I argue that literary texts after 1980 use the fluid relationship between the physical world and the world of writing in order to present alternate versions of the body’s relationship to the mind. Examining works by Toni Morrison, William Gibson, Kathy Acker, Sarah Kane, and Shelley Jackson, I demonstrate the ways in which these texts reinterpret the relationship between mind and body by offering bodily metaphors for their character’s interior emotional lives; they compare this inner life to a pregnant mother, a sexual couple, and more. I emphasize the political implications of the kinds of bodies employed in these metaphors, setting this against the background of late twentieth century feminism. I read my primary texts alongside the work of Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigary, and others, in order to chart the parallel projects of literature and theory in articulating the relationship between the body—especially, the female body—and our understandings of subjectivity and representation. Starting with the 1980s, when the second wave feminist movement suffered conservative backlash, and continuing through the development of the third wave, I examine literary theorizations of feminist concerns during a period of transition in the feminist movement itself.

Coffins, Closets, Kitchens, and Convents uses anthropologist Liz Kenyon's categories of home, Gaston Bachelard's theories on the importance of imagination and metaphor in home building, as well as literary criticism, sociology, and feminist theory to examine values of "home" in various literary works of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. This dissertation's focus on the struggles within traditional home spheres highlights the female characters' need of a protected space. Yet these characters realize they must allow for connections with various individuals to bring about such a safe space. Through the creative act of writing, Mary Leapor's Mira in the poem, "Crumble Hall," Samuel Richardson's title character in Clarissa, and Toni Morrison's Claudia MacTeer in The Bluest Eye and the convent women in Paradise, each oppressed within the home sphere, gain full access to all that the idealized home entails in constructing their individual homes; they rewrite space into a home of their own. The chapters herein are organized from lower-class to higher-class female characters beginning in the eighteenth century with Leapor's servant narrator and moving up to Richardson's higher-class character, followed by Morrison's twentieth century impoverished youth in The Bluest Eye and variety of women both impoverished and well-off residing together in a convent in Paradise.

從一九六○年代開始到七○年代初期，黑人性別變成種族論述的焦點。當時的黑人民權運動和後來黑權運動的男性領袖們聲稱黑人男性唯一真正受種族壓迫的受害者，不僅為白人也為那些堅強，獨立，自力更生的黑人女性所閹割，於是黑人問題等同於黑人男性的問題。他們主張黑人男性必須先獲得救贖，黑人種族才能得到救贖，因此，重新建構真正的黑人男性成為解決黑人問題的首要之道。黑人男性領袖們因而提倡重建父權社會，回歸傳統的性別特色，如此黑人男性才能重獲失去的男性尊嚴及權力，黑人族群也才能夠從種族壓迫的桎梏中解放。然而，此充滿男性沙文主義的論調受到莫莉森等黑人女作家及黑人女性主義者的質疑和批評。本文以莫莉森的三部小說（蘇拉，所羅門之歌，摯愛）為研究主體，藉由分析莫莉森的黑人男性角色來探討黑人男性在內化和追求白人男性定義的過程中，不僅造成其本身悲劇也破壞了與黑人女性的關係。莫莉森呼應黑人女性主義者主張黑人男性想突破困境唯有揚棄西方的性別角色重新建構具非洲意識的黑人男性特質，兼容兩性優點，拒絕西方父權思想並平等對待女性。如此，黑人男女才可能建立良好，永續以及和諧的互惠關係，為彼此也為黑人民族帶來救贖的希望。 / From the 1960s to the early 70s, black gender became the specific site for the discussion of race. At that time, black male leaders of Civil Rights Movement and Black Movement named the black man as the sole victim of white racism, because he was seen to be emasculated both by the white and the strong, independent, and self-sufficient black women. Hence, black people's problem was seen in terms of black masculinity. Therefore, black male leaders claimed that black men had to redeem their manhood so that black race could be redeemed. As a result, the reconstruction of a true black man was regarded as the only solution to the problem of black people. They advocated recuperation of partriarchy and a return to traditional gender roles. They asserted that only by doing so would black men reclaim their manhood and black people would be able to liberate from the bondage of racial oppression Nevertheless, the chauvinist philosophy permeating in the movement was questioned and criticized by Toni Morrison, other black women writers and black feminists. This thesis will focus on the examination of Morrison's black male characters in three of her novels-Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. Through an analysis of her black male characters, it attempts to show that black male's internalization of white gender ideology and his efforts to attain white masulinity not only lead to his own tragedy but ruin his relationship with black female. Therefore, Morrison echoes black feminists, asserting that the only way out for the black male is to reject white gender roles and patriachal attitude and to reconstruct his manhood in a nonpatriarchal fashion which stresses the black woman as his equal partners. Until then will black men and women be able to form nurturing, enduring and harmonious relationships which may empower black people to redeem their whole race from white racism.

<p>Using the novels, <em>The Bluest Eye, Sula </em>and <em>Song of Solomon</em>, the purpose of this essay is to examine Toni Morrison’s characters in the setting of the black community with emphasis on gender, participation in society and the class differences which exist within the black collective. All of the characters in the narratives exist in communities which are defined by the racial barriers formed by the surrounding white societies. Due to her concern with the inter-relatedness of race, gender and class as they are lived by the individuals, Morrison gives her characters physical and psychological qualities which enhance their chances for survival and fulfillment, thus leading to the survival of the black community. Through her characters in <em>The Bluest Eye, Sula </em>and<em> Song of Solomon</em>, Toni Morrison portrays the black community with reference to blackness and the inner struggles of the individual as well as the class differences and social structures within the collective. It can be concluded that the black community is an important part of today’s society as the contemporary individual must embrace his/her culture and heritage, which is found in the unity of the collective.</p>

<p>Syftet med den här studien är att ta reda på hur symboler och intertextualitet kan tolkas i romanen Älskade, skriven av Toni Morrison. Metoden som använts har varit närläsning, där texten har granskats ingående för att finna symboler. Även en läslogg har upprättats, där reflektioner angående symbolerna och intertextualitet nedtecknats. Utifrån detta och med hjälp av passande litteratur har symbolerna tolkats i de sammanhang de dyker upp i. Symbolerna har även förknippats med romanens karaktärer för att få fram deras personlighet. Resultatet av detta visar att två teman har hittats: förtryckta känslor och längtan efter något annat. Teman som förknippas med den situation som slavarna levde under, när romanens handling utspelar sig i 1800-talets Amerika, då slaveriet var mycket utbrett i Södern. Nutid i romanen är 1874, med analepser som sträcker sig upp till 25 år tillbaka i tiden. Intertextualiteter som har framkommit har tolkats från författarnas egna litterära bagage. Det som framkommer är att det är mycket i romanen som ekar från andra romaner och filmer. Omvänt är det också en del som tyder på att andra texter och filmer är influerade av Älskade. Detta medför att romanen sätts in i ett större perspektiv.</p>

Using the novels, The Bluest Eye, Sula and Song of Solomon, the purpose of this essay is to examine Toni Morrison’s characters in the setting of the black community with emphasis on gender, participation in society and the class differences which exist within the black collective. All of the characters in the narratives exist in communities which are defined by the racial barriers formed by the surrounding white societies. Due to her concern with the inter-relatedness of race, gender and class as they are lived by the individuals, Morrison gives her characters physical and psychological qualities which enhance their chances for survival and fulfillment, thus leading to the survival of the black community. Through her characters in The Bluest Eye, Sula and Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison portrays the black community with reference to blackness and the inner struggles of the individual as well as the class differences and social structures within the collective. It can be concluded that the black community is an important part of today’s society as the contemporary individual must embrace his/her culture and heritage, which is found in the unity of the collective.

Syftet med den här studien är att ta reda på hur symboler och intertextualitet kan tolkas i romanen Älskade, skriven av Toni Morrison. Metoden som använts har varit närläsning, där texten har granskats ingående för att finna symboler. Även en läslogg har upprättats, där reflektioner angående symbolerna och intertextualitet nedtecknats. Utifrån detta och med hjälp av passande litteratur har symbolerna tolkats i de sammanhang de dyker upp i. Symbolerna har även förknippats med romanens karaktärer för att få fram deras personlighet. Resultatet av detta visar att två teman har hittats: förtryckta känslor och längtan efter något annat. Teman som förknippas med den situation som slavarna levde under, när romanens handling utspelar sig i 1800-talets Amerika, då slaveriet var mycket utbrett i Södern. Nutid i romanen är 1874, med analepser som sträcker sig upp till 25 år tillbaka i tiden. Intertextualiteter som har framkommit har tolkats från författarnas egna litterära bagage. Det som framkommer är att det är mycket i romanen som ekar från andra romaner och filmer. Omvänt är det också en del som tyder på att andra texter och filmer är influerade av Älskade. Detta medför att romanen sätts in i ett större perspektiv.

<p>Scholars, journalists, and religious leaders in the twentieth century widely hailed The Christian Century as the most influential Protestant magazine in America. This dissertation investigates the meaning of such praise. In what ways, and upon whom, did the Century exercise influence? Answering this question directs attention not only to the Century's editorial content but also to the cultural role of magazines and the makeup of the Century's audience, an elite group of white American Protestants who had no collective name for the first half of the twentieth century but came to be called the Protestant mainline.</p><p>I focus on the editorial tenure of Charles Clayton Morrison, who bought an obscure Disciples of Christ periodical at a sheriff's sale in 1908 and transformed it, over the next 39 years, into the flagship magazine of liberal Protestantism. Attending to the Century's history as well as its rhetoric, I find that the magazine had a deep effect on its readers but a limited effect on American Protestantism as a whole. Most American Protestants never read the Century or accepted its theologically and politically liberal messages. The mainline, while certainly powerful, was never mainstream.</p><p>Studying the Century reveals how the mainline evolved in terms of membership levels, core emphases, and posture vis-à-vis other religious traditions. Likewise, the Century clarifies the role of the mainline as the dominant Protestant tradition in America. If dominance is understood to mean control of positions of power, a plausible case can be made for the dominance of both the mainline writ large and of the subset of this group who read The Christian Century. If dominance has anything to do with numerical preponderance, however, or with the ability to build consensus around key ideals, the supremacy of the mainline should be reexamined. </p><p>Lofty estimates of the Century's influence presuppose a transmission model of communication in which the primary role of a periodical is to convey information that alters readers' thinking. The Century did convey information to its readers, but the greatest service the magazine performed was to confirm readers' identity as central figures in the growth of what its editors deemed a vital, progressive, but by no means universally accepted form of Christianity. The Century spoke to its 35,000 readers more than it spoke for them, and those readers frequently felt like members of a beleaguered minority rather than a triumphal majority. </p><p>Throughout its upward climb, the Century's rhetoric ran ahead of its accomplishments. Without ever amassing a wide readership, it declared itself the rightful representative of American Protestantism. The Century's rhetoric of unified, progressive, and culturally dominant Protestantism proved compelling, but it obscured many complexities. Examining the Century's struggles to define itself and remain financially viable in its formative years brings to light the difficulties inherent in any attempt to lead America's fractious Protestants.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2003. / Originally issued in electronic format. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-251). Also available in print.