published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Ariake no Wakare was thought to be a lost tale, but its unique manuscript was rediscovered in the early 1950s. Thirteenth-century references and internal evidence suggest a date of composition in the 1190s by an author in Teika's circle, and attest to Ariake's prominence in the thirteenth-century prose fiction canon. Thematically, it is virtually a 'summa' of previous monogatari themes woven together with remarkable dexterity and often startling originality. The term giko monogatari, 'pseudo-classical tales,' widely used to describe such late Heian and Kamakura period tales, and the associated style term gikobun, turn out to be Meiji era coinages with originally much wider and less pejorative connotations - a change perhaps related to contemporary language debates that valorized vernacular writing styles. The use of respect language and narrative asides, and the interaction between the narration and the plot, evokes a narrator with a distinct point of view, and suggest she may be the lady-in-waiting Jiju, making the text more explicitly autobiographical, and perhaps accounting for aspects of the narrative structure. Statistical information about Ariake, and analysis of respect language and certain fields of the lexicon reveal that Ariake is linguistically much closer to the Genji than are the few other giko monogatari for which information is available, but there are also a few very marked differences. Similar analysis of other giko monogatari would clarify whether these differences are characteristic of the subgenre or peculiar to Ariake no Wakare. Ariake no Wakare critiques male behaviour in courtship and marriage, and explores female-to-male crossdressing; the male gaze (kaimami); incestuous sexual abuse; both male and female same-sex and same-gender love; spirit possession in a context of marriage, pregnancy, and rival female desires, and other instances of the conspicuously gendered supernatural; and the gendered significance of genealogy. The treatment of gender roles and sexuality focuses on the interaction of performance skill and innate ability or inclination, and presents the mysterious beauty of the ambiguously gendered and liminally human, while genealogy is celebrated as privileged female knowledge. The text simultaneously invites and resists modern modes of reading. Rather than merely imitative, Ariake's treatment of familiar elements with changed contexts and interpretations produces both nostalgia and novelty.

<p>The aim of this study was to explore representations of gender, race and sexuality in a select group of South African magazines - Men's Health, FHM, Blink, True Love, Femina and Fair Lady - between 2003 and 2005. From a feminist poststructuralist perspective, it was argued that these magazines presented particular subjectives as normative / privileging and centerig one pole within dichotomies of gender, race and sexuality.</p>

This thesis is concerned with local concepts of kinship and personhood in a small Miskitu village named Kakabila in eastern Nicaragua, and examines how gender identities are organised around a culturally specific variant of the set of practices which anthropologists have glossed as 'brideservice'. Personhood in Kakabila is focussed on the establishment of a stable conjugal partnership. Men usually attach themselves to the households of their conjugal partners, and attempt to legitimate their claims to their wives by uxorilocal postnuptial residence and the practice of long term brideservice. The central concern of many Kakabila men therefore is with demonstrating that they conduct themselves with their affines harmoniously in accordance with village ideals. For many men, however, the eventual objective is to detach their wives from the influence of consanguineal kin, and this produces a tension between the need to project affinal harmony and the concern that actions may be construed in terms of elopement. Kakabila women, however, tend to be much more concerned with constructing networks of symbolic exchange and mutual assistance among themselves, particularly with their consanguineal kinswomen. In many cases, therefore, women resist the attempts of husbands and sons-in-law to disrupt these networks, and organise their actions around ensuring that errant husbands and junior male affines adequately supply them with sufficient symbolic capital to adequately maintain and cultivate these networks. This thesis, therefore, suggests a very specific formulation of the logic of gender identities in Kakabila, where brideservice is as much a style of distribution as it is a 'style of consumption' (Collier and Rosaldo 1981: 275), based on a particular disjunction between men's and women's motivations. This thesis also considers the changes in Miskitu kinship in terms of changes which have taken place among the Miskitu during the last three hundred years, particularly the marked trading and political imbalances brought about by long term contact with the English speaking Caribbean countries. The disappearance of the historically attested distinction between cross and parallel cousins and the serial exchange of offspring and siblings, and the emergence of uxorilocal postnuptial residence, are analysed in terms of a gradual historical reformulation of Miskitu notions of affinity which owes a great deal to these regional contacts. An ethnographically and historically informed analysis for these transformations is considered, which in turn is used to shed light on gender identities and the practice of brideservice in present day Kakabila.

This thesis examines how young children experience games and how that question is relatedto gender. The examination of this question is conducted through interviews with a group of24 Swedish fifth-grade pupils. The paper also draws from theories and concepts found inestablished literature on gender and games. The results of this thesis informs the theory ofviolence as a masculine preference as well as the separation of gender identities from biologicalsexes.

This study provided information on the long term psychosexual and psychiatric outcomes of 139 boys with gender identity disorder (GID). Standardized assessment data in childhood (mean age, 7.49 years; range, 3–12 years) and at follow-up (mean age, 20.58 years; range, 13–39 years) were used to evaluate gender identity and sexual orientation outcome. At follow-up, 17 participants (12.2%) were judged to have persistent gender dysphoria. Regarding sexual orientation, 82 (63.6%) participants were classified as bisexual/ homosexual in fantasy and 51 (47.2%) participants were classified as bisexual/homosexual in behavior. The remaining participants were classified as either heterosexual or asexual. With gender identity and sexual orientation combined, the most common long-term outcome was desistence of GID with a bisexual/homosexual sexual orientation followed by desistence of GID with a heterosexual sexual orientation. The rates of persistent gender dysphoria and bisexual/homosexual sexual orientation were substantially higher than the base rates in the general male population. Childhood assessment data were used to identify within-group predictors of variation in gender identity and sexual orientation outcome. Social class and severity of cross-gender behavior in childhood were significant predictors of gender identity outcome. Severity of childhood cross-gender behavior was a significant predictor of sexual orientation at follow-up. Regarding psychiatric functioning, the heterosexual desisters reported significantly less behavioral and psychiatric difficulties compared to the bisexual/homosexual persisters and, to a lesser extent, the bisexual/ homosexual desisters. Clinical and theoretical implications of these follow-up data are discussed.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-302). 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:NR32061