The aim of the current study was to investigate the way teen pregnancy is portrayed in Seasons 1 and 2 of the television drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Framing theory and social cognitive theory were used as guiding frameworks for exploring the way the main character’s pregnancy was presented and the way this presentation may influence the ideas and behaviors of viewers. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to examine portrayals in the first 23 episodes. Results indicated that teen pregnancy was portrayed in five major ways: as Dramatic, as Identity, as Manageable, as Transformative, and as Serious. Overall, the findings suggest that teen pregnancy was presented in ways that encourage viewers to perceive this issue as positive and negative, with clearly positive outcomes.

This essay argues that literature enhances the discussions of sensitive issues in a Swedish EFL classroom. Building on reader-response theory and Judith A. Langer's envisionment building, the themes affinity, suicide and discrimination found in Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees could be discussed. The reader-response theory gives the pupils an emotional outlet that the envisionment builds on. However, the identified themes also need to be critically analysed to create rewarding discussions, and to be able to fulfil Langer's envisionment. This will hopefully make the pupils think more deeply about these social issues and question their own possible prejudices.

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees (2002) tells the story of a motherless fourteen-year-old Lily Owens, raised by a cruel father, who desperately searches for clues to unlock her mother’s past. Kidd’s bildungsroman reveals the incredible power of black women, particularly a group of beekeeping sisters and a black Mary, to create a safe haven where Lily can examine her fragmented life and develop psychologically, finally becoming a self-actualized young lady. Lily’s matriarchal world of influence both compares and contrasts with the patriarchal world represented in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exposing the matriarchy’s aptly structured ways of providing a more healing environment than is Huck Finn’s. Kidd’s novel also showcases the stylistic strategies of first person narrative point of view, language, dialect, and the motif of place in order to contextualize the social awareness and psychological development Lily gains through her journey.

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees (2002) tells the story of a motherless fourteen-year-old Lily Owens, raised by a cruel father, who desperately searches for clues to unlock her mother’s past. Kidd’s bildungsroman reveals the incredible power of black women, particularly a group of beekeeping sisters and a black Mary, to create a safe haven where Lily can examine her fragmented life and develop psychologically, finally becoming a self-actualized young lady. Lily’s matriarchal world of influence both compares and contrasts with the patriarchal world represented in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, exposing the matriarchy’s aptly structured ways of providing a more healing environment than is Huck Finn’s. Kidd’s novel also showcases the stylistic strategies of first person narrative point of view, language, dialect, and the motif of place in order to contextualize the social awareness and psychological development Lily gains through her journey.

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Much recent scholarship in Victorian studies has viewed sexuality as historically contingent and constructed primarily within the realm of discourse or social organization. In contrast, the following study details species-typical and universal aspects of human sexuality that must be adequately theorized if an accurate model of the ideological forces impacting Victorian sexuality is to be fashioned. After a short survey of previous scholarly projects that examine literature through the lens of biology—much of it marred by an obvious antipathy toward all attempts to discover the involvement of ideology in human behavior—this study presents a lengthy primer to the modern study of evolutionary psychology, behavioral genetics, and human sexuality. Because the use of science is still relatively rare in literary studies, the first chapters are designed both to convince the reader of the necessity of considering biology and evolution in examining human sexuality, as well as to provide the general educated scholar in our field with the basic framework of knowledge necessary to follow the remainder of the text. Chapter three follows with a detailed examination of the sources of the political resistance to biological and genetic models of human behavior within liberal arts and social science departments, and chapter four presents an evolutionary and biochemical model for the apprehension of art that locates the origins of culture within the evolutionarily-fashioned brains of individuals and attempts to recuperate the concept of aesthetic emotion and foreground the special nature of erotica in its ability to produce immediate neurochemical effects in the brains of its consumers. Finally, the study examines works of Victorian literature, especially My Secret Life, to demonstrate the deficiencies in constructionist and interactionist theories of human sexuality while detailing the new readings that emerge when one is aware of the biological basis of human mate selection mechanisms.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-09T12:28:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-20Bitstream added on 2015-04-09T12:47:17Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000813195.pdf: 874407 bytes, checksum: 550b00d09097fd89cbf077c69352a2d0 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O objetivo desta dissertação é discutir conceitos sobre gênero, presentes em algumas teorias e críticas pontuais e analisar dois romances contemporâneos: o norte-americano The Secret Life of Bees (2002), de Sue Monk Kidd, e o brasileiro Sapato de salto (2006), de Lygia Bojunga. Pretende-se cotejar o modo como cada escritora apresenta o processo de formação das protagonistas e, visto que esses romances são considerados Bildungsromane femininos, verificar como a forma do romance influencia na construção do gênero nas personagens principais das obras supracitadas. A formação das protagonistas será avaliada de acordo com as perspectivas críticas adotadas em que o sujeito é performativo e reivindica posições como marca da própria identidade. Considerando que as obras estão inseridas na contemporaneidade, procura-se mostrar que a mulher não assume mais uma posição inferior ao homem. A tradição misógina e machista é rompida nos romances, conforme propõe Butler, no momento em que as autoras dão voz e vez ao sexo (até então tido como) frágil, instaurando, assim, um discurso da ruptura. Como aparato crítico-teórico, utilizar-se-ão as perspectivas de Beauvoir (1974), Wittig (1982), Hollanda (1994) e Butler (1990; 2001; 2004), para questões do gênero; os trabalhos de Pinto (1990), Maas (2000) e Scwhantes (2007), para o estudo sobre o romance de formação tradicional ou feminino e as obras de Laclau (1990), Ortiz (1994) e Santos (2001), para a contextualização da contemporaneidade / The aim of this work is to discuss concepts about gender, present in some theories and specific criticisms, and analyze two contemporary novels: the American - The Secret Life of Bees (2002), by Sue Monk Kidd, and the Brazilian - Sapato de salto (2006), by Lygia Bojunga. It is intended to collate the way each writer presents the protagonists’ formation process and to check how the form of the novel influences on the gender construction of the main characters in both works, once these novels are considered feminine Bildungsromane. It is pertinent to emphasize that the protagonists’ formation will be evaluated according to the adopted critical perspectives in which the subject is performative and claims positions as a mark of identity. Whereas the works are embedded in contemporary times, it attempts to show that women do not assume an inferior position to men anymore. A misogynistic and sexist tradition is broken in the novels, as Butler proposes, at the moment the authors give the weaker sex their turn and voice, thus introducing a discourse of rupture. As critical- theoretical apparatus, the prospects of Beauvoir (1974), Wittig (1982), Hollanda (1994) and Butler (1990, 2001, 2004) will be used about gender issues; Pinto (1990), Maas (2000) and Scwhantes (2007) works will be the basis for the study of traditional and female Bildungsromane, and the works by Laclau (1990), Ortiz (1994) and Santos (2001) will contextualize the contemporaneity