Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2005. / Vita. Thesis advisor: Julio Ortega. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-181). Also available online.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 2002. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-275) and index.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2005. / Title from title screen. Paul J. Voss, committee chair; Stephen B. Dobransk, Paul H. Schmidt, committee members. Electronic text (171 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 25, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-171).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / "Bibliographie": p. v-x. Includes bibliographical references and index. Also issued online.

This dissertation examines five dramatic comedies by Canadian women and the female subject positions they provide. Through these analyses, it examines how constructions of female subjectivity are both constrained and enabled by comedic discourse. The Introduction argues that traditional patterns and formalist conceptions of comedy have not made a place for female subjects and that, while feminist critics have begun to examine women's comedies and the female subjects they construct, those studies need to be complicated in order to make space for the variety and complexity of female subject positions elicited by the plays under consideration. In dialogue with contemporary theories regarding gender performance, language, and subjectivity (with particular reference to theorists Judith Butler and Catherine Belsey), this study goes on to examine the entangled and indeterminate qualities of female subjects in a selection of Canadian women's comedies. Chapter One discusses the didactic and hidden subject positions within Sarah Anne Curzon's The Sweet Girl Graduate, a nineteenth-century revision of the comedy of manners. Chapter Two discusses the gender anxiety inscribed in Erika Ritter's Automatic Pilot, a comedy about a female stand-up comic. Chapter Three considers the Jungian feminist conception of subjectivity dramatized in Ann-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Chapter Four proposes that Margaret Hollingsworth's The House that Jack Built constructs a feminist and absurdist subject position. Chapter Five examines gender parody and play in Karen Hines' Pochsy's Lips, and argues that this bouffon performance piece conceives of female subjectivity as a playful and critical realm. Chapter analyses focus on variances in how these comedies represent and understand women's capacities to intervene in genre and gender formations, and in social and psychic realms, which in turn reflect their different conceptions of female subjectivity. In conclusion, this study advocates the benefits of reading women's comedies not only in terms of patterns of genre or gender revisions, but also as destabilizing forms of linguistic, psychic, and bodily performance. Its feminist appeal lies in the assertion that change is effected not only by overt alterations of comedic or social patterns, but also by the issue of multiple and potentially new subject positions, which are produced by different forms of comedic and comic practice. / Graduate

Friedrich Dürrenmatt is een van die belangrikste outeurs van die moderne Duitse letterkunde. Hy gebruik die verhoog om sekere probleme in die samelewing uit te lig sonder om voorskriftelik te wees. Hy ervaar die wêreld waarin hy leef as ondeurskoubaar, vreemd en gekompliseerd en teen hierdie agtergrond is die tragedie onmoontlik. Elke poging wat die held aanwend om die wêreld te verander of ten goede te beïnvloed, moet noodwendig misluk. Juis daarom noem Dürrenmatt sy werke komedies. Hy wend die groteske as stylelement met groot sukses aan, omdat hy ‘n wêreld wat uit sy voeë geruk is, so kan uitbeeld. Dit verander en verwring karakters en gebeure op die verhoog tot so ‘n mate dat dit nodig geword het om ‘n nuwe woord te skep om die literêre nalatenskap van die outeur te omskryf, nl. die groteskkomedie. In sy uitbeelding van die verhouding tussen man en vrou neem prositusie ‘n kardinale plek in. In sy wese is prostitusie ‘n bose sweer wat almal verwoes wat daarmee in aanraking kom en dit ontneem die individu die geleentheid om volgens die Westerse norme en beginsels ‘n normale te lewe te lei. Die twee sterkste vrouekarakters uit Dürrenmatt se pen is prostitute en hulle is nie tot diep emosies in staat nie. Die manlike geslag is vir hulle slegs ‘n nuttige artikel. Ten spyte van hulle immorele gedrag droom die prostituut nogtans van ‘n gesin en kinders, maar sonder uitsondering betaal die karakters met hul lewens daarvoor. Dikwels sit die kinders van prostitute die bose kringloop van hul ma’s se lewenswyse voort en volg ook die beroep na, omdat hulle niks anders ken nie. Om die afstootlikhede van prostitusie uit te lig en te kontrasteer, skilder Dürrenmatt ook die maagdelike, beeldskone karakter wat sterk aan die Maagd Maria herinner, maar ook sy kan die gebroke, ondeurskoubare wêreld nie deurgrond nie. Die outeur spreek ook ander seksuele probleme in die samelewing aan, soos bv. homoseksualiteit, biseksualiteit en verkragting. Die moderne dramaturg word gekonfronteer met die Judeo-Christelike ideaal van die huwelik as ‘n eerbare instelling, maar dit word selde bereik. Verskeie probleme tussen man en vrou word onder die loep geneem, waarvan ‘n gebrek aan kommunikasie, ontrouheid, oneerlikheid, eendaamheid en egskeiding enkeles is wat Dürrenmatt kritiseer. Liefde is byna nooit die redes tot die sluiting van ‘n huwelik nie. Ander elemente, soos politieke mag, geld, die bevordering van die wetenskap en die mees groteske rede, naamlik moord op vorige eggenotes speel ‘n groot rol. Ook feministe maak hulle verskyning in Dürrenmatt se werk en mannehaters word op groteske wyse geskilder. Deurgaans kom Dürrenmatt se pessimistiese wêreldbeeld te voorskyn in sy werk. Die verhouding tussen man en vrou is uiters negatief, destruktief en word deur intense ongelukkigheid gekenmerk. / Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Knobloch

In this thesis, the development of the major women protagonists in Ricarda Huch's novels and short stories is investigated. Evolving from purely Romantic figures to women who combine Romantic and rationalistic qualities, Ricarda Huch's women undergo three stages of development which correspond to three distinct periods in the life of the author, spent in Zurich, Bremen-Vienna-Trieste, and Munich. In Zurich, Ricarda Huch is absorbed in the woman who is an incorporation of a completely Romantic outlook; a woman who is dominated by emotion of such power that it ultimately overcomes the will to live itself. In the second period of her writing, Ricarda Huch portrays women, whose lives are also centred in emotion but are endowed with ethical purpose. They are willing to sacrifice connections with home and society for the sake of the men they love. The third and last period dealt with in this thesis is that of Ricarda Huch's life in Munich where she is a wife and mother. The figure of Farfalla in Aus der Triumphgasse serves as a transitional protagonist leading to Ricarda Huch's final statements on woman's place in the world. Set in bleakest poverty, this novel shows us woman reduced to her most essential nature and deprived of any morality except devotion to her children. Woman is now seen as a passive creature doomed to love, to suffer and to sacrifice in vain. Nevertheless, she ensures the continuance of mankind and finds consolation and purpose in that function. Rose in Michael Unger and Maielies in Von den Königen und der Krone recapitulate the whole development of Ricarda Huch's woman. They begin as naïve creatures centred in emotion, they gradually acquire ethical purpose, they find their sacrifice rejected, they are devoted to their children and they are left as onlookers in life. Resigned but not despairing, they choose to observe the course of events rationally. An investigation of Ricarda Huch's women characters would not be complete without a discussion of the Romantic concept of woman. In no one particular chapter of her critical works on the Romantics, does Ricarda Huch deal with Romantic woman, but throughout her writings on the Romantics, she discusses in general both Novalis' and Friedrich Schlegel's views on the role of woman. The first chapter of this thesis dealing with Caroline Schlegel is included because of her affinity with Ricarda Huch. There is no doubt after reading Ricarda Huch's writings on Caroline Schlegel as a great Romantic figure, that they are kindred spirits even though a century separated them. Not only was Ricarda Huch interested and impressed by Caroline Schlegel but her female characters, especially in her later periods of writing, bear marked resemblance to Caroline. Marie Baum, one of Ricarda Huch's closest friends, has compiled Ricarda Huch's correspondence with her, other friends and business associates in two volumes, entitled Briefe an die Freunde (Tübingen, 1955), and Leuchtende Spur, Das Leben Ricarda Huchs (Tübingen, 1950). I have relied heavily on these two volumes to show the close relationship between the author's development and that of her feminine characters mentioned above. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

An examination of Samuel Johnson’s essays and his tragedy, Irene, and his Oriental tale, Rasselas, reveals that his concept of womanhood and his views on the education of woman and her role in society amount to a thorough-going criticism of the established views of eighteenth-century society. His views are in advance of those of his age. Johnson viewed the question of woman with that same practical good sense which he had brought to bear on literary criticism. It was important he said "to distinguish nature from custom: or that which is established because it was right, from that which is right only because it is established." Johnson thought that, so far as women were concerned, custom had dictated views and attitudes which reason denied. Because society's concept of womanhood emphasized the physical and Johnson’s, the mental, there was little agreement about her education and her role in the home. Johnson's views on women will be drawn from his works rather than from comments recorded by his biographers, James Boswell, Mrs. Thrale, or Sir John Hawkins, or from remarks made in the diaries and letters of Fanny Burney and Hannah More. With the exception of excerpts in Chapter V, comments made by others will be used only as substantiating evidence. In Chapter V, I have found it necessary to draw heavily on comments made by others simply because Johnson passed few remarks about anyone he knew — man or woman. Chapter I sets forth eighteenth-century views on women from the viewpoint of society and from that of such men of letters as Addison, Steele, Pope, Defoe, Swift, and Johnson. The next two chapters will follow a chronological order; the discussion of Johnson’s views on the education of women will precede his views on marriage and the woman's role in the home. The fourth chapter, a discussion of Johnson's figure of womanhood from Irene and Rasselas can be considered as a summation of Chapters II and III, for these two works are really, a comprehensive study of what Johnson had said about the education of women and their role in society in his Rambler, Idler, and Adventurer. This chapter will also include an analysis of Johnson's female characters as women. The purpose of the concluding chapter is to show that Johnson's estimation of womankind and his views on the education of women and their role in society are not to be taken lightly. Many men express one opinion about women but really believe something quite different. But not Johnson. He chose his female friends for those same qualities he said in his works were becoming womanhood. In life he treated them as he had written of them — with respect and without condescension. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate