ix, 267 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / In English literary studies, classical epic poetry is typically regarded as a masculinist genre that imparts and reinforces the values of dominant culture. The Iliad , Odyssey , and Aeneid , after all, were written by men, feature male heroes, and recount the violent events that gave rise to the misogynistic societies of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet, in the twentieth century, women poets have found inspiration for their feminist projects in these ostensibly masculinist poems. The four poets in this study, for example, have drawn from the work of Homer and Virgil to criticize the ways that conventional conceptions of gender identity have impaired both men and women. One might expect, and indeed, most critics argue, that women like H.D., Gwendolyn Brooks, Louise Glück, and Anne Carson invoke their classical predecessors only to reject them and the repressive values that they represent. Close readings of these poets' work, however, demonstrate that, far from dismissing the ancient poems, Helen in Egypt , Annie Allen , Meadowlands , and Autobiography of Red are deeply invested in them, finding in them models for their own social critiques. The work of these four poets emphasizes that the classical epics are not one-dimensional celebrations of violence and traditional masculinity. Indeed, the work of Homer and Virgil expresses anxiety about the misogynistic values of the heroic code to which its warriors adhere, and it urges that war and violence are antithetical to civilized society. In examining the ways that modern women poets have drawn from these facets of the ancient works to condemn the sexism, racism, and heterocentrism of contemporary culture, my dissertation seeks to challenge the characterization of classical epic that prevails in English literary studies and to assert the necessity of understanding the complexity of the ancient texts that inspire modern poets. Taking an intertextual approach, I hope to show that close readings of the classical epics facilitate our understanding of how and why modern women have engaged the work of their ancient predecessors and that this knowledge, in turn, emphasizes that the epic genre is more complex than we have recognized and that its tradition still flourishes. / Committee in charge: Karen Ford, Chairperson, English; Paul Peppis, Member, English; Steven Shankman, Member, English; P. Lowell Bowditch, Outside Member, Classics

In this study I apply social constructionism as propounded by Vivian Burr (1998) to show that although J. K. Rowling uses stereotypes in the Harry Potter series as a reflection of how gender is constructed across a wide range of societal institutions in contemporary Britain, she created complex characters who on an individual level subvert social constructs and thereby offers her readers alternatives to culturally defined concepts of gender. I explore the all-pervasive social phenomenon of gender and examine how it is constructed in present-day Britain and reflected in the series (bearing in mind that the first book was published in 1997 and the last one in 2007). My analysis of female and male characters in the books, and their interpersonal relationships, shows that Rowling's often tricky portrayal of femininities and masculinities gives us an honest view of teenagers’ lives and contemporary gender relations in an ever-changing, complex world. / English Studies / M. A. (English)

A presente dissertação discute as configurações de gênero e espaço na obra Sapato de salto (2006), da escritora Lygia Bojunga, dialogando com questões inerentes à literatura infantil e à identidade. Nessa perspectiva, verifica-se de que maneira aspectos sociais e culturais estão representados nas configurações de gênero e espaço na obra em estudo e que relações estabelecem com as personagens na construção de suas identidades. Para buscar resposta a esse questionamento, torna-se imprescindível a organização de um referencial teórico fundamentado em aspectos sociais e culturais a respeito de gênero e de espaço. Quando se tratar de gênero e suas configurações, utiliza-se Beauvoir (1980), Butler (2003), Louro (1997), Showalter (1994), e, quando o assunto for espaço, a referência consiste em Bachelard (1993), Certeau (1994), Corrêa (1989) e Pesavento (2002). Analisam-se, também, conceitos de literatura infanto-juvenil e identidade que discutem a construção da identidade nas diferentes fases da vida de Sabrina, personagem da obra estudada, sustentados por Lajolo (1993), Hall (2005), Vigotski (1998) e Zilberman (1998) e (2005). / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2017-09-28T19:23:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Eliandra Lanfredi Bottin.pdf: 936621 bytes, checksum: 9a7608797b277a36d954fa4a986c8a68 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-28T19:23:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Eliandra Lanfredi Bottin.pdf: 936621 bytes, checksum: 9a7608797b277a36d954fa4a986c8a68 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-28 / The present Master’s Dissertation discusses space and gender configurations of the literary work Sapato de salto (High heeled shoes) (2006), by Lygia Bojunga. It dialogues matters inherent to children’s literature and identity. In view of this, it is verified how social and cultural aspects are represented in gender and space configuration, considering the studied literary work; and what relationships are established with the characters in the construction of their identities. To find responses for this questioning, it is indispensable to organize theoretical frame based on social and cultural aspects related to gender and space. About gender and its configurations, it is used works by Beauvoir (1980), Butler (2003), Louro (1997), Showalter (1994). With regard to space, the reference consists of Bachelard (1993), Certeau (1994), Corrêa (1989) and Pesavento (2002). Other analyzed concepts were children’s literature and identity, which discuss identity construction in the different stages of life of Sabrina, character of the studied literary work, through theory supported by Lajolo (1993), Hall (2005), Vigotski (1998) e Zilberman (1998) e (2005).

A presente dissertação discute as configurações de gênero e espaço na obra Sapato de salto (2006), da escritora Lygia Bojunga, dialogando com questões inerentes à literatura infantil e à identidade. Nessa perspectiva, verifica-se de que maneira aspectos sociais e culturais estão representados nas configurações de gênero e espaço na obra em estudo e que relações estabelecem com as personagens na construção de suas identidades. Para buscar resposta a esse questionamento, torna-se imprescindível a organização de um referencial teórico fundamentado em aspectos sociais e culturais a respeito de gênero e de espaço. Quando se tratar de gênero e suas configurações, utiliza-se Beauvoir (1980), Butler (2003), Louro (1997), Showalter (1994), e, quando o assunto for espaço, a referência consiste em Bachelard (1993), Certeau (1994), Corrêa (1989) e Pesavento (2002). Analisam-se, também, conceitos de literatura infanto-juvenil e identidade que discutem a construção da identidade nas diferentes fases da vida de Sabrina, personagem da obra estudada, sustentados por Lajolo (1993), Hall (2005), Vigotski (1998) e Zilberman (1998) e (2005). / The present Master’s Dissertation discusses space and gender configurations of the literary work Sapato de salto (High heeled shoes) (2006), by Lygia Bojunga. It dialogues matters inherent to children’s literature and identity. In view of this, it is verified how social and cultural aspects are represented in gender and space configuration, considering the studied literary work; and what relationships are established with the characters in the construction of their identities. To find responses for this questioning, it is indispensable to organize theoretical frame based on social and cultural aspects related to gender and space. About gender and its configurations, it is used works by Beauvoir (1980), Butler (2003), Louro (1997), Showalter (1994). With regard to space, the reference consists of Bachelard (1993), Certeau (1994), Corrêa (1989) and Pesavento (2002). Other analyzed concepts were children’s literature and identity, which discuss identity construction in the different stages of life of Sabrina, character of the studied literary work, through theory supported by Lajolo (1993), Hall (2005), Vigotski (1998) e Zilberman (1998) e (2005).

This study examines a range of South African speculative novels which situate their narratives in futuristic or ‘alternative’ milieus, exploring how these narratives not only address identity formation in a deeply divided and rapidly changing society, but also the ways in which human beings place themselves in relation to Nature and form notions of ‘ecological’ belonging. It offers close readings of these speculative narratives in order to investigate the ways in which they evince concerns which are rooted in the natural, social and political landscapes which inform them. Specific attention is paid to the texts’ treatment of the intertwined issues of identity, belonging and ecological crisis. This dissertation draws on the fields of Ecocriticism, Postcolonial Studies and Science Fiction Studies, and assumes a culturally specific approach to primary texts while investigating possible cross-cultural commonalities between Afrikaans and English speculative narratives, as well as the cross-fertilisation of global SF/speculative features. It is suggested that South African speculative fiction presents a socio-historically situated, rhizomatic approach to ecology – one that is attuned to the tension between humanistic- and ecological concerns.

This thesis reports on an analysis of the discursive construction of female and male physical identity in children’s literature and explicitly combines corpus linguistic methods with a critical discourse approach. Based on three novels from each of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series, it shows clear gendering of body parts, not only in terms of the purely quantitative preferences for certain body parts to be associated with one or other gender, but in terms of discourse prosody, or the uses to which the body parts are put. Human body parts in these series are mostly used in the following four ways, all of which show differences in realisation in terms of gender: · to describe individuals, physically, in order to distinguish one from the other; · to convey emotion, unintentionally as well as consciously; · for physical interaction between people and · for interaction with the world more broadly: responses to danger and agency, i.e. the ability to act on the world and the nature of what is achieved. The use of body parts by characters to express emotion and act agentively on the world is revealed to be strongly gendered in the two series. I characterise the most prominent patterns in terms of the bodily products blood, sweat and tears, of which the last is strongly connected to female characters, who are generally associated with emotion. The other two, referring to active participation in fighting and injury, as well as agency, are almost exclusively reserved for males, with female characters rendered unable to act on the physical world as a result of overwhelming feelings. The females’ response to danger suggests stereotyped discourses of inequality which see women and girls as requiring protection and being physically incapable. Thus gender is still a particularly salient aspect in these widely-read examples of children’s literature, despite plots which appear to be fairly positive towards women. The strength of the inclusion of a corpus approach in this study lies in its capacity to reveal objective, and often fairly covert, trends in language use. These in turn enrich the critical analysis of discourses in these influential texts, which facilitates social change through linguistic analysis.

This project is a discussion of the continuing need to address gender issues while teaching core curriculum in English classes at the secondary level.

This study examines the specific aspects of the reception of Russian formalism and the development of the Formal method in Soviet Ukrainian culture in the 1920s - the beginning of 1930s. Russian formalism in the process of reception becomes an important tool for the "modernization" of national culture and, as a result, an instrument for a new phase in the construction of national cultural identity. On that basis, the cultural-historical and ideological context of the development of Ukrainian literary criticism, criticism and (partially) literature of the late 19th - first decades of the 20th century is consistently reconstructed in eight chapters of the work. The first chapter highlights theoretical aspects of the study, reviews critical literature, reconstructs the history of reception of Russian formalism in Russian and Western criticism and the history of literature. The second chapter addresses the historical and theoretical premises of the reception of Formal theory in Ukrainian culture. The next chapter discusses historical and political context of the development of literature and literary criticism in 1917-1920 using the example of multinational post-revolutionary Kiev; a brief review of the theoretical and historical works of the 1920s also appears here. A special focus is put on the...

The aim of the present study is to account for the significance of mobility in American culture and its reflection in literature. In order to reach this goal, the thesis observes the role of mobility in the history of the United States, its transformation in the twentieth century, and the manifestation of this motif in the works of Jack Kerouac. Through the analysis of his novels, including On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, Lonesome Traveler, and Big Sur, the thesis identifies some of the recurrent themes associated with the motif of journey and further interprets them in the context of postwar America. With the support of an array of secondary literature, this research approaches mobility as a constitutive part of the American identity and Jack Kerouac as one of its most ardent advocates. The introduction probes the contemporary preoccupation with space and the necessity of interrogating its intersection with time. While incorporating both of these dimensions, movement is identified as a manifestation of this intersection and it is distinguished from mobility as lacking the meaning acquired through culture. In order to explain this process of acquiring meaning, the link between mobility and narrative is established and its presence in literature observed. It is subsequently argued...

This dissertation examines how transgender feelings and gender variation emerged as a vital motivator for scientific and aesthetic explorations of human personhood and social experiences of marginality in German-speaking culture in the early twentieth century. My research illustrates how concepts of gender variation served as a generative problem for modernist practitioners of sexual science and as a creative impulse and figural resource for modernist literary and artistic innovations. The feedback between these fields allowed for novel social categories to develop in a period where designations like “transgender” or “transsexual” were not yet in use as stable public identities or diagnoses, but nevertheless circulated in response to experiences of embodied difference and social alienation. By reading for “transgender feeling” as a heuristic that unites multiple historical categories of gender and sexual variation, I argue that transgender phenomena were instrumental for the development of German modernist movements at large. Building on affect studies, trans and queer studies, and German literary and cultural studies, my project intervenes in limited contemporary understandings of transgender history and identity as a minority political and diagnostic discourse. Instead, I argue for a more expansive, “democratized” notion of transgender feeling that encompasses diverse historical forms of gender variation, some of which have disappeared or become “obsolete,” and show how narratives of gender intermediacy and incongruence are essential to modernist aesthetic practices. Chapter One examines theories of sexual intermediacy in the sexological work of Magnus Hirschfeld and Otto Weininger, who both suggested that a transgender condition underlies “normal” human sexual development. I show that trans feelings cut across Hirschfeld’s sexological categories and, in particular, his deployment of the case genre, troubling stable taxonomies of sexual affect and allowing for promising forms of coauthorship and “trans genre writing” to emerge in sexology. Chapter Two takes up Rainer Maria Rilke’s writing in The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge and Das Stunden-Buch, as well as his early childhood experience, to argue that dysphoria and intermediacy are key to understanding the social alienation that Rilke expressed in his modernist work alongside personal attachments to femininity and a feminine poetic voice. Chapter Three on Else Lasker-Schüler illustrates how trans feelings, the masculine persona of Jussuf and appropriations of racial and ethnic difference significantly frame the novel Mein Herz and become enduring features of Lasker-Schüler’s literary and artistic production. I highlight how scholarly reception of Rilke and Lasker-Schüler’s work have intentionally disavowed these expressions as transgender and argue for a reassessment of trans feeling as a creative impulse in German modernism through their texts and images. My last chapter explores how modernist periodical media served as a vital tool for crafting trans intimate publics in the Weimar period and for negotiating the shared norms of gender and social participation for a novel class of gender-variant people under the category of transvestism. In my conclusion, I turn to the unfinished business of sexual and gender definition that continues to frame LGBTQ politics in Germany and abroad today, and I link contemporary questions of trans aesthetics to modernist dynamics of gender and sexual multiplicity.