Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2008. / Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 11, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-44). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

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

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Andrew Epstein, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 8, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 51 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is intended to document and explain the peculiarly high incidence of monsters in English children's literature, where monsters are understood in the term's full etymological sense as things which demonstrate through disturbance. In this context, monsters are frequently young people themselves; the youthful protagonists of children's literature. Their demonstrative operation typically functions not only as an overt or covert tool by which to educate children's literature's implied child audience, but also as a wider indicator - demonstrator - of adult appreciations of and arguments over children and how children should be permitted to grow. In this latter role especially, children are rendered truly monstrous as alienated and problematic tokens in adult cultural arguments. They can fast become such efficient demonstrators of adult crises that their very presence engenders all the notions of unacceptability with which monsters are characteristically associated. The chronological range of this thesis' study is the eighteenth-century to the present. From this period, the following children's authors, children's books, and series of children's books have been examined in detail: • Thomas Day: Sandford and Merton • Anna Laetitia Barbauld: Lessons for Children and Hymns in Prose for Children • Sarah Trimmer: Fabulous Histories • Mary Martha Sherwood: The Fairchild Family • Charles Kingsley: The Water-Babies • Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass • George MacDonald: At the Back of the North Wind • J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Peter Pan, and Peter and Wendy • C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle) • J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter {The Philosopher's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix, and The Half-Blood Prince). The theoretical notions of monsters and monstrosity that are used to discuss these texts draw principally on the writings on the sublime by Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant, the uncanny by Sigmund Freud, and the fantastic by Tzvetan Todorov.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The objective of this study is to examine culture and gender in the Xhosa novel, Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko, which was one of the popular novels in the 1980s. The novel is about forced marriages, but the fact that such marriages are forced on educated children has disastrous ends. In as far as the Xhosa culture of forced marriages is concerned, the novelist makes a point that it is a soulless marriage, it dehumanises both the minors who are involved in it and it treats the woman being married as if she were an object that is sold. In the humiliating process the father of the young woman gets good cattle to his satisfaction. In the Xhosa novel, Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko, the fact that Zoleka resisted such a marriage to the end of her life shows that traditional Xhosa women used to be treated as objects of their patriarchal society that sees them as objects that should die at their in-laws. Because that is where they belong, their fathers need cattle with such an exchange. But Zoleka, as a modern educated woman, has been empowered to resist such dehumanisation. She rebels against hlonipha culture of her in-laws. She shows them that she is not their bought property, and also that she would not bow to the pressure of their patriarchal rules. She does everything possible in the book to flaunt the rules of their hlonipha culture, and eventually they feel she is a makoti not worthy their valuable cattle. She consequently leaves and claims her independence. Her rebellious acts are a feminist declaration that the educated women of the 1980s challenge the male dominated system by not obeying to its rules. Yet how her father tracts her down after her departure from her in-laws and chases her with a horse home, whilst he severely beats her up in public to the horror of onlookers, is an indication that the gate keepers of the Xhosa patriarchal system are prepared to go to all lengths, including using the cruelest methods, to defend the system that has, over the years, benefited them in all aspects of life. But the fact that Zoleka eventually wins and retains her independence and later commits suicide, is a feminist statement that the modern Xhosa women are willing to liberate themselves even if it means taking their lives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelstelling van hierdie studie is om kultuur en gender te ondersoek in die Xhosa novelle, Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko, wat In populêre novelle in die tagtigerjare was. Die novelle handel oor geforseerde huwelike, en die feit dat die afdwing van sulke huwelike op opgeleide kinders, rampspoedige gevolge het. Aangaande die Xhosa kultuurverskynsel van geforseerde huwelike, maak die skrywer 'n punt dat dit 'n siellose huwelik is, dit verneder sowel die kinders wat betrokke is, sowel as behandel die vrou wat in die huwelik tree as 'n voorwerp wat verkoop word. In hierdie vernederende proses kry die vader van die jong vrou beeste wat hom tevrede stel. In die Xhosa novelle, Ukuqhawuka kwembeleko toon die feit dat Zoleka so 'n huwelik teengestaan het tot die einde van haar lewe aan dat Xhosa vroue tradisioneel as voorwerpe behandel is van 'n patriargale gemeenskap wat hulle beskou het as eiendom van hulle skoonfamilie. Die vroue se vaders kry beeste in ruil hiervoor. Maar Zoleka, as 'n moderne opgeleide vrou, is bemagtig om sulke vernedering teen te staan. Sy rebelleer teen die hlonipha-kultuur van haar skoonfamilie en sy wys vir hulle dat sy nie hulle aangekoopte eiendom is nie, en dat sy nie sal buig voor die patriargale reëls nie. Sy gaan verder en daag die hlonipha-kultuur uit totdat die skoonfamilie eventueel dink dat sy nie 'n waardige skoondogter is nie en nie hulle beeste werd is nie. Zoleka gaan gevolglik weg en eis haar onafhanklikheid op. Haar handelinge is 'n feministiese verklaring dat die opgeleide vroue die mans-gedomineerde sisteem uitdaag. Zoleka se eie vader agtervolg haar egter en verneder haar in die openbaar. Hy dui daarmee aan dat die patriargale bewaarders tot enige uiterste sal gaan om die sisteem te beskerm. Die feit dat Zoleka egter haar onafhanklikheid behou en later selfmoord pleeg is 'n feministiese stelling dat sy haarself bevry het van die patriargale sisteem.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines gender and culture in L.L. Ngewu's novel, Koda kube nini na? The aim is to examine the influence of culture on how women and men as characters are portrayed. The study is motivated by the fact that despite the new democratic dispensation in South Africa since 1994, there is still a lot of gender discrimination in the Xhosa society. This is the result of the old traditional practices that severely discriminated against women on the bases that they are women. Chapter 2 of the study presents theoretical aspects of gender and culture. Chapter 3 analyses character and space in Ngewu's novel, Koda kube nini na? It is found that the characters of the novel are well-rounded. They are complex and dynamic. Space in the novels is concrete, but it also assumes symbolic significance in the way it represents a bigger picture: South African that is still in the legacy of apartheid. Chapter 4 deals with gender, and the concentration is on male and female characters. It is observed from the analyses that men dominate women. Women are subordinates of men by virtue of being women. In Chapter 5 we examine culture and find that culture can be used as an instrument in the patriarchal Xhosa society to oppress women. Our conclusion is that Ngewu's novel, Koda kube nini na? does not present democratised images of men and women. The images still depict in traditional Xhosa culture. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek gender en kultuurvraagstukke in L.L. Ngewu se novelle Koda kube nini na? Die doelstelling is om die invloed te ondersoek van hoe mans en vroue as karakters voorgestel word. Die studie is veral gemotiveer deur die feit dat afgesien van die nuwe demokratiese bestel in Suid-Afrika sedert 1994, bestaan daar steeds aansienlike genderdiskriminasie in die Xhosa gemeenskap. Dit is die resultaat van ou tradisionele praktyke wat teen vroue diskrimineer op grond van hulle geslag. Hoofstuk 2 van die studie gee 'n oorsig van relevante teoretiese perspektiewe oor gender en kultuur. Hoofstuk 3 ontleed die aspekte van karakter en ruimte in Ngevu se novelle Koda kube nini na? Daar word bevind dat die karakters van die novelle afgerond is. Hulle is kompleks en dinamies. Die ruimte in die novelle is konkreet, maar dit neem ook simboliese betekenis aan daarin dat dit 'n groter beeld bied. Suid-Afrika bevind hom steeds in die nagevolge van apartheid. Hoofstuk vier ondersoek gender, en daar word aandag gegee aan manlike sowel as vroulike karakters. Daar word aangetoon uit die analises dat mans tot 'n groot mate vir vroue domineer. Vroue is ondergeskik aan mans op grond van hulle geslag. In hoofstuk 5 word aandag gegee aan kultuur. Daar word bevind dat kultuur as 'n instrument gebruik kan word in 'n patriargale Xhosa gemeenskap om vroue te onderdruk. Die bevinding is dat Ngevu se novelle Koda kube nini na? nie 'n gedemokratiseerde uitbeelding van mans en vroue gee nie. Die uitbeelding reflekteer steeds tradisionele Xhosa kultuur.

This dissertation examines the development of Russian literature in the decades after the fall of the Soviet Union as a focused study in how literature adjusts to institutional failure. It investigates how cultural forms reproduce themselves and how literature continues to forge meaningful symbolic connections with its audiences, traditions, and the broader culture. I begin when Soviet state prizes, publishers, and organizations like the Writers Union could no longer provide paths to literary prominence in the early 1990s and a booming book market and a privatized prestige economy stepped into the vacuum. At this time, post-Soviet Russian authors faced a mixed blessing: freedom from censorship alongside a disorienting array of new publishers, prizes, and critical outlets, joined later by online and social media. In this new environment, personal success became an important structural value for authors and for literary works. The literary process was driven, in large part, by authors who found innovative solutions to immediate problems along their pathways to success. In search of readers, recognition, and aesthetic innovation, the authors in this dissertation transformed and even created the institutional and economic frameworks for post-Soviet Russian literature’s development, while at the same time developing new cultural forms capable of connecting with audiences in intimate and meaningful ways. The sum effect of their individual solutions to discrete problems along their own paths to success was a profound shift in the literary field, the creation and entrenchment of a new system of cultural production, distribution and consumption based on capitalist principles—the system I call “cultural capitalism.” This dissertation shows how cultural capitalism developed out of the institutional collapse of the Soviet cultural system. While many studies have analyzed the cultural field’s genesis, its social role, and internal mechanisms, few have considered the fate of literature or culture at times of institutional failure, and fewer still have focused on possible mechanisms of recovery. Studies of contemporary Russian literature, on the other hand, have often relied on master tropes, frequently borrowed from Western literary theory. While this research constitutes an important contribution, it fails to address the central question of how literature has been affected by social upheaval and institutional failure. My project addresses this gap by modeling cultural capitalism as a literary system in which the drive for success is pervasive, but the very meaning of “success” can be defined differently by different authors. The term cultural capitalism builds on Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic capital, but imagines that resource as part of a dynamic system of cultural exchange, while my understanding of success expands on Boris Dubin’s work on the topic. Finally, building on Formalist investigations of “literary evolution” and the “literary everyday,” as well as contemporary Russian sociological studies, I provide a theoretical model that connects the structures of the post-Soviet literary environment to new forms of verbal art. Through interviews, close readings, and secondary research, I show how four prominent authors—Boris Akunin, Olga Slavnikova, Aleksei Ivanov, and Vera Polozkova—have developed idiosyncratic visions of success. I then demonstrate how each author’s particular patterns of ambitions correlate with the literary, economic, and institutional innovations that define their artistic works, careers, and positions in the literary field. By triangulating authors’ visions of success, their navigations of the literary field, and their innovative verbal art, I map out the trajectories of literature as both an institution and as an art form across the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet era.

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