Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explores how the feminine Other is used by Euripides in the Hecuba to highlight certain tensions between an aristocratic ideal of manliness and a classical democratic masculinity in the fifth century Athenian polis. The first chapter will establish the masculine nature of the Athenian polis and discuss the different elements which highlight the inherent masculinity of Athenian society. The second chapter provides a socio-political context for the position of women in fifth century Athens and explores the otherness of the feminine in the masculine polis. Chapter three explores the problematic nature of speech in the democratic state and uses the feminine Other in the Hecuba to examine possible tensions between an outmoded aristocratic ethos and the democratic ideal of manliness. In the fourth chapter Euripides' use of the Other in the Hecuba is utilized to discuss violence, revenge, and masculinity in the Athenian polis. The final chapter provides a discussion on nomos and how the tensions between aristocratic and democratic ideals problematise the authority of traditional laws and how Euripides uses the feminine Other in the Hecuba to emphasise these issues. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die wyse waarop Euripides die vroulike Ander in Hecuba gebruik om spanning tussen die aristokratiese ideaal van manlikheid en die klassieke demokratiese manlikheid in die vyfde-eeuse Atheense polis na vore te bring. Die eerste hoofstuk sal die manlike aard van die Atheense polis vestig en sal die elemente wat die inherente manlikheid van die Atheense samelewing beklemtoon, bespreek. Die tweede hoofstuk vervat die sosio-politieke konteks van die vrou se posisie in vyfde-eeuse Athene en verken die andersheid van die vrou in die manlike polis. Hoofstuk drie verken die problematiese aard van spraak in die demokratiese staat en gebruik die vroulike Ander in Hecuba om moontlike spanning tussen die verouderde aristokratiese etos en die demokratiese ideaal van manlikheid te ondersoek. Die vierdie hoofstuk ondersoek Euripides se gebruik van die Ander in Hecuba om geweld, wraak en manlikheid in die Atheense polis te bespreek. Die finale hoofstuk vervat 'n bespreking van nomos en die problematiek ten opsigte van die outoriteit van tradisionele wette as gevolg van die spanning tussen aristokratiese en demokratiese ideale en Euripides se gebruik van die vroulike Ander in Hecuba om hierdie geskilpunte te beklemtoon.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis puts the fiction of Zoë Wicomb and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie into conversation with particular reference to three issues: authorship, history and gender. Apart from anything else, what Wicomb and Adichie have in common is an interest in the representation of marginalised or minority ethnic groups within the nation - the coloured people in the case of Wicomb, and the Igbo in the case of Adichie. Yet what both writers also have in common is that neither seems to advocate the reification of these ethnic groups in reformulations of nationalist discourse. The thesis argues that through their focus on various forms of marginality, both Wicomb and Adichie destabilise traditional notions of nation, authorship, history, gender identity, the boundary between domestic and public life, and the idea of “home”. The thesis focuses on four main topics, each of which is covered in a chapter: the question of authorial voice in relation to history; perspectives offered by women characters in relation to oppressive or traumatic historical moments; oppressive or traumatic histories intruding into the intimate domestic space; and the issue of transnational migration and its (un)homely effects. Employing concepts of metafiction and mise-en-abyme self-reflexivity, the study begins by considering the ways in which Wicomb’s David’s Story and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun both reflect on the idea of authorship. Focusing on the ways in which each text draws the reader into witnessing authorship, the thesis argues that the two novels can be put into conversation as they both stage dilemmas about authorship in relation to those marginalised by national histories. Following on from this idea of marginalisation by nationalist histories, the thesis then proceeds to examine both writers’ foregrounding of women’s stories that are set in oppressive and/or violent historical times – under apartheid in the case of Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, and during the Biafran war in the case of Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. Utilising ideas about gender, history and literary history by Tiyambe Zeleza, Florence Stratton and Elleke Boehmer, the study analyses how, beginning with father-daughter relationships, Wicomb and Adichie wean their female characters from their fathers’ control so that they may begin telling their own stories that complicate and subvert the stories that their fathers represent. Drawing on Sigmund Freud’s theory of “the uncanny” and Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial reading of that theory, the study then turns to discuss the ways in which oppressive national histories become manifest in domestic spaces (that are usually marginalised in national histories), turning those spaces into unhomely homes, in Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. In both novels, purity (whether racial or religious) is cultivated in the family home, but this cultivation of purity, which is reflected symbolically in the kinds of gardens each family grows, evidently has “unhomely” effects that signal the return of the repressed, of that which is disavowed in discourses of purity. Since both Wicomb and Adichie are African-born women authors living abroad, and since the “unhomely” aspects of transnational existence are reflected upon in their fiction, the study finally considers the forms of marginality to the national posed by the migrant. Transnational migration is examined in Wicomb’s The One That Got Away and in Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, placing stories from these two recently published sets of short stories into dialogue. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis plaas die fiksie van Zoë Wicomb en Chimamandi Ngozi Adichie in gesprek met mekaar, met verwysing na veral drie sake: outeurskap, geskiedenis en geslag (gender). Afgesien van ander kwessies het die fiksie van Wicomb en Adichie ‘n belangstelling in die fiktiewe voorstelling van gemarginaliseerde of minderheidsgroepe in die nasie in gemeen – die kleurlinggroep in die geval van Wicomb en die Igbo in die geval van Adichie. Nogtans beveel geeneen van hierdie twee skrywers ‘n reïfikasie van nasionalistiese diskoers aan nie. Die tesis voer aan dat, deur hulle fokus op verskeie vorme van marginaliteit, beide Wicomb en Adichie tradisionele konsepte van nasionalisme, skrywer-skap, geskiedenis, geslagsidentiteit, die grens tussen private en publieke lewe en die idee van ‘n eie tuiste destabiliseer. Die vier hoof-onderwerpe van die tesis is word elk in ‘n eie hoofstuk behandel: die kwessie van ‘n skrywerstem in verhouding tot die geskiedenis; perspektiewe wat belig word deur vrouekarakters in kontekste van onderdrukkende of traumatiese historiese momente; hoedat onderdrukkings- of traumatiese geskiedenisse die private sfeer binnedring; asook die kwessie van ‘n migrasie oor landsgrense en die ontheimingseffek hiervan. Deur die gebruik van metafisiese en mise-en-abyme selfrefleksie begin die studie deur te reflekteer op hoe Wicomb se David’s Story en Adichie se Half of a Yellow Sun [aangaande] die idee van outeurskap reflekteer. Deur te fokus op die wyses waarop beide tekste die leser betrek om skrywerskap waar te neem, voer die tesis aan dat die twee romans met mekaar in gesprek geplaas kan word, terwyl albei dilemmas van outeurskap met betrekking tot diegene wat in nasionale geskiedskrywing gemarginaliseer word, sentraal plaas. Volgende op hierdie kwessie gaan die tesis dan voort om albei skrywers se vooropstelling van vroue se verhale gesitueer in onderdrukkende of gewelddadige tye – onder apartheid in die geval van Wicomb se You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town en gedurende die Biafraanse oorlog in Adichie se Half of a Yellow Sun – te ondersoek. Met behulp van idees aangaande gender, geskiedenis en literêre geskiedenis van Tiyambe Zeleza, Florence Stratton en Elleke Boehmer, analiseer die tesis hoedat, beginnende met vader-dogter verhoudings, Wicomb en Adichie hul vroulike karakters loswikkel van hul vaders se kontrole sodat hulle kan begin om hul eie verhale te vertel – stories wat die verhale van hul vaders kompliseer en ondermyn. Met behulp van Sigmund Freud se teorie van die onheimlike en Homi Bhabha se postkolonialistiese interpretasie van daardie idee, gaan die tesis dan voort deur maniere waarop onderdrukkende nasionale geskiedenisse in die tuis-ruimtes (wat gewoonlik deur nasionale geskiedskrywing gemarginaliseer word) manifesteer, met die onheimlike effek hiervan op die tuisruimte – beide in Wicomb se Playing in the Light en in Adichie se Purple Hibiscus – te ondersoek. In albei romans word reinheid ( van ras of geloof) in die familie-tuiste gekultiveer, maar hierdie nadruk op reinheid – simbolies gereflekteer in die tuine wat deur albei gesinne aangelê word – het wel onmiskenbare onheimlike gevolge wat die terugkeer van wat onderdruk is (in die naam van reinheid) aandui. Omdat beide Wicomb en Adichie vroue-skrywers is wat in Afrika gebore is maar oorsee lewe, en omdat die onheimlike aspekte van ‘n transnasionale lewensstyl in hul fiksie oorweeg word, beskryf die tesis die vorms van marginaliteit met betrekking tot die nasionale wat deur die migrant tot stand kom. Transnasionale migrasie word in Wicomb se The One that Got Away en Adichie se The Thing around your Neck oorweeg, wat die verhale uit hierdie twee versamelings in gesprek met mekaar plaas.

by Kung Siu Bing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-121). / Abstract and appendix in English and Chinese. / by Kung Siu Bing. / Abstract --- p.iii / Acknowledgement --- p.v / Abbreviations used for the four literary works --- p.vi / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Femininity and Masculinity --- p.14 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Androgyny --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Sex，Gender and Sexual Identity --- p.80 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Multiple Selves --- p.102 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.112 / Works Cited --- p.114 / Appendix I Chinese version of quotations of Shuang Shen --- p.122 / Appendix II Table of major characters of Shuang Shen and The Illusionist --- p.126

<p>This paper intends to examine how parents think and reflect on gender issues when they borrow books for their children at the library. The theory applied is Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of a gender system. A questionnaire was made available at the Children's department of Uppsala City Library in February, 2010. The material was compiled and analyzed with the intention to try to detect trends, patterns and themes, rather than statistics and hard data.</p><p>Parents in the study perceive themselves as gender-conscious. They are thinking about gender issues when they choose books for their children at the library. Parents’ main focus seems to be how children are portrayed in books and many are critical of what they consider to be stereotypes and simplistic interpretations. They express a need for children's books where children are depicted more nuanced, where girls can be strong and daring and the boys may be shy and crying. Pictures of parents/adults were not analyzed equally close by the parents in the study, although respondents indicated that they think it's important how adults are depicted, as they become a kind of template for how parents are expected to be and behave. In general they are experiencing today's children's books as largely stereotypical, but add that there seem to be a wide range of issues in contemporary children's book publishing, where even radical literature with clear gender problematization has its place.</p><p>Many parents choose to completely remove books that they believe has too gender-stereotyped content, others see this type of literature as a good opportunity to discuss gender issues with their children. In the case of older children's literature and fairy tales, the majority of parents in the study express the importance of mediating the cultural heritage to their children.</p><p>Parents express a need for children's literature where the act of breaking gender standards isn't too obvious or appears as the main purpose of the text, but is present as a natural background in the story. What parents want - besides great stories - are depictions of children where a wide range of emotions and personality traits are allowed regardless of the protagonist's biological gender.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-228). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The novels examined in this study -- Manuel Puig’s El beso de la mujer araña (Argentina, 1976), Diamela Eltit’s El cuarto mundo (Chile, 1988), and Hugo Achugar’s Falsas memorias: Blanca Luz Brum (Uruguay, 2000) -- suggest the oppressive character of binary-based identity categories in the contexts of the Southern Cone dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s and of the neo-liberal regimes that followed them. This study’s queer theoretical perspective draws on performance theory as Sylvia Molloy adapts it in her idea of the pose, which she conceives of as the politically resistant, sustained representation of a culturally unclassifiable identity. Each chapter has a dual focus, involving analyses of political and religious discourses as well as close readings of the ways in which each novel counters the normative ideologies of the discourses that most inform its narrative through representations of forms of gender and sexuality that cannot be categorized in binary terms. The purpose of this study is to contribute a fresh theoretical perspective on El beso de la mujer araña and El cuarto mundo and to fill a gap in criticism through its analysis of the little-studied Falsas memorias: Blanca Luz Brum. The first chapter analyzes Molina, one of the novel’s two protagonists, as a representation of unnamable gender and sexual identities that undermines the ideologies of early Peronism and critiques oppression in the Argentina of the 1970s. Chapter II discusses how Eltit’s novel counters the naturalized gender opposition of political and religious discourses through its characters’ nonnormative identities as it points to the violence of the Pinochet dictatorship and the socio-economic inequities of later neo-liberal regimes. Chapter III analyzes Achugar’s protagonist, the historical figure Blanca Luz Brum, in terms of how she flouts the norms of femininity specific to early twentieth-century discourses in the Southern Cone. The Conclusion addresses the novels’ use of varying strategies to deconstruct normative identity categories, examines the different positions of politically resistant literature in dictatorship and neo-liberal contexts, and analyzes the implications of the texts’ relativism for political, social, and cultural change. / text

This paper intends to examine how parents think and reflect on gender issues when they borrow books for their children at the library. The theory applied is Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of a gender system. A questionnaire was made available at the Children's department of Uppsala City Library in February, 2010. The material was compiled and analyzed with the intention to try to detect trends, patterns and themes, rather than statistics and hard data. Parents in the study perceive themselves as gender-conscious. They are thinking about gender issues when they choose books for their children at the library. Parents’ main focus seems to be how children are portrayed in books and many are critical of what they consider to be stereotypes and simplistic interpretations. They express a need for children's books where children are depicted more nuanced, where girls can be strong and daring and the boys may be shy and crying. Pictures of parents/adults were not analyzed equally close by the parents in the study, although respondents indicated that they think it's important how adults are depicted, as they become a kind of template for how parents are expected to be and behave. In general they are experiencing today's children's books as largely stereotypical, but add that there seem to be a wide range of issues in contemporary children's book publishing, where even radical literature with clear gender problematization has its place. Many parents choose to completely remove books that they believe has too gender-stereotyped content, others see this type of literature as a good opportunity to discuss gender issues with their children. In the case of older children's literature and fairy tales, the majority of parents in the study express the importance of mediating the cultural heritage to their children. Parents express a need for children's literature where the act of breaking gender standards isn't too obvious or appears as the main purpose of the text, but is present as a natural background in the story. What parents want - besides great stories - are depictions of children where a wide range of emotions and personality traits are allowed regardless of the protagonist's biological gender.

This dissertation focuses on the textual analysis of the representation of female and male characters in the drama book Ishashalazi, based on the two drama stories: Kwakuhle kwethu! and Umninimuzi. Both of these stories depict male and female characters differently. The findings of this study suggest that the representation of male characters in the selected stories is generally in line with patriarchal attitudes and reflect women's suppression. Male characters are positively represented by most texts and reflect triumph, intelligence, and strength and these forms of representation affirm the traditionally held beliefs about men as rulers and heads of families. On the contrary, this study finds that the representation of women differs greatly from that in which males are represented. Women are given feminine roles represented negatively as failures or as being capricious and disrespectful of social norms. The division of labour into gender-hyper-specific roles widens the gap of differences in the representation of female and male characters. Situated in the imbalance representation is culture. Texts and Ishashalazi in particular, echo unequal representation of male and female characters by promoting the observation of cultural principles in the roles played by characters. African culture is the major phenomenon that promotes patriarchy and ensures that women remain suppressed by the rule of men. Such processes are perpetuated by texts that we read every day. Texts are powerful means of sending messages. It is through texts that social actions and processes are interpreted and acted. Thus textual meaning is both visible and invisible. Through analysis of the two drama plays the hidden meaning of text is disclosed and it is through this analysis that actions that promote the marginalization of women are challenged. Family is one of the institutions where women are oppressed on the pretext of culture (Cameron. 1990). The findings of this study allude to Cameron's observation that the roles assigned to female characters serve as a valuable clue to the constitution of women's silence. Roles represented by female characters in Ishashalazi do not gain the respect of the greater community instead, some (such as women who violate cultural principles) actually damage the reputation of women and tarnish their image. Thus culture oppresses women while giving opportunities to their male counterparts to dominate and exercise authority over women. It is with such social actions and processes that this study concerns itself. Sexist language and stereotypes used by society continue to pose problems that reflect negatively on women. In responding to such challenges this study analyses the representation of female and male characters from a feminist standpoint and calls for the emancipation of women and children. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of English, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Linköping : Univ., 2004. / År 2005 tilldelat nummer i serien Linköping studies in arts and science.