The essay makes a case for the use of the Nobel Prize-winning (1993) author Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye (1970) in the English language classroom. The essay argues that the novel is an excellent reading choice and to what is appropriate according to the learning goals stated in Gy11's course syllabus English 6. Since the course English 6 syllabus is new some aspects different from previous course syllabus English B are mentioned by way of comparison.  In order to develop the arguments for using the novel, different perspectives of reading and the learning process are discussed and how they match the curriculum Gy 11. Some points about how Morrison has managed to voice the former unspoken experiences of African American society are made to make it clear why reading The Bluest Eye is such a superb text in relation to the learning goals that are outlined in Gy11.The essay focuses mainly on mother - daughter relationships because most pupils will easily relate to this theme since they have experiences of this relation themselves, and therefore they will find it easy to find issues to discuss after reading the novel.

There is conflicting evidence on Black parenting, specifically Black mothers as it relates to their educational participation in their children’s lives. This study focuses on the intersection of Black parenting, specifically single Black mothers, their Black experience in society, and their participation in the educational experiences of their daughters. There is a need to explore the experiences, behaviors, and actions of single Black mothers as they raise their daughters from early childhood to high school. For example, some research depicts Black mothers as uncaring about their children’s education. The purpose of this study is to examine how these single Black mothers educate and care for their daughters to provide additional insight. The following areas of research were highlighted: the Black experience, the Black family, cultural roles of Black women, the Black mother’s standpoint, and the culture of acting white. The concept addressed in this study is the resiliency of the Black mothers. The statement of the problem is drawn from motherwork, a theoretical framework that looks at distinct ways Black mothers navigate the education experiences of their children. The research questions and qualitative methodological approach of portraiture is different from traditional qualitative work, which focuses on the goodness of the research participant, instead of the failure of research participants. Portraiture paints a portrait of the research participant with words and allows for in-depth dialogue. Some current research depicts single mothers in a negative perspective. This study provides additional insight on how single Black mothers educate and care for their daughters. This additional information may be applicable to all parents and educators and serves as another source about motherhood for children being raised from early childhood to high school. / text

The present study aimed to examine intra- and interpersonal associations between poor mental health and mother–daughter relationship closeness in a sample of 467 dyads. An Actor–Partner Interdependence Model was utilized to examine bidirectional processes between mothers (mean age = 42.64, SD = 6.5) and their adolescent daughters (mean age = 15.37, SD = 1.15). The independent variable was self-reported poor mental health and the dependent variable was relationship closeness. Additionally, communication satisfaction was examined as a potential interpersonal mediator of the pathway between poor mental health and relationship closeness. Daughters’ self-reported poor mental health negatively predicted their own perception of closeness as well as mothers’ perception of closeness. Additionally, we find evidence that perceived communication may explain (i.e., mediate) both the actor effect (one’s own poor mental health on one’s own perception of closeness) and the partner effect (partner’s poor mental health on one’s own perception of closeness). Our results suggest that when daughters’ mental health is poor, relationship closeness as perceived by mother and daughter may be weakened, and that this effect may in part be explained by poor communication between mother and daughter. Strategies to promote family communication, especially for families experiencing mental health problems, may aid in the development of closer mother–daughter relationships. Further, our results suggest the importance of investigating the potential bidirectional influence of mothers’ and daughters’ mental health on parent-adolescent relationship quality within a dyadic unit.

Excerpt: As both a daughter to a mother and a mother to a daughter, I have lived, and pushed against, and been formed by, the profound truth about mother-daughter relationships suggested by this book's title: it's complicated.

This analysis of Tan's first two novels reveals that her female characters suffer from the strains critics like Amy Ling say result from the double paradox of filling the roles of mother or daughter as minority women in a white, male society. Recognizing this double paradox offers Tan's characters, and her readers, the opportunity to resolve the conflicts between mothers and daughters in The Joy Luck Club. Using the theories of psychologist Kathie Carlson helps readers understand how the protagonist of The Kitchen God's Wife resolves similar conflicts with her daughter and her own mother by seeking support from a mythic mother-figure, a Goddess of her own making.

Dans une société qui assiste à la confusion des territoires du privé et du public, le culte du corps et la valorisation de normes esthétiques féminines semblent littéralement envahir l’espace narratif et magnifier le dualisme entre l’être et le paraître. Il va sans dire que cette nouvelle façon de penser et de concevoir le corps, notamment le corps féminin, a une incidence sur l’écriture des femmes contemporaines. Intimement lié à la construction identitaire du sujet, le corps incarne dans les oeuvres littéraires une nouvelle « féminité » dont le présent mémoire vise à explorer les paramètres littéraires, psychanalytiques et sociologiques. C’est dans le contexte d’une corporalité reconfigurée que l’inscription de la triade corps/identité/féminité dans les textes littéraires de Nelly Arcan et de Marie-Sissi Labrèche sera étudiée par l’analyse d’oeuvres significatives publiées au début de ce troisième millénaire : Putain et À ciel ouvert, d’une part, Borderline et La Brèche, d’autre part. Le corps est au coeur de la quête identitaire des protagonistes présentées dans ces récits. Mais ce corps s’érigeant souvent en obstacle devient le lieu d’une difficile image de soi et contribue à renforcer l’agentivité négative, soit cette incapacité du sujet à tracer son avenir de manière positive, contre laquelle se battent les personnages féminins tout au long de la narration. C’est à ce propos que la position ambivalente des deux auteures est représentative des questions de filiation qui marquent la littérature contemporaine. / In a society in which boundaries between the private and the public are confused, body worship and the prizing of women’s beauty standards seem to pervade fiction and magnify the dualism between being and appearing. The new way of thinking about and conceiving the body, the female body in particular, has certainly had an effect on contemporary women’s writing. Inasmuch as the body is entwined with the formation of the protagonist’s identity, it embodies a new femininity in literary works, of which this master’s thesis strives to explore the literary, psychoanalytical and sociological parameters. In the context of a remapped corporality, this thesis studies the body, identity and femininity in four contemporary novels: Putain and À ciel ouvert by Nelly Arcan, and Borderline and La Brèche by Marie-Sissi Labrèche. Although the body is at the heart of the protagonists’ search for identity, it also often constitutes a hurdle for them, resulting in a bad self-image and reinforcing the protagonists’ negative agency against which all the female characters are struggling. The authors’ ambivalent positions on this matter are representative of the filiation issues characterizing contemporary fiction.

Throughout the last three decades, the Arab region has attracted the unwanted attention of the rest of the world because of its spiralling political upheaval. This unrest has caused migration, economic and cultural changes, and eventually a spring of revolutions and protests in demand of reform. Arab countries are now in the spotlight of global current affairs, and all the imperfections regarding their cultural, social, and gender inequalities have surfaced to the foreground. Arab women novelists have been addressing feminist issues for centuries, chipping away at the stereotypical image of the meek and voiceless Arab woman that comes hand in hand with Orientalism. Through their fiction, writers such as Nawal El Saadawi, Hanan Al- Shaykh and Fadia Faqir have promulgated a bold brand of Arab feminist thought. This interdisciplinary thesis explores the Greater Syrian and Egyptian woman's novel written between 1975 and 2007. Through the in-depth analysis of Arab women's novels available in English, I attempt to uncover the many reasons behind today's gender inequality in Greater Syria and Egypt. By examining contemporary Arabic narrative styles and cultivating traditional Arab story-telling methods, the creative element of this thesis uses fiction to expose social and political injustice. The novel within this thesis challenges different forms of patriarchy that are dominant in the region, and endeavours to document a historical, on-going revolution.

Dans une société qui assiste à la confusion des territoires du privé et du public, le culte du corps et la valorisation de normes esthétiques féminines semblent littéralement envahir l’espace narratif et magnifier le dualisme entre l’être et le paraître. Il va sans dire que cette nouvelle façon de penser et de concevoir le corps, notamment le corps féminin, a une incidence sur l’écriture des femmes contemporaines. Intimement lié à la construction identitaire du sujet, le corps incarne dans les oeuvres littéraires une nouvelle « féminité » dont le présent mémoire vise à explorer les paramètres littéraires, psychanalytiques et sociologiques. C’est dans le contexte d’une corporalité reconfigurée que l’inscription de la triade corps/identité/féminité dans les textes littéraires de Nelly Arcan et de Marie-Sissi Labrèche sera étudiée par l’analyse d’oeuvres significatives publiées au début de ce troisième millénaire : Putain et À ciel ouvert, d’une part, Borderline et La Brèche, d’autre part. Le corps est au coeur de la quête identitaire des protagonistes présentées dans ces récits. Mais ce corps s’érigeant souvent en obstacle devient le lieu d’une difficile image de soi et contribue à renforcer l’agentivité négative, soit cette incapacité du sujet à tracer son avenir de manière positive, contre laquelle se battent les personnages féminins tout au long de la narration. C’est à ce propos que la position ambivalente des deux auteures est représentative des questions de filiation qui marquent la littérature contemporaine. / In a society in which boundaries between the private and the public are confused, body worship and the prizing of women’s beauty standards seem to pervade fiction and magnify the dualism between being and appearing. The new way of thinking about and conceiving the body, the female body in particular, has certainly had an effect on contemporary women’s writing. Inasmuch as the body is entwined with the formation of the protagonist’s identity, it embodies a new femininity in literary works, of which this master’s thesis strives to explore the literary, psychoanalytical and sociological parameters. In the context of a remapped corporality, this thesis studies the body, identity and femininity in four contemporary novels: Putain and À ciel ouvert by Nelly Arcan, and Borderline and La Brèche by Marie-Sissi Labrèche. Although the body is at the heart of the protagonists’ search for identity, it also often constitutes a hurdle for them, resulting in a bad self-image and reinforcing the protagonists’ negative agency against which all the female characters are struggling. The authors’ ambivalent positions on this matter are representative of the filiation issues characterizing contemporary fiction.

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