Thesis advisor: Christopher P. Wilson / Growing up F. Scott Fitzgerald longed to be a part of the leisure class with whom he socialized and was educated. However, born into a middle class family and destined to be a writer, he never achieved that goal. This preoccupation with the leisure class continued into adulthood and was reflected in his works of fiction. In his writing he repeatedly depicts the outsider, a middle class character who by the means of monetary wealth hopes to rise in society. Through his relationship with the object, this outsider attempts to become a part of the elite and is rejected. Mannerisms and social codes that can only be learned by high birth restrict this individual from reaching social heights. The new wealth of the 1920's creates a paradox for the outsider. The object that the leisure class possesses is easily attainable, however, the upward movement it promises is still out of reach. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This study is concerned with the historical development and perpetuation of the leisure class in the Colombian society. The study is based on Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. The main purpose of this study is to analyze in terms of the evolution of social institutions the problems that the Colombian society faces today. Spanish values and traditions are analyzed, as well as more recent values and modes of behavior adopted by the leisure class. Institutions such as the church, the educational, employment and political apparatus are analyzed in terms of how they contribute to the perpetuation of elites. This study concludes that as long as there is economic surplus in society, a leisure class will exist. The elites forming the leisure class may be displaced by counter-elites, which in turn will conform a new leisure class.

This dissertation examines the relationship between women and economics in American Progressive Era through the discussion of selected works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton. The authors and texts included in the study together demonstrate how women responded to the economic development and the concept of the separate spheres at the-turn-into-the-twentieth-century America. Based on Thorstein Veblen¡¦s socio-psychological theory of the leisure class and the institutional economics and Gilman¡¦s analysis on the sexual-economic relationship in marriage, my discussion aims to investigate the interconnection between human relationships, women¡¦s economic values, and economic exchanges in business, focusing on the methods the three women writers employ to re/present how middle/upper-class women redefine womanhood and construct female subjectivity in an economic system that favors men. In my introductory chapter, I explain the historical background of the period, general concepts in Veblen¡¦s economic theory, and the motivation, methodology, and organization of the dissertation. Chapter Two, ¡§Veblenian Workmanship and Gilman¡¦s Woman-Made Land,¡¨ purports to cross-examine Gilman¡¦s Women and Economics and her utopian fiction Herland, aiming to show Gilman¡¦s optimistic view on women¡¦s emancipation from the private to the public. In Chapter Three, ¡§Barbarian Status of Women and Chopin¡¦s Feminism,¡¨ I discuss by Chopin¡¦s The Awakening the tension between women¡¦s growing sense of an autonomous self and men¡¦s adherence to the institutionalized habits of thought. My fourth chapter, ¡§Conspicuous Consumption and Society Women in Edith Wharton,¡¨ is a study on the relationship between the display culture in the consumer society and woman¡¦s role as the non-productive consumer in Edith Wharton¡¦s The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country. The concluding chapter, along with general comparisons of the heroines, outlines major arguments in the whole thesis.

在父權的社會中，女性一直處於被宰制的弱勢地位，雖然今日女性在賦權的過程中，已在經濟、宗教、教育各方面達到平權，但在真實的社會制度裡，兩性平權依然只是一種幻覺。 本研究將藉由女性主義的觀點，輔以Goffman的「污名」理論與Veblen的「有閒階級」理論，探討過往兩性在酒文化裡所扮演的角色，以及當前臺灣資本主義社會的酒類廣告，如何呈現兩性意象，來作為洞悉台灣女性賦權真況的著力點。 研究發現，在酒類廣告中，女性主義所提倡的符號，已然被酒商商品化，而女性被污名化的現象，從明顯易見的狀況轉為更精緻隱晦的手法。最後，酒類廣告中，父權主義男性對於女性的刻板意象依然存在，例如，男性掌握了權力與生產工具，女性還是努力模仿學習男性，或只是配角。由以上可得知，目前的兩性平權，還是僅存於表面形式，真正的女性賦權，仍有一段辛苦的道路要努力。 / In the patriarchal society,women have long occupied a lower status . Although women today have gained more rights in economy, religion, and education in the process of empowerment, denger equality is still an illusion in real social systems. In order to explore the empowerment of Taiwanese women, this study is based on feminist view, complemented with Goffman's "stigma" theory and Veblen's "leisure class" theory, discussing the roles women and man played in the wine culture in the past, as well as how gender images are currently presented in alcohol advertising. According to this research, the wine merchants have commercialized in the advertising the symbols advocated by the feminists. And the stigmatized phenomenon of women still exists, while just turning from obvious ways into more sophisticated approach. Men’s patriarchal stereotype images for women still exist. For example, men control the power and produce tools, while women still try to imitate men, or just take supporting roles. From all above, it is not difficult to find out that gender equality is merely superficial. There is still long way to go for the woman empowerment.