The purpose of this study was to explore how Black men and women negotiate ideas about masculine performances within the context of romantic relationships. The New York Times Bestselling book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, which communicates a particularly patriarchal understanding of masculinity, was used as a point of reference. Six focus groups were conducted with 28 Black males and females between the ages of 19-60. Three general conclusions about masculine performances within Black male/female relationships were drawn from the findings.

The purpose of this study was to explore how Black men and women negotiate ideas about masculine performances within the context of romantic relationships. The New York Times Bestselling book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, which communicates a particularly patriarchal understanding of masculinity, was used as a point of reference. Six focus groups were conducted with 28 Black males and females between the ages of 19-60. Three general conclusions about masculine performances within Black male/female relationships were drawn from the findings.

Friendship between the sexes, in eighteenth-century England, was a site of great controversy: it could be mocked as a chimera, feared as a mask for seduction or a leveller of gender distinctions, or welcomed as a sign of newly enlightened sociability. Sarah Fielding, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson and Charlotte Lennox all explored the tantalizing possibilities of such friendship in their daily lives as well as in their fiction. Their relationships have tended to be stereotyped as a symbiosis of benevolent male genius and grateful female talent. But as friends, siblings and colleagues who worked together closely, these writers broke new ground. In the middle of the century, a unique spirit of cooperation veiled, without erasing, the old tensions between the sexes, which continued to be played out discreetly in these writers' dedications, prefaces, reviews and, above all, letters. Mid--eighteenth-century experiments with the theme of friendship between the sexes in fiction have been generally ignored or misread as euphemistic versions of courtship or parenthood. But novels by the four authors in this study benefit greatly from being read against the grain, with the spotlight turned from their main plots of courtship to their more ambiguous sub-plots. Male-female friendship is not proposed here as a watertight category but rather as a fascinating area of overlap and contest between ideologies of relationship. Chapter 1 sketches the broad spectrum of male-female friendship possibilities in eighteenth-century literature. The next three chapters focus on three significant sample patterns: Sarah and Henry Fielding's sibling bond, Samuel Richardson's cultivation of a wide circle of literary 'daughters', and the mentor-protegee relationship in the life and works of Charlotte Lennox. The aim of this thesis is to reconsider these writers' lives and reputations while demonstrating the peculiar interest of male-female friendship as a lens through which to view eighteenth-century literature and literary history.

Thesis advisor: Caroline Bicks / Routinely recognized as deeply patriarchal, early modern England is an era in which men and characteristics of the male gender are assumed to have held unrelenting sway over their female counterparts. This description is largely justifiable, particularly given the era's legal codes. However, this thesis seeks to enrich discussions on early modern England by examining its male-female relationships through a markedly different lens. By highlighting the close relationships that existed alongside patriarchal mandates in the era - husband and wife, father and daughter, mother and son - a fuller portrait of the period is sketched. Through an examination of how a variety of genres - medical, religious, and dramatic - grappled with moments of union between the two sexes, particularly physical union and its concurrent or resultant emotional bonds, this thesis offers greater insight into how walls to male-female connection were both raised and bridged in the time period. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Writing at a moment of ideological crisis between individualism and hierarchical society, Jane Austen asserts a definition of moral behavior and female identity that mediates the two value systems. I argue that Austen most effectively articulates her belief in women's moral autonomy and social responsibility in her novels through her portrayal of sisterhood. Austen reshapes the stereotype of sisters and female friendships as dangerous found in her domestic novel predecessors. While recognizing women's social vulnerability, which endangers female friendship and turns it into a site of competition, Austen urges the morality of selflessly embracing sisterhood anyway. An Austen heroine must overcome sisterly rivalry if she is to achieve the moral strength Austen demands of her. As Mansfield Park (1814) and Pride and Prejudice (1813) demonstrate, such rivalry reveals the flawed morality of both individualism and patrilineal society. I further argue that in these novels sisterhood articulates the internally motivated selflessness Austen makes her moral standard. Sisterhood not only indicates female morality for Austen, it also enables this character. Rejecting Rousseau's proposal of men shaping malleable female minds, Austen pronounces sisters to be the best moral guides. In Northanger Abbey (1818), Austen shows the failure of the man to educate our heroine and the success of his sister. In Sense and Sensibility (1811), Austen pinpoints the source of sisterly education's success in its feminine context of nurture, affection, intimacy, and subtlety. With this portrait of sisterhood, Austen adheres to the moral authority inherent in Burkean philosophy while advocating individual responsibility, not external regulation, to choose selfless behavior. Austen further promotes gender equality by expressing women's moral autonomy, while supporting gender distinctions that privilege femininity. By offering such powerful, complex sister relationships, Austen transforms eighteenth-century literary thought about women, sisters, and morality.

Com a dissolução do matrimônio, a identidade conjugal é desconstruída e vive-se um novo momento, no qual o estabelecimento dos novos projetos existenciais e a oportunidade de um resgate de si mesmo conduz à ressignificação da identidade individual. Partindo desse princípio, esta dissertação teve como objetivo compreender os sentimentos que emergem em homens e mulheres quando perdem o vínculo conjugal. A pesquisa seguiu um desenho qualitativo, tendo como participantes três homens e quatro mulheres divorciados, que residem na cidade de Recife e Região Metropolitana. O instrumento utilizado foi a entrevista semiestruturada e os dados coletados foram submetidos à Análise de Conteúdo Temática. Os resultados indicaram que os sentimentos e emoções mais frequentes apresentaram equivalência em suas aparições nas entrevistas. Entre os positivos estão os sentimentos de liberdade, felicidade e paz. Os sentimentos negativos evidenciam sensação de deslocamento, ciúmes e raiva, mesclados de tristeza, fracasso e saudade. No que se refere às características do luto manifestadas no percurso da ruptura conjugal, constatamos que a maioria dos entrevistados vivenciou sentimentos relativos ao quadro de luto presente na separação. Todavia, três dos participantes, aparentemente, não vivenciaram o luto pela perda sentida, o luto veio de forma tardia, ou seja, a reação emocional surgiu após algum tempo da perda sofrida, apresentando-se de forma exacerbada e intensa, consideradas inadequadas ao momento atual deles. Na tentativa de identificar as interferências provocadas pela separação sobre a saúde dos entrevistados, percebemos que houve novamente um equilíbrio: ora a desvinculação amorosa favorece a manutenção ou a busca por uma melhor qualidade de vida, ora interfere negativamente, afetando a manutenção da saúde. Sobre as estratégias utilizadas para a ressignificação da identidade individual, observamos que a busca e o estabelecimento de um novo vínculo afetivo foi uma estratégia empregada entre os sujeitos estudados, para servir de apoio a esse ressignificar. A maioria deles conquistou a ressignificação da sua identidade individual, conseguindo tornar-se autônomo e capaz de desenvolver a sua individualidade. Eles experienciaram o processo de subjetivação que promoveu o contato consigo, e a partir disso conseguiram conquistar mudanças individuais, significativas desconstruindo identidades conjugais e oportunizando a vivência de novos enfoques de si mesmo. Criaram projetos existenciais capazes de contribuir para a singularidade, crescimento e amadurecimento de si, e do ser com o outro. Esperamos que este trabalho acadêmico propricie discussões sobre o tema, como também inovações nos serviços assistenciais oferecidos pelos órgãos competentes a esse público alvo, favorecendo o resgate da identidade individual / With marriage dissolution, the marital identity is deconstructed and one comes to live a new moment, in which the setting of new existential projects and the opportunity of restoring oneself lead to a new significance of the individual identity. Based on such assumption, this dissertation aimed to comprehend the feelings that emerge in men and women when they lose the power of marital bond. The research followed the qualitative model and had as its participants three divorced men and four divorced women, who reside in the city of Recife and its metropolitan region. The instrument used was a semi-structured interview and the data collected were submitted to a Thematic Content Analysis. The results indicated that the most frequent feelings and emotions were equally present in the interviews. Among the positive ones are the feelings of freedom, happiness and peace. The negative ones evidence the sense of alienation, jealousy and anger, mixed with sadness, failure and missing. Regarding the mourning characteristics shown during the marital break-up process, we found that the majority of the people interviewed had feelings linked to the divorce. However, three of the participants apparently did not experience the mourning, which just came lately, that is, the emotional reaction rose after some time of the loss occurrence, in an exaggerated and intense way, which was no longer compatible to their moment. Attempting to identify the interferences caused by the divorce in the health of the people interviewed, we noticed again a certain balance: now the termination influenced to keep or seek for a better quality of life, now it influenced negatively, affecting their health. About the strategies used to grant new significance to the individual identity, we observed that searching and establishing a new affective bond was a tool used by the individuals studied, in order to support such new significance. The majority of them achieved granting new significance to their individual identities and could become self-reliant and able to develop their own individuality. They experienced the process of subjectivity that put them in touch with themselves, from what they could achieve individual and meaningful changes, and deconstruct marital identities and make possible living new perspectives of themselves. They created new existential projects able to contribute to their own singularity, growing and maturation, including their being towards the other. We hope that this academic work has enhanced the discussions about the theme, as well as innovations in the assistance services offered by the legal bodies to such target audience, favoring the rescue of individual identity.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 janaina_andrade_tenorio_araujo.pdf: 43285042 bytes, checksum: 7c7d6b326cfdb4d6422a4f609edb99be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-25 / With marriage dissolution, the marital identity is deconstructed and one comes to live a new moment, in which the setting of new existential projects and the opportunity of restoring oneself lead to a new significance of the individual identity. Based on such assumption, this dissertation aimed to comprehend the feelings that emerge in men and women when they lose the power of marital bond. The research followed the qualitative model and had as its participants three divorced men and four divorced women, who reside in the city of Recife and its metropolitan region. The instrument used was a semi-structured interview and the data collected were submitted to a Thematic Content Analysis. The results indicated that the most frequent feelings and emotions were equally present in the interviews. Among the positive ones are the feelings of freedom, happiness and peace. The negative ones evidence the sense of alienation, jealousy and anger, mixed with sadness, failure and missing. Regarding the mourning characteristics shown during the marital break-up process, we found that the majority of the people interviewed had feelings linked to the divorce. However, three of the participants apparently did not experience the mourning, which just came lately, that is, the emotional reaction rose after some time of the loss occurrence, in an exaggerated and intense way, which was no longer compatible to their moment. Attempting to identify the interferences caused by the divorce in the health of the people interviewed, we noticed again a certain balance: now the termination influenced to keep or seek for a better quality of life, now it influenced negatively, affecting their health. About the strategies used to grant new significance to the individual identity, we observed that searching and establishing a new affective bond was a tool used by the individuals studied, in order to support such new significance . The majority of them achieved granting new significance to their individual identities and could become self-reliant and able to develop their own individuality. They experienced the process of subjectivity that put them in touch with themselves, from what they could achieve individual and meaningful changes, and deconstruct marital identities and make possible living new perspectives of themselves. They created new existential projects able to contribute to their own singularity, growing and maturation, including their being towards the other. We hope that this academic work has enhanced the discussions about the theme, as well as innovations in the assistance services offered by the legal bodies to such target audience, favoring the rescue of individual identity. / Com a dissolução do matrimônio, a identidade conjugal é desconstruída e vive-se um novo momento, no qual o estabelecimento dos novos projetos existenciais e a oportunidade de um resgate de si mesmo conduz à ressignificação da identidade individual. Partindo desse princípio, esta dissertação teve como objetivo compreender os sentimentos que emergem em homens e mulheres quando perdem o vínculo conjugal. A pesquisa seguiu um desenho qualitativo, tendo como participantes três homens e quatro mulheres divorciados, que residem na cidade de Recife e Região Metropolitana. O instrumento utilizado foi a entrevista semiestruturada e os dados coletados foram submetidos à Análise de Conteúdo Temática. Os resultados indicaram que os sentimentos e emoções mais frequentes apresentaram equivalência em suas aparições nas entrevistas. Entre os positivos estão os sentimentos de liberdade, felicidade e paz. Os sentimentos negativos evidenciam sensação de deslocamento, ciúmes e raiva, mesclados de tristeza, fracasso e saudade. No que se refere às características do luto manifestadas no percurso da ruptura conjugal, constatamos que a maioria dos entrevistados vivenciou sentimentos relativos ao quadro de luto presente na separação. Todavia, três dos participantes, aparentemente, não vivenciaram o luto pela perda sentida, o luto veio de forma tardia, ou seja, a reação emocional surgiu após algum tempo da perda sofrida, apresentando-se de forma exacerbada e intensa, consideradas inadequadas ao momento atual deles. Na tentativa de identificar as interferências provocadas pela separação sobre a saúde dos entrevistados, percebemos que houve novamente um equilíbrio: ora a desvinculação amorosa favorece a manutenção ou a busca por uma melhor qualidade de vida, ora interfere negativamente, afetando a manutenção da saúde. Sobre as estratégias utilizadas para a ressignificação da identidade individual, observamos que a busca e o estabelecimento de um novo vínculo afetivo foi uma estratégia empregada entre os sujeitos estudados, para servir de apoio a esse ressignificar . A maioria deles conquistou a ressignificação da sua identidade individual, conseguindo tornar-se autônomo e capaz de desenvolver a sua individualidade. Eles experienciaram o processo de subjetivação que promoveu o contato consigo, e a partir disso conseguiram conquistar mudanças individuais, significativas desconstruindo identidades conjugais e oportunizando a vivência de novos enfoques de si mesmo. Criaram projetos existenciais capazes de contribuir para a singularidade, crescimento e amadurecimento de si, e do ser com o outro. Esperamos que este trabalho acadêmico propricie discussões sobre o tema, como também inovações nos serviços assistenciais oferecidos pelos órgãos competentes a esse público alvo, favorecendo o resgate da identidade individual