This thesis consists of two sections. The intention of Section One, 'Biographical Texts: Theoretical Underpinning', is to explore and discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women. Biography, as a literary genre is also examined with particular reference to feminist, women of colour and Maori biography. Section One is a wideranging section, encompassing a broad sweep of the literature in these areas. It both draws from existing literature and contributes to the discourse regarding Maori feminism, Maori biography and Maori research. It is relevant to but unconstrained by the content of Section Two. The intention of Section Two, 'Locating the Story of Betty Wark; A Biographical Narrative with Reflective Annotations', is to provide an example of the biographical method and what might constitute Maori biography. The subject of the biographical narrative, Betty Wark, was a Maori woman who was actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950s until her death in May 2001. Several major themes which emerged from Betty's biographical history occur throughout her narrative and provide a framework in which her story is located. One of the most significant themes was the notion of 'home'; both literal and metaphorical. This theme is reflected in the title of the thesis, Writing Ourselves 'Home'.

This thesis consists of two sections. The intention of Section One, 'Biographical Texts: Theoretical Underpinning', is to explore and discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women. Biography, as a literary genre is also examined with particular reference to feminist, women of colour and Maori biography. Section One is a wideranging section, encompassing a broad sweep of the literature in these areas. It both draws from existing literature and contributes to the discourse regarding Maori feminism, Maori biography and Maori research. It is relevant to but unconstrained by the content of Section Two. The intention of Section Two, 'Locating the Story of Betty Wark; A Biographical Narrative with Reflective Annotations', is to provide an example of the biographical method and what might constitute Maori biography. The subject of the biographical narrative, Betty Wark, was a Maori woman who was actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950s until her death in May 2001. Several major themes which emerged from Betty's biographical history occur throughout her narrative and provide a framework in which her story is located. One of the most significant themes was the notion of 'home'; both literal and metaphorical. This theme is reflected in the title of the thesis, Writing Ourselves 'Home'.

This thesis consists of two sections. The intention of Section One, 'Biographical Texts: Theoretical Underpinning', is to explore and discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women. Biography, as a literary genre is also examined with particular reference to feminist, women of colour and Maori biography. Section One is a wideranging section, encompassing a broad sweep of the literature in these areas. It both draws from existing literature and contributes to the discourse regarding Maori feminism, Maori biography and Maori research. It is relevant to but unconstrained by the content of Section Two. The intention of Section Two, 'Locating the Story of Betty Wark; A Biographical Narrative with Reflective Annotations', is to provide an example of the biographical method and what might constitute Maori biography. The subject of the biographical narrative, Betty Wark, was a Maori woman who was actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950s until her death in May 2001. Several major themes which emerged from Betty's biographical history occur throughout her narrative and provide a framework in which her story is located. One of the most significant themes was the notion of 'home'; both literal and metaphorical. This theme is reflected in the title of the thesis, Writing Ourselves 'Home'.

Thesis--Vanderbilt University, 1970. / On cover: The familiar letter of recommendation. Bibliography: p. 239-244.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-233). Also available online in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

This thesis consists of two sections. The intention of Section One, 'Biographical Texts: Theoretical Underpinning', is to explore and discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women. Biography, as a literary genre is also examined with particular reference to feminist, women of colour and Maori biography. Section One is a wideranging section, encompassing a broad sweep of the literature in these areas. It both draws from existing literature and contributes to the discourse regarding Maori feminism, Maori biography and Maori research. It is relevant to but unconstrained by the content of Section Two. The intention of Section Two, 'Locating the Story of Betty Wark; A Biographical Narrative with Reflective Annotations', is to provide an example of the biographical method and what might constitute Maori biography. The subject of the biographical narrative, Betty Wark, was a Maori woman who was actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950s until her death in May 2001. Several major themes which emerged from Betty's biographical history occur throughout her narrative and provide a framework in which her story is located. One of the most significant themes was the notion of 'home'; both literal and metaphorical. This theme is reflected in the title of the thesis, Writing Ourselves 'Home'.

This study of Zakes Mda's life and sixteen of his plays and seven novels, written from 1966 to the present day, set in South Africa, Lesotho and the United States of America, shows how his life and works interweave, and how his defamiliarisation mode, his magic realism and his juxtaposed timeframes stimulate reader response and self-realisation, bringing about change. Experiences of marginalisation due to early childhood sexual abuse, exile, and being banished from church, and his involvement in political movements outside the mainstream, have caused him to be an astute observer of life. He is sceptical of authority and power, and is as critical of those who seek power, becoming intoxicated thereby, as of those who give away their power and so perpetuate unacceptable institutions and their own victimisation. At all times though, his writing style is creative and entertaining, rooted in the African oral tradition from which he springs, but also portraying international influences to which he has been exposed over the years. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This study is an interpretive analysis of Zimbabwean political auto/biographical narratives in contexts of changing culture, race, ethnicity and gender identity images of the self and nation. I used eclectic theories of postcolonialism to explore the fractured nature of both the processes of identity construction and narration, and the contradictions inherent in identity categories of nation and self. The problem of using autobiographical memory to recall the momentous events that formed the contradictory identities of self and nation in the creative imagination of the lives of Ian Smith, Maurice Nyagumbo, Abel Muzorewa, Joshua Nkomo, Doris Lessing, Fay Chung, Judith Garfield Todd, Tendai Westerhof and Lutanga Shaba have been highlighted. The study concluded that there are narrative and ideological disjunctures between experiencing life and narrating those experiences to create approximations of coherent identities of individual selves and those of the nation. The study argued that each of the stories analyzed in this study contributed a version of the multiple Zimbabwean narratives that no one story could ever tell without being contested by others. Thus the study explores how white Rhodesian auto/biographies depend on the imperial repertoire to construct varying, even contradicting, images of white identities and the Rhodesian nation, which are also contested by black nationalist life narratives. The narratives by women writers, both white and black, introduced further instabilities to the male authored narratives by moving beyond the conventional understanding of what is ‘political’ in political auto/biographies. The HIV and AIDS narratives by black women thrust into the public sphere personalized versions of self so that the political consequence of their inclusion was not only to image Zimbabwe as a diseased society, but one desperately in need of political solutions to confront the different pathologies inherited from colonialism and which also have continued in the post-independence period. / English Studies / (D. Litt. et Phil. (English))

This dissertation offers an examination of Delany's critical trajectory from structuralism to poststructuralism and postmodernism across a gamut of genres from SF to sword-and-sorcery, pornography, autobiography and literary criticism. Delany's engagement with semiotics, Foucault and deconstruction form the theoretical focus, together with his own theories of how SF functions as a literary genre, and its standing and reception within the greater realm of literature. The impact of Delany as a gay, black SF writer is also examined against the backdrop of his varied output. I have used the term 'dislocation' to describe Delany's tackling of traditional subjects and genres, and opening them up to further possibilities through critical engagement. Lastly, Delany is also examined as a postmodern icon. A frequent participant in his own texts, as well using pseudonyms that have developed into fully-fledged characters, Delany has become a critical signifier in his own work. / English Studies / M. A. (English)

Partindo do princípio que, ligado a práticas sociais e não apenas a objetivos didáticos, o ensino da língua promove a interação, integração e inserção social, este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre o funcionamento sociocomunicativo e discursivo das marcas de interatividade em produções textuais de alunos do 9 ano da Educação Básica, da rede municipal de ensino de duas escolas da área metropolitana de Recife. Ocupa-se em descrever e analisar marcas de interatividade que contribuam para acentuar a importância do trabalho pedagógico com os gêneros em produções textuais escritas e propõe que os gêneros textuais assumem características específicas para adaptarem-se às diversas situações de uso real, o que faz dele uma produção de linguagem socialmente situada. A pesquisa, que tem por objetivo geral investigar se há mais marcas de interatividade nas produções textuais do que nas redações escolares, trabalha com o método hipotético-dedutivo constituído por análise de conteúdo (produções textuais) além da pesquisa bibliográfica e parte da hipótese de que o uso de marcas de interatividade em atividades com gêneros textuais é um dos méritos do trabalho com os gêneros discursivos. Assim, fazer um levantamento das produções textuais dos alunos, investigar as marcas de interatividade nessas produções, realizar análises comparativas entre produções textuais e redações escolares, investigar as práticas do trabalho docente e a influência da oralidade na escrita, considerando o continu um tipológico existente entre essas duas modalidades, constituem-se como objetivos específicos deste trabalho. O corpus é constituído de 19 textos analisados, nos quais, em sua maioria, manifestava-se uma relação interativa entre os interlocutores. Apoiando-se em princípios teóricos e metodológicos advindos do interacionismo sociodiscursivo e do princípio do dialogismo, esta investigação construiu seu caminho metodológico sob uma abordagem que envolve as produções textuais como objeto principal do ensino tendo o texto como foco de trabalho. Dos resultados obtidos são tiradas as seguintes conclusões: 1. mais do que simples estratégias de textualização, as marcas de interatividade representam um aspecto importantíssimo da interação escritor/leitor e a língua 2. o trabalho com as marcas de interatividade nos gêneros incentiva a revisão de posicionamentos obsoletos sobre o continuum fala-escrita na organização da produção do texto / Assuming that, linked to social practices and not just the teaching goals, teaching the language promotes interaction, integration and social inclusion, this work presents an investigation into the operation sociocomunicative and discursive marks of interactivity in textual productions of students in 9th grade of basic education, the municipal school of two schools in the metropolitan area of Recife. Is concerned with describing and analyzing data that contribute to stress the importance of the educational work with the genres of texts written textual productions, proposes that the text genres assume specific characteristics to adapt to different situations of real use, making it a production of socially situated language. The research, which general aims investigate if there are more marks of interactivity in textual productions than in school writings, works with the hypothetical-deductive method consists of content analysis (textual productions) in addition to the bibliography resource and on the assumption that the use of the trademarks with interactive textual genres is one of the merits of working with discursive genres. Thus, surveying the textual productions of the students, investigating the marks of interactivity in these productions , perform comparative analysis between textual productions and write school , investigate the practices of teaching and the influence of orality in write, considering the typological continuum between these two arrangements , are as specific objectives of this work .The corpus of 19 texts analyzed, in which, mostly manifested itself in an interactive relationship between the interlocutors . Supporting on theoretical and methodological principles arising from sociodiscursive interactionism and the principle of dialogism , this investigation worked his way under a methodological approach that involves the textual productions as main object of teaching with the text as the focus of work.From the results obtained, conclusions are taken off: 1. more than simple strategies of textualization, the interactivity marks represent a important aspect of the interaction reading/writer and language 2. the working with interactivity marks in the genres encourages the review of obsolete positions on the speech -writing continuum to organize production of the text