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.

No description available.

Nursing practice is a very physical business. The work that most nurses do involves the use of their bodies as the primary tool of their work. Nurses take their physical selves to patients in order to carry out that work, the body of the nurse is often in direct contact with the bodies of patients that they care for. This thesis is about what I have called the �invisible bodies of nursing�, and I describe these throughout the body of the thesis. The physical body of the nurse, the body of practice, and the body of knowledge. The physical body of the nurse is absent in most nursing literature, it is sometimes inferred but seldom discussed. My contention is that the physical body of the nurse is invisible because it is tacit. Much nursing practice is invisible because it is perceived by many nurses to be inarticulable and is carried out within a private discourse of nursing, silently and secretly. Nursing knowledge is invisible because it is not seen as being valid or authoritative or sanctioned as a legitimate discourse by the dominant discourse. I approach these issues through an evolving �specular� lens. Luce Irigaray�s philosophy of the feminine and her deconstructing and reconstructing of psychoanalytic structures for women inform my work. Michel Foucault�s genealogical approach to analysing discourses is a powerful tool for exploring the history of the creation of the nurse and offers critical insights in to how nursing is perceived today. Maurice Merleau-Ponty�s phenomenology provides the flesh for my discussions about the embodied practice of nurses as beings in the world. Nursing�s struggle for recognition is ongoing. I discuss strategies that nurses could use to make themselves more �visible� in healthcare structures. The exploration of the embodied self of the nurse and through this the embodied knowledge of nursing is nascent. I hope to provide for nurses some food for both thought and discussion.

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.

Nursing practice is a very physical business. The work that most nurses do involves the use of their bodies as the primary tool of their work. Nurses take their physical selves to patients in order to carry out that work, the body of the nurse is often in direct contact with the bodies of patients that they care for. This thesis is about what I have called the �invisible bodies of nursing�, and I describe these throughout the body of the thesis. The physical body of the nurse, the body of practice, and the body of knowledge. The physical body of the nurse is absent in most nursing literature, it is sometimes inferred but seldom discussed. My contention is that the physical body of the nurse is invisible because it is tacit. Much nursing practice is invisible because it is perceived by many nurses to be inarticulable and is carried out within a private discourse of nursing, silently and secretly. Nursing knowledge is invisible because it is not seen as being valid or authoritative or sanctioned as a legitimate discourse by the dominant discourse. I approach these issues through an evolving �specular� lens. Luce Irigaray�s philosophy of the feminine and her deconstructing and reconstructing of psychoanalytic structures for women inform my work. Michel Foucault�s genealogical approach to analysing discourses is a powerful tool for exploring the history of the creation of the nurse and offers critical insights in to how nursing is perceived today. Maurice Merleau-Ponty�s phenomenology provides the flesh for my discussions about the embodied practice of nurses as beings in the world. Nursing�s struggle for recognition is ongoing. I discuss strategies that nurses could use to make themselves more �visible� in healthcare structures. The exploration of the embodied self of the nurse and through this the embodied knowledge of nursing is nascent. I hope to provide for nurses some food for both thought and discussion.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Political Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 328-340). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19838

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D., Education)--University of Idaho, May 2007. / Major professor: Karen Guilfoyle. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-262). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, Discipline of Gender, Work and Social Inquiry, 2007. / "December 2006" Bibliography: leaves [183-203]. Also available in print form.