This thesis juxtaposes a historical and ethnographic account of a highly organised women's activity -- quiltmaking -- with an examination of feminist discussions on art, craft, leisure, culture and folklore. In describing and analysing the quiltmaking revival in Australia, I attempt to show how quiltmakers have collectively constructed a space in which they avoid, and indeed, deconstruct, some of the ideas and practices which constrain women. As a case study, quiltmaking reveals the practical 'workarounds' that these women have found, which enable them to take time and space for themselves in the face of family responsibilities, to be creative and proud of their artistic efforts in the face of conventions of womanly modesty, and to arrange their own public events in the face of training in silence and backroom support. In so doing, they break down the divisions between professional and amateur, commercial and voluntary, and even public and private. For the most part, feminist analysis has ignored or misunderstood such women. Although feminist philosophers, academics and artists have often used the products of traditionally feminine crafts as metaphors, examples and parables, they have not always done so with knowledge or familiarity. My study of feminist art and craft writing suggests that this is because of a complex interaction between the political and strategic needs of academic feminists at different times and a lack of detailed attention to the actual creative choices of such women, who often refuse the label 'artist', though they are indubitably cultural producers. Similarly, feminist theorists and researchers of leisure have been concerned with why women do not choose the same leisure activities as men, but have discounted the specific pleasures of traditional women's skills, and the homosocial organisations they inspire, as positive reasons for the choice of such activities. Cultural studies analysis, with its emphasis on the products of the commercial media has underestimated the popularity and importance of voluntarily organised cultural production, such as quiltmaking, especially when such production has not been seen as politically interesting. Feminist folklore studies provides the only model for research which takes such activities seriously, and pays attention to the complex ways in which they both subvert and support women's traditional roles.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Arizona, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-84).

No description available.

The outward form of the text in which the spiritual search is housed is 'performance-ritual', that is, performed 'ritual'. This genre has its 'performance' roots in the dance pioneers and its 'ritual' roots in the Christian church. The contents of this performed text is influenced by an emerging ecofeminist consciousness. In this way, the thesis has a grassroots inspiration as well as crossing academic areas of performance studies, ritual studies, and feminist spirituality. The project begins by an examination of 20th Century feminist and ecofeminist writing on spirituality, which evokes the subjective, embodied and historically contextualised, with particular focus on body and nature. Additional concepts of place, holding and letting go are introduced. Particular performance-rituals are introduced under the overall heading 'the spiralling journey of exorcism and ecstacy'. They include earlier work, as well as work performed specifically for this thesis, Centre of the Storm. The study re-situates 'ritual' as a subjective, embodied and contextualised performed event. It challenges ritual discourse to incorporate 'spirit', and feminist spirituality to incorporate the material world, through 'place', 'family', and the ritual actions of 'holding' and 'letting go'. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Joseph Perry, committee chair. Electronic text (90 p. : ill.) : digital PDF file. Description based on contents viewed May 1, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-75).

This paper explroes the notion that the human body plays a predominant role in the act of writing, and examines how Gloria Anzaldua's concept of writing from the body, which she calls conocimiento (Spanish term for consciousmess), is manifested in Alanis Morissette's lyrics.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 323-346).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2002. / A thesis submitted in full requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning, University of Western Sydney, May 2002. Bibliography : p. [369]- 395.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-283). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

No description available.