This essay is a feminist analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) that shows how Shelley criticizes society through presenting feminist viewpoints. I argue that Shelley critiques traditional gender roles by punishing characters subscribing to them. Most of the characters conform to traditional gender stereotypes. The male characters are ambitious and self-centered while the female characters are self-sacrificing and docile. The main protagonist Victor Frankenstein represents patriarchal belief and is incapable of any feminine attributes which leads to the demise of everyone he cares for, and himself. The male-only narration emphasizes how insignificant the male characters deem women to be, as they are rarely heard of and most of the time ignored. In the novel, nature is represented as active and feminine, and it punishes or rewards characters in accordance with their actions.

The subject of this diploma thesis is gender analysis of the main female characters in Bozena Nemcova's The Grandmother. The Grandmother, as a literary work that occupies an important place in Czech literary canon, was not examined from a gender perspective in Czech literature until this time. In this thesis I focused on the main female characters who play very important role and to whom is given wide space in the story. During analyzing the literary characters I worked with the selected feminist theories that I introduce in detail in theoretical and methodological part. This part is also dedicated to theoretical and methodological resources that I use in this thesis, particularly to women's reading and archetypal theories. This thesis is being examined from receptionist reader's view. I focus here primarily on presence of gender stereotypes, reproduction of values and norms of patriarchal system, and I also focus on presence of feminine archetypes that can be read from description of female characters. The object of this diploma thesis is evaluate the extent to which the book reproduce and further strengthen gender stereotypes, to what extent the main female characters internalize with gender structure of society or whether they act subversively and undermine the system. Keywords: The Grandmother,...

Submitted by Maria Suzana Diniz (msuzanad@hotmail.com) on 2015-11-17T13:01:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1251754 bytes, checksum: 130a9e285746a0c4cce0638908cef9ba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-17T13:01:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1251754 bytes, checksum: 130a9e285746a0c4cce0638908cef9ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-22 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The important achievements of feminist struggles and the Human Rights agenda, which discuss the social construction of gender, find at school an important space for the debate that promotes gender equality. This piece of research focuses reading practices at school and the promotion of this debate, aiming at analyzing the discourses of (male and female) teachers, as reading mediators, on gender relations. As its theoretical framework, this study considers the definition of reading proposed by Soares (2001, 2011), Orlandi (2008) and Silva, E. T. (2009, 2011); contemporary feminist studies (LOURO, 2012; COSTA, 2009; PISCITELLI, 2002); reflections proposed in the field of Discourse Analysis (POSSENTI, 2009) and the foucauldian discussions on power and subjectivity (FOUCAULT, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2011, 2012). This qualitative investigation has as its locus a public primary school in the city of João Pessoa – PB while developing its reading project. Data wasgenerated from the analysis of the reading project document, lesson observations, reading material used in the sessions, reports by the teachers and a questionnaire. The results indicate that the debate concerning gender relations does not emerge in the reading project activities or the teachers’ voices studied. / As importantes conquistas efetivadas pelas lutas feministas e pela pauta reivindicatória dos Direitos Humanos, que problematizam a construção social de gênero, têm na escola espaço dos mais importantes para o debate promotor da equidade de gênero. Esta pesquisa se estrutura pela interface entre as práticas leitoras na escola e a promoção desse debate e se propõe a analisar as discursividades dos/as educadores/as, como mediadores/as de leituras, acerca das relações de gênero. Para este direcionamento discursivo, o estudo move-se teoricamente na concepção de leitura em Soares (2001, 2011), Orlandi (2008) e Silva, E. T. (2009, 2011); nos estudos feministas contemporâneos (LOURO, 2012), (COSTA, 2009), nas reflexões trazidas pela Análise de Discurso (ORLANDI, 2012; POSSENTI, 2009) e nas contribuições foucaultianas sobre poder e subjetividade (FOUCAULT, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2011, 2012). A investigação de natureza qualitativa, regida por princípios analíticos, tem como lócus uma escola do Ensino Fundamental da Rede Pública de João Pessoa-PB, na realização de seu projeto de leitura. Foram adotados como procedimentos metodológicos para geração dos dados a análise do documento do projeto de leitura, observações de aulas, análise do material de leitura utilizado nesses eventos, dos relatos de diálogos com os/as educadores/as e da aplicação de questionário. E, conforme análise dos resultados do conjunto dos instrumentos investigativos, o debate sobre as relações de gênero não perpassa pela instância do projeto de leitura da escola, nem nas vozes docentes perscrutadas.