Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Africa, 2001.

This dissertation explores the ways in which the poetry of Gabeba Baderoon, Ingrid de Kok and Makhosazana Xaba challenge the sexist discourses that allow for the exploitation of women‘s bodies. It will also examine how they re-imagine the script 1 of heterosexual romantic love which places women in a submissive position and closes down possibilities for human connections which do not fit within the narrow strictures of this notion of love. The poems selected come from Baderoon‘s two collections, The Dream in the Next Body (2005) and A Hundred Silences (2006), an anthology of Ingrid de Kok‘s poetry spanning all her previous collections entitled Seasonal Fires: New and Selected Poems (2006), and Makhosazana‘s Xaba‘s first poetry collection, These Hands (2005). All three of these contemporary, South African, woman poets present critiques of the sexual exploitation of women and offer explorations of romantic love, relationships and sexual intimacy alternative to contemporary, patriarchal heteronormativity. This analysis will take cognizance of the influence of apartheid and colonial history on the formation of gender politics. It will also examine the representation of women as sexual objects and the spectacularized and graphic depictions of sex and how these poets can be seen to re-present women and re-script sex. Whilst Baderoon and De Kok are concerned with re-imagining heterosexual romantic love and sexual intimacy, their rethinking of love can also be read as useful in engaging with 'queer'2 sexuality and romantic love outside of the heterosexual norm along with Xaba, who is concerned with lesbian desire. Finally, all three poets experiment with traditional poetic form and techniques and it is through this experimentation with poetic language, and the employment of what Julia Kristeva calls the semiotic, that these poets are able to re-imagine love and intimacy. Thus they might be said, to use Kristeva‘s phrase, to stage a 'revolution in poetic language'.

No description available.

The following study is an examination of the deluded heroine in the novel between 1740 and 1820. Through close readings of fiction by Samuel Richardson, Charlotte Lennox, Frances Burney, Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe and Jane Austen, and discussion of relevant works by other authors of the period, the reasons for the prevalence of this figure are considered. The thesis proposes that this choice of protagonist enabled the exploration of a number of the issues that most concerned contemporary novelists. Principal amongst these was the question of identification between reader and literary protagonist. Throughout this period authors engaged in attempts to develop and control the audience's response. The desired end was the "improvement" of readers by the experience of the situations, mistakes and trials of the text's central characters. Increasingly though, the unpredictable and fluctuating nature of the readers' reactions was recognised. The result was a conflict between "text as instruction", the moral education that authors professed to offer, and "text as fiction", the attractions of story, adventure and imagination which were ostensibly valued only as they brought readers to works intended to improve them. The connection of the latter to romance was a further source of tension. The establishment of the novel as a model for life was premised on claims to probability, but aspects of the texts remained which worked against mimetic representation. These oppositions explain the contemporary popularity of the quixotic narrative, since the quixote both enacted the "madness" of excessive imaginative involvement with literature and could also be shown learning to make a "correct" choice of genre for reading. The strategies that can be observed within the quixote novel have a wider application when they are considered alongside the patterns of imitation, influence and parody which characterise the fiction of the period. In order to examine these features, the thesis includes an analysis of two important literary dialogues: those between Richardson and Lennox, and between Radcliffe and Austen. My focus on the heroine acknowledges the significance of gender in the period's fiction. Created by both female and male authors, such figures could be either exemplary models or quixotic warnings. They nevertheless share an experience of delusion followed by enlightenment constructed in order to benefit the "reading Misses" following their adventures. Unlike much recent criticism, however, my concern is more with the author as creative artist, text as literary process and reader as imaginative participant, than with historical or sociological contexts.

Edith Wharton uses characterization in the primary three characters in The Age of Innocence to explore the aspects of her life. Early adulthood is represented by May Welland Archer, who was born into New York 400, where society suppressed an individual's emotions, aspirations, and freedoms. The intermediate phase of her life is depicted in Newland Archer, who tests the confining limits of the society to which he belongs and strives to understand the role of emotions in achieving personal satisfaction. Wharton rejected and craved the ties of the New York 400 in the final phase of her life as portrayed in Ellen Olenska who left the 400, lived in Europe, and returned to New York. By developing these characters, Wharton attempts to retrospectively reconcile the transformations she experienced. Indeed, it will be clear that Wharton's work serves as a personal assessment of her self-actualization. / bt Betty Feuerberg. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This thesis represents a study of Kate Chopin's groundbreaking novel, The Awakening. Further, it applies Nietzsche's principles of Dionysiac and Apollonian impulses to the literary analysis of the novel. I argue that the protagonist of the novel, Edna Pontellier, embarks on a quest to determine how she may live an authentic life - that is, a life whereby she is true to herself above all others. Ultimately, her search for self is overwhelmed by the imbalance of the Apollonian and Dionysiac impulses against which she struggles. Because Edna cannot successfully mediate this struggle, she reaches the conclusion that she may only attain a truth to her self if she finds that truth in death. / by Jessica Salamin. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Liang, Yue. / "November 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.i / INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter One: --- "The Appearance of the ""Robust Beauty Girl"" in the late 1920s" --- p.9 / "The Infatuation with the ""Western Beauty""" --- p.10 / "The Western ""Robust Beauty Girl:"" Hollywood Film Stars" --- p.13 / "The Chinese ""Robust Beauty Girl:"" Female Students" --- p.19 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- "The Reconstruction of the western ""Robust Beauty"" in the 1930s-40s" --- p.27 / "The Suspicion on the Western ""Robust Beauty""" --- p.29 / "The Reconstruction of the western ""Robust Beauty"": critique on the ""Modern Girl""" --- p.37 / "The Kuomintang's Response to the western ""Robust Beauty""" --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- The Construction of the Chinese Womanhood in the War Period --- p.70 / The Communist Womanhood in the Jiangxi Period --- p.72 / The Women's Steering Committee and the Wartime Womanhood --- p.80 / The New Outlook of the Communist Womanhood in the Yan'an Period --- p.91 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- "The National Communist Womanhood: the ""Iron Maiden"" in the 1960s-70s" --- p.107 / "National Model: Two Categories of the ""Iron Maiden""" --- p.109 / From Person to the Nation: Organization Form and Political Consciousness --- p.114 / CONCLUSION --- p.126 / APPENDIX --- p.132 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.139

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of English

Marie Corelli was arguably the most popular British novelist of the early 1900s, yet few today even know her name. Though she is not the only author to lose popularity, her enormous influence during her lifetime deserves consideration. What people liked about Marie Corelli can shed light on why the rise of modernism is seen as such a break from the popular in literature. This paper examines two of her bestsellers, A Romance of Two Worlds and The Sorrows of Satan, in light of the fin de siáecle, as well as the critical response to her work from both modernist and postmodern perspectives. Corelli is of interest today because her popular female characters are women who affirm traditional femininity yet also pursue and wield great power. The question I raise is whether Corelli's work is best seen as illustrative of theories about popular literature or as contradictory to them. / by Doris Moss. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Text in TshiVenḓa with abstracts in TshiVenḓa and English / The purpose of this study was to contextually describe and analyse how male authors of Tshivenḓa drama books have in their dialogue portrayed female characters in the manner that it may tend to educate or encourage the public to criticize and abuse them in communities and society. In Tshivenḓa literature therefore, some male authors of drama books have tended to misrepresent the characterisation of women. It is presumed that the ways in which women are portrayed in some Tshivenḓa dramas by male authors, tend to normatively educate, socially reproduce and sustain the abuse of women within communities and society in which they live. In most of these drams, male authors have written their bias, contextually depicted women unfairly shown and criticised them in different sorts of ways. The researcher applied the Ethnography of communication, Social constructionism, Feminism and Critical discourse analysis theories. These theories enabled her to understand that language in the hands of authors can be used to reproduce power, dominance, control and power abuse. This led her to focus on related literature which proved that indeed the problem exists. Methodically this is a qualitative descriptive study in which the documentation ‘Document Analysis’ dialogue of seven purposefully selected drama books were considered and data collected. It used Neuman’s (1996) Analytic Comparison which applies the method of agreement and method of difference. When the data was analysed, there emerged themes which carry findings. In brief, the results of this study inter alia show that some male authors of selected Tshivenḓa drama books, described women as weak, poor decision-makers and powerless in communities and society at large. On the other, in the characterisation of men, they show them as social architectures of how women should be seen as depicted, thereby dominated and mistreated objects. It also found that Tshivenḓa culture was misrepresented and incorrectly applied to criticise, dominate, discriminate and justify the abuse of women by husbands and relatives, mainly in-laws. The results also suggest that within the context, male authors socially subject our children (both boys and girls as reader of such books), to indoctrination and social education as unequal partners in society in which they live. / Tshipikwa tshihulwane tsha ino ngudo ho vha u ṱalutshedza na u saukanya nḓila dzine vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ḓirama dza Tshivenḓa vha shumisa ngadzo nyambedzano u bveledza vhaanewa vha vhafumakadzi uri hu ṱuṱuwedzwe vhadzulapo u vha sasaladza na u vha sathula hune vha ḓiwana vhe hone zwitshavhani. Kha maṅwalwa a Tshivenḓa, vhaṅwe vhaṅwali vha bugu dza ḓirama vha anzela u sa bveledza vhaanewa vha vhafumakadzi nga nḓila i si yone. Zwi dzhiiwa uri nḓila dzine vhafumakadzi vha bveledzwa ngadzo kha ḓirama dza Tshivenḓa dze dza ṅwalwa nga vhanna dzi na u funḓedza, u bveledza na u engedza tshengedzo ya vhafumakadzi hune vha dzula hone na vhukati ha zwitshavha. Kha ḓirama nnzhi, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ṅwala vho sendamisa kubveledzele, vha bveledza vhafumakadzi nga nḓila ine vha sathulea lwo kalulaho. Muṱoḓisisi o shumisa thyiori dzo fhambanaho sa ya Nyambedzano ‘Ethnography of communication, ya Vhufhaṱavhuvha ‘Social constructionism, ya Vhulwelambofholowo ha vhafumakadzi ‘Feminism’, na ya Tsaukanyo yo dzhenelelaho ya mafhungo ‘Critical discourse analysis.’ Thyiori hedzi, dzo thusa muṱoḓisisi u pfesesa uri luambo zwanḓani zwa uṅwali lu a kona u shumiswa u bveledza maanḓda, u tsikeledza, u vhusa na u shumisa maanḓa nga nḓila i si yone. Hezwi zwo mu thusa u lumbama kha maṅwalwa o teaho ane khao hei thaidzo ya vha khagala. Ri tshi ya kha Ngona ya ṱhoḓisiso, muṱoḓisisi o shumisa nḓila ya Khwalithethivi he a wana mafhungo nga nḓila ya u sengulusa zwo ṅnwalwaho zwa nyamedzano kha bugu dza sumbe dze a nanguludza zwo bva kha ene muṋe. Ho shumiswa nḓila ya Neuman (1996) ya Tsenguluso yo ṱanḓavhuwaho ‘Analytic comparison’ ine ya shumisa nḓila ya thendelano ‘method of agreement’ na ya phambano ‘method of difference’. Musi mafhungo o no saukanywa, ho bvelela thero dzo hwalaho mawanwa a ṱhoḓisiso. Nga u pfufhifhadza, mawanwa a hei ngudo, o sumba uri vhaṅwe vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha ḓirama dzo nangiwaho vha bveledza vhafumakadzi vhe vhathu vha si na vhuimo, vha sa koni u dzhia tsheo nga vhone vhaṋe nahone vha si na maanḓa hune vha wanala hone na kha zwitshavha. Kha ḽiṅwe sia, musi vha tshi ḓibveledza, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha tou ḓitakula sa vhomasithesela vhane vha tea u vha na vhukoni ha u bveledza vhafumakadzi, u ralo vha kona-ha u vha ṱana vhe vhane vha tsikeledzwa na u shengedzwa. Zwo ḓo wanala uri na musi zwi tshi ḓa kha mvelele, hunzhi yo shumiswa nga nḓila i si yone saizwi i tshi vho shumiswa u sathula, u tsikeledza, u ṱalula na u khwaṱhisa u shengedzwa ha vhafumakadzi nga vhanna vhavho na mashaka, nga maanḓa vha vhuhadzi sa vhomazwale. Mawanwa a dovha a sumbedza uri zwo ralo, vhaṅwali vha vhanna vha fhaṱa muya kha vhana vhashu (vhatukana na vhasidzana sa vhavhali vha idzi bugu) wa u tou dzivhela na u funza avho vhana uri vhutshiloni hu na vhadzulapo vha vhuimo vhu sa lingani zwitshavhani ngeno zwi si zwone. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)