This thesis brings together two important aspects of Feminist Theory, the problem of reconceptualising community in terms of difference, and the role of temporality and futurity within feminist visions of the political. I argue that rethinking community directly entails a rethinking of temporality. This is initially suggested in my examination of the work of anthropologists Carol Greenhouse and Johannes Fabian, who argue that conceptions of time play an important role in social methods of ??managing?? difference. I then turn to an analysis of a number of different feminist accounts of community in order to show that, in each case, the attempt to rethink community in terms of an openness to diversity is invariably accompanied by a contestation of dominant linear temporal concepts. I suggest that these accounts represent a shift to an understanding of time as fractured, dislocated or out of joint. While this shift is explicit in some of the work I examine, specifically in Linnell Secomb and Rosalyn Diprose??s work, for the most part, the problem of temporality is not explicitly thematised. I therefore seek to uncover an emerging critique of linear temporality within feminist accounts of community, while also arguing for a greater recognition of the way time systems shape the way we understand and relate to difference. In order to extend the contestation of linear temporality developed in the first section, I turn to the work of Jacques Derrida. I extend the gesture towards a dislocated time by examining Derrida??s deconstruction of Aristotle??s account of time and his quasi-concept, diff??rance. Both of these accounts challenge the self-presence of the now. What proves to be particularly important for the problem of community is the way this fundamental dislocation suggests a reworking of social understandings of the heritage, transformation and political action. This suggestion is developed through an analysis of two of Derrida??s later essays ??The Other Heading?? and ??Psyche: Inventions of the other??, where I draw out his claim that an openness to the coming of the other involves both the active disruption of convention and tradition as well as a passive relation to an open and incalculable future. I conclude this thesis by arguing that Derrida??s account of time, as a disruptive exposure to alterity, is a provocative candidate for a model of temporality congenial to feminist projects of reconceptualising community. Accordingly, this thesis makes a unique contribution to feminist theory by connecting two significant but often separate concerns, in the process providing new avenues for feminist theorisations of community.

Abstract Societal expectations for procreation often result in infertile couples accessing assisted reproductive technology (ART). In the current state of this technology, the successful outcome of the birth of a child does not always occur. This study contributes to nurses' understanding of what it is like for couples to remain involuntarily and permanently childless after infertility treatment has ended, and aims to bring about change in attitudes and practice towards this group. Literature that acknowledges individuality as well as shared experience for couples who remain childless after infertility treatment is scarce. Health professionals may therefore encounter difficulties in providing this group with appropriate support. This research used a qualitative approach informed by feminist perspectives to gather stories of five couples' experiences of childlessness after accessing ART. Individual conversations with both members of the marital partnership were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The study found that due to the societal expectation of procreation, and the falsely elevated 'success rates' of ART, couples often delayed decisions about whether they should persevere with treatment, hence reducing the possibility of exploring alternative methods of parenting. As well as highlighting the ambiguity of the term 'success', the study suggests that the hope that technology brings childless couples prolongs decision making and simultaneously serves to compound the sense of failure experienced by these couples. The couples' engagement with ART, as well as their inability to conform to the normative family of parents and their biological children, also contributed to periods of isolation. Following the decision to remain childless, the participants found that setting achievable and challenging goals assisted in re-building their self-esteem, and enhanced the process of adapting to their life without children. Although participant couples expressed obvious grief at remaining childless, they also showed resilience by managing attached difficulties and stigmatisation, and by creating positive future outcomes. For these childless couples, the strength of their relationships was seen as critical in the process of overcoming adversity. This study suggests ART clinics should provide more realistic information to individual couples regarding the likelihood of taking home a baby. Further to this, independent counselling support is recommended for couples prior to and during ART treatment, and when this treatment is ceased.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of a sociocultural theory of objectification with a population of older women. Specifically, the study sought to determine if level of self-objectification influenced psychological well-being, disordered eating, and sexual dysfunction. Additional goals of this study included determining if older women self-objectify like their younger counterparts and if level of selfobjectification was influenced by one’s feminist identity. Participants were 128 randomly selected women living in a small city in the southwest recruited through a local seniors fair and organizations. Participants completed a take-home survey which included a demographic questionnaire, the Feminist Identity Development Scale, the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, the Scales of Psychological Well-Being Short Form, the Eating Attitudes Test, and the Brief Index of Sexual Functioning for Women. Participants returned surveys in postage pre-paid envelopes. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling methods and the final model fit the data well. Results indicate that older women do self-objectify but this level of self-objectification is not influenced by their level of feminist identity. In addition, level of self-objectification is negatively related to psychological well-being and positively related to disordered eating; however, no relationship exists between self-objectification and sexual dysfunction. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1997. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 592-630). Preview (1st 24 pages) available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ27295.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 44 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1997. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 592-630). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ27295.

This thesis seeks to provide new readings of the autobiographical fictions of l\ larie Cardinal and Annie Leclerc. The study has three central aims. Firstly, to present a comparative overview of Cardinal's Les Mots pour Ie dire and Leclerc's Exercices de memoire; secondly, to explore the significance of the texts in relationship to developments within feminist theory and practice; thirdly, to develop a mode of reading which ackl0wledges the importance of autobiographical intention, social context and critical reception. My study will make a claim for the importance of considering the situated experience of the author and the reader. My methodological approach is informed by autobigraphical and literary theory, feminist theory and reception studies. The thesis explores a number of themes in the writing of Cardinal and Leclerc including the construction of autobiographical identity in relationship to the reader, the social function of the autobiographical sub-genres of confessional and testimonial writing, the impact of theories of the 'death of the author' on experiential writing and its significance for a feminist agenda. The manner in which gender influences the shape and tone of the autobiographical pact and the relationship between gender and critical reception are further themes under consideration. A further concern will be to explore the feminist claim that traditional theories of the genre, authored by male critics, fail to account for the 'difference' of women's writing. It will also be argued that early forays into the genre by Anglo/American feminist critics have tended either to essentialise female identity or to erase the self from the text altogether. Acknowledging the shift of interest- in autobiographical criticism from the 'autos' (self) to the 'graphe' (text), I align myself with those theorists \\ho have argued for the need to reinstate the 'bios' (life) back into autobiographical criticism. While acknowledging the impact of deconstructionist perspectives, this thesis proposes the value of experiential writing as a means of challenging exclusionar: identity politics and raising consciousness among readers. I examine Cardinal's Les J\fo/s pour Ie dire as an exemplary text of the 1970s \\hich illustrates the feminist interest in the communal '1,' and Leclerc's E\crcices de memoire as a more cautious text of the 1990s which nonetheless demonstrates a continuing interest in communal identity, mediated by an awareness of difference. I engage with criticisms of confessional writers for holding naive assumptions about 'agency." 'communal identity,' and the transparency of language. I argue that Cardinal's confessional and Leclerc's testimonial writing demonstrate an awareness of both the constructed nature of identity and the importance of situated experience. Furthermore, both writers avoid 'speaking for other women' by presenting authorial identity in relationship to the Other. I argue that the gaze of the Other plays an essential role in the construction of autobiographical identity whether it be the imagined critical gaze of the literary critic or the sympathetic identification which the author solicits from her readers. I conclude that while there are no essential qualities to women's self-writing there is a need for reading with gender awareness. The identities constructed in Les Mots pour dire and Exercices de memoire are shaped by the social conditions of the time and the constraints of the genre. I argue for situated reading of each women's writing, concluding my discussion with my own personal reading of Les Mots pour le dire.

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This thesis explores how five Canadian women directors who define themselves as feminists have engaged with work from the traditional Western theatre canon. However, that world actually is created by the social expectations, cultural mores, and theatrical conventions of its time. Audiences have been indoctrinated to accept unquestioningly the value of these texts while the plays’ valorized status masks social constructs that are continually reinforced and surreptitiously naturalized through their repetition. At the crux of this thesis is the notion that while repetition is used as a tool for social instruction, it can also be used as a tool for social change. Therefore, I explore how the Canadian feminist women directors whom I have interviewed use the uniqueness of performance in different ways to challenge social structures within canonical texts. In the individual chapters, each director first shares her education, training, experience, and influences; then she articulates her own feminist perspective and discusses its impact on her career and work process; and finally she reflects on how she directed a text from the Western theatre canon and used the liminal space of performance to challenge the text’s embedded gender constructs. At the end of each chapter, I present the critical response I found for each production, including reviews, individual statements, and academic investigations, and assess the extent to which the director’s intent was understood by her audience and reviewers. In the final chapters, I examine each individual director’s interview responses in the context of the others’ and situate them within the spectrum of feminisms. In general, the directors used liminal space to expose gender as a construction and destabilize social expectations based on gender. However, what also emerged from these interviews is that while there is no broad consensus of what constitutes ‘feminist’ work, each director must temper her feminist perspectives if she wants access to the upper echelons of directing in Canada and the benefits that it entails.

This study is motivated by my own experience as a Motswana Pentecostal woman who inhabits patriarchal spaces of both the Setswana cultures and the Pentecostal church. It highlights the status of women in Botswana society and the Pentecostal church. The study seeks to construct a Pentecostal feminist hermeneutic through a contextual reading of selected texts from Luke-Acts with Pentecostal women in Botswana. The Pentecostal movement is growing exponentially throughout the world, especially in Africa. Botswana is not an exception. Studies on Pentecostalism indicate that the overwhelming membership of the Pentecostal churches is female, yet the teaching and leadership are largely male dominated. Further, women are marginalised within the Pentecostal spaces through Pentecostal hermeneutics. This is ironic because the contemporary Pentecostal church traces its origins to the Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 and their theologies emerge from Luke-Acts. On the face of it, Acts 2 and Luke-Acts encourages egalitarian existence between men and women. This means that Pentecostal beliefs and doctrines are supposed to be inherently inclusive and yet accusations of gender exclusion are often levelled against Pentecostalism. Therefore, one of the other aims of this study is to explore how Pentecostal hermeneutics advances gender exclusion, and how that is contrary to the theologies that Acts 2:1-47 embody. Using narrative and feminist hermeneutical principles, the study engages with Acts 1-2 in order to establish the importance of using this text to construct a liberating Pentecostal hermeneutic. Further, Acts 1-2 are situated within the larger context of Luke-Acts and women. In order to gain insights from Pentecostal men and women about the status of women in the church and home, Pentecostal hermeneutics, and Luke-Acts, qualitative data collection methods were employed. These are focus groups, in depth interviews, participant observation and the Contextual Bible study (CBS). The data from the different research contexts is used throughout the chapters so that there is no specific chapter on data analysis. The data is filtered through feminist theoretical framework of analysis. The research sample consists of 51 Pentecostal women and 3 pastors from two different churches located in Molepolole, Gaborone and Mogobane. The ages of the women range from 17-73. The literacy levels also differ; some have never attended formal schools while some had diplomas and degrees in different disciplines. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.