This thesis enacts a response, rather than provides an answer, to questions of ‘what we are’ and ‘what we might become’, in the context of a poststructural enquiry into (my) practices of art psychotherapy and narrative therapy. My project is inspired by therapeutic meetings with many people over many years, and by the intellectual work of Michael Foucault, Judith Butler and other poststructural theorists, particularly those working at the intersections of poststructuralism with feminist and postcolonial theory. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Terry Pratchett, writer of humorous, satirical fantasy, is very popular in Britain. His Discworld series, which encompasses over 30 novels, has witches as protagonists in one of the major sub-series, currently covering eight novels. His first “witch” novel, Equal Rites, in which he pits organised, misogynist wizards against disorganised witches, led him to being accused of feminist writing. This work investigates this claim by first outlining the development of the historical witch stereotype or discourse and how that relates to the modern, feminist views of witches. Then Pratchett’s treatment of his major witch characters is examined and analysed in terms of feminist and poststructuralist literary theory. It appears that, while giving the impression of supporting feminism and the feminist views of witches,</p><p>Pratchett’s witches actually reinforce the patriarchal view of women.</p>

Terry Pratchett, writer of humorous, satirical fantasy, is very popular in Britain. His Discworld series, which encompasses over 30 novels, has witches as protagonists in one of the major sub-series, currently covering eight novels. His first “witch” novel, Equal Rites, in which he pits organised, misogynist wizards against disorganised witches, led him to being accused of feminist writing. This work investigates this claim by first outlining the development of the historical witch stereotype or discourse and how that relates to the modern, feminist views of witches. Then Pratchett’s treatment of his major witch characters is examined and analysed in terms of feminist and poststructuralist literary theory. It appears that, while giving the impression of supporting feminism and the feminist views of witches, Pratchett’s witches actually reinforce the patriarchal view of women.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-443)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2012. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-443)

The increasing psychologisation of domestic violence in the past 25 years is an example of what Rose (1985) terms the 'psychological-complex'. The psy-complex rests on a particular understanding of the subject of psychology. The subject is the unitary, rational and psychological being. This understanding of subjectivity is gendered as it identifies women as responsible for the transferal of the psy-complex to the family. The psy-complex is analysed as a form of power resting on this gendered subjectivity. It is also analysed as a form of power that has escaped feminist scrutiny due to the feminist assumptions. that power is repressive and prohibitive. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

This study examines the function of a patriarchal ideology in the episodes of human sacrifice narrated in Genesis 22 and Judges 11 and 19. The Akedah, or "the binding of Isaac" story, is discussed in terms of the midrastic literature it has historically generated, and a feminist, poststructural approach is used in the analysis of the Jephthah's daughter and Levite's concubine narratives. While traditional theology locates the significance of Genesis 22 in Abraham's faithful obedience and the cessation of human sacrifice, midrash documents the extent to which readers both ancient and modern have found not only God's command but also Abraham's silence in and Sarah's absence from the narrative problematic. On the other hand, scholars have previously interpreted the violence of Judges 11 and 19 in terms of their textual setting "when there was no king in Israel" and the Israelites' corresponding apostasy or in terms of the tension experienced during times of social/cultural transition. However, underlying both the Genesis and Judges episodes are the tensions created by God's unrealized promises of descendants, land, and nationhood to his chosen people and by the patriarchal hierarchy the biblical text at once asserts and indermines. Exploring these gendered narratives both contextually and intertextually affords the reader another way of understanding these troubling texts, reframing them from stories of ritualized human sacrifice to narratives of deferred promise and sacrificed inheritance. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English.

Abstract This paper begins by introducing the concepts of urban anthropology and poststructuralism that lay a basis for my project and referencing some of the themes that will be explored in further chapters. Chapter I analyzes conceptualizations of Los Angeles in terms of center and edge, and discusses the ways in which Greater Los Angeles can be an interesting site in terms of queer possibilities of built spaces. In Chapter II the focus shifts to Los Angeles freeways, distinguishing them as in-between spaces of the built landscape and examining how they have been conceptualized by prominent scholars and artists. Chapter III then moves to disciplines of philosophy and queer studies in order to “queer” the freeways. It addresses postmodern and poststructuralist discourses surrounding built spaces and the ways they are experienced, and extends discussions of public space versus private space and the ways bodies interact with built spaces. It also introduces the concept of disorientation and how it can be applied to the experience of the freeway. In the conclusion I tie together these theories of space and apply them to my own Fall project, and propose directions for my project in the Spring semester.

As a feminist poststructural autoethnography of deafness in social work workplaces, this thesis sets out to map d/Deafness as a cracked subjectivity. Using the work of Rosi Braidotti and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I draw out configurations of d/Deafness as lack or cultural minority and split them apart. By positioning d/Deafness on a plane of immanence and employing specificity, I explore d/Deafness as a subjectivity constituted through space, place, time and encounters with other bodies. I argue that the constitution of material and cultural experiences of d/Deafness as specific allows for the articulation of spaces in between Deafness and hearing, disability and ability as spaces in and of themselves in order to think the new as well as to crack up fixed binaries informing traditional notions of what specific bodies can do. / Graduate

This project examines the ways in which allusion and quotation may be used by playwrights in the composition of play scripts, principally through the writing of two full length stage plays, String and The Talent, accompanied by a supporting exegesis. This exegesis examines how quotation and allusion are used in these works to support particular meanings intended by the author. The project also looks at theories that consider the ways allusion functions, particularly focusing on the debate in the field between the advocates of the theories of influence and intertextuality. It does not attempt to provide an historical overview nor an exhaustive investigation of the development of the major theories and their advocates, but rather to consider more summarily - in outline rather than in detail - the manner in which these ideas have set out to explain how allusion functions in texts. This project suggests its own theory on the way (particularly literary) allusion works. Transtextuality, although itself only a partial and incomplete means of explaining the allusive transaction, refers to the movement of language between texts. Allusion offers a mechanism by which authors of a new text may underscore intended meaning by reference to established texts based on the assumption that the meaning of the quoted text is already understood (or can easily be accessed), and that therefore that meaning is transferable to the new text and can be absorbed into the different context into which it has been placed. The purpose of this study is in part to examine the way allusion works as a practice of intertextuality, transtextuality and the influence of one or more texts upon another. It concludes that allusion to and quotation from one text by another operate as acts of authorship, literary devices employed by the writer as mechanisms for the attempted communication of intended meaning. In doing so, it is hoped that the project may articulate ways in which allusion and quotation can be used by playwrights in the composition of their dramaturgy.