This thesis deals with autobiographical reflections in selected novels of Jane Austen. The theoretical part looks into the social, historical, and cultural background in Jane Austen's lifetime. It also gives a general outline of literary genres in the late 18th and early 19th century. The practical part is focused on the analysis of various aspects in six Austen's books within the context of the available information about the writer's life. These novels are: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. This part deals with the question concerning an extent to which Austen's writing, the fictional worlds of her novels, can be attributed to the influence of her personal life and experience.

Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath are two well-known women writers of the twentieth century who committed suicide. The narratives created by their deaths have in some instances become as important as the canonical work they produced. In an effort to understand their motivations and struggles, critics and the public alike have sometimes reduced these women to victims of the patriarchy, mental illness, or even themselves. Beginning with my own discovery of this issue in the legacies of Plath and Woolf combined with my personal dealings with suicide in my family, I recount how I lost these two women as exemplary figures because of their choice to commit suicide. I then take a look at what others have said about their deaths and how it has affected their legacies as writers. Finally, I take a look at Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Plath’s The Bell Jar for an alternate perspective on suicide. Through this journey, I recount how I have been able to regain my respect for these two talented women by considering multiple viewpoints and acknowledging the nuance inherent in any account.

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PhD thesis - School of Education - Faculty of Humanities / In an attempt to add the voices of African feminist educators to the narrative field, and to address the critique that feminist discourses have generally been couched in theoretical abstraction, this study, which was conducted with five university women educators from various parts of Southern Africa, explores the enactment of feminist pedagogies in English language classrooms. The study was guided by the principles of feminist research methodologies, which advocate sensitivity to the subjective, emotional and biographic factors that shape the researcher and researched. Drawing from a suite of data sources, which comprised autobiographical and biographical narratives, lecture observations and interviews the study explores how the social variables of race, class, gender, politics, religion, etc. have influenced the participants’ feminist and language identity formation, and by extension how these inform their teaching of English from a feminist perspective, in terms of What they teach; How they teach, and Why they teach the curriculum content that they do. Taking the view that the personal is political and potentially pedagogical, the study provides a cursory commentary on the participants’ childhood and early adulthood, with the intention of exploring the potential a retrospective gaze of their identity formation has in terms of how they frame interpersonal relations with students and colleagues, and the enactment of their teaching identities. Identifying for more nuanced investigation the study tracks the trajectories of the participants’ coming to feminist consciousness, with a special focus on their adoption of project identities which they enact through their theorizing and teaching of English from a feminist perspective. Given their subscription and investment in narratives of emancipation that subvert social injustices and repressive domination, the study explores, at length, the complexities of feminist teacher identity in relation to the themes of difference, dialogue, and epistemologies of experience, all of which invariably encompass the overarching theme of feminist teacher authority. Acknowledging the slippery terrain of teacher and student identity calibrations, the study differentiates three ways in which authority is generally conceived of in feminist pedagogy, viz. authority versus nurturance, authority as authorship, and authority as power. In discussing the authority versus nurturance I argue for unhinging the female teacher from traditional associations of her with care-giver and intellectualised mammy. Urging for recognition of the woman teacher as female but non-maternal, I argue for a recontextualised and reconceptualised understanding of the female teacher – one that foregrounds her capability of offering critical intellectual nurturance. In exploring the delineation authority as authorship, which entails the mutual sharing of teacher-student personal experience in relation to broader public and academic discourses, the study cautions against the potential for personal epistemology to circulate within the realm of the familiar, narcissistic and sentimental, in the absence of meaningful critical and contextual pedagogic and educative relevance. In this regard, I suggest the consideration of two pertinent questions: viz. i) is there a shared assumption that the personal is good and the impersonal bad? and ii) given that other discourses of the personal are operating in the feminist classroom, exactly which personal are we referring to when we seek to validate the epistemology of experience? I argue that the pedagogic and educative worth of both teacher and students’ personal disclosures need to be subject to critical, analytical, and productive reflection to assess their value as knowledge. Critiquing enclaves of feminist pedagogical scholarship that suggest divesting the classroom of teacher authority as a way of rendering it more democratic, the discussion on authority as power agitates for an unmasking of the inevitable pedagogic and educative authority that the feminist teacher wields in the classroom. Through empirical evidence it illustrates variants of teacher authority that operate in the classroom and supports Gore’s (2002), proposition to develop a theory of pedagogy and power by acknowledging that: pedagogy is the enactment of power relations between teacher, student and other significant partners; bodies are the objects of pedagogical power relations, and in pedagogy, different differences matter; the kind of knowledge produced in pedagogy interacts with the institutional site and the techniques of power employed there; and pedagogy proceeds via a limited set of specific techniques of power. The study concludes with a theoretical and methodological reflective synthesis. The theoretical synthesis presents the central lines of argument that emerged from the issues investigated. The methodological reflective synthesis presents the participants’ comments on the validity of the study and the value that accrued to them by virtue of participating in the study.

Abstract This research report explores the process of narrating survival in Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man and The Drowned and The Saved. The central objective is to understand the process of psychological survival is narrated in Levi’s autobiographical narrative. To this end, I have used a psychoanalytical framework to understand the traumatic impact of Auschwitz on subjectivity as well as to position subjectivity in relation to autobiographical narrative. I shall argue that the trauma of Auschwitz resulted in an eroded and shattered subjectivity and that narrative offers a space in which the reconstruction of that subjectivity can be negotiated.

Atualmente, a autobiografia é considerada um gênero literário de grande alcance, o que pode ser verificado pela quantidade de títulos e variedade de obras. No entanto, sua definição não deixa de ser complexa como demonstram os numerosos estudos consagrados à matéria (Starobinski, 1970, Genette, 1972, Lejeune, 1975). A premissa que norteia a presente pesquisa sustenta-se na ideia que perante as narrativas autobiográficas, na verdade, são as estratégias ficcionais as construções narrativas que serão relevantes. Esta investigação tem por objeto o estudo da escritura autobiográfica do escritor francês Louis-Ferdinand Céline e no decorrer deste trabalho demonstraremos que diante do processo autobiográfico, certamente a problemática do estilo é de relevância ímpar uma vez que a construção de si, por parte do autor, se dá através da escritura. Neste sentido, sua produção literária nos parece ser das mais significativas. De fato, quando Céline escreve, não se impõe como necessária uma identidade entre autor, narrador e personagem ou em reconstituir a verdade de sua trajetória de vida preceitos do pacto autobiográfico mas sim em construir variações ficcionais sobre sua vida através de uma escritura suficientemente expressiva permitindo traduzir a emoção e os sentimentos dolorosos de sua realidade. Assim sendo, a hipótese que tentaremos demonstrar, a partir do estudo de nosso corpus literário, o romance Mort à crédit, é a de que Céline desenvolveu uma nova escritura autobiográfica que daria a primazia ao estilo e para tanto teria modificado as regularidades formais do gênero ao ressaltar a importância da enunciação em relação aos conteúdos. Com Céline, o discurso não tem como primeiro objetivo a narração de uma história: o importante é a expressão, ou seja, a preeminência da função estética. / Nowadays, the autobiography is considered a wide-ranging literary genre, which is borne out by the great number of titles and variety of works. However, its definition remains complex, which is demonstrated by the number of studies devoted to the subject (Starobinski, 1970, Genette, 1972, Lejeune, 1975). The guiding premise of the present study is based on the idea that facing autobiographical narratives, in reality, are fictional strategies narrative constructions which will be of significance This research has as its object the study of the autobiographical writings of the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline. In the course of this work we shall be demonstrating that faced with the autobiographical process there can be no doubt that the question of style assumes disproportionate relevance, given that the the construction of self by the author is produced through the writing . In this sense, Celines literary output shows itself as one of the most significant. In fact, when the author writes the question of identity does not impose itself on author, narrator and character, or endeavor to reconstitute the truth of his lifes trajectory precepts faithful to the autobiographical covenant but rather constructs fictional variations of his life through a form of writing sufficiently expressive as to translate his reality into feelings of pain and emotion. Given the aforementioned, the hypothesis that we shall endeavor to demonstrate, based on the study of our literary corpus, the novel Death on Credit is that it is from this that Celine developed a new autobiographical structure which would give primacy to style, thereby modifying the formal order of the genre by emphasizing the importance of expressivity over content. With Celine, the main objective of discourse is not narrating a story, that is to say, the preeminence of the aesthetic function.

O presente trabalho objetiva investigar os impactos do processo de formação sistemática em serviço, a partir do estudo de um grupo de oito educadoras sociais que trabalham na Organização Não Governamental Ação Comunitária, localizada no bairro do Campo Limpo, extremo da zona sul de São Paulo. Partindo do princípio de que a formação e o desenvolvimento pessoal e profissional destas educadoras são pautados também no seu espaço de atuação, procurou-se identificar as possíveis contribuições do processo de formação permanente realizado pela instituição na constituição das identidades pessoais e profissionais das educadoras pesquisadas. Além dos possíveis impactos decorrentes da formação contínua, serão examinadas também as influências exercidas pelas trajetórias de vida e as experiências pessoais que marcaram os ambientes familiares e escolares do grupo estudado. Por meio da produção de registros escritos significativos, depoimentos orais, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e registros de memória pessoal (fotos), as educadoras sociais, participantes desta pesquisa, puderam realizar um intenso exercício autobiográfico, propulsor de uma possível tomada de consciência dos processos que influíram em suas trajetórias de vida pessoais e profissionais. Buscando aportes nos referenciais teóricos da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural, foi possível perceber que este processo de formação pode gerar mudanças significativas nas formas de ser, pensar, agir e relacionar-se daqueles que dele participam. Os processos psíquicos de constituição identitária, podem muitas vezes passar despercebidos pelos sujeitos que vivem mergulhados nas exigências da sociedade moderna, iminentemente imediatista, capaz de compreender o \"ser\" apenas em seu \"aqui e agora\", desconsiderando o caráter permanente de busca de \"si mesmo\", de \"inconclusão\", de \"devir\" ou \"vir a ser\", inerentes à constituição da identidade humana. / The present work objective to investigate the impacts of the process of systematic formation in service, from the study of a group of eight social educators that work at no government organization Ação Comunitária located at Campo Limpo area, extreme southern zone of São Paulo. To coming from of the principle of that the formation and the personal and professional development of these educators are also methodicals in its space of performance, looked for identify the possible contributions of the process formation permanent realized by institution in the constitution of the personal and professional identities of the educators. Beyond the possible decurrent impacts of the continuous formation, the influences exerted for the personal trajectories of life and experiences will also be examined that marked in familiar and school environments of the studied group. By means of the production of written registers significant, verbal account through half-structuralized interviews and registers of personal memory (photos), the participant social educators of this research, had been able to carry through an intense autobiographical, exercise of a possible taking of conscience of the processes that had influenced in its personal and professional trajectories of life. Searching support in the theoretical reference of Historical-Cultural Psychology, was possible to perceive that this process of formation can generate significant changes in the forms in the forms of being, thinking, to act and to become related of that of it they participate. The phychic processes of identity constitution, can many times pass unobserved for the citizens that live dived in the requirements of the modern society, imminently immediate, capable to understand the \"being\" only in its \"here and now\", disrespecting the permanent character of search of \"itself exactly\", \"no conclusion\" of \"devir\" or \"coming to be\" inherent to the constitution of the identity human being.

Este trabalho centra sua atenção sobre a construção identitária por meio da palavra escrita, refletindo sobre o passado por meio da narrativa autobiográfica I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) da escritora afro-americana Maya Angelou. Utilizamos a obra de Maya Angelou devido ao seu esforço pioneiro em confrontar abertamente seu passado e fazer de suas mazelas pessoais um meio catártico: descer aos infernos, ou à morte para retornar transformada. / This work focuses its attention on the construction of identity by means of the written word using the autobiographical narrative I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) by the afroamerican writer Maya Angelou. We have utilized the work of Maya Angelou due to her pioneering efforts to openly confront her past and use her personal challenges as a cathartic means to descend to the hells or to death so that she could be transformed.

Investigação sobre o discurso da autobiografia em quadrinhos desenvolvida nos Estados Unidos e Brasil, concentrada, principalmente, na obra de Robert Crumb e Angeli. Seguindo a primeira fase do método arqueológico e a teoria do discurso definida por Michel Foucault, a tese se empenha em determinar as condições históricas de possibilidade desse discurso e em efetuar uma análise formal desses objetos materiais. Para tanto, alia-se diversas proposições teóricas advindas do campo da autobiografia, arte, cinema, jornalismo e quadrinhos / Research about the discourse of the autobiographical comics created in United States and Brazil, mainly focusing on the works by Robert Crumb and Angeli. Following the first stage of the archaeological description and Michel Foucault\'s discourse theories, the thesis engages in determining the historical conditions that made this discourse possible and perform a formal analysis of their materials objects. For this purpose, theoretical propositions from different academic fields as autobiography, art, cinema, journalism and comic books are put together

As representações dos japoneses nos textos modernistas brasileiros: Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade e Juó Bananére tem como objetivo estudar textos escritos por brasileiros que tomam o Japão por tema e textos produzidos por japoneses e nipo-brasileiros que escrevem sobre sua experiência individual e coletiva com o Brasil, principalmente textos de memória autobiográfica e coletiva que contemplam os pontos de vista da sua adaptação ao presente brasileiro. Prevê, entre outros procedimentos, especificar os modos japoneses de definir categorias como escrita, ficção, arte, tempo, sociedade, pessoa, memória, família, hierarquia, trabalho, sexualidade, moral, honra, obediência etc., considerando as diferentes formas culturais como homens e mulheres de origem japonesa com os valores herdados e fortemente formalizados do shinto, do budismo, da família e da honra definiram e orientaram o sentido da experiência no presente brasileiro de sua adaptação a uma cultura constituída por outras tradições, como a religião católica, a miscigenação racial e cultural, a moral patriarcal, a língua portuguesa etc. / The representation of the Japanese in Brazilian modernist texts: Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade and Juó Bananére aims at studying texts written by Brazilian authors that have Japan as a theme and texts written by Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians about their individual and collective experiences with Brazil, mainly individual and collective autobiographical texts that show viewpoints related to their adaptation to the Brazilian environment. This thesis intends to, among other procedures, specify the Japanese ways of defining categories such as writing, fiction, art, time, society, person, memory, family, hierarchy, work, morality, honor, obedience etc., taking into account the different cultural manners in which men and women of Japanese ethnicity - with inherited values of shinto, Buddhism, family and honor, and strongly shaped by these - defined and directed the meaning of their experience in Brazil at the time of their adaptation to a culture built on other traditions such as Catholicism, cultural and racial mixture, patriarchal morality, the Portuguese language etc.