In this project I explore the creation of female community in the novels of four contemporary feminist writers: Nicole Brossard, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Condé, and Gisèle Pineau. I contend that in their diverse representations of female community, these women writers provide collaborative feminist models of resistance, creative transformation, and renewal. Building on Judith Butler's articulation of agency as variation on repetition, I argue that these writers transform the space of the novel in order to tell these stories of community, revitalizing this form as a potential site of collaborative performance of identity. They offer an alternative vision that is not only feminist and collective, but also transnational, translinguistic, historical, and epistemological - challenging and reconfiguring the way in which we understand our world. I develop the project thematically in terms of coming-of-age through and into female community (what the communities in these novels look like and the relationship between individuals and communities, seen through the process of individual maturity). I then consider the formal construction of female community through the collective narrative voice (both within the novels and outside them, in the form of each writer's collective body of engaged feminist dialogue in interviews and theory). Finally, I explore female community through alternative genealogies and quests for origin (demonstrating the implications of these novels' vision for transforming a more traditional worldview, with transnational communities and the transmission of historical knowledge across generations of women).

I explore how the structure of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible invites the reader to accept narrators’ authority in different ways depending on their temporal situatedness. I examine how a retrospective, extradiegetic perspective contrasts with limited, homodiegetic and intradiegeitc perspectives among female narrators. I analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, as well as how they shape one another. I discuss how the intersection of these voices develops the identity and enhances the authority of each narrator. Kingsolver employs polyvocality to bring female voices out of marginalization in order for readers to hear and respect their testimonies.

Southern writer Ellen Glasgow once told an audience that “the longer one lives in this world of hazard and disaster, the more reckless one should become . . . in the matter of words.” Between the 1880s and the 1940s, opportunities for southern women writers like Glasgow increased dramatically, first bolstered by readership demands for southern stories in northern periodicals and followed by their acceptance into the southern literary canon during the 1920s-30s Southern Renaissance movement. And yet, it remained difficult for southern women writers to be reckless with words. Confined by magazine requirements and sociocultural expectations, writers often used regional settings to attract publishers and readers. Once a readership was established, they sought to publish a collection of stories separate from popular magazine contexts. This project examines the selection and arrangement of previously-published magazine stories into first short story collections by Kate Chopin, Ellen Glasgow, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Katherine Anne Porter. Publishing a collection enabled authors to revise their stories outside of magazines’ requirements and provided the agency to arrange individual stories into a collective narrative. In “Arranging Stories,” I argue that selecting and ordering magazine stories for these collections was not arbitrary nor dictated by editors. Instead, it allowed women writers to privilege stories, or to contextualize a particular story by its proximity to other tales, as a form of sociopolitical commentary. This project, supported by archival research at ten institutional repositories, invites a reconsideration of women writers’ authorial control throughout the publication process.

<p>Throughout history women have been subject to oppression by patriarchal society. </p><p>However, there have always been those who have tried to rise against it. This study will shed light upon one example: a female artist who personally defies the patriarchal norms at the same time as her music encourages others to do the same. The musician in question is Christina Aguilera, and the album studied is Stripped. </p><p>What this study shows is that Stripped can be read as a feminist statement. The lyrics deal with two main themes: patriarchal society’s objectification and oppression of women, and the struggles of love and relationships. What these two themes have in common is that they both encourage women to stand their ground and believe in themselves. </p><p>However, the lyrics on the album also suggest that Aguilera is aware of the fact that her message will not suit everyone. She knows that she works within an industry whose goal is to make money out of its artists, and therefore she has to keep repeating like a mantra to herself and to others that she, and her music, is not just a product of this industry. The message her music brings actually matters. </p><p>To come to this conclusion I have examined Aguilera’s lyrics in terms of what messages they bring and who their narratees might be, all in accordance with feminist narratology. Secondary sources from the fields of popular music studies, media studies and gender studies as well as interviews with and about Aguilera and biographies have been consulted.</p>

Throughout history women have been subject to oppression by patriarchal society. However, there have always been those who have tried to rise against it. This study will shed light upon one example: a female artist who personally defies the patriarchal norms at the same time as her music encourages others to do the same. The musician in question is Christina Aguilera, and the album studied is Stripped. What this study shows is that Stripped can be read as a feminist statement. The lyrics deal with two main themes: patriarchal society’s objectification and oppression of women, and the struggles of love and relationships. What these two themes have in common is that they both encourage women to stand their ground and believe in themselves. However, the lyrics on the album also suggest that Aguilera is aware of the fact that her message will not suit everyone. She knows that she works within an industry whose goal is to make money out of its artists, and therefore she has to keep repeating like a mantra to herself and to others that she, and her music, is not just a product of this industry. The message her music brings actually matters. To come to this conclusion I have examined Aguilera’s lyrics in terms of what messages they bring and who their narratees might be, all in accordance with feminist narratology. Secondary sources from the fields of popular music studies, media studies and gender studies as well as interviews with and about Aguilera and biographies have been consulted.

Abstract Both Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) and Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding) have been thoroughly examined by literary critics. When discussed from a feminist perspective, critics are ambiguous as some claim that the novels work against feminist values rather than the reverse. This essay aims to add to the existing discussion, with focus on narration, specifically the narrative authority heroines Elizabeth and Bridget claim. Thus, it is situated within feminist narratology, examining the discourse of the narrative rather than the story. Analysis is conducted with Alison Case’s concept feminine narration, where women traditionally have been narrative witnesses without authority. Through acts of plotting and preaching, authority is claimed by which the narrator can control the meaning the reader is meant to derive from the narrative. I argue that Elizabeth and Bridget both assert narrative authority throughout their stories, thus breaking gendered conventions by claiming agency in traditionally male positions. Additionally, the comparative analysis enables discussion on “Chick lit” literary status, which has been questioned by critics.             Analysis shows that both Elizabeth and Bridget assert narrative authority throughout their stories, by acts of plotting and preaching. Often, both heroines meet male characters attempting to usurp narrative authority by assuming the role of master-narrator, a figure who traditionally possesses more authority. By avoiding these attempts, Elizabeth and Bridget escape the position as narrative witnesses and claim authority, thus directing the readers towards the intended meaning of respective narratives. Furthermore, the comparative analysis opens up for a broader discussion of issues women have faced, and continue to face, throughout time.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald encapsulates the Roaring Twenties, a period of social and political change. The economy is thriving, and the American Dream, with its promise of monetary wealth, happiness and upward mobility, is seemingly within reach. Females gain suffrage, and a New Woman emerges, the flapper, who can be seen challenging stereotypical gender roles with her short skirts and bobbed hair. Ostensibly enjoying increased freedom, she dances the night away at speakeasies, a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, defying Prohibition. This essay aims to evidence that the American Dream as constructed in the novel is a dream available only to the male gender, as the women remain shackled by a patriarchal society. By looking at The Great Gatsby through a feminist lens and with the help of well-established concepts within feminist critical theory and feminist narratology, this essay analyzes how the female characters are portrayed, along with their language, and their actions. The result reveals that in Gatsby’s world women orbit around the men, maneuvering for their attention, affection, and material wealth. Any transgressions of stereotypical gender roles result in punishment: loss of status, withheld affections, dismissal, or death. Consequently, instead of following their own American Dream, women are limited to pursuing the man who most successfully embodies it. Thus, for the females in The Great Gatsby, the American Dream stays an elusive idea as they remain reliant on the men to manifest it.

In this studyi apply a feminist-narratological grid to the works under discussion. I show how narration is used as strategy to highlight issues of concern to women, hereby attempting to make a contribution in the relatively new field of feminist narratology. Chapter One provides an analysis of Pride and Prejudice as an example of a feminist statement by Jane Austen. The use of omniscient narration and its ironic possibilities are offset against the central characters' perceptions, presented by means of free indirect style. Chapter Two examines The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as a critique of Wuthering Heights, both in its use of narrative frames and in its at times moralistic comment. The third and fourth chapters focus on Charlotte Bronte. Her ambivalences about the situation of women, be they writers, narrators or characters, are explored. These are seen to be revealed in her narrative strategies, particularly in her attainment of closure, or its lack. Chapter Five explores the increasing sophistication of the narrative techniques of Elizabeth Gaskell, whose early work Mary Barton is shown to have narrative inconsistencies as opposed to her more complex last novel Wives and Daughters. Finally, I conclude that while the authors under discussion use divergent methods, certain commonalities prevail. Among these are the presentation of alternatives women have within their constraining circumstances and the recognition of their moral accountability for the choices they make. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

In this studyi apply a feminist-narratological grid to the works under discussion. I show how narration is used as strategy to highlight issues of concern to women, hereby attempting to make a contribution in the relatively new field of feminist narratology. Chapter One provides an analysis of Pride and Prejudice as an example of a feminist statement by Jane Austen. The use of omniscient narration and its ironic possibilities are offset against the central characters' perceptions, presented by means of free indirect style. Chapter Two examines The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as a critique of Wuthering Heights, both in its use of narrative frames and in its at times moralistic comment. The third and fourth chapters focus on Charlotte Bronte. Her ambivalences about the situation of women, be they writers, narrators or characters, are explored. These are seen to be revealed in her narrative strategies, particularly in her attainment of closure, or its lack. Chapter Five explores the increasing sophistication of the narrative techniques of Elizabeth Gaskell, whose early work Mary Barton is shown to have narrative inconsistencies as opposed to her more complex last novel Wives and Daughters. Finally, I conclude that while the authors under discussion use divergent methods, certain commonalities prevail. Among these are the presentation of alternatives women have within their constraining circumstances and the recognition of their moral accountability for the choices they make. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)