This thesis examines the powerful appeals to psychology that are made in contemporary popular debate in Britain about parents. It focuses on the political implications of psychological discourse and the knowledge claims on which it rests. Using feminist and discourse theory, it critically examines psychological discourse, psychology as a knowledge practice, and considers the dilemmas of feminist knowledge production given the practices and relations it bolsters. Constructions of mothers and fathers in parenting magazines and news-media images of lone mothers, lesbian mothers and `absent fathers' are found to be profoundly gendered and conservative (hetero-gender normative) in spite of the rhetorical shift towards the genderneutral discourse of `parents'. Gender essentialist and identity/status-bound understandings are most striking where people's `fitness to parent' is questioned, often implicitly, which suggests that such understandings are naturalised in representations of parents who are not problematised. It is argued that the notion of `fitness to parent', rather than contributing to discussion of parent-child relationships, obscures how impoverished popular debate is, because it has little ideological coherence despite its mobilisation of judgemental scrutiny and powerful condemnation. Ideas about `unfit' parents do not, by exclusion, define a culturally ideal parent, but their implicit nature paves the way for common-sense appeals which deny their value-bases, reducing opportunities to challenge normative assumptions or superficial identity categories. `Second wave' feminist analyses of family ideology are employed, but are criticised from a feminist post-structuralist perspective which highlights the limitations of `identity' (for prematurely foreclosing understandings of subjectivity and desire), and of `social influence' as a model of individual-society relation. A critique of identity politics is employed to highlight how parental identities deployed in popular debate are imbued with psychological presumptions, without necessarily referring to psychologically/emotionally meaningful qualities of relationships between parents and children. Instead, a relational, performative approach to thinking about parents, and a psychosocial approach for considering the politics of cultural discourses are advocated. An examination of recent social policy debates suggests that the former may be gaining in persuasive value and impact on policy. Examining the authority of contemporary childrearing expertise suggests that arguments about parents are persuasive when they refer to psychological issues, whether or not they make explicit claims to expert knowledge. Paradoxically, as pop psychology becomes ubiquitous in Western cultures, the rising status attributed to the emotional realm can provide a means of contesting expert psychology, by undermining the valorisation of objectivity. However, the `psychologisation' of contemporary social life reinforces psychology's conceptual framework, which can, in turn, naturalise its conventional epistemology. This dilemma is explored in two spheres: feminist research and research with child participants. It is argued that feminists, and those critical of psychology's modernist foundations, might employ their `expert' warrant strategically in public debates about parents, but should also expose the politics of psychological knowledge. Similarly, despite theoretical limitations, identity politics might be put to good effect, such as to help children's voices be heard today. Finally, it is argued that, today, psychology is powerful, not only through experts or professionals, but as expertise, such that people draw on psychological discourses in their own reflexive projects of the self. Thus, psychological discourses, including implicit notions of fitness to parent, are implicated in the construction of contemporary parental subjectivities.

The aim of this thesis study is to understand the significance of today&rsquo / s feminist politics in Turkey for post-identity politics. When it is considered that identity politics is being widely practiced today, whereas there is still much vagueness regarding the ways of doing post-identity politics, in order to achieve the aim of this study it becomes necessary to make a critique of identity politics and to reveal post-identitarian tendencies through this critique of identity-based political mobilization. In this study, feminist identity politics is analyzed and criticized from the perspective of Judith Butler, who is a poststructuralist feminist questioning identity and its relation to gender politics. These issues are questioned through qualitative research method and semi-structured in-depth interviews are used as the data gathering technique. Five in-depth interviews were conducted with women who consider themselves feminist. The interviews aim at providing individual narrations of the participants to be exposed to deconstruction later on through the analysis process. Therefore, participants are not asked direct and categorical questions about their ideas on specific issues / instead, they are encouraged to talk about how they perceive the gendered world around them and how they respond to it and how these ideas are transferred to the political arena. It was found that the participants perceived sex, gender and sexuality in a dualistic framework to a certain extent and this relative fluidity enables them to realize the importance of doing post-identity politics, but they do not have a tendency to transfer this to the political arena in the near future.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Os estudos para a realização desta dissertação estão contextualizados no campo epistemológico do currículo e pretenderam problematizar questões relativas a gênero e sexualidade no contexto da prática curricular, considerando a perspectiva de Elizabeth Macedo, que entende o currículo como espaço-tempo de fronteira e enunciação de sentidos. A pesquisa buscou problematizar os significados sobre sexualidade, gênero e identidades atribuídos às performances das/os alunas/os considerados rompentes da heteronormatividade, que revelam indícios de homofobia no cotidiano do segundo segmento do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola do município do Rio de Janeiro. As análises revelam que as produções discursivas de professoras/es, gestoras/es e alunas/os sobre as/os alunas/os que rompem com aquilo que se instituiu como a normatividade de gênero estão carregadas de significações culturais em disputa, sendo, portanto, instáveis e ambíguas. O silenciamento é considerado também neste texto como um elemento auxiliar de produções homofóbicas. Auxiliaram nestas análises os estudos culturais e a teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe. É importante, entretanto, frisar que práticas curriculares que atuam no campo do combate à homofobia na escola também foram observadas. O texto é também influenciado pelos estudos queer, e se propôs a questionar as concepções que tentam fixar identidades sexuais e de gênero. Esse questionamento leva em consideração que as identidades estão em constante processo de fluidez. Essa reflexão foi aprofundada a partir dos estudos de Judith Butler e Guacira Lopes Louro, além de outros representantes da Teoria Queer, em interlocução com o campo do currículo. Este estudo pretendeu demonstrar que as diferenças de gênero e sexualidade não devem ficar limitadas a esquemas binários operados a partir de oposições dicotômicas fixas. Os sentidos produzidos a partir das diferenças devem ser entendidos enquanto movimentos provisórios de identificação. São processos contingentes produzindo identificações provisórias. Entendendo que há uma necessidade ampliar estudos no que concerne às questões de gênero e sexualidade, esta pesquisa aponta para a perspectiva pós-identitária como ação efetiva no combate à homofobia. / The studies to conduct this dissertation are contextualized in the epistemological aspect of the curriculum and intend to discuss issues regarding gender and sexuality in the context of curricular practice, considering the perspective of Elizabeth Macedo, who understands the curriculum as a space-time boundary and enunciation of meanings. The research sought to problematize the meanings of sexuality, gender and identities assigned to the performances of the students, which at times are jeopardized by the heteronormativity revealing evidence of homophobia in a everyday elementary school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The analysis shows that the discursive approach of teachers, management and pupils tends to express a supposed gender normativity, which are loaded with cultural meanings in dispute, and is therefore unstable and ambiguous, since they are only discursive constructions. Silence is also regarded in this text as an element of help towards homophobic behaviour. The cultural studies and the theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe have also helped these analyzes. It is important, however, to emphasize that the curricular practices that work towards combating homophobia in the school environment were also observed. The text is influenced by the queer studies and intends to question the concepts that try to fix sexual gender identities. This process considers that identities are in a constant state of fluidity. This reflection was deepened from the studies of Judith Butler and Guacira Lopes Louro, as well as other representatives of the Queer Theory in dialogue with this curriculum. This study intended to demonstrate that the differences in gender and sexuality should not be limited to simply operate from fixed dichotomous binary oppositions schemes. The directions produced from the difference should be understood as temporary identification movements. They are rather processes producing provisional identifications. Understanding that there is a need for greater democracy in the school curriculum in relation to gender and sexuality, this research points to the post-identity perspective as effective action in tackling homophobia.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Os estudos para a realização desta dissertação estão contextualizados no campo epistemológico do currículo e pretenderam problematizar questões relativas a gênero e sexualidade no contexto da prática curricular, considerando a perspectiva de Elizabeth Macedo, que entende o currículo como espaço-tempo de fronteira e enunciação de sentidos. A pesquisa buscou problematizar os significados sobre sexualidade, gênero e identidades atribuídos às performances das/os alunas/os considerados rompentes da heteronormatividade, que revelam indícios de homofobia no cotidiano do segundo segmento do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola do município do Rio de Janeiro. As análises revelam que as produções discursivas de professoras/es, gestoras/es e alunas/os sobre as/os alunas/os que rompem com aquilo que se instituiu como a normatividade de gênero estão carregadas de significações culturais em disputa, sendo, portanto, instáveis e ambíguas. O silenciamento é considerado também neste texto como um elemento auxiliar de produções homofóbicas. Auxiliaram nestas análises os estudos culturais e a teoria do discurso de Ernesto Laclau e Chantal Mouffe. É importante, entretanto, frisar que práticas curriculares que atuam no campo do combate à homofobia na escola também foram observadas. O texto é também influenciado pelos estudos queer, e se propôs a questionar as concepções que tentam fixar identidades sexuais e de gênero. Esse questionamento leva em consideração que as identidades estão em constante processo de fluidez. Essa reflexão foi aprofundada a partir dos estudos de Judith Butler e Guacira Lopes Louro, além de outros representantes da Teoria Queer, em interlocução com o campo do currículo. Este estudo pretendeu demonstrar que as diferenças de gênero e sexualidade não devem ficar limitadas a esquemas binários operados a partir de oposições dicotômicas fixas. Os sentidos produzidos a partir das diferenças devem ser entendidos enquanto movimentos provisórios de identificação. São processos contingentes produzindo identificações provisórias. Entendendo que há uma necessidade ampliar estudos no que concerne às questões de gênero e sexualidade, esta pesquisa aponta para a perspectiva pós-identitária como ação efetiva no combate à homofobia. / The studies to conduct this dissertation are contextualized in the epistemological aspect of the curriculum and intend to discuss issues regarding gender and sexuality in the context of curricular practice, considering the perspective of Elizabeth Macedo, who understands the curriculum as a space-time boundary and enunciation of meanings. The research sought to problematize the meanings of sexuality, gender and identities assigned to the performances of the students, which at times are jeopardized by the heteronormativity revealing evidence of homophobia in a everyday elementary school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The analysis shows that the discursive approach of teachers, management and pupils tends to express a supposed gender normativity, which are loaded with cultural meanings in dispute, and is therefore unstable and ambiguous, since they are only discursive constructions. Silence is also regarded in this text as an element of help towards homophobic behaviour. The cultural studies and the theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe have also helped these analyzes. It is important, however, to emphasize that the curricular practices that work towards combating homophobia in the school environment were also observed. The text is influenced by the queer studies and intends to question the concepts that try to fix sexual gender identities. This process considers that identities are in a constant state of fluidity. This reflection was deepened from the studies of Judith Butler and Guacira Lopes Louro, as well as other representatives of the Queer Theory in dialogue with this curriculum. This study intended to demonstrate that the differences in gender and sexuality should not be limited to simply operate from fixed dichotomous binary oppositions schemes. The directions produced from the difference should be understood as temporary identification movements. They are rather processes producing provisional identifications. Understanding that there is a need for greater democracy in the school curriculum in relation to gender and sexuality, this research points to the post-identity perspective as effective action in tackling homophobia.

Héritière de la tradition fantastique borgésienne, imprégnée d’une réalité composée de mythes précolombiens et des résidus industriels de la modernité, et développée à l’ère de la mondialisation, du post-modernisme, des jeux vidéos, du cinéma numérique et d’animation, la tendance cyberpunk latino-américaine est cultivée du Mexique jusqu’en Argentine, en passant par Cuba et d’autres pays souvent méconnus dans le monde de la science-fiction comme le Paraguay et la Bolivie. Pressenti dans les œuvres de certains écrivains canoniques comme Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa ou Edmundo Paz-Soldán, le cyberpunk se manifeste avec force dans l’écriture de jeunes artistes interdisciplinaires et de collaborateurs assidus des fanzines. Cette adaptation du sous-genre dans un continent où la référence reste encore le réel merveilleux et le réalisme magique, malgré l’apport des générations plus récentes comme celle de « McOndo » ou celle du « Crack », essaie d’élaborer une série de réponses aux questions issues de la conjoncture historique et artistique dans laquelle nous vivons : comment situer l’identité latino-américaine dans la nouvelle cartographie culturelle mondiale à travers une littérature qui cherche à se renouveler par rapport au canon littéraire et à la marginalité de son propre genre? Quelles sont les stratégies d’assimilation et de résistance qu’adoptent des jeunes auteurs latino-américains devant le cyberpunk anglo-américain littéraire et cinématographique? Peut-on parler d’un impact esthétique et philosophique du cyberpunk sur la culture latino-américaine, perçue habituellement comme une consommatrice passive de ces produits culturels et non comme une productrice? Ce travail cherche à parcourir l’ensemble de ces questions à partir d’une réflexion sur les principaux dispositifs constitutifs du cyberpunk – la dystopie et la virtualité – dans les discours (post)identitaires en Amérique Latine. Représentation presque mimétique de l’espace socioculturel et historique latino-américain à travers la violence et la répression politique, militaire, ethnique ou sexuelle, la dystopie est un moyen d’articuler certaines figures spatiales aux mythes nationaux et à la politique identitaire dans le contexte de la mondialisation. Cette dernière réalité socioculturelle, ainsi que l’idéologie esthétique que véhicule celle-ci à travers le cyberpunk, crée un conflit avec ces discours identitaires nationaux, conflit qui est accentué ou dissous par la représentation de la réalité virtuelle. La réalité virtuelle, comprise ici comme la direction que le récit prend pour défaire ou consolider la figure dystopique, mène à réfléchir également sur les enjeux de la (post)identité. Penser à une (post)identité (en gardant bien à l’esprit cette parenthèse) à travers le cyberpunk signifie poser une question sur la résistance au passé identitaire des mythes nationaux, au présent de la mondialisation culturelle, et aux discours post-humanistes qui semblent marquer le futur. À l’appui de travaux sur la dystopie et la réalité virtuelle dans le cyberpunk anglo-américain, ainsi que des études culturelles latino-américaines, je parcourrai un corpus composé des romans écrits entre 1990 et 2005. Ce corpus comprendra La Primera Calle de la Soledad (1993) de Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) de Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) de Jorge Baradit, et les films argentins No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) d’Eliseo Subiela et La sonámbula (1998) de Fernando Spiner. Dans ces oeuvres, la dystopie se configure aux possibilités narratives de la virtualité et traverse des thématiques identitaires comme les mythes sexuels et nationaux, la mémoire et le traumatisme ainsi que les projets utopiques des minorités. / Heirs to the tradition of Borgesian fantasy, impregnated by a reality built upon pre-Columbian myths and the industrial residues of modernity, and developed in the age of globalisation, postmodernism, videogames, digital cinema and animation, Latin American cyberpunk is cultivated from Mexico to Argentina, passing through Cuba and other countries not usually recognized in the world of science fiction like Paraguay and Bolivia. Barely perceived in the works of certain canonical writers such as Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa or Edmundo Paz-Soldán, cyberpunk manifests itself fully in the writings of young interdisciplinary artists and constant fanzine collaborators. This sub-genre adaptation in a continent better known not only for “lo real maravilloso” and magical realism, notwithstanding other more recent generations of writers such as “McOndo” and “Crack”, tries to elaborate a series of responses to questions issued from the historical and artistic moment of contemporary life: how to place Latin American identity within the new worldwide cultural mapping by means of a literature searching to reinvent itself within the mainstream space and the marginality of its own genre? What are the strategies of assimilation and resistance adopted by these young Latin American cyberpunk writers in the face of literary and cinematographic Anglo American cyberpunk? Can one speak of an aesthetic and philosophical impact on Latin American culture, normally perceived not as a producer but rather a passive consumer of this sort of cultural production? This thesis intends to deal with these questions in reflecting on one of the constituent devices of cyberpunk: dystopia in conjunction with post-identitary discourses in Latin America. An almost mimetic representation of Latin America’s sociocultural and historical space through violence and political, military ethnic or sexual repression, dystopia is a means to articulate certain spatial figures in national myths and identity politics within the context of globalisation. This latter sociocultural reality, along with the aesthetic ideology that conveys it throughout cyberpunk, enters in conflict with those discourses of national identity, leading us to reflect on post-identity issues. Relying on works on dystopia and identity in Anglo American cyberpunk, as well as on Latin American cultural studies, I will peruse a corpus made up of the novels La primera calle de la soledad (1993) by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) by Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) by Jorge Baradit, and the films No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) by Eliseo Subiela and La sonámbula (1998) by Fernando Spiner. In these works, dystopia meshes with virtual reality narratives and covers aspects of the identity such as national and sexual myths, memory, trauma as well as minorities utopian projects.

Héritière de la tradition fantastique borgésienne, imprégnée d’une réalité composée de mythes précolombiens et des résidus industriels de la modernité, et développée à l’ère de la mondialisation, du post-modernisme, des jeux vidéos, du cinéma numérique et d’animation, la tendance cyberpunk latino-américaine est cultivée du Mexique jusqu’en Argentine, en passant par Cuba et d’autres pays souvent méconnus dans le monde de la science-fiction comme le Paraguay et la Bolivie. Pressenti dans les œuvres de certains écrivains canoniques comme Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa ou Edmundo Paz-Soldán, le cyberpunk se manifeste avec force dans l’écriture de jeunes artistes interdisciplinaires et de collaborateurs assidus des fanzines. Cette adaptation du sous-genre dans un continent où la référence reste encore le réel merveilleux et le réalisme magique, malgré l’apport des générations plus récentes comme celle de « McOndo » ou celle du « Crack », essaie d’élaborer une série de réponses aux questions issues de la conjoncture historique et artistique dans laquelle nous vivons : comment situer l’identité latino-américaine dans la nouvelle cartographie culturelle mondiale à travers une littérature qui cherche à se renouveler par rapport au canon littéraire et à la marginalité de son propre genre? Quelles sont les stratégies d’assimilation et de résistance qu’adoptent des jeunes auteurs latino-américains devant le cyberpunk anglo-américain littéraire et cinématographique? Peut-on parler d’un impact esthétique et philosophique du cyberpunk sur la culture latino-américaine, perçue habituellement comme une consommatrice passive de ces produits culturels et non comme une productrice? Ce travail cherche à parcourir l’ensemble de ces questions à partir d’une réflexion sur les principaux dispositifs constitutifs du cyberpunk – la dystopie et la virtualité – dans les discours (post)identitaires en Amérique Latine. Représentation presque mimétique de l’espace socioculturel et historique latino-américain à travers la violence et la répression politique, militaire, ethnique ou sexuelle, la dystopie est un moyen d’articuler certaines figures spatiales aux mythes nationaux et à la politique identitaire dans le contexte de la mondialisation. Cette dernière réalité socioculturelle, ainsi que l’idéologie esthétique que véhicule celle-ci à travers le cyberpunk, crée un conflit avec ces discours identitaires nationaux, conflit qui est accentué ou dissous par la représentation de la réalité virtuelle. La réalité virtuelle, comprise ici comme la direction que le récit prend pour défaire ou consolider la figure dystopique, mène à réfléchir également sur les enjeux de la (post)identité. Penser à une (post)identité (en gardant bien à l’esprit cette parenthèse) à travers le cyberpunk signifie poser une question sur la résistance au passé identitaire des mythes nationaux, au présent de la mondialisation culturelle, et aux discours post-humanistes qui semblent marquer le futur. À l’appui de travaux sur la dystopie et la réalité virtuelle dans le cyberpunk anglo-américain, ainsi que des études culturelles latino-américaines, je parcourrai un corpus composé des romans écrits entre 1990 et 2005. Ce corpus comprendra La Primera Calle de la Soledad (1993) de Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) de Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) de Jorge Baradit, et les films argentins No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) d’Eliseo Subiela et La sonámbula (1998) de Fernando Spiner. Dans ces oeuvres, la dystopie se configure aux possibilités narratives de la virtualité et traverse des thématiques identitaires comme les mythes sexuels et nationaux, la mémoire et le traumatisme ainsi que les projets utopiques des minorités. / Heirs to the tradition of Borgesian fantasy, impregnated by a reality built upon pre-Columbian myths and the industrial residues of modernity, and developed in the age of globalisation, postmodernism, videogames, digital cinema and animation, Latin American cyberpunk is cultivated from Mexico to Argentina, passing through Cuba and other countries not usually recognized in the world of science fiction like Paraguay and Bolivia. Barely perceived in the works of certain canonical writers such as Ricardo Piglia, Carmen Boullosa or Edmundo Paz-Soldán, cyberpunk manifests itself fully in the writings of young interdisciplinary artists and constant fanzine collaborators. This sub-genre adaptation in a continent better known not only for “lo real maravilloso” and magical realism, notwithstanding other more recent generations of writers such as “McOndo” and “Crack”, tries to elaborate a series of responses to questions issued from the historical and artistic moment of contemporary life: how to place Latin American identity within the new worldwide cultural mapping by means of a literature searching to reinvent itself within the mainstream space and the marginality of its own genre? What are the strategies of assimilation and resistance adopted by these young Latin American cyberpunk writers in the face of literary and cinematographic Anglo American cyberpunk? Can one speak of an aesthetic and philosophical impact on Latin American culture, normally perceived not as a producer but rather a passive consumer of this sort of cultural production? This thesis intends to deal with these questions in reflecting on one of the constituent devices of cyberpunk: dystopia in conjunction with post-identitary discourses in Latin America. An almost mimetic representation of Latin America’s sociocultural and historical space through violence and political, military ethnic or sexual repression, dystopia is a means to articulate certain spatial figures in national myths and identity politics within the context of globalisation. This latter sociocultural reality, along with the aesthetic ideology that conveys it throughout cyberpunk, enters in conflict with those discourses of national identity, leading us to reflect on post-identity issues. Relying on works on dystopia and identity in Anglo American cyberpunk, as well as on Latin American cultural studies, I will peruse a corpus made up of the novels La primera calle de la soledad (1993) by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Santa Clara Poltergeist (1991) by Fausto Fawcett, Ygdrasil (2005) by Jorge Baradit, and the films No muera sin decirme adónde vas (1992) by Eliseo Subiela and La sonámbula (1998) by Fernando Spiner. In these works, dystopia meshes with virtual reality narratives and covers aspects of the identity such as national and sexual myths, memory, trauma as well as minorities utopian projects.