Biological research has the capacity to inform ethical discussions. There are numerous questions about the nature of sexual orientation, intelligence, gender identity, etc., and many of these questions are commonly approached with the benefit of implicit or explicit biological commitments. The answers to these sorts of questions can have a powerful impact on social, ethical, and political positions. In this project I examine the prospect of naturalizing ethics under the umbrella of developmental systems theory (DST). If one is committed to DST, then those ideas involved in DST that steer biological research will also have implications for ethics. There has been much debate over whether certain human traits or attributes are the consequence of nature or nurture. This kind of question tends to be articulated in dichotomous terms where the focal point of the discussion is over which opposing causal mechanism asserts the most power over the development of these attributes. The debate places particular importance on such distinctions as that between gene and environment, and biology and culture. DST seeks to dismiss such dichotomous accounts. In this sense, DST is an attempt to do biology without these dichotomies. In the process, DST articulates a reconceptualized notion of "the natural." I am interested in how DST’s reconceptualization of the natural can inform a naturalistic approach to ethics. Thus, the aim of this project is to examine the ramifications of taking DST as a guiding principle in the naturalization of ethics.

Although feminists resist accounts that define women as having certain features that are essential to their being women, feminists are also guilty of giving essentialist definitions. Because women are extremely diverse in their experiences, the essentialist critics question whether a universal (non-essentialist) account of women can be given. I argue that it is possible to formulate a valuable category of woman, despite potential essentialist challenges. Even with diversity among women, women are oppressed as women by patriarchal structures such as rape, pornography, and sexual harassment that regulate women’s sexuality and construct women as beings whose main role is to service men’s sexual needs.

This thesis explores the politics and problematics of Asian American self-representation in popular cinema by focusing on film adaptations of Asian American texts. In the first chapter I consider the Chinese American director Wayne Wang's adaptations of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club (1989) and Louis Chu's novel Eat a Bowl of Tea ( 1961). Here I demonstrate how the representations of Asian Americans in the domain of popular cinema are "simplified" and constrained to universalizing tropes, such as "generational conflict," that negate the heterogeneous factors (i.e. culture, gender, class) that contribute to the making of Asian American subjectivity. As well, though I find that both films tend to de-problematize the United States as a context for the Asian American's assimilation, Eat a Bowl of Tea, in its historicizing efforts and cinematic flair, manages to posit a more ironic view towards the narrative of assimilation than Joy Luck does. In the second chapter I shift my discussion to David Henry Hwang's 1988 play M. Butterfly and its film adaptation by David Cronenberg. The opening (longer) section of this chapter explores Hwang's critiques of Western (American) discourses of sexism, racism, and imperialism in relation to Edward Said's and Judith Butler's theories of orientalism and gender performance respectively. When Hwang' s arguments are also understood in the context of Asian American history and contemporary debates over "identity" in the Asian American community, it is possible to see how his antiessentialist stance challenges all (Western and Asian) impositions of discursive power. The second section of this chapter compares the formal/performative construction of the play to that of the film version. Here I argue that Hwang' s utilization of Brechtian theatrical techniques corroborates his anti-essentialist political argument. Cronenberg's film, however, attempts to situate this critique within the traditions of realist cinema, and thereby significantly diminishes (and "simplifies") the Asian American perspective of the play. Taken collectively, these film adaptations, despite moments of opposition, attest to the ideological limitations that severely restrict the possibilities for complex Asian American self-representations in the realm of popular cinema. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This study discusses the evolutionist approach to African history as an action plan for challenging the hegemony of English in university education and in the teaching and writing of literature in post-independence Africa. The researcher selected Zimbabwe’s university education and literary practice as the microcosm case studies whilst Africa’s university education and literary practice in general, were used as macrocosmic case studies for the study. Some two universities: the Midlands State University and the Great Zimbabwe State University and some six academic departments from the two universities were on target. The researcher used questionnaires to access data from university students and lecturers and he used interviews to gather data from university departmental Chairpersons, scholars, fiction writers and stakeholders in organizations that deal with language growth and development in Zimbabwe. Data from questionnaires was analysed on the basis of numerical scores and percentage of responses. By virtue of its not being easily quantified, data from interviews was presented through capturing what each of the thirteen key informants said and was then analysed on the basis of the hegemonic theory that is proposed in this study. The research findings were discussed using: the evolutionist approach to the history of Africa; data from document analysis; information gathered through the use of the participant and observer technique and using examples from what happened and/or is still happening in the different African countries. The study established that the approaches which have so far been used to challenge the hegemony of English in post-independence Africa are not effective. The approaches are six in total. They are the essentialist, the assimilationist, the developmentalist, the code-switch, the multilingualist and the syncretic. They are ineffective since they are used in a wrong era: That era, is the era of Neocolonialism (Americanization of the world). Therefore, the researcher has recommended the use of the evolutionist approach to African history as a strategy for challenging the hegemony in question. The approach lobbies that, for Africa to successfully challenge that hegemony, she should first of all move her history from the era of Neocolonialism as she enters the era of Nationalism. / African Languages / (D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages))

One problem with the traditional marketing segmentation view of consumer markets is that it treats social categories as an ontology, which somehow becomes independent of its own members. It assumes that the self is required to adjust to its segment. In my research, I follow writers such as Hall (1996) who claim that consumer identity is not a reflection of a fixed, natural, state of being but a process of becoming. The meaning of social economic class, Britishness, religion, masculinity and so forth, are subject to continual change. Identity then becomes a ‘cut’ or a snapshot of unfolding meanings; it is a strategic positioning of the individual, which makes meaning possible. My primary research focuses on one cultural category - second generation British South Asian. This is a group of consumers who are required to negotiate with multiple discourses – local, global, past, present, future, western, eastern, religious, national, popular culture and more - and with many social and cultural categories - British society, South Asian community, county of origin, religion, professional identity and others. The mainstream literature takes an essentialist view when analysing this group treating ethnic minority consumers as acculturating individuals who hold a hyphenated identity and who have to balance pressures from two sides of the hyphen- South Asian and BritishIn my research I take inspiration from Hall (1996) and treat ethnicity in its de-totalised, or deconstructed forms, recognising ethnicity as a concept that cannot be thought of in the ‘old way’ as representing essential, discrete differences between groups. Ethnicity and race are conceptualised here as socially constructed, relationally and culturally locatedMy data collection strategy is designed to help participants (Sample size of 13) to explore the landscape of their self by eliciting life narratives and their constituent attachments. The data were collected in two stages. The initial phase is based on the collection of 2 collages one of self-identity and one of shopping experience. The objective of this phase was to give the participants an opportunity to explore and map the different discursive influences in their lives. The second stage uses a narrative interview where the collages were used as a guide for the structure of the conversation. The findings of this research confirm a picture of self-identity as a ‘Field of Discursivity’ (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985) where self-identity can be viewed as a field in which no one discourse can fully master the others. Consequently, ‘who one is’ becomes an open question, with a shifting answer depending upon the positions available between one's own and others' discursive practices and within those practices. This understanding is the foundation of my claim that traditional marketing discussion rests on a flawed assumption which renders segmentation strategy incompatible with current market reality.

In music education, aesthetic education and praxial music education serve as two major, guiding philosophical frameworks, yet supporters of each often conflict with one another. Furthermore, both are slightly problematic with respect to the specific context of the public school. Each framework is primarily music-based, however, music education has existed in the wider context of general education since the 1830s. Given the recent core-status designation for music education, as part of all fine arts, in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a framework from general education that supported music education could offer benefits for the domain. However, the wider context of general education is messy as well. Two groups occupy most of the space there, and remain locked in a fundamental disagreement over the purpose of a formal education. The progressive educators, historically framed by Dewey and Thorndike, contend that education functions as societal improvement. In contrast, the essentialists contend that education functions as cultural transmission. Therefore, a more specific need for music education involves selecting a framework from general education that resolves this conflict. The writings of William Chandler Bagley indicate that he balanced both considerations of a formal education while also advancing his notion of essentialism. Bagley differed from the progressive educators predominately associated with Dewey over definitions and ideas surrounding a democratic education. Emergent points of contrast with Thorndike include distinctions between social efficiency and Bagley's alternative idea of social progress. Bagley also diverged from other essentialists over definitions concerning liberal and cultural education. To make these viewpoints of Bagley explicit, I describe characteristics of a progressive education, and an essentialist education separately, before introducing Bagley. Finally, I apply Bagley's ideas into the domain of music education. Ultimately, I contend that through common outcomes of creativity, competition, and literacy, the domain of music education can remain securely grounded in the values within the public schools.

In the past 30 years there has been a rapid and exponential growth in the numbers of people electing to complete all or part of their studies outside of their country of origin. This phenomenon has attracted considerable research attention, not least from those who are interested to describe the benefits seen to accrue from the opportunity this provides for an extended encounter with linguistic and cultural diversity. Notably, the widespread assumption that this can generate a new form of learning, commonly referred to as intercultural learning, which is understood to comprise increased tolerance, empathy and openness to the linguistic and cultural other. Despite the limited research data to substantiate these claims, among those interested to develop educational responses to globalization, the potential of intercultural contact to generate intercultural learning has considerable appeal and has been co-opted in the development of policy and practice to promote global citizenship at all levels of education. This has contributed to the emergence of a particular discourse about intercultural learning and is further fuelling the development of both short and long-stay study abroad programmes. This discourse is, however, increasingly called into question on account of the perceived overly-simplistic constructions of interculturality and learning on which it is premised. In particular, there is a growing recognition of the need to develop situated accounts of people’s everyday encounters with linguistic and cultural others which acknowledge the exigencies of the setting, as well as the impact of wider political economic and historical discourses on their positioning in intercultural encounters. The generation of ‘thick’ descriptions of people’s lived experiences of interculturality in global educational contact zones, it is argued, can lead to a more nuanced account of the intercultural learning these can afford. This was the aim of the study reported in this thesis. The study undertaken explores the relationship between an experience of interculturality and learning among 14 international students during their year-long sojourn at a university in the UK. Drawing upon a socially constructed relational understanding of learning informed by the transactional and dialogic conceptualization of learning developed by Dewey and Bakhtin among others, the study sought to generate a narrative account of participants’ experiences and learning generated from periodic individual and group interviews over the year as well as reflective accounts in participants portfolios and other opportunistic conversations recorded in the researcher log. Primary analysis of the data revealed that participants’ experiences generated a number of forms of learning. One of these, ‘learning about self in relation to linguistic and cultural other’ was identified as a form of intercultural learning, comprising learning to be more open to the other and learning about linguistic and cultural positioning. This was subsequently explored in more depth, revealing a complex interplay between these two elements and the strategic actions taken by participants to manage their encounters with linguistic and cultural others. These results revealed considerable differences in the learning trajectories and outcomes resulting from their intercultural encounter. The findings also point to the importance of sustained commitment to intercultural dialogue on the part of individuals and the perception of their ethical treatment by others as important to the direction their learning trajectories take. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that while an encounter with linguistic and cultural other may lead to increased tolerance, empathy and openness to other associated with the way intercultural learning is employed in much of the research literature, the strategic actions learners take to negotiate their linguistic and cultural positioning will critically inform the extent to which they develop these qualities. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the ways in which a situated and relational conceptualization of interculturality and learning is seen to contribute to a more informed and deeper understanding of the sorts of intercultural learning that are made possible by an intercultural encounter. I also identify a number of research agendas which can build upon the insights provided by the study.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:16:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 817356 bytes, checksum: 3d92ee05ca1ae8120a03a662176e093b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / For appearing in a question of public health, the induced abortion has been the subject of the social debate. Nevertheless, the discussion is around the speeches that evaluate this behavior not only as a morally inacceptable fact, but also as an action passive of punishment inside the Brazilian legislation. From this reflection, this work analyzed the social perception of induced abortion and its relationship with a whole series of psychosocial factors that make this perception possible. The perception is understood inside three evaluative dimensions: community (how much the action of induced abortion is common), justice (how much the action of induced abortion is fair) and punishment (how much the action of induced abortion must be punished). They were presented stories of abortion in the conditions allowed by law (normalized) and in the not allowed conditions (non-normalized), and also participants who were requested to evaluate them as fair, ordinary and passive of punishment behavior. The considered psychosocial factors were social beliefs that support the social position facing the induced abortion, essentialist beliefs in the differences among men and women, religiosity and familiarity with the induced abortion. For this, it was realized a study correlated to the application of a questionnaire to 614 university students from both male and female sexes from a public university in Paraíba. The results found indicated, for the studied sample, that the induced abortion is perceived as a common behavior, for both situations, normalized (allowed by law) and non-normalized (illegal abortion). The normalized abortion was considered as fairer and less passive of punishment, while the participants considered the non-normalized abortion as less fair and more passive of punishment. As to the position, there was an adhesion to the arguments against the abortion practice, except the arguments linked to the autonomy and individual freedom of the woman to decide about her own body. The sample admitted a small familiarity with the phenomenon of abortion. In the perception of the abortion community (normalized and non-normalized), the explained variations were the position and the familiarity. But for the perception of the justice (normalized and nonnormalized) and the perception of the normalized punishment, the explained variations were the position and the religiosity. And for the perception of the non-normalized punishment, only the position appeared as an explained variation. It was observed that the essentialism does not appear as an explained variation of any perception. The results point to the fact that the more familiarity with the phenomenon of abortion the more is the attribution of the community, it is, there is the recognition of the raised occurrence of abortions for those who admit some type of proximity with the question. It makes sense then to strengthen the institutional role as promotional of the visibility of the abortion, to go beyond the perspective of the morality, but for the social problematic that it is involved with, while behavior daily practiced to the default of the moral judgments made by it. / Por configurar-se numa questão de saúde pública, o aborto provocado tem sido pauta do debate social. No entanto, a discussão se faz atravessada dos discursos que avaliam esse comportamento como um ato tanto moralmente inaceitável, como também passível de punição dentro da legislação brasileira. Partindo dessa reflexão, o presente trabalho analisou a percepção social do aborto provocado e sua relação com uma série de fatores psicossociais que fundamentariam essa percepção. A percepção é entendida dentro de três dimensões avaliativas: comunidade (o quanto a prática do aborto provocado é comum), justiça (o quanto a prática do aborto provocado é justa) e punição (o quanto a prática do aborto provocado deve ser punida). Foram apresentadas historias de abortamento dentro das condições permitidas em lei (normatizadas) e das condições não permitidas (não-normatizadas) e os participantes solicitados a avaliá-las como comportamento comum, justo e passível de punição. Os fatores psicossociais considerados foram crenças sociais que fundamentam o posicionamento social frente ao aborto provocado, crenças essencialistas nas diferenças entre homens e mulheres, religiosidade e familiaridade com o aborto provocado. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo correlacional com a aplicação de questionário a 614 estudantes universitários de ambos os sexos de uma universidade pública da Paraíba. Os resultados encontrados indicaram que, para a amostra estudada, o aborto provocado é percebido como um comportamento comum, tanto nas situações normatizadas (permitidas em lei) e não-normatizadas (aborto ilegal). O aborto normatizado foi percebido como mais justo e menos passível de punição, enquanto que os participantes perceberam o aborto não-normatizado como menos justo e mais passível de punição. Quanto ao posicionamento houve uma adesão aos argumentos contrários á prática do aborto, com exceção dos argumentos que vinculam-se a autonomia e liberdade individual da mulher para decidir sobre o próprio corpo. A amostra admitiu uma baixa familiaridade com o fenômeno do abortamento. Na percepção da comunidade do aborto (normatizado e não-normatizado), as variáveis explicativas foram o posicionamento e a familiaridade. Já para a percepção da justiça (normatizado e não-normatizado) e a percepção da punição normatizada, as variáveis explicativas foram o posicionamento e a religiosidade. E para a percepção da punição não-normatizada, apenas o posicionamento apareceu como variável explicativa. Observou-se que o essencialismo não aparece como variável explicativa de nenhuma das percepções. Os resultados encontrados apontam para o fato de que quanto mais familiaridade com o fenômeno do abortamento maior é atribuição de comunidade, ou seja, há o reconhecimento da elevada ocorrência de abortos por aqueles que admitem algum tipo de proximidade com a questão. Faz sentido então reforçar o papel institucional como promotor da visibilidade do abortamento, para além da perspectiva da moralidade, mas sim da problemática social que o envolve, enquanto comportamento cotidianamente praticado à revelia dos julgamentos morais a ele feito.

This paper presents the lives and early feminist works of two modernist era poets, Laura Riding Jackson and Muriel Rukeyser. Despite differences of style, the two poets shared a common theme of essentialist feminism before its popularization by 1950s and 60s second wave feminists. The two poets also endured periods of poetic silence or self censorship which can be attributed to modernism, McCarthyism, and rising conservatism. Analysis of their poems helps to remedy their exclusion from the common canon.

This study has two aims and addresses two areas of investigation. The first aim is to examine, in four novels and their textual worlds, what role is played by collective self-images and essentialist identities in maintaining power structures in regard to gender, class, norms for mental functions, and ethnicity. Whether, and if so, how, the novel’s deconstruction of language and images can function as resistance to hegemonic oppression? What does the encounter between the privileged collective and the marginalized look like in the novel, and what happens in this encounter? The project’s second aim is to probe what criticism of, and what strategies for resistance to, various power structures reading can provide. To what extent is it possible to speak of responsibility for, and in, the reading of fictional works? What role is played by the (un)expected and the conditionality in the poetical novel’s ethical demands on the reader? What might reading as an ethical practice mean and entail? The dual aim situates this dissertation in an interdisciplinary field between ethics, literary studies and aesthetics. In this study despair is the fundament on which the ethical reader stands to approach literature. Rather than discovering meanings, finding examples, or experiencing empathy, it is being engaged in the conditions determined by suffering and injustice that constitutes ethical reading. The novels Drömfakulteten (The Dream Faculty) by Sara Stridsberg, Hevonen häst (Hevonen Horse) by Annika Korpi, Montecore by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and Personliga pronomen (Personal Pronouns) by Daniel Sjölin comprise the material for the study. They are analysed in terms of deconstructive hermeneutics. Theories brought to bear are primarily Gayatri Spivak’s post-colonial and Emmanuel Levinas’ phenomenological thinking about ethics, together with ideas from, among others, Derek Attridge, Judith Butler, and Sara Ahmed. The readings of the novels are done via four points of entry: identity, the body, the human, and the post-political, as part of the project’s work process, with each reading leading to new questions and critical interventions. The analysis points to a responsibility in relation to identity, a practice where oneself is shifted and transformed. This responsibility also encompasses accountability for the normative orders that need to be changed. Literary projects per se cannot achieve this, but they can be read as a stab at resistance, material for the reader to elaborate upon. This responsibility is an ethical practice that is not completed, that has uncertainty inscribed in its very essence, and that is reinvigorated with each new reading.