This academic paper examines the menstrual art that is seen as provocative in the contemporary art debate in Sweden. The paper problematizes menstrual art as a concept. Moreover, it critically examines how the concept of menstrual art has been received by politicians, art theorists and journalists. The ideas and artistic expressions in menstrual art have been analyzed using Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theory on abjection and Wasshedes verbalized form abjectification. As well as how the distinction between purity and dirt can be examined by using the ideas found in menstrual art. How do artists challenge prevailing societal structures and norms by creating menstrual art? Which ideas does the concept of menstrual art include? How did the concept of menstrual art become a controversial word in the contemporary debate in Sweden?

Studien undersöker hur kvinnliga karaktärer representeras i relation till skräcktematiken i tv-serien Penny Dreadful (2014-). Syftet har varit att studera huruvida det som är typiska kännetecken för skräck kan kopplas till kvinnlighet, femininitet och feminism (det senare då man kan uppfatta ett genuskritiskt samtal i serien). Med hjälp av psykoanalytiska teorier kring abjektion visar analysen hur det som är skrämmande med kvinnor, är skrämmande på andra sätt än vad som är skrämmande med män. Det som är abjekt med kvinnan definieras ofta utifrån hennes sexualitet och biologiska egenskaper, och skapar därmed en feminin monstrositet och således är helt olik den manliga. Detta har till stor del växt fram genom historiska myter, religioner och konst, som har bidragit till könsspecifika monster utifrån stereotyp femininitet, så som häxor, sirener eller Medusa. Genom att utforska tv-seriens karaktärer med hjälp av semiotiska och psykoanalytiska verktyg avslöjas möjliga tolkningar som visar hur nämnda feminina monster tycks grunda sig i manlig rädsla och kvinnan som hot. Kastrationskomplexet som bidragande faktor och den manliga blicken tycks därför kväsa uttryck för kvinnlig frigörelse i serien, genom att sexualisera, plåga och göra kvinnan abjekt och monstruös i direkt genmäle till dessa. Serien tycks därför trots sin genuskritiska diskurs kontrolleras av en manlig blick och ett skoptofiliskt seende, något som möjligtvis bidrar till att kvinnlighet och femininitet kodas som abjekt, och i värsta fall stigmatiserar den feministiska kvinnan. / <p>Reviderad upplaga</p>

The notion of a “feminine” style has been staunchly resisted by third-wave feminists who argue that to posit a “feminine” style is essentialist. Yet, linguists such as Norma Mendoza-Denton and Elinor Ochs discuss indexicality and shifting through salient variables, a process called entextualization. Further, French feminists such as Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva use the linguistic concept of intertextuality to explain certain poetic uses of language that might cause what Luce Irigaray calls “irruption of the semiotic chora”—moments within language where boundaries in the semiotic chain of signification are “blurred.” Thus, while current feminism has moved strictly away from the idea that there is an exigent “feminine” to which all women must aspire, there exists a tenuous, but salient connection between the linguistic concepts of indexicality and intertextuality on one hand, and jouissance and “irruption of the chora” on the other that can inform those styles we might term “feminine” and allow for a more productive and responsive perception of “femininity.” Amos’ lyrics illustrate these theories working together; Amos’ lyrics represent such a “feminine” style as indexed through use of salient variables; thus, Amos’ lyrics represent a sociolinguistic phenomenon wherein gender-based salient variables reform what “feminine” is and means, challenging social attitudes and the specular feminine persona within both the personal and public spheres. The implications of these theories could eventually influence perceptions of women in any particular profession or sphere, as gendered linguistic markers influence gender roles and implications, which, in turn, inform social change.

Typified rhetorical situations are often a result of normalized ideologies within cultures; however, they also have the capability to produce new ideology. Within these discursive sites, identities are constructed among these normalized social acts. More importantly, these identities are constructed across many layers, not limited to one social act, but many that overlap and influence each other. In this paper, I focus on the identities that are constructed in marginalized spaces within sites of interacting discourse. Focusing on the rhetoric of abjection posited by Julia Kristeva, along with McKenzie Wark’s exploration of gamespace, a liminal theoretical space that encompasses the sites of analysis and ideology formation from the perspective of gamers, I analyze disruptions of normalized social practices in the gaming genre in order to implement the use of abjection as a method of understanding how sites of difference produce meaning for minoritarian subjects.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the importance of the mother figure for the definition of the female identity in three novels by the Belgian writer and psychoanalyst Jacqueline Harpman: La fille démantelée, La plage d’Ostende and Orlanda. This perspective is largely motivated by the specific character of the mother-daughter relation which is crucial to the formation of female identity. Freud already argued that it was impossible to understand the female identity without considering a woman’s preœdipal fixation to her mother. The analysis of the three novels is based on the concept of what Kristeva terms primary narcissism, which represents a delicate stage in the relationship between mother and child. In different ways, the analyzed novels are permeated by an oscillation between identification and differentiation. On a thematic level, the female protagonist’s desire to distance herself from the mother is always countered by an awareness of an intimate bond with her, and, paradoxically, it may seem, that the differentiation from the mother opens the way for a happy reunion between mother and daughter, now two individuals who no longer form a symbiotic unit. In this process of individuation described in the novels, a third instance which Freud called father of individual prehistory is crucial. Even though, at first sight, love appears to be the most important theme in the works of Harpman, this thesis argues that the theme of love is intimately linked to that of the mother figure and that it is necessary to read the works of Harpman through the spectrum of the mother-daughter relation in order to achieve a deeper understanding. Such a reading reveals among other things the key role of the inner dynamics of love. Love is not only the main theme of the work of Harpman, it’s also the meeting place of the two “love cures” of Harpman: literature and psychoanalysis, both situated in the field between narcissism and idealization, mechanisms that are inherent to what Freud called the subject’s eternal rebirth. The way in which writing functions as a way for the Harpman female protagonist to become a subject corresponds to Kristeva's idea of the entering into language, or into the symbolic system as Lacan put it, as a way to ward off the emptiness of the abjection. The symbolic system gives the subject a sense of being an individual with clear boundaries in a structured and intelligible world.

In Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter, extreme opposition is prevalent as the authors describe the makeup of each character, as well as the setting and plot in these novels. What are they accomplishing by portraying such opposition? By using Jacque Derrida’s deconstructive theory and Julia Kristeva’s definition of abjection as theoretical guides to navigate these novels, examples of how both authors use extreme opposition in each element of their works are cited and explored. Through this process, the realization that opposing extremes can harmoniously lie side by side and have as many similarities as differences is discovered. By the conclusion, the unifying quality that love plays in both novels, as well as the authors’ intents to change their readers traditional concept of love, is evident.

La presente tesis doctoral "Deconstrucción literaria de los trastornos de la alimentación y de la cirugía estética en las novelas de Margaret Atwood y Fay Weldon" intenta hallar una respuesta a la acusada diferencia de género que presentan los trastornos de la alimentación: anorexia, bulimia y sobreingesta compulsiva. La mera explicación por parte del discurso médico y socio-cultural de que estas patologías son el resultado de la interiorización por parte de las adolescentes del mensaje mediático de que la delgadez es sinónimo de belleza, no satisfacían el interrogante ante la continua proliferación de mujeres anoréxicas y bulímicas. Este trabajo consta de tres capítulos: el primero introduce y establece la genealogía de los trastornos de la alimentación. La teoría freudiana y lacaniana en que se basa este primer capítulo ejemplifica que la mujer ha sido creada dentro de un sistema falócrata como "la otra". El hecho de que Foucault subraye que a través del lenguaje se construyen los objetos y que se necesitan los binomios para que uno de los elementos adquiera significado, corrobora la construcción patriarcal que necesita convertir a la mujer en pasiva para que el hombre adquiera preponderancia. Las novelas The Edible Woman (1969) y Lady Oracle (1976) de Atwood; The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1983) y The Fat Woman's Joke (1967) de Weldon son analizadas en este primer capítulo desde las perspectivas freudiana y lacaniana con el propósito de ejemplificar cómo el sistema patriarcal es el que convierte a la mujer en un sujeto pasivo carente de poder, y donde la herramienta utilizada para este cometido es el logos falócrata.Tras la presentación en el primer capítulo de la carencia de las mujeres de un discurso propio, se analiza la novela The Edible Woman, desde una perspectiva postestructural feminista. El corpus teórico de este segundo capítulo es la deconstrucción que Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva y Hélène Cixous hacen de las teorías freudianas y lacanianas. Irigaray pone en tela de juicio la esquematización del orden simbólico hecha por Lacan y otorga a las mujeres la posibilidad de ascender a la parte superior de la pirámide simbólica; lugar desde donde éstas procederán a la construcción de un logos diferente. Cixous enfatiza la necesidad de deconstruir los binomios imperantes y Kristeva señala la necesidad de una unión "empoderante", es decir, de una "sororidad" entre mujeres. Este trabajo ha intentado verter dichas teorías en la novela de Atwood por medio del análisis de sus personajes. Marian, personaje principal, carece de un lenguaje propio y su anorexia se convierte en la respuesta subversiva que expresa su yo auténtico, aparentemente carente de voz y, por tanto, de poder, pero que es, como se demuestra a lo largo de este segundo capítulo, un potente lenguaje de resistencia. A través de la literatura y pese a utilizar necesariamente un discurso falócrata, Atwood es capaz de hacer ver a sus lectoras la falacia del sistema y la necesidad de un logos femenino propio. Es en este punto de la tesis donde se cuestiona el significado de "cultural dope" asociado a las anoréxicas y bulímicas. El objetivo de esta investigación, ofrecer una explicación alternativa a la acusada diferencia de género en los trastornos alimentarios, queda así establecido. El propósito del tercer capítulo es el de utilizar el mismo marco teórico, pero en otro ámbito: el de la cirugía estética. La novela de Weldon The Life and Loves of a She-Devil es el marco idóneo para ejemplificar la teoría explicada en este tercer capítulo puesto que es una sátira feminista de la calología que subraya la opresión femenina y la tiranía patriarcal. Esta novela ofrece una nueva perspectiva de la cirugía estética como lenguaje feminista reivindicativo a la vez que subvierte el discurso falócrata.

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Les récits autobiographiques modernes se distinguent par leur hétérogénéité non seulement entre eux rnais à l’intérieur de chaque texte. Trois textes, de facture autobiographique équivoque, ont été choisis comme objets de cette étude parce qu’ils illustrent cette hétérogénéité inter/intra-textuelle. La Détresse et l’enchantement, de Gabrielle Roy, représente le récit autobiographique supposérnent conventionnel, garantissant la ‘véracité’ de son discours narratif par un certain pacte de lecture; pourtant ce texte révèle une dimension romanesque. Les Mots pour le dire, par contre, récit à saveur de confidence de Marie Cardinal, est ambivalent dès le départ quant à son statut: ii bascule entre des éléments romancés et les souvenirs vérifiables, “événements vécus”, selon l’auteure. Enfin, Les Samourals, roman à clefs de Julia Kristeva, s’éloigne du récit-mémoires, rnais est lu comme une autobiographie à peine voilée à cause des éléments correspondant à la vie de l’auteure. La juxtaposition de ces trois récits montre que chaque texte se situe à un point mobile sur un spectrum entre deux pôles également impossibles à circonscrire—la fiction ou la ‘vérité’ pure. La fonction plutôt que la structure ou le style du texte importe ici; esthétique dans le cas de Roy, thérapeutique chez Cardinal et critique pour Kristeva. L’autobiographie romancée, genre hybride ou “métissé”, est privilégiée par ces écrivaines, toutes les trois déplacées géographiquement et linguistiquement, ayant vécu un “métissage” culturel. Le déplacement, associé à l’étrangeté, intervient dans le récit et dans la narration pour engendrer un rnouvement discursif où la différence entre le même et l’autre, entre l’ici et l’ailleurs, étoffe la structure du texte. Les trois écrivaines choisissent d’écrire en français, mais se considèrent étrangères à la France. Pour ces femmes, leur ‘féminité’ (aussi bien que leur exil) entre en jeu dans leur projet autobiographique, cette double altérité se prolongeant dans l’aliénation du moi/elle que produit la dimension fictive du récit. L’analyse de ces trois récits montrera d’abord comment la fiction s’immisce nécessairement dans le discours du ‘moi’ dédoublé et finit par imposer une texture/un métissage inhérent et essentiel à sa facture. Par ailleurs, l’altérité, envisagée sous le jour de l’étrangeté des autres et de soi—même, prend une importance capitale dans le projet identitaire de ces auteures expatriées. Enfin, l’écriture de ces trois femrnes conscientes de leur féminité s’avère aussi individuelle que celle des autobiographes masculins. Les trois parlent de leur rapport à la mère/la maternité, mais leurs récits révélent des divergences marquées par leur milieu, leur contexte socio—historique et leur relation à la psychanalyse. Le passé qu’elles évoquent est simple, imparfait ou composé, selon la fonction gui prime dans le texte. Ce que les trois auteures partagent, cest un désir de se raconter et une foi dans le texte écrit comme moyen d’atteindre l’autre à travers soi—même et soi—même à travers l’autre.

The novel manuscript Blue Horses (published as Dust, by Random House Australia under its Woolshed Press Imprint, July 2009) focuses on a dusty corner of 1970’s Queensland in this evocative tale of family, shadows that hang over from childhood and beauty found in unexpected places. Its protagonist, Cecilia Maria, was named after saints and martyrs to give her something to live up to. “Over my dead body,” she vows. Her battles with a six-pack of brothers and the despised Kapernicke girls from the farm next door teach her an unforgettable lesson that echoes down through the years. Now she’s heading back to where it all began, with teenagers Jed and Jenna reluctantly in tow. She plans to dance on a grave and track down some ghosts. Instead she learns a new lesson at the gravesite of an old enemy. The exegesis examines Jung’s concept of the Shadow Archetype as a catalyst for individuation in writing for young adults. It discusses the need to re-vision Jung’s work within a feminist framework and contrasts it to Julia Kristeva’s work on the abject. Alyssa Brugman’s Walking Naked and Sonya Hartnett’s Sleeping Dogs are analysed in relation to these concepts and lead into my own creative reflections on, and justification for, use of the Shadow conceptual framework. In following my shadow and establishing a creative dialogue between my conscious intent and unconscious inspirations, I have discovered a writing self that is “other” to the professional writer persona of my past.