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The thesis is focused on the first three novels of Esther Tusquets: El mismo mar de todos los veranos (1978), El amor es un juego solitario (1979) and Varada tras el ultimo naufragio (1980). / It is inspired by the central theme of the three novels--the Spanish middle-class woman's search for identity--and it aims at showing that the female protagonists' search for identity and their failure in the process is inextricably linked with General Franco's dictatorial policy of imposing traditional norms and values on the Spanish people between 1939-1975. / The introduction summarizes the novels, explains the objectives of the thesis and looks at some critique of Tusquets' novels. Chapter one provides the socio-historical setting of the novels. It highlights details of the Civil Code and Francoist law and propaganda and their influence on women's identity and male/female relations. / Chapter two analyses the depersonalized condition of the protagonists and the third chapter takes a look at an attempt to redeem the women's identity. Chapter four examines the protagonists' failure and it is followed by a brief section of conclusions.

In this study of narration, feminist theory, and grotesque Canadian fiction, my aim is to provide a narrative model with which to read characters portrayed as both female and monstrous in a way that criticism on the grotesque does not. I provide two systems for the methodology of this study: via negativa, a well-established philosophical system of definition by negation, which shows the strength of the grotesque to represent a subject that is inherently paradoxical; and a narrative model called the "middle voice," which I developed to examine narratives that confuse or render ambiguous the identity of subjects. Through these distinct but complementary frameworks I illustrate a literary phenomenon in fiction of the grotesque: that authors develop and reveal the subjectivity of characters by confounding identities. / Although I provide a concise definition of the term "grotesque," my focus is on feminist theoretical approaches to the grotesque. However, whereas feminist theory on the grotesque examines the binary opposition of woman to man, this study shows that the grotesque bypasses the "male/female" dichotomy in the representation of fictional characters. Instead, the sustained contradiction of the central opposition "woman/monster" works to undermine the notion of fictional characterization. / Specifically, this study focuses on the grotesque as a narrative strategy and examines the use of the grotesque in the portrayal of female narrators. The prevalence of female grotesque characters in recent Canadian fiction combined with the rapid growth of interest in the critical concept of the "female grotesque" requires a theoretical analysis of the literature. / In the fiction I examine by Canadian authors Margaret Atwood, Lynn Coady, Barbara Gowdy, Alice Munro, and Miriam Toews, narrators are contradictory. As subjects, they have doubled identities. Authors situate identity ("subjectivity") in the realm of paradox, rather than in the realm of clarity and resolution. As a result, readers and critics must rely on ambiguity and subversion as guides when posing the ultimately irresolvable question "who is speaking?" Through analysis of this fiction, then, I argue for nothing short of a new conceptualization of subjectivity.

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Courtly love lyrics, like other courtly genres, are dominated by male-voiced texts that privilege male perspectives. In conventional courtly love lyrics, women are silenced and objectified by the male speaker. Still, a handful of women-voiced lyrics--"women's songs"--exist in the courtly love lyrical tradition. This thesis studies women's songs in Middle English and their role in the androcentric courtly love tradition. / In the first chapter, I discuss critical perspectives on conventional courtly representations of women. In the second chapter, I locate Middle English women's songs in literary contexts other than courtly love: the Middle English lyrical tradition, the cross-cultural phenomenon of medieval women's songs, and the manuscript contexts of Middle English women's songs. In Chapter Three, I discuss the individual songs themselves and examine the range of perspectives found in woman-voiced lyrics. / My discussion of Middle English women's songs includes texts not previously admitted to the genre. This expanded collection of women's songs creates an alternative courtly discourse privileging female perspectives. Middle English women's songs create a space for women's voices in courtly love.

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Women and relations to women are a central focus of Genji monogatari. Questions regarding women and their relationship to power need to be explored in order to provide understanding to the Genji. While there have been many feminist accounts of the Genji, most assume notions of patriarchy. This thesis will begin to historicize power and how women are inside its formations. Chapter one will discuss marriage politics and the regency system to show how women function in relation to these formations. Chapter two will historicize sexuality in the Genji. Chapter three will discuss perspective in the e-maki of Genji monogatari. Discussion in these three chapters will show that power relations in the Genji are more complex than notions of male domination over female. Resistance in the text is better understood as resistance against the social formations of mid-Heian court society than resistance against men in general.

This thesis analyses the figure of the mythicized women as an attempt to escape the threat of time and death that is typical in Gautier's fictional narratives. In "La Cafetiere", "Omphale", "Le Pied de momie", "La Morte amoureuse" and "Arria Marcella", the feminine characters belong to both earthly and heavenly opposite realities. This study is based on several works such as Gilbert Durand's Structures anthropologiques de l'imaginaire, Georges Poulet's Etudes sur le temps humain and Mircea Eliade's Aspects du mythe. In the creation work part, nostalgia is introduced through characters that are overwhelmed by the death or the disappearance of a loved one.

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