Terry Pratchett, writer of humorous, satirical fantasy, is very popular in Britain. His Discworld series, which encompasses over 30 novels, has witches as protagonists in one of the major sub-series, currently covering eight novels. His first “witch” novel, Equal Rites, in which he pits organised, misogynist wizards against disorganised witches, led him to being accused of feminist writing. This work investigates this claim by first outlining the development of the historical witch stereotype or discourse and how that relates to the modern, feminist views of witches. Then Pratchett’s treatment of his major witch characters is examined and analysed in terms of feminist and poststructuralist literary theory. It appears that, while giving the impression of supporting feminism and the feminist views of witches, Pratchett’s witches actually reinforce the patriarchal view of women.

There is an adverse reaction to the practice of female circumcision in the West. This study investigates the adverse reaction to reveal the public discourse on female circumcision as one that is gendered. Using a critical discourse analysis, the study examines the body of Western discourses to explore the reproduction of system of gender hierarchy in the discourse. Guided by a theoretical analysis of the ‘private’/’public' divide through which feminine and masculine power is enforced, the study exposes ways in which similar power relation is sustained in the body of Western discourses on female circumcision. The study applies a textual analysis inquiring the language use of the Fran Hosken report and policy statements originating from the United States, United Kingdome, and international organizations. Using various themes that emerged during the textual analysis, the study deconstructs the body of Western discourses on female circumcision and presents the construction of femininity and masculinity. The findings suggest the discursive application of control and power grounded in rationality, science, knowledge and ways of being.

The purpose of this study is to describe how, and if, discourses about self-harm in young people has been changed from the late 90-s until today. We chose to do this by studying films where the content of self-harm is a big factor. The study is built on a narrative research, we did however analyze it as a discourse method. The issues we have concentrated on are: Is there a significant quality that describes an individual who cut themselves? How can this phenomenon be seen from a gender point of view? Is there a specific group of people who is labeled as a person who cut themselves from the public? The result from this study show us that self-injury, from symptoms of a (bad) mental state, is a strong discourse where the views from the society lets it become more acceptable. However, there are other reasons for self-harm that is developed by the social difficulties, which is illustrated in these films. Norms and beliefs around what is male or female have not been changed from the beginning of the time period we have studied until today. Self-mutilation is still seen as a typical female thing – a woman problem. The persons who are pointed out as cutting themselves are typical white, young, dramatic girls. These girls also exhibit depth - and shame for the problem and its environment.

There is an adverse reaction to the practice of female circumcision in the West. This study investigates the adverse reaction to reveal the public discourse on female circumcision as one that is gendered. Using a critical discourse analysis, the study examines the body of Western discourses to explore the reproduction of system of gender hierarchy in the discourse. Guided by a theoretical analysis of the ‘private’/’public' divide through which feminine and masculine power is enforced, the study exposes ways in which similar power relation is sustained in the body of Western discourses on female circumcision. The study applies a textual analysis inquiring the language use of the Fran Hosken report and policy statements originating from the United States, United Kingdome, and international organizations. Using various themes that emerged during the textual analysis, the study deconstructs the body of Western discourses on female circumcision and presents the construction of femininity and masculinity. The findings suggest the discursive application of control and power grounded in rationality, science, knowledge and ways of being.

My dissertation reconstructs sociopolitical new-beginning discourses pertaining to Bonn, the provisional West German capital, during the Federal Republic’s founding years. Combining approaches from history, cultural studies, and literary studies, I look at Bonn as a projection screen through which to explore the new-beginning discourses that challenged the FRG during its founding years. I argue that there exists a common pattern of contradiction throughout these discourses, as West Germans attempted to straddle the sociopolitical divides and contradictions between the Nazi past, and a now West-oriented future. With individual chapters addressing different cultural domains, my dissertation offers a cultural cross-section of how Bonn was instrumental in implementing a complex strategy for a new beginning in a post-fascist, war-torn society. Chapter one contextualizes the history of the search for a provisional capital of 1948/9 in symbolisms about Bonn that were seldom explicitly expressed, but which help explain the choice of Bonn as provisional capital, paying particular attention to the fact that it was a provincial city removed from the flashpoints of recent German history. The second chapter investigates city-planning debates about the Bonn federal district to highlight the dynamic ways in which West Germans negotiated the status of their provisional capital in relation to larger geopolitical questions of the Cold War and the division of Germany. Chapter three traces the complex genesis of the Neues Bauen-infused, modernist architecture employed by architect Hans Schwippert in the Bundeshaus and Palais Schaumburg renovations. It goes on to illustrate how the FRG’s early, official architectural stance is one based on contradiction and negotiation between two opposing conceptions of political architecture: the traditionalism of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Schwippert’s moderate modernism. The final chapter examines the spatial configurations of two “Bonn-novels,” Wolfgang Koeppen’s Das Treibhaus (1953) and Günter Weisenborn’s Auf Sand gebaut (1956) to argue that both “Bonn novels” portray the city as a topographical contradiction, divided between the “old Bonn” and the “political Bonn,” with corresponding, largely incompatible social spheres. Both novels exploit this characteristic to express a critique of the democratic process in Bonn. / text

Around the world, females typically represent fifteen per cent or less of registered professional engineers. They also leave the profession at significantly higher rates than their male counterparts. Incidences of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination continue to be reported in interviews with female graduate engineers. Despite many years of study and initiatives to get more females into engineering, girls and women continue to avoid this profession. Research into the workplace experiences of female engineers tends to neglect organizational and institutional contexts. In particular, there is a lack of attention paid to the ways in which engineering associations, as regulatory bodies in the profession, support their female members. To that end, Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and concept of hegemony were used to open new empirical terrain by providing an account of the sexual harassment and sexual discrimination discourse of the Ontario professional engineering association. It was found that the discourse of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination is hegemonized by the discourses of regulation and the practice of engineering. Critical gender equality issues that academic research has reported for female practitioners inside engineering workplaces, such as sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, are considered outside of the practices of regulation and engineering. Gender work within the association is confined to supporting the female members of the profession and is performed by the female members of the association. This contributes to the maintenance of the status quo, the illusion of gender neutrality, and the privileging of one gender over another in this local setting of the profession. It is recommended that engineering associations examine the effects of hegemonized spaces created by their practices of regulation and professional engineering discourse, particularly in the area of the workplace conditions of its members. It is also recommended that the scope and range of gender equity change actions practiced by engineering associations go beyond mainly providing modes of support for females in the profession. / 2013-03

This thesis examines the gendered work experiences and labour migration aspirations of Tamang women in Nepal. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the various factors that encourage and discourage Tamang women from travelling in search of paid work. I investigated these factors by conducting a qualitative study of Tamang women’s gender roles, economic opportunities, economic contributions, physical mobility, as well as cultural attitudes regarding women’s mobility. I found that participants wish to migrate in order to seek better employment opportunities, improve the financial status of their households, acquire prestige, as well as to experience adventure, modernity and independence. Although many participants wish to migrate, discourses about appropriate gender roles, women’s sexuality, human trafficking, travel and safety are all influential in discouraging Tamang women from travelling in search of paid work. In this thesis, I argue that anti-trafficking campaigns contribute to propagating these discourses and discouraging women’s independent travel. / Richard and Sophia Hungerford Graduate Scholarship and the Richard and Sophia Hungerford Research Travel Grant

Early childhood teachers spend their professional lives in social interactions with children, families and colleagues. Social interactions shape how people understand themselves and each other through discourses. Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand negotiate their subjectivities, or self-understandings, within initial teacher education (ITE), professional expectations, education and society. They are shaped by historical and contemporary discourses of early childhood teaching professionalism as they gain status as qualified and registered teachers. Early childhood teachers’ understandings of their personal professional identities influence self-understandings of everyone they encounter professionally, especially young children. This poststructural qualitative collective case study investigates five newly-qualified early childhood teachers’ negotiations of their personal professional identities. My research study is based in postmodern understandings of identities as multiple, complex and dynamic, and subjectivities as self-understandings formed within discourses. In contrast, institutionally-directed reflective writing in early childhood ITE can reflect modernist perspectives that assume essentialist, knowable identities. Tensions exist between my postmodern theoretical framework and my data collection strategy of facilitated self-study, an approach that is usually based on the modernist assumption that there is a self to investigate and know. My participants explored their subjectivities through focus group discussions, individual interviews, and reflective writing, including institutionally-directed reflective writing. Three dominant discourses of early childhood education emerged from data analysis that drew on Foucault’s theoretical ideas: the authority discourse, the relational professionalism discourse and the identity work discourse. Positioned in these discourses, all participants regarded themselves as qualified and knowledgeable, skilled at professional relationships and as reflective practitioners. They actively negotiated tensions between professional expectations and understandings of their multiple, complex and changing identities. I concluded that these participants negotiated understandings of their personal professional identities within three dominant discourses through discursive practices of discipline and governmentality, seeking pleasurable subject positions, and agentic negotiation of tensions and contradictions between available subjectivities.

There is an adverse reaction to the practice of female circumcision in the West. This study investigates the adverse reaction to reveal the public discourse on female circumcision as one that is gendered. Using a critical discourse analysis, the study examines the body of Western discourses to explore the reproduction of system of gender hierarchy in the discourse. Guided by a theoretical analysis of the ‘private’/’public' divide through which feminine and masculine power is enforced, the study exposes ways in which similar power relation is sustained in the body of Western discourses on female circumcision. The study applies a textual analysis inquiring the language use of the Fran Hosken report and policy statements originating from the United States, United Kingdome, and international organizations. Using various themes that emerged during the textual analysis, the study deconstructs the body of Western discourses on female circumcision and presents the construction of femininity and masculinity. The findings suggest the discursive application of control and power grounded in rationality, science, knowledge and ways of being.

In Tanzania, the enrolment in school is high but the students’ performance is in general low. Parents are seen as important agents to provide students with opportunities to succeed in school. It is therefore of interest to investigate what is being said about parental involvement (PI) in the Tanzanian school. The aim with this study is to identify and analyse common assumptions about PI in the context of the Tanzanian primary school. We had the opportunity to travel to Tanzania for eight weeks to investigate this. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with eight parents and two teachers about PI were carried out in two rural villages. Questions to the parents about their perception of education were furthermore asked in order to achieve a background for their statements about PI. The study is based on a discourse analytical approach, meaning that the result was obtained through identifying discourses by analysing the respondents’ statements. The analysis resulted in five discourses: Education for the future, PI as a resource, PI as pressures from teachers, PI as a lack of education and PI as paying attention to children’s education. The contents which fill the discourses are discussed in relation to the context of the study as well as perception of the relationship between home and school. The parents in this study value education highly and their involvement is mostly about contributing with financial support. Yet, the teachers are demanding a higher involvement from parents. The low socioeconomic background is a barrier for many parents to become involved. A conscious effort, aimed at getting parents more involved, is needed in order to increase the children’s academic performance.