Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 332-340).

Bibliography: leaves 439-473. / viii, 473 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Examines contemporary textual constructions of lesbianism, and reconfigures psychoanalytic discourses on female homosexuality in a way more appropriate to the reading of representations of lesbian desire and sexuality in contemporary western culture. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Women's Studies, 1996

Thesis (Ph. D.)--La Trobe University, 2003. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 10, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-290).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1986. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [206]-213).

No description available.

This dissertation responds to the archival turn in critical theory by examining a relation between queerness, performance and the archive. In it I explore institutional archives and the metaphors of the archive as it operates in the academy, while focusing particularly on the way in which queerness may come to be archived. Throughout I use the analytic of performance. This work builds on and extends from crucial work in Queer studies, Performance Studies and Archival Studies. As such it asks what has been said and what we can say with these givens to offer what sociologist Avery Gordon has called “transformative recognition” (1997, 8). The project contributes to knowledge a mode of inquiry I create and deploy which queerly addresses current theory and practice, asking that we move beyond to consider new forms of care with such material. Among its original moves are being first to critically explore the John Sex archive, as well as the work of artists Taylor Mac, Mitch & Parry and Christa Holka. In the project, I also employ a methodological framework of the promise following the work of Shoshana Felman (2003). Throughout the chapters, case studies explore central notions to the archive: preservation, history, affect (desire) and community (lifeworlds). In writing the case studies my methods take off from ethnography as well as Performance Studies. In the end, the project is not conceived of as an archive; per se. Instead it tracks key movements of inquiry into archival practice and the situatedness of queerness in relation to such practices, as evidenced in performance, in both the theatrical and anthropological connotations of the term. I have conceived of and track three types of bodies through the dissertation: inquiring bodies, queer bodies and archival bodies. The inquiring body becomes the catalyst for archival intervention.

No description available.

This thesis examines the role of historical reference in the representation of homosexuality in British literature since the late nineteenth century. The texts it examines are both literal fictions - novels, short stories and poems - and less 'imaginative' forms, such as biography, historiography and sexology: its main project is to disentangle the network of discourses facilitating and restricting representation of the homosexual past. It identifies the history of this representation as a series of moments - the turn of the century, the 1930s, the 1950s, for example - when homosexuality was redefined, and lesbian and gay traditions correspondingly reinvented. This continual reinvention was often the work of homosexuals themselves:the thesis demonstrates how historical representation has allowed lesbians and gay men to intervene in sexual debate when more obviously 'contemporary' dissident voices were being publicly silenced. Chapters I and 2 examine the invocation of historical example within the late Victorian homophile subculture, and argue that the ancient Greek practice of paiderastia provided tum-of-the-century homosexuals with an affirmative model with which to counter juridical and sexological prescription. Chapters 3 and 4 consider the extent to which Antinous and Sappho became established in the same period as homosexual icons, but were subtly reconstructed by different, sometimes competing, sexual discourses. Subsequent chapters explore the influence of literary models such as Radclyffe Hall's The Well ofLoneliness (1928) upon lesbian historical fiction and biography of the 1930s, and uncover some hitherto forgotten lesbian texts; examine the role of male homosexuality in the women's historical romance of the 1950s; and discuss the homoerotic historical fiction of lesbian authors Mary Renault and Bryher. The final chapter considers recent lesbian and gay historical fiction, and finds reflected in the genre the modem homosexual self-image with all its gender and racial tensions.

The purpose of my thesis is to explore lesbianism in Adrienne Rich¡¦s essays and poetry. Rich has earned her reputation as a major American poet and essayist since the 1950s. Most attention has been paid to her extraordinary poems and revolutionary prose. However, the issue of lesbianism has seldom been focused on or fully discussed. Therefore, I would try to present a panoramic view on how lesbianism has been developed in Rich¡¦s works. In the first chapter, I have tried to delineate various definitions of ¡§lesbian¡¨, and formulate my own definition. Besides that, I have also introduced some theoretical perspectives of lesbianism. In the second chapter, the discussion is mainly on Rich¡¦s concepts¡X ¡§institutionalization of heterosexuality¡¨, ¡§lesbian existence¡¨ and ¡§lesbian continuum¡¨¡Xwhich were brought up in the essay ¡§Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.¡¨ In the third chapter, my aim is to delineate the development of Rich¡¦s lesbian perspective in her poetry. The discussion consists of three parts: the first part covers the revelation of women¡¦s oppression; the second is stressed on the concept of androgyny; the last part will present Rich¡¦s idea that women¡¦s power should be based on close relations among women.

Essays (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2006. / Theses (Dept. of Women's Studies) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor : Dr. Helen Hok-Sze Leung. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.