroïnes tragiques de Shakespeare Ophélie, Desdémone, Lady Macbeth, et Cléopâtre. Cette étude suit deux axes d’interprétation, la domination et la résistance qui constituent le pouvoir féminin à travers ses productions verbales et ses projections mentales. Ces aspects sont explorés à travers une théorie de poétique cognitive et d'analyse de conversation. En parallèle, les théories critiques vont compléter la discussion des résultats trouvés. Ce travail explore comment les héroïnes tragiques de Shakespeare mènent leur propre résistance et exercent une contre-force à un poly-système patriarcal basé sur un héritage de séparation de genre. Ces personnages brossent un portrait distinctif d'héroïsme tragique féminin ; une voix indépendante et vibrante dans le texte shakespearien. / The Shakespearean tragic heroines are a polemical topic. Critics are divided between a reading that describes them as complex and dynamic protagonists and a reading that sees their presence as ornamental and paper-thin in the Shakespearean dramatic tradition. This study examines tenets of power within four major tragic figures, Ophelia, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, and Cleopatra. Conversation analysis and disciplines from cognitive poetics, text world theory and conceptual metaphor analysis, will be used to study these characters’ utterances and thoughts. The research shows that Ophelia, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, and Cleopatra are actively involved in power relations. They manifest dominance, exercise resistance, and sow dissidence within masculine narratives of authority. The conclusion can also be drawn that the Shakespearean tragic heroine succeeds in breaking through patriarchal embargo, embraces power, and inaugurates a distinctive concept of female heroism.

There are many heroines in American fiction, and in this thesis I have tried to show the development of the characterization of women in the American novel.

[pt] Rute é uma mulher pobre, viúva e estrangeira moabita. Não obstante isso, é uma mulher de força/valor, em atitudes e palavras; é uma mulher decidida que se comporta em termos de paridade com Booz, o homem que ao seu lado divide a cena central em Rt 3: a cena da eira. A presente tese, intitulada Uma heroína chamada Rute: análise narrativa e intertextual de Rt 3, buscou mostrar, por meio da exegese narrativa, as possibilidades que assinalam essa paridade entre os protagonistas, Rute e Booz, através da análise de seus atos e falas, quer pelo tratamento que o autor, através da voz do narrador dá a cada um, quer pelo discurso destes personagens, valorizando, ainda, a importância e o papel de Noemi nas cenas anterior e posterior à cena da eira. A seguir, a partir da análise intertextual bíblica e extrabíblica, foi possível identificar outras mulheres que em muito se assemelham à pessoa, às características e ao comportamento de paridade entre Rute e Booz em Rt 3: as mulheres bíblicas Débora, Jael, Abigail e a mulher de Pr 31,10-31, bem como as mulheres extrabíbicas Arete e Alceste, todas com seus pares masculinos em cena. Esta aproximação permitiu aplicar a Rute o conceito de heroína, conforme o modelo literário dos textos da Antiguidade. Nestes, mulheres fortes, corajosas e pares dos homens caracterizam as heroínas, seja nos textos que retratavam a sociedade em Israel, no Antigo Oriente Próximo, ou entre os povos da Grécia continental e insular, os quais circulavam na bacia do Mediterrâneo. / [en] Ruth is a poor, widowed and moabite foreigner woman. Nevertheless, she is a woman of strength/value, in attitudes and words; a decided woman that behaves at parity with Booz, the man with whom she shares side by side the central scene in Rt 3: at the threshing floor. This thesis, entitled A heroine called Ruth: narrative and intertextual analysis of Rt 3, sought to show, through the narrative exegesis, the possibilities that point out that parity between the protagonists, Ruth and Booz, either by the treatment the author, through the Narrator s voice, gives to each one or by the speeches of these characters, giving value, still, to Naomi s importance and role before and after the threshing floor scene.Then, from the bible and extrabible intertextual analysis, it was possible to identify other women who very much resemble the person, characteristics and behavior of parity between Ruth and Booz in Rt 3: the bible women Deborah, Jael, Abigail and woman of Pr 31,10 31, as well as the extrabible women Arete and Alcestis, all with their male counterparts at the scene. This approach made it possible to apply to Ruth the concept of heroin, as the literary model of the texts of Antiquity. In these strong, courageous women and men s counterparts characterize the heroines in texts that depict the society in Israel, in the ancient Near East, or between the people of continental and insular Greece, which circulated in the Mediterranean basin.

Thesis advisor: Celeste Wells / This paper analyzes the rights and privileges Black Widow and Captain Marvel are afforded in their respective films coupled with audience perception to understand how that might inform the future of the action heroine genre. There is a stark contrast between the reception of Black Widow and Captain Marvel that is best understood through the release timing of the films along with the character’s plotline within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Regardless, the rights and privileges each character is afforded in both films demonstrate a dimension of the female experience that had not been fully realized in the MCU prior to their release. Captain Marvel and Black Widow indicate a progression of female representation within the action heroine genre– both in frequency and quality. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Communication.

This study explores the manner in which modern French fantasy novels have diverged from the Tolkienian, high-fantasy precedent established in the late 90s and the very early 2000s. From 2010–2020, authors Jean-Philippe Jaworski, Justine Niogret, Pierre Pevel, and Claire Duvivier have re-imagined the fantasy realm by deliberately working in opposition to the tropes of high-fantasy. The following work is split into two segments–the first of which analyzes how this high-fantasy divergence manifests within the evolved role of the hero, as it pertains to Jaworski, Pevel, and Niogret. The latter tackles the inverse, being the de-heroized, humanist approach of Duvivier that further depicts how the genre continues to evolve. Through a varying theoretical framework, this interdisciplinary work establishes that the following novels mutually support one another in an effort to diverge from the historic, high-fantasy precedent: Jaworski's Gagner la guerre (2009), Niogret's Chien du heaume (2010), Pevel's Le Chevalier (2015), Duvivier's Un long voyage (2020). / Master of Arts / The project follows a continued line of inquiry related to modern French fantasy novels, and questions the place of the hero within the fantasy realm from 2010–2020. What is uncovered is a shifting within the genre–one that favors varying forums of heroism, and rejects the restricted nature of the righteously motivated high-fantasy hero. This is a genre study; many of the literary devices discussed are only marginally innovative, in a greater literary sense. However, this research asserts that their uniqueness within the scope of the genre merits inquiry. This project discusses the modern French fantasy scene and its divergence from the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien.

This study focuses on the heroine's mythical-psychological trajectory in the romance A correnteza, by Alina Paim, based on the hero's and heroine's mythical trajectories proposed by Joseph Campbell and Annis Pratt, as well as on the psychological implications of it as collective unconcious archetypes presented by Carl G. Jung and Erich Neumann. As the main character lives its individuation process, a tourtuous path that implies introspection, self analysis, symbolic death and rebirth, we could notice other myths that sustein the plot. Between them, we highlight, Medea's myth, based on Olga Rinne's view of the topic. We concluded that after going down her memories and estimate wins and loses, the heroine illuminated by the real Self becames an Old Wise. / Este estudo interpreta a trajetória mítico-psicológica da heroína no romance A correnteza, escrito por Alina Paim. Para tanto, estaremos embasados nas trajetórias mítica do herói e da heroína propostos, respectivamente, por Joseph Campbell e Annis Pratt, bem como nas implicações psicológicas do herói enquanto arquétipo do inconsciente coletivo apresentadas por Carl G. Jung e Erich Neumann. À medida que a protagonista vivencia seu processo de individuação, caminho tortuoso que implica introspecção, auto-análise, morte simbólica e renascimento, nos deparamos com outros motivos míticos que sustentam a narrativa. Dentre eles, destacamos, principalmente, o mito de Medéia, à luz das reflexões de Olga Rinne. Concluímos que após descer às profundezas da memória e avaliar perdas e ganhos, a heroína iluminada pelo Si-mesmo verdadeiro torna-se uma Velha Sábia.

L’héroïne de tragédie joue-t-elle le même rôle aristotélicien que le héros?Cette thèse examine six pièces, les Andromaque, Iphigénie en Aulide et Hippolyte d’Euripide et les Andromaque, Iphigénie et Phèdre et Hippolyte de Racine. Les trois héroïnes, examinées dans les trois premiers chapitres, ont des limites de représentation tragique spécifiques, les rendant moins présentes à l’action héroïque que les héros-type. Mais leur présence, même contrainte, ouvre la question de la condition féminine, que les Grecs ont été les premiers à conceptualiser, et que le XVIIème siècle en France a également mise en avant, du moins pour les femmes éduquées.Ensuite sont étudiés quelques exemples plus ponctuels de représentation d’héroïnes tragiques.Au cinquième chapitre est considéré l’impact de la présence et des absences des héroïnes sur la tragédie en tant que forme culturelle récurrente (tenant compte des éléments du modèle aristotélicien de la tragédie, muthos, hamartia, hubris, anagnorisis, katharsis, et l’interaction des héroïnes avec ces valeurs), contribuant à l’évolution des mentalités. En conclusion, la transmission culturelle de l’héroïne (mythe, épopée, culte, tragédie antique et classique, récurrences contemporaines) peut se conceptualiser en employant une récente théorie syntaxique et cognitive, la théorie X-barre. La théorie de la structure et de la contrestructure est articulée, qui suggère un modèle cognitif, rendant compte de l’évolution sociale des rapports entre hommes et femmes, qui sortirait des oppositions binaires. Les stratégies contrestructurales que les héroïnes de tragédie mettent en œuvre, dans ces pièces, marquent une évolution cognitive de la condition humaine. Les « études héroïniques » sont une voie de nouvelles recherches et un apport potentiel au futur des études littéraires. / Does the tragic heroine play the same Aristotelian role as the hero? Six plays are examined: Euripides’ Andromache, Iphigeneia in Aulis and Hippolytos, and Racine’s Andromaque, Iphigénie and Phèdre et Hippolyte.The three pairs of heroines, considered in turn, have specific limits to their capacity for direct heroic action, compared to typical heroes. At the same time, their presence and actions, even constrained, open the question of women’s condition – which the Greeks were the first to conceptualise, and which the French XVIIth c. also foregrounded, at least for educated women. The fourth chapter looks at some further examples of heroines, illustrating aspects of their representation in tragedy.Fifthly is considered the impact, of the presence and absence of the tragic heroine, on tragedy as a form of cultural inscription which has contributed to the evolution of the imaginaire. Different aspects of the Aristotelian model of tragedy such as muthos, hamartia, hubris, anagnorisis, catharsis are explored in terms of how the tragic heroine represents these functions.The conclusions reflect on the cultural transmission of the heroine from myth to epic, cult, the tragedy of antiquity and of French classicism, to contemporary forms). A recent linguistics theory, the X-bar theory is mentioned as a possible cognitive model to conceptualise this continuity in discontinuity, through societies which have so differently validated the female, but may all have been affected by the performative heroine. The author’s own theory of structure and counterstructure is a possible model for observing the evolution of men-women relations, beyond polarising or binary-oppositional cognitive frames. Finally, “heroine studies” are a possible fruitful research area for literature and cultural studies.

During the Victorian period marriage proved to be a dominant theme in fiction. Female writers especially focused on the topic of marriage and wrote stories of women whose first marriages were imperfect. Anne Brontë and George Eliot dedicated themselves to portraying in their stories realistic heroines who deal with their own flaws as well as those of the men they marry. Their heroines distance themselves from their expected roles, moving beyond their first failed marriages to wiser second marriages. Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall follows Helen Huntingdon as she attempts to fulfill the self-appointed role of Savior to her husband. Her rash first marriage opens her eyes to her frank inability to redeem and reform her reprobate husband. Along the same lines George Eliot warns readers in her prelude to Middlemarch that Dorothea Brooke will never fulfill all her saintly capabilities because of the unaccommodating social structure of her time. She marries an elderly scholar in the hopes of being enlightened intellectually and spiritually by the alliance. Instead she finds herself stymied in a claustrophobic marriage. Both women are liberated, in a sense, by the deaths of their husbands and regain their free will at that point. This thesis explores the psychological pathway from first to second marriage. Marriage serves as the prime educator for Helen and Dorothea. Both women move from blind adoration to despair and hatred at the failure of their first marriages. Both eventually seek a second marriage and wed men who are in turn wiser for their association with these women and who love and respect them. The treatment of marriage in the two novels hinges on the realistic portrayal of life and reflects the era the authors lived in as well as serving as a vehicle for the heroines' character development and growth. Brontë and Eliot create remarkably similar stories beginning with marriage and focusing on heroines who survive the refiner's fire and in the end attain a sense of self as well as a measure of peace.

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I focus on the changing and now contemporary feminist conceptualization of romance fiction. Through the genre’s mass-market success and complicated history, a definition of ro·mance (genre) is conjured. By depicting a fantasy world for the female reader to escape to, feminist critics and romance academics have found the genre’s influence to be an effective one. In an analysis if popular romance fiction author, Emily Giffin, and her most recent novel The One & Only, I demonstrate what has now resulted in the modern romance and further, how the modern heroine is understood today.