This dissertation is mainly based on the reading of three American novels to explore how female characters deal with their illegitimate pregnancies and how their solutions re-shape their futures and affect their inner growth. Chapter 1 discusses Dorinda Oakley's premarital pregnancy in Ellen Glasgow's Barren Ground and draws the circle of limits from Barbara Welter's "four cardinal virtues" (purity, submissiveness, domesticity, and piety) which connect to the analogous female roles (daughter, sister, wife, and mother). Dorinda's childless survival reconstructs a typical household from her domination and absence of maternity. Chapter 2 examines Ántonia Shimerda's struggles and endurance in My Ántonia by Willa Cather before and after Ántonia gives birth to a premarital daughter. Ántonia devotes herself to being a caring mother and to looking after a big family although her marriage is also friendship-centered. Chapter 3 adopts a different approach to analyze Charlotte Rittenmeyer's extramarital pregnancy in The Wild Palms by William Faulkner. As opposed to Dorinda and Ántonia who re-enter domesticity to survive, Charlotte runs out on her family and dies of a botched abortion. To help explain the aftermath of illicit pregnancies, I extend or shorten John Duvall's formula of female role mutations: "virgin>sexually active (called whore)>wife" to examine the riddles of female survival and demise. The overall argument suggests that one way or another, nature, society, and family are involved in illegitimately pregnant women's lives, and the more socially compliant a pregnant woman becomes after her transgression, the better chance she can survive with her baby.

À la fin du Moyen Âge, les bâtards nobles ont bénéficié d’une situation privilégiée. L’étude de la « maison » ducale de Bourbon (XIVe-milieu du XVIe siècle) montre que cette reconnaissance s’exprime par l’identité, la parenté et le pouvoir conférés aux personnes de naissance illégitime. L’objectif est de mettre en évidence les rouages qui ont favorisé la promotion sociale d’une population née hors mariage. Les enfants naturels bénéficient d’un statut qui leur est propre, s’exprimant à travers des langages identitaires qui les singularisent. Ceux-ci les autorisent également à se revendiquer du lignage paternel qui leur assure un rang social. Les discours produits sur les bâtard.es rejoignent surtout l’attitude de la parenté à leur égard : elle les incorpore tout en les distinguant au sein du lignage. Les enfants nés hors mariage renforcent alors la parenté légitime et concourent à la reproduction sociale de la famille. À travers les fonctions qu’ils exercent, le patrimoine qu’ils possèdent ou les alliances qu’ils contractent, ils soutiennent les ambitions politiques des princes, dans un contexte de restructuration des rapports de force avec la royauté. / At the end of the Middle Ages, bastard children of nobles benefited from a privileged situation. The study of the House of the Bourbon dukes (14th-mid-16th centuries) shows that such recognition was expressed through identity, kinship and the power conferred upon people of illegitimate birth. The objective is to highlight the system which favored the social promotion of a population born outside of marriage. Natural children benefitted from a unique situation, expressed through specific languages of identity. This allowed then to claim paternal lineage as well, which assured them of a certain social standing. The discourses produced regarding bastards are reflected most notably in the attitude towards them based on their ties of kinship, which includes them as part and parcel of the lineage. Children born outside of marriage thus reinforce legitimate kinship and participate in the social reproduction of the family. Through their professional roles, the patrimony which they possess and/or the alliances which they forge, they support the political ambitions of the princes, in a context of the restructuration of power relations with royalty.

This dissertation looks at the position of the unmarried father in South Africa with regard to obtaining access to his illegitimate child. The writer has focused on three distinct eras in South African family law: the position of unmarried fathers in terms of: the common law; Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act; and the Children's Act. The writer has further focused on a case study. This is to emphasis the difficulty which unmarried fathers have when attempting to go through the courts to have access to his child. In terms of South African common law, fathers of illegitimate children did not have any form of parental authority over the child. The mothers of illegitimate children have full parental authority over such children. Access in terms of South African common-law is seen as an incident of parental authority. Unmarried fathers nevertheless had the right to approach the high court to obtain access to their children, if the mother of the child refuses to allow the father to have such access. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, there was an overwhelming amount of applications brought by unmarried fathers in the high courts so as to obtain access to their illegitimate children. The case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) sparked victory for unmarried fathers when the learned judge held that all unmarried fathers of children have an inherent right of access to their children. This victory was short-lived. Subsequent case law and in particular the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) enforced the common law and held that unmarried fathers do not have an automatic right to their illegitimate children and that such fathers will have to apply to the high court for such access. Due to the increase in litigation in the late 1980's and early 1990's regarding a father's access to his child born out of wedlock the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act commenced on 4 September 1998. The South African legislature adopted the approach taken in the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) and rejected the approach taken in the case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) ie the common law continued to remain the approach taken in South Africa. Legislators recognised that the approach taken in the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act does not conform to the provisions of the African Charter of the Rights and the Welfare of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and equality and dignity provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. On 19 June 2006, the Children's Act was effected and will commence once promulgated in the Government Gazette. The writer then determines whether the Children's Act has in practice changed the position of the unmarried father. / JURISPRUDENCE / LLM

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English / Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made. / Private Law / LL. M. (Law)

Barnamordsplakatet (a Infanticide Proclamation) of 1778 was a circular allowing unmarried mothers to give birth at an undisclosed location without giving up the name of the father. The proclamation was supposed to ease the situation for the unwed mother in Sweden. The aim was to investigate whether women in Assembly of Hällefors, far from government and close to remote forest Finnskogen, was affected by the Infanticide Proclamation, between 1771 and 1830. Case studies has been done on people who had illegitimate children, if they were convicted, what the crime was and what the punishment was. The investigation is made at a local level and compared against national analyzes on the same theme. A lot of illegitimate children were born in Grythyttan nearby and slightly less in Hällefors, compared to other places of Sweden. Mothers and fathers were convicted in the district court for crimes, including, sexual intercourse between unmarried persons. More women than men were convicted. The cases in court with convicted for the second time, was culminating between 1800 and 1810. Infanticide Proclamation is immediately adapted in court. People's behavior changed before the law took effect when the amount of born illegitimate children outnumbered the amount of convicted mothers.

This dissertation looks at the position of the unmarried father in South Africa with regard to obtaining access to his illegitimate child. The writer has focused on three distinct eras in South African family law: the position of unmarried fathers in terms of: the common law; Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act; and the Children's Act. The writer has further focused on a case study. This is to emphasis the difficulty which unmarried fathers have when attempting to go through the courts to have access to his child. In terms of South African common law, fathers of illegitimate children did not have any form of parental authority over the child. The mothers of illegitimate children have full parental authority over such children. Access in terms of South African common-law is seen as an incident of parental authority. Unmarried fathers nevertheless had the right to approach the high court to obtain access to their children, if the mother of the child refuses to allow the father to have such access. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, there was an overwhelming amount of applications brought by unmarried fathers in the high courts so as to obtain access to their illegitimate children. The case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) sparked victory for unmarried fathers when the learned judge held that all unmarried fathers of children have an inherent right of access to their children. This victory was short-lived. Subsequent case law and in particular the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) enforced the common law and held that unmarried fathers do not have an automatic right to their illegitimate children and that such fathers will have to apply to the high court for such access. Due to the increase in litigation in the late 1980's and early 1990's regarding a father's access to his child born out of wedlock the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act commenced on 4 September 1998. The South African legislature adopted the approach taken in the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) and rejected the approach taken in the case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) ie the common law continued to remain the approach taken in South Africa. Legislators recognised that the approach taken in the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act does not conform to the provisions of the African Charter of the Rights and the Welfare of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and equality and dignity provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. On 19 June 2006, the Children's Act was effected and will commence once promulgated in the Government Gazette. The writer then determines whether the Children's Act has in practice changed the position of the unmarried father. / JURISPRUDENCE / LLM

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English / Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made. / Private Law / LL. M. (Law)

The study examines the occurrence of children born out of wedlock in four parishes belonging to the current Karlskrona municipality during the period 1875–1925. The parishes surveyed are Fridlevstad, Rödeby, Tving and Karlskrona city-parish. The period is divided into two parts where the first includes the years 1875–1890 and the second part includes the years 1910–1925. The proportion of children with unknown/known fathers, the mothers' occupations, the fathers' occupations, and the mothers' age are also used as survey variables. The proportion of known fathers increases significantly between the study periods, which could be explained by a reduced internal social control, while the study shows that the introduction of a child welfare officer in 1918 resulted in an increased proportion of known fathers. The mothers' occupational designations change between the periods, for example, the proportion of maids decreases while other occupations are added. In the city-parish, professions such as washerwoman and waitress are added during the second period. The proportion of women working in the industry also increases between the survey periods. The increased proportion of professions, especially in the city-parish, could be linked to the demographic transition. As more people settle in a city, new needs emerge and thus also new occupational categories. The age of the mothers decreases between the study periods. When it comes to class affiliation, it can be noted that most of the fathers and mothers belonged to the working class. However, the proportion of fathers belonging to the middle class was higher than the proportion of mothers belonging to the middle class.