Lucia Etxebarria's first two novels, Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas and Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes, demonstrate just how the author affirms, questions and discredits the binary notions that are historically associated with gender. A critical approach to the social roles traditionally categorized as masculine and feminine and the literal and symbolic concepts of homo, hetero and bisexuality---all of which are personified by the varied protagonists of the two works---unveils the faulty foundation upon which the cultural, sexual and even biological dichotomies of male and female are constructed and perpetuated. These arbitrary ideals are patriarchal constructs that inherently marginalize, conceal and even eradicate the innumerable unclassifiable gender combinations that can be found along the sexual spectrum. Etxebarria uses her texts as a social weapon with which to rebel against the traditional myths of femininity and represent the socially problematic genders that are often silenced by the omnipresent power of the classical Spanish hegemony.

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The Third Generation Poetry that existed in the 1980s’ Chinese literary circle has usually been regarded as the rebellion of the prevailing Misty Poetry. The Third Generation poets began to experiment with colloquial poems which were emphasizing on individual expressions and advocating for the importance of “self”, including the ego and sub-consciousness of both male and female. Through the gender perspective, it could be observed the Third Generation Poetry was rich in gender flavor. The poets especially those of the Female Poetry and the Boorish Fellows Poetry had respectively expressed the awareness and concerns of their own with poem writings. The Female Poetry, featured with the structure of group poems, the rhetoric of metaphor and symbol, the connotation of the nocturnal consciousness and the lyric of confession, was a showcase for female perception. The issues regarding ego, private space, social identity, pain and love as well as "body writing" had been narrated and depicted by most of women writers. In the meantime, the poetry written by male turned to the descriptions of the lack of masculinity, or the flaunting of male power, or groaning with bitterness. Besides, the desire to vent, the memories of growth and even the detestation on the phenomenon of female being butchered had also been illustrated. Therefore an alternate inspection of the male poets’ views on female and vice versa would help to have a better understanding of gender concepts and the changing relationship between men and women in the last few decades of Chinese society. Apart from thinking of gender differences and sexual identities the Third Generation Poetry not only focused on the relationship between parents and their children, but also on the connotations of the traditional idea of reproduction and the infant imagery, and even on portraying the rare image of the ego of androgyny. In addition, The Third Generation poetry also presented abundant interlinked gender imagery, such as natural things and body, the darkness and death, the space and items etc., which had been created for the enrichment of the symbolic meanings and the aesthetic significance of the poems. In short, the social and cultural significance of various gender issues in line with the artistic techniques of the Third Generation Poetry had been scrutinized deeply in the chapters. / published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Santa Arias, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 177 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines the impact of modernity, in the form of modernization, rapid industrialization and the introduction of Western ideas about nationalism and female emancipation, on gender and gender relations in contemporary Malaysian film and literature. Drawing upon theories ranging from Lacanian psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonialism, nationalism, existentialism to theories about fascism, I examine and critique the representations of gender from the predominantly middle-class writers and the works of the new wave Malay filmmakers. I make the case that these films and literary works reflect the outcome of the National Economic Policy (1971-1990) and, in my analyses, show that these modernizing imperatives, though received positively, are sometimes greeted with a cautionary ambivalence, depending on one's class, gender, ethnicity, and political and religious beliefs. Such ambivalence towards feminism, for example, appears in K.S. Maniam's portrayal of independent female characters, whom I call "fascist 'feminists'," or in the representations of hypermasculinity or male violence in current Malay cinema. Films and literature by some Malays reflect a desire to recover Malay custom, adat, while forging a unique, modern, postcolonial identity that distinguishes itself from the West, other former British colonies and other Muslim nations. However, this subversive postcolonial move must be treated with caution to ensure that it does not replicate prevalent negative stereotypes of women as sexualised beings. A key distinction in this dissertation is that the representations of the modern Malay woman vary according to the gender of the cultural producer: male writers and filmmakers portray the negative impact of modernity on women, whereas their female counterparts portray women at ease with modernity.

This dissertation examines the impact of modernity, in the form of modernization, rapid industrialization and the introduction of Western ideas about nationalism and female emancipation, on gender and gender relations in contemporary Malaysian film and literature. Drawing upon theories ranging from Lacanian psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonialism, nationalism, existentialism to theories about fascism, I examine and critique the representations of gender from the predominantly middle-class writers and the works of the new wave Malay filmmakers. I make the case that these films and literary works reflect the outcome of the National Economic Policy (1971-1990) and, in my analyses, show that these modernizing imperatives, though received positively, are sometimes greeted with a cautionary ambivalence, depending on one's class, gender, ethnicity, and political and religious beliefs. Such ambivalence towards feminism, for example, appears in K.S. Maniam's portrayal of independent female characters, whom I call "fascist 'feminists'," or in the representations of hypermasculinity or male violence in current Malay cinema. Films and literature by some Malays reflect a desire to recover Malay custom, adat, while forging a unique, modern, postcolonial identity that distinguishes itself from the West, other former British colonies and other Muslim nations. However, this subversive postcolonial move must be treated with caution to ensure that it does not replicate prevalent negative stereotypes of women as sexualised beings. A key distinction in this dissertation is that the representations of the modern Malay woman vary according to the gender of the cultural producer: male writers and filmmakers portray the negative impact of modernity on women, whereas their female counterparts portray women at ease with modernity. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate