This thesis explores Audrey Thomas's adaptation of Impressionist methodologies to analyse verbal discourse. It confirms that Impressionism is the major visual influence on Thomas's work, and clarifies the complex relationship between the tenets of the movement and Thomas's literary concerns. Since the author's intentions in using visual methodologies are most clearly and thoroughly formulated in Latakia and Intertidal Life, the principal analytic focus of this study is these two texts. First Thomas's critical understanding of Impressionism is verified, and the tenets of the movement which are central to Thomas's writing are defined. Once the sociopolitical issues backgrounding Thomas's adaptation of Impressionism are clarified, the author's actual application of the visual methodologies to challenge both social alienation and the alienating characteristics of verbal communication are analysed. This thesis proves that an understanding of Thomas's adaptation of Impressionism is necessary for a thorough comprehension of her struggle against the sociopolitical infringements of her own artistic medium.

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This thesis contends that there has often been a critical tendency to understate the challenges to the genre of autobiography that occur in Audrey Thomas's three novels: Songs My Mother Taught Me, Mrs. Blood, and Blown Figures. Chapter one qualifies autobiography in terms of its reliance on the liberal humanist subject as both author and protagonist. In the context of poststructuralist criticism, the author cannot be the unified, unique, original locus of truth that the liberal humanist subject is posited to be. Thus, as the subject collapses the foundation of autobiography collapses. Chapter two is a detailed analysis illustrating that the three novels stylistically and thematically deny the existence of the liberal humanist subject. thereby exemplifying the poststructuralist challenge to autobiography. The Canadian canons reliance on mimetic literature---of which pure autobiography would be the prime example---is offered as an explanation for critics' understatement of the texts' denial.

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Installation speech by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal designate of Tshwane University of Technology, Prof Nthabiseng Ogude, on 22 November 2012. / Inauguration speech by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal designate of Tshwane University of Technology, Prof Nthabiseng Ogude, on 22 November 2012 in which she accepted responsibility of Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Tshwane University of Technology

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Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and Audrey Niffenegger's two visual novels The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress all contain examples of manipulated paratext - paratexts being the devices involved in the presentation of the text such as titles, author names, font, introductions, illustrations, appendices, advertising, and interviews. The emphasis these authors place on these usually inconspicuous devices is an expression of the irrational themes contained within these texts. The irrational is an underlying theme of the Gothic genre and through examining the use of manipulated paratexts this thesis demonstrates how these texts make use of the irrational Gothic elements that are present within the postmodern. While Danielewski and Niffenegger both have these similar themes, the effects they create are extremely different. Niffenegger creates écriture feminine, or feminine writing as described by Hélène Cixous, by prioritising illustrations that feature marginalised bodily expression in order to convey the narrative rather than text. Danielewski, on the other hand, produces a text that is a pure pastiche of Gothic and postmodern devices in order to emulate the postmodern media in its creation of hyperreality and to reproduce the sensation of a media that possesses and changes its consumers. House of Leaves is the instigator for a number of similar texts that have been published since the turn of the millennium which will be considered an emerging literary movement.

abstract: The secret Facebook group ////sads only/// was formed in October 2015 to provide a safe space for women and trans and nonbinary people to express their emotions, a sort of digital support group. Members can post individually about things happening in their lives, comment on other members’ posts with advice or support, and contribute to discussion threads. Common subject matters include mental health, relationships, sexuality, gender identity, friendships, careers, family, art, education, and body image. The group’s location on Facebook adds to its utility – it can be an alternative site of community-making and communication, away from the often toxic, triggering, or just plain negative posts that clog up social media news feeds and the unsolicited comments that get appended. The group is informed by principles of affect theory, and in particular, sad girl theory, which was developed by the artist Audrey Wollen. She suggests that femme sadness is a site of power and not just vulnerability. In her view, sadness isn’t passive existence, but instead, an act of resistance. Specifically, it uses the body in a way that is crucial to many definitions of activism, incorporating the violence of revolution, protest, and struggle that has historically been gendered as male. This thesis examines the history and future directions of the ///sads only/// group as well as its theoretical underpinnings and the implications of its intervention, considering such perspectives as cultural studies, gender performance, identity formation, digital citizenship, mental health, and feminist activism. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Women and Gender Studies 2019

This thesis examines changes in gender attitudes between the years 1962 and 1967 as seen through the activities of a group of female volunteers at a regional community center, specifically the Fine Arts committee of the Arts Council at the Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association in Philadelphia. I demonstrate how the women were conditioned both within and outside their community to accept a subservient role to husbands and male hierarchy. By considering two of the committee's major projects, one that took place in 1962 and the other in 1967, and examining the Jewish community's primary newspaper during the same period, I compare and contrast the attitudes of the female "volunteer" in general and this specific group of more rebellious housewives whose interests were focused in the visual arts. Between the two major projects, examples of sociological theory are examined in order to follow the paradigm shift towards emerging feminism. Over a period of five years these women reassessed their role as housewives, and many eventually participated in professional life outside the home. The specific accomplishments of the Fine Arts Committee are compared, from the first major exhibition in 1962, ART 1963/A New Vocabulary to the last significant project in 1967, the Museum of Merchandise. / Art History