From the courtesan Esther in Honoré de Balzac’s Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (1838-1847) to the femme sterile in Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal (1857) to Edgar Degas’s nudes, women’s objectified bodies dominated artistic attention in nineteenth-century France. Appearance defined their roles, and tropes often replaced women in narratives centered on male desire. However, the women in these works resist erasure and challenge feminine passivity and marginalization. This dissertation explores their ambiguous female identities and their strategies of resistance. The tension in Balzac’s, Baudelaire’s, and Degas’s works between objectifying women and their textual importance emerges through the relationships among subject, object, and the abject self (as defined by Judith Butler) and among the narrator, the work, and sometimes the reader or viewer. The male gaze limits women’s identities within the subject-object-abject framework. In turn, these women exercise soft power to alter their status and identities. Joseph Nye defines soft power as attracting others and co-opting their power to achieve one’s goals. Through gender theory, I redefine these women, not only as objects of desire, but also as narrative subjects. In Balzac’s novel, Esther negotiates social dynamics to define her identity. She progresses from passive object to untenable abject self to literary subject. By using her body, creating documents, and crafting ritualized social encounters, Esther claims ownership of herself. In Les Fleurs du mal, Baudelaire often portrays women as a pretext for poetics. Yet, “La Chevelure,” “La Beauté,” “L’Homme et la mer,” and “Le Serpent qui danse,” display signs of feminine power. Baudelaire stages interactions between the poet-narrator and the sexualized woman and counteracts the subject-object binary through the gaze. Both the poet-narrator and representations of the feminine are necessary to advance the text. Degas’s nudes hinge upon voyeurism, objectification, and self-representation. Degas’s women are ambiguous, as shown in selected brothel monotypes, bather pastels, lithographs, and sculptures. Through Caroline Armstrong’s and Kathryn Brown’s readings of the monotypes, I demonstrate how these works challenge the male gaze and grant the female nude at least partial status as narrative subject. Tracing these works across media elucidates a female interiority that resists objectification.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Marilynn Richtarik, committee chair; Calvin Thomas, Margaret Mills Harper, committee members. Electronic text (84 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 17, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 75-84).

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves 180-200.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2002. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education. Bibliography: leaves 257-293.

The enclosed room is in classic Gothic novels closely connected to its female characters, and often works as a mean to suppress them. Clive Barker, however, while working within the Gothic genre, uses the enclosed room in novel ways in The Hellbound Heart, creating a type of Gothic female character that is different from the classical stereotype. By comparing the enclosed room and the female characters in Barker’s The Hellbound Heart to the classical model, in particular as represented by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, this essay will show how Barker uses the room in a new way: he breaks away from the classic motif of the room as a means of female sexual oppression and instead depicts female characters taking charge of the room and therefore of themselves and their own sexuality.

Lau Yiu Sang. / "June 2012." / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.iv / Chapter 1 --- Job's wife and the Book of Job --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Aim of the thesis --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Date and Authorship of the Book of Job --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Structure of the Book of Job --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4 --- Place in the Canon --- p.7 / Chapter 1.5 --- Versions of Job --- p.8 / Chapter 1.6 --- Purpose of the Book of Job --- p.14 / Chapter 1.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.16 / Chapter 2 --- The Prologue --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1 --- Structure of the Prologue --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2 --- Highlights of the Prologue --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.21 / Chapter 3 --- Controversial Views on Job's wife --- p.22 / Chapter 3.1 --- Job's wife in Christian Traditions --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2 --- Job's wife in the Targum of Job --- p.24 / Chapter 3.3 --- Job's wife in the Testament of Job --- p.25 / Chapter 3.4 --- Job's wife in the Septuagint --- p.26 / Chapter 3.5 --- Job's wife in the Jewish Traditions --- p.27 / Chapter 3.6 --- Job's wife in Paintings --- p.28 / Chapter 3.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.32 / Chapter 4 --- A Study on Job 2:9-10 --- p.34 / Chapter 4.1 --- A Comparison of the MT and the LXX --- p.34 / Chapter 4.2 --- Chapter Summary --- p.40 / Chapter 5 --- A Feminist Reading of Job's wife --- p.42 / Chapter 5.1 --- Feminist Interpretation of the Bible --- p.42 / Chapter 5.2 --- A Feminist Reading of Job's wife --- p.47 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The Attitude of Job's wife --- p.47 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Job's wife and the Development of the Story --- p.49 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Job's wife as the Messenger --- p.50 / Chapter 5.2.4 --- Job's wife and Wisdom --- p.51 / Chapter 5.3 --- Chapter Summary --- p.55 / Chapter 6 --- Conclusions and Implications --- p.57 / Bibliography --- p.60

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-289). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (PhD)-Open University. BLDSC no.DX219766.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX231422.