Thesis (MA (VA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The thesis investigate the family narrative. While engaging specifically with my female family narrative, it essentially questions how and why we create and perpetuate this narrative of absence and presence. The acts of memory, autobiography, testimony and the subsequent creation of the archive are probed. Such probes attempt to enter the sphere of the unsayable and unsaid, partially lifting the female existence, identity and body from the silence surrounding the private and intimate realm she dwells in. The creation and recreation of meaning through the use and manipulation of time and language is examined through-out whilst continually reading absence as presence. This is done in order to locate and access the silent and forgotten. The thesis problematises the notion of the ‘I’ and the ‘initial’ through looking at the repercussions of the employing linearity. Ultimately, this writing process reveals the contradictions and dualities we both create and aim to obliterate within the individual and collective composition of the family narrative. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die familienarratief. Terwyl dit spesifiek die vroulike familienarratief bespreek bevraagteken dit hoe en hoekom ons die narratief van afwesigheid en teenwoordigheid skep en voortsit. Die dade van onthou, outobiografie, getuienis, en die daaropvolgende ontstaan van die argief, word gepeil. Hierdie ondersoeke poog om die sfeer van die ‘ongesêde’ en die ‘onsêbare’ binne te dring, en so die vroulike bestaan, identiteit en liggaam te bevry uit die stilte van die ‘private’ en die intieme terrein waarbinne sy woon. Die skep en herskep van betekenis deur die gebruik en manipulasie van taal en tyd word deurlopend ondersoek, terwyl afwesigheid as aanwesigheid gelees word. Dit word gedoen in orde om die stilte en vergete te vind en toegang daartoe te bewerkstellig. Die tesis problematiseer die begrip van die ‘ek’ en die ‘initiële’ deur na die reperkussies van die toepassing en gebruik van lineariteit te kyk. Uiteindelik onthul die skryfproses die kontradiksies en dualiteite wat ons beide skep asook poog om uit te wis binne die individuele en kollektiewe komposisie van die familie narratief.

Esta tese acompanha as narrativas sobre trajetos e experiências de sofrimento, amor e dor enunciados por mulheres que vivem relacionamentos amorosos violentos ou destrutivos. Concentrei-me sobre aquelas mulheres que procuraram por centros, associações de referência e apoio à mulher em situação e violência doméstica e conjugal, assim como por grupos de autoajuda voltados para mulheres que sofrem por amar demais. Desta forma, a pesquisa de campo desta tese desenvolveu-se no Centro de Referência e Apoio à Mulher (CEAMO), na associação francesa Libres Terres des Femmes (LTDF) e no grupo de autoajuda Mulheres que Amam Demais (MADA Campinas Posso Ajudar). Se ir até o fim era um consenso entre as mulheres que acompanhei em minha pesquisa de campo, meu interesse era conhecer em que consistia esse pensamento e quais os impactos concretos na vida dessas mulheres. Assim, de um lado, o trabalho procura refletir sobre como o entendimento das mulheres acerca de noções sobre sofrimento, violência e doença, assim como as expectativas sobre amor e relacionamentos, acionam possibilidades de enfrentamento da violência doméstica ou de recuperação da dependência de relacionamentos destrutivos. A partir disso, aquilo que as faz permanecer nesses relacionamentos e os eventos que as impelem a mudanças de trajetos foram questões importantes para acompanhar as múltiplas maneiras de habitar entre os limites de suportar o sofrimento. De outro lado, esta pesquisa procurou pensar a constituição de tecnologias de produção de subjetividades a partir das Pedagogias do Cuidado de Si. Essas técnicas corporais e emotivas de exercício cotidiano de mudanças de pensamentos e condutas têm como principal intuito a busca de um bem viver, de uma vida saudável e sem violência. As Pedagogias do Cuidado de Si são produtos da articulação entre experiências enunciadas pelas mulheres nos diversos espaços da pesquisa (afetos, noções difusas sobre uma psicologia popularizada e moralidades religiosas) e o saber-fazer profissional, atravessados por suas moralidades, afetos e corporalidades. Esta tese se propôs a refletir sobre a produção de tecnologias de subjetividades a partir de histórias pessoais e dos afetos que atravessam experiências, trabalho profissional e grupos terapêuticos, produzindo sujeitos políticos e formas afetivas e morais de atendimento. / This thesis accompanies narratives about paths and experiences of suffering, love and pain reported by women who live violent or destructive love relationships. I focused on those women who sought centers, referral and support\'s associations for women in domestic and marital violences situations, as well as self-help groups that were headed to orient women who suffer from too much love. In this way, the researchs field of this thesis was developed at the Center for Reference and Support to Women (CEAMO), the French association Libres Terres des Femmes (LTDF) and the self-helps group Women Who Love Too Much (MADA Campinas - I Can Help). If going to the end was a consensus among the women that I followed in my field research, my interest was to know what that thought was consisted in and what were the concrete impacts on these womens life. Thus, on the one hand, the work seeks to reflect on how women\'s understanding about notions of suffering, violence and illness, as well as expectations about love and relationships could trigger possibilities for tackling domestic violence or recovering from dependence on destructive relationships. Therefore, what makes them stay in these relationships and the events that push them to change paths were important questions to keep up with the multiple ways of to dwell between the bearable limits of suffering. On the other hand, this research tried to think about the constitution of the production of subjectivity technology from the Pedagogies of Care of the Self. These corporal and emotional techniques of daily exercise of changing thoughts and conducts have as main intention the search for a good live, a healthy life without violence. The Pedagogies of Care of the Self are products from the articulation between enunciated experiences by women in the different spaces of research (affections, diffused notions about a \"popularized psychology\" and religious morals) and professional know-how, crossed by their morals, affections and corporalities. This thesis circumscribed about the production of technologies of subjectivity from personal histories and affections that cross experiences, professional work and therapeutic groups, producing political individuals and affective and moral forms of acceptance.

Esta tese acompanha as narrativas sobre trajetos e experiências de sofrimento, amor e dor enunciados por mulheres que vivem relacionamentos amorosos violentos ou destrutivos. Concentrei-me sobre aquelas mulheres que procuraram por centros, associações de referência e apoio à mulher em situação e violência doméstica e conjugal, assim como por grupos de autoajuda voltados para mulheres que sofrem por amar demais. Desta forma, a pesquisa de campo desta tese desenvolveu-se no Centro de Referência e Apoio à Mulher (CEAMO), na associação francesa Libres Terres des Femmes (LTDF) e no grupo de autoajuda Mulheres que Amam Demais (MADA Campinas Posso Ajudar). Se ir até o fim era um consenso entre as mulheres que acompanhei em minha pesquisa de campo, meu interesse era conhecer em que consistia esse pensamento e quais os impactos concretos na vida dessas mulheres. Assim, de um lado, o trabalho procura refletir sobre como o entendimento das mulheres acerca de noções sobre sofrimento, violência e doença, assim como as expectativas sobre amor e relacionamentos, acionam possibilidades de enfrentamento da violência doméstica ou de recuperação da dependência de relacionamentos destrutivos. A partir disso, aquilo que as faz permanecer nesses relacionamentos e os eventos que as impelem a mudanças de trajetos foram questões importantes para acompanhar as múltiplas maneiras de habitar entre os limites de suportar o sofrimento. De outro lado, esta pesquisa procurou pensar a constituição de tecnologias de produção de subjetividades a partir das Pedagogias do Cuidado de Si. Essas técnicas corporais e emotivas de exercício cotidiano de mudanças de pensamentos e condutas têm como principal intuito a busca de um bem viver, de uma vida saudável e sem violência. As Pedagogias do Cuidado de Si são produtos da articulação entre experiências enunciadas pelas mulheres nos diversos espaços da pesquisa (afetos, noções difusas sobre uma psicologia popularizada e moralidades religiosas) e o saber-fazer profissional, atravessados por suas moralidades, afetos e corporalidades. Esta tese se propôs a refletir sobre a produção de tecnologias de subjetividades a partir de histórias pessoais e dos afetos que atravessam experiências, trabalho profissional e grupos terapêuticos, produzindo sujeitos políticos e formas afetivas e morais de atendimento. / This thesis accompanies narratives about paths and experiences of suffering, love and pain reported by women who live violent or destructive love relationships. I focused on those women who sought centers, referral and support\'s associations for women in domestic and marital violences situations, as well as self-help groups that were headed to orient women who suffer from too much love. In this way, the researchs field of this thesis was developed at the Center for Reference and Support to Women (CEAMO), the French association Libres Terres des Femmes (LTDF) and the self-helps group Women Who Love Too Much (MADA Campinas - I Can Help). If going to the end was a consensus among the women that I followed in my field research, my interest was to know what that thought was consisted in and what were the concrete impacts on these womens life. Thus, on the one hand, the work seeks to reflect on how women\'s understanding about notions of suffering, violence and illness, as well as expectations about love and relationships could trigger possibilities for tackling domestic violence or recovering from dependence on destructive relationships. Therefore, what makes them stay in these relationships and the events that push them to change paths were important questions to keep up with the multiple ways of to dwell between the bearable limits of suffering. On the other hand, this research tried to think about the constitution of the production of subjectivity technology from the Pedagogies of Care of the Self. These corporal and emotional techniques of daily exercise of changing thoughts and conducts have as main intention the search for a good live, a healthy life without violence. The Pedagogies of Care of the Self are products from the articulation between enunciated experiences by women in the different spaces of research (affections, diffused notions about a \"popularized psychology\" and religious morals) and professional know-how, crossed by their morals, affections and corporalities. This thesis circumscribed about the production of technologies of subjectivity from personal histories and affections that cross experiences, professional work and therapeutic groups, producing political individuals and affective and moral forms of acceptance.

Evelyn Jephson Cameron (1868-1928) was born to a wealthy merchant family outside London. At the age of twenty-five, she moved to Terry, Montana to raise horses and homestead with her husband, Ewen Cameron. Evelyn Cameron recorded their time in eastern Montana in her daily diary entries, which span over thirty-five years from 1893 to 1928. She became a self-taught professional photographer, and made thousands of photographs with large-format cameras of the people in the towns of Terry, Fallon, and Marsh. She photographed the landscape, birds, and other animals she kept as pets or encountered in the wild. She wrote in her private diary nearly every day, offering a first-person point of view of life for women in the late nineteenth-century in the American West. This thesis focuses on three particular aspects of Cameron’s life. The first chapter focuses on spaces or mediums that Cameron had access to that offered her autonomy and privacy, things which were often difficult for women to find at this time. These spaces and mediums include her photography, her diary, and her darkroom, all of which gave her different sorts of calm or control. The second chapter delves into Cameron’s photographic portraits of herself and other women, looking into how women portrayed themselves and others in the American West. Cameron depicted herself as a part of the natural world, and she also did so when capturing other women. The final chapter analyzes Cameron’s identity as a Montanan, from her conscious choice to move there to her refusal to return to Britain permanently. She gained American citizenship in 1918 and took living in Montana seriously. Her diary reveals a deep awareness of the natural world and records accomplishments and events that help to build and strengthen her relationship with her chosen home. / Graduate / 2018-08-25

" Dwelling at the Margins" is an exegesis of the short film Boundaries. Boundaries is a journey into the world of marginalised young people in inner urban Brisbane seen through the eyes of a the female main character with an eye for gentle beauty. The film forms the first part of the research and in the exegesis the ideas unfold that were behind the making of the film and that emerged further through its production and audience reception. The exegesis discussion centres on the major aspects of the film which are visual representations, female narratives and the themes of home and dwelling. Boundaries is a political film that looks from the edges of society. The exegesis seeks to explain the ideas behind this intention.