English Studies / M.A. (English)

Orientadores: Isaura Rocha Figueiredo Guimarães, Adriana Gracia Piscitelli / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T08:37:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alves_VeraLuciaPereira_D.pdf: 18592180 bytes, checksum: a2cddcfe465deea8606fcd0e4709df67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Doutorado / Psicologia, Desenvolvimento Humano e Educação / Doutor em Educação

M.Phil. / This study is undertaken against the backdrop of the "narrativistic turn" in the human sciences. While narratives were traditionally regarded as the terrain of literary studies, it has increasingly become a focus in various disciplines since the 1970s. The usefulness of the concept "narrative identity" is investigated as a means to deal with the problematization of the subject (and personal identity) in postmodern thought. The influence of 20th Century language theory and constructionism on the problematization of the subject is also discussed. It is argued that the self (and personal identity) can not be regarded as a pre-existing subject that simply finds expression in narratives (as sometimes happens in narrative therapy). Such a view would presuppose a pre-linguistic cogito. The self (and personal identity) is not readily available for examination by the self. From a hermeneutical point of view, the self is always an interpretation. Paul Ricoeur's discussion of "narrative identity" is used tot discuss the processes of identity construction in self-narratives. The way in which a "narrative identity" is constructed in a self-narrative is examined with reference to Karel Schoeman's autobiography (Die laaste Afrikaanse boek – literally "The Last Afrikaans Book"). An autobiography is a representation of a life in which a subject is self-consciously constructing an identity. This specific autobiography makes explicit, self-conscious use of literary devices and refers to literary texts which makes it possible to examine the influence of fiction on self-narratives. In the process of this study it is demonstrated that insights provided by literary studies could contribute to narrative psychology and in this sense it is demonstrated that the strict boundaries that often exist between disciplines could be dissolved. Various ways by which the study of literature could contribute to the expansion of the hermeneutical basis on which individuals base their self-narratives, and the spin-offs for narrative therapy, is the most important result of the study. Some gains of narratology (within literary analysis) for narrative therapy are also examined.

The study explores the complex relationship between various manifestations of the self and the other in twentieth century Science Fiction (SF). According to Richard Bernstein (1983), much modem thought is still influenced by Cartesian Anxiety, a deeply-rooted tendency to polarise or dichotomise arguments and living entities, demarcating one side as positive, necessary and desirable and the other as negative and destructive. Various embodiments of the self and the other are polarised in such a manner in both literature and life and this results in an impoverishment as the parties involved never really engage in dialogue, understand or learn from one another. Because it features a variety of truly alien creatures, SF literature has been chosen as the genre within which the concept of otherness will be discussed. Moreover, as an innovative and subversive genre, SF approaches old issues from a new perspective. It is believed that SF can shed new light on the old dichotomy of the self and the other. The study includes randomly and personally chosen works by authors such as Wells, Wyndham, Butler, Le Guin, Card and Tepper. The tendency to demarcate women, alien offspring and alien life forms in general as the other is discussed in separate chapters, with the focus on why given selves and society feel compelled to marginalise and destroy otherness. Various theories as to what the fear of the other represents are laid out and the Jungian interpretation that fear of the other is linked to anxiety about expressing what Jung calls the psyche's shadow side is suggested. Hermeneutic principles, particularly the theories of H-G Gadamer, are then used to provide a model of a fruitful discourse between a self and other where the decentered self engages in an equal and open-ended dialogue with the other, resulting in greater understanding and acceptance as both parties learn from one another and incorporate that new understanding into their sense of self-identity and humanity. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / English / unrestricted

Solitude and self have been common topics for discussion and scrutiny by philosophers, scholars and writers. However, it was not until the turn of the twentieth century, with women 's enlightenment, that one notices women writers ' interest in understanding their selves in moments of solitude. Women who were conscious of drastic social changes often examined their lives and explored their selves in solitude. Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf represent women writers of their time who shared a common interest in portraying women's quests for self in solitude. The present study shows how the solitary state is a significant precondition for modern women to reflect on their lives or explore their selves at a time when society was undergoing drastic changes. A close study of Katherine Mansfield 's "Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding" (19 l 0), "Kezia and Tui" (1916), "Prelude" ( 1918), "At the Bay" ( 1922), and "All Serene!" (1923) shows that Mansfield always offers her women characters punitive consequences in the endings because of their compromise with their mundane conditions even though they have gained some sense of the self through contemplation and meditation. In the case of Virginia Woolf, she situates her women characters in isolation and contemplation, and often presents her women characters as active seekers of self through meditation and alienation. Autonomy, authenticity, and vision define these women's emerging self in such novels as Night and Day ( 1919), Orlando ( 1928), and To the Lighthouse ( 1927). The present study reveals Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf as two exemplary women writers who examine women in moments of solitude through the interplay of social and psychological reality. Solitude is a recurrent condition and theme in their fiction that is often presented in "contrapuntal" manner (Dunbar ix). The contrast between women 's public and performative existence and their private and unmasked self characterises the fiction of Mansfield and Woolf, allowing the two writers to examine patriarchal oppression of women's acquisition of self against the backdrop of modernity. Mansfield and Woolf's treatment of solitude is particularly important as it sheds light on their shared views and friendship. Solitude is treated as a critical state, a condition, a private space, an attitude, or a refuge from performativity for women in their texts. Yet they have adopted distinct writing strategies in dealing with the subject owing to their difference in experience and literary outlook. Mansfield creates heroines who are more practical and modest in their approach to the subject of self-construction. Woolf creates women characters who often resort consciously to solitude to challenge and reflect upon gender norms, gain a better sense of their selves, and deploy various means to attain self-realisation.

Elizabeth Stoddard (1823-1902) has been overlooked by most modern literary critics and scholars. She needs to be incorporated into the canon of the American novel in order to establish a deserved critical visibility and to retain it for many years to come. Her groundbreaking fiction, unconventional by any nineteenth-century standard, especially as evidenced by The Morsesons and by some of her short stories, is characterized by penetrating psychology, individuality, and enduring literary qualities.

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Nos anos 1990, o mercado editorial brasileiro observou a ascensão dos livros de autoajuda entre eles os livros de autoajuda voltada a negócios às listas de livros mais vendidos. Fortemente criticados no início de sua ascensão pela grande mídia, esses livros não só enxamearam as listas de mais vendidos nos anos 1990, como conquistaram o status de nicho editorial no Brasil, com sucesso até os dias de hoje. O sucesso e a emergência desse nicho foram compreendidos, nesse trabalho, através da teoria dos campos. Com base nessa teoria, analisaram-se as posições dos atores incumbentes (autores e editores), suas estratégias para obter e manter as posições dominantes no campo, bem como as relações por eles travadas com outros campos, pertinentes para o desenvolvimento do nicho editorial. A agência de certos autores de autoajuda, os gurus, constitui-se como elemento-chave para entender o triunfo desses livros no mercado editorial brasileiro. Gurus são atores socialmente hábeis que tornaram possível a emergência desse novo mercado. Eles são autores de livros de autoajuda, consultores e palestrantes que têm em seus livros apenas um dos meios para legitimar suas ideias perante o seu público. Através do estudo da trajetória de um guru brasileiro conhecido (Roberto Shinyashiki), percebe-se que a conjunção de suas estratégias, atividades e maneiras de apresentar a si mesmo lhe permitiram construir sua reputação como guru, o que, combinado com seu trânsito contínuo entre o mundo editorial e corporativo, e suas atuações na mídia, tiveram papel chave na emergência deste nicho editorial no Brasil dos nos 1990. / On the 1990s, Brazilians editorial market watched the rise of self help books including light business to the best sellers book charts. Initially harshly criticized by the main press, these books not only pullulated in the charts on the 1990s, but have gathered the status of an editorial niche in Brazil, successful to this day. The success and the emergency of this editorial niche were understood in this research through field theory. Based on this theory, the positions of the incumbents actors (authors and editors), as well as their strategies to gain and maintain dominants positions on the field and their relations to other fields pertinent to its development were analyzed. Certain self-help books authors agency was perceived as a key element to understand the triumph of these books on Brazilians editorial market. Gurus are social skilled actors that made possible the emergence of this new market. They are the authors of self-help books, consultants and speakers, whom use their books as only one of their means to legitimate their ideas to their audience. Through the study of one well-known Brazilian guru trajectory (Roberto Shinyashiki), it is shown how the conjunction of their strategies, activities and self-presentation has acquired him his reputation as a guru, which, combined with his continuous transit throughout editorial and corporative worlds and his performances on media, play key roles to the emergence of a new editorial niche in the 1990s on Brazil.

The topics of identity and subjectivity are well-trodden paths in posthuman thought, and the trend has been to reduce the self to its material, social, and technoscientific components. Yet the posthuman model of subjectivity—influenced by the tenets of postmodernism—tends to be disabling because it does not focus on the subject’s agency or the possibility of liberation from social tyranny. In this thesis, I use a sampling of what I call “religious wisdom literature”—specifically, the wisdom books of the Old Testament and contemporary Buddhist writings—to challenge the assumption that the self is indistinguishable from the ideologies that produce it. I provide models from religious texts that instead, emphasize critical agency, flexibility, and resistive power. I also suggest that focusing on these qualities may ultimately be useful in the composition classroom, where we can use “self-centered” expressivist techniques (reflective assignments, emotional awareness) to meet the social-epistemic goal of ideological critique. Ultimately, posthumanism, with its emphasis on the construction of subjectivity, is better suited to question strict materialism and inquire into the inspiring possibilities of ancient wisdom. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.