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1	Mothers, men and mind control : an analysis of Sheri S. Tepper's novels : Grass and The fresco Muller, Martina 12 1900 (has links) Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sheri S. Tepper, one of the most prolific feminist science fiction writers, uses her novels to address humanity‟s ignorance about, and indifference towards, various social, gender and environmental issues, and in so doing, she attempts to rectify these issues by creating an awareness of them. Her novels generally focus on four main issues: motherhood, both as ideology and experience; the essentialized nature and acceptance of the superiority of masculinity; the influence of religions, traditions and ideologies; and an ever-increasing concern for environmental preservation. These issues are all interlinked in her novels. Though some of her works have received critical attention, most notably The Gate to Women’s Country (1988) and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (1996), most have received little. I will present a critical analysis of Tepper‟s Grass (1989) – a novel which has received some critical attention – and The Fresco (2000) – a novel which has received very little critical attention. Although these novels deal with the same issues, they do so in different ways: Grass is a much more layered critique of modern society, whereas The Fresco is a rather blatant critique and the passionate voice of its author filters through more prominently than in Grass. I will be examining Tepper‟s portrayal of motherhood, masculinity and the influence of ideologies, religions and traditions in both of these novels. Although there will not be a section devoted to Tepper‟s environmental views, these will be highlighted within the other sections. Tepper ultimately stands for women‟s rights to opt for motherhood as a free choice. She also insists that ideologies, religions and traditions – society‟s oppressive straitjackets – should adapt to modernity, and that the acceptance of masculinity as the dominant gender be destabilized. Rectifying these problems, in Tepper‟s view, would also lead to the preservation of the environment for future generations. In my conclusion I address the most frequent critique directed against Tepper‟s work, namely that her novels are repetitive with regard to thematic content, by suggesting that her work is repetitive because she feels the need to reiterate the same issues in her novels, to indicate that the same societal problems of the past are still prevalent. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sheri S. Teper, een van die vernaamste feminis-wetenskapfisksie skryfsters, gebruik haar romans om die mensdom se onkunde oor, en onverskilligheid teenoor, verskeie sosiale-, geslags- en omgewingskwessies aan te spreek in „n poging om hierdie kwessies op te los deur mense meer bewus te maak van die kwessies. Haar romans fokus gewoonlik op vier hoof kwessies wat aan mekaar verbind is: moederskap, beide as ideologiese en fisiese ervaring; die genoodsaakte aanvaarding van manlikheid as die dominante geslag; die invloed van gelowe, tradisies, en ideologieë op die samelewing; en „n toenemende besorgheid oor die bewaring van die omgewing. Alhoewel sommige van haar romans kritiese aandag ontvang het, in besonder The Gate to Women’s Country (1988) en Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (1996), het die meeste baie min kritiese aandag ontvang. Ek beoog dus om twee van Tepper se romans, Grass (1989) en The Fresco (2000), krities te ontleed. Alhoewel Grass ietwat meer kritiese aandag ontvang het, het The Fresco byna geen kritiese aandag ontvang nie. Beide die romans spreek dieselfde kwessies aan, maar in verskillende maniere: Grass is a baie meer subtiele kritiek van die moderne samelewing, terwyl The Fresco „n baie meer flagrante kritiek is en die passievolle stem van die outeur is baie meer opmerklik in diè roman. Ek beoog om Tepper se uitbeelding van moederskap, manlikheid en die invloed van ideologieë, gelowe en tradisies in beide hierdie romans ondersoek. Hoewel daar nie „n spesifieke seksie gaan wees wat opgedra is aan die ondersoek van Tepper se omgewingsboodskap nie, sal dit tog uitgelig word in ander seksies. Daar sal gewys word dat Tepper vir die regte van vroue staan om moederskap vrylik te kan kies. Sy beveel ook aan dat dat ideologieë, gelowe en tradisies moet aan pas by die vereistes van moderne samelewing, en dat die aanvaarding van manlikheid as die dominante geslag omgekeer moet word. Deur hierdie probleme reg te maak, in Tepper se opinie, sal dit lei tot die bewaring van die omgewing vir toekomstige generasies. In my gevolgtrekking spreek ek een van die algemeenste kritieke teen Tepper se romans aan, naamlik dat die tematiese inhoud herhalend is. Ek voel dat die werklike probleem is dat Tepper dit nodig ag om dieselfde kwessies uit te beeld, aangesien dit aan dui dat probleme van die verlede steeds voorkom in die huidige samelewing. Motherhood Masculinity Ideologies Environmentalism Tepper, Sheri S. -- Grass Tepper, Sheri S. -- The Fresco Dissertations -- English literature Theses -- English literature
2	From the horse's mouth: speech and speciesism in Cordwainer Smith and Sheri S. Tepper Unknown Date (has links) This thesis challenges dualistic human and animal ontologies by interpreting science fiction (sf) literature, and argues that whereas words can equivocate and obscure meaning, bodies do not lie. Linguistics and semiology extend the definition of "language" to include human and nonhuman gestures and movement, and posthumanist theory expands definitions of "human" and "animal" to explore species boundaries. Scrutinizing opposing dualisms ultimately questions Western epistemology and authority, allowing for an exploration of embodied animal communications within the larger discourse on species and speciesism. This perspective results in a more comprehensive understanding of the interdependence of all species: human, animal, and "other." Although the fictional texts I employ use fantastic elements to posit hypothetical realities, current scientific research reveals that communication with nonhuman animals is indeed possible. / by Jennifer K. Cox. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader. Human-animal relationships Interpersonal communication Animal communication Language and emotions Emotive (Linguistics)
3	Ambivalent Devotion: Religious Imagination in Contemporary Southern Women's Fiction Peters, Sarah L. 2009 December 1900 (has links) Analyzing novels by Sheri Reynolds, Lee Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, and Sue Monk Kidd, I argue that these authors challenge religious structures by dramatizing the struggle between love and resentment that brings many women to the point of crisis but also inspires imaginative and generative processes of appropriation and revision, emphasizing not destination but process. Employing first-person narration in coming-of-age stories, Smith, Reynolds, and Kingsolver highlight the various narratives that govern the experiences of children born into religious cultures, including narratives of sexual development, gender identity, and religious conversion, to portray the difficulty of articulating female experience within the limited lexicon of Christian fundamentalism. As they mature into adulthood, the girl characters in these novels break from tradition to develop new consciousness by altering and adapting religious language, understood as open and malleable rather than authoritative and fixed. Smith, Kidd, and Naylor incorporate the Virgin Mary and divine maternal figures from non-Christian traditions to restore the mother-daughter relationship that is eclipsed by the Father and Son in Christian tradition. Identifying the female body as a site of spiritual knowledge, these authors present a metaphorical return to the womb that empowers their characters to embrace divine maternal love that transgresses the masculine symbolic order, displacing (but not necessarily destroying) the authority of God the Father and His human representatives. Reynolds and Walker portray physical pain, central to the Christian image of crucifixion, as destroying the ability of women to speak, denying them subjectivity. Through transgressive sexual relationships infused with religious significance, these authors disrupt the Christian moral paradigm by presenting bodily pleasure as an alternative to the Christian valorization of sacrifice. The replacement of pain with pleasure inspires imaginative work that makes private spirituality shareable through artistic creation. The novels I study present themes that also concern Christian and non-Christian feminist theologians: the development of feminine images of the divine, emphasis on immanence over transcendence, the apprehension of the divine in nature, and the necessity of challenging the reification of religious images and dualisms that undermine female subjectivity. I show the reciprocal relationship between fiction and theology, as theologians treat women's literature as sacred texts and fiction writers give life to abstract religious concepts through narrative. Smith, Lee Kingsolver, Barbara Naylor, Gloria Walker, Alice Kidd, Sue Monk Reynolds, Sheri Southern Literature Religion Christianity American Literature Evangelicalism Fundamentalism Women Writers
4	A chronology of her own : the treatment of time in selected works of second wave feminist speculative fiction Donaldson, Eileen 13 October 2012 (has links) Prior to the 1960s and 1970s most studies of time undertaken in the West treated it as an objective phenomenon, devoid of ideological inscriptions. Second Wave feminists challenged this view, arguing that time is not neutral but one of the mechanisms used by patriarchal cultures to subjugate women. The argument was that temporal modes, like everything else in patriarchal reality, had been gendered. Linear time was masculine because it was associated with the male-dominated public domain in which science, commerce and production took place. The natural world, mysticism, the private domain, domesticity and women were relegated to a cyclical temporality that was gendered feminine. In her paper “Women’s Time” Julia Kristeva suggests that three generations of feminism can be identified according to the attitude each takes to time. I use her hypothesis as a framework in order to examine the positions regarding time taken up by various feminist groups during the Second Wave. I identify liberal and socialist feminisms with Kristeva’s first generation because they criticised the fact that women had been left out of linear time and the public domain and demanded that women be reinserted into linear time. I argue that Kristeva’s second generation is represented by cultural feminists of the Second Wave who recognised an alternative women’s time and suggested that women celebrate their connection with it, defying the authority of patrilinear time to dismiss “women’s experiences”. I then propose that the perspective of Kristeva’s third generation may be identified in the work of six authors of feminist speculative fiction who were writing during the Second Wave; this perspective entails a synthesis of the two previous opposing viewpoints. This can be identified in these novels because the female protagonists are first empowered through their access to an alternative (“feminine”) temporal space that subverts the authority of patriarchal culture embedded in linear time and then they move back into patrilinear time, claiming active roles and challenging patriarchal ideology. In this thesis I thus focus on the feminist examination of time during the Second Wave and consider how it was reflected in selected works of feminist speculative fiction written at the time. The authors discussed are Octavia Butler, Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Tanith Lee and Sheri Tepper. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / English / unrestricted Patrilinear time Women’s time Feminist speculative fiction Second wave feminism Octavia butler Marge piercy Joanna russ Ursula le guin Tanith lee Sheri tepper UCTD
5	F. A. Hayek's Critique of Legislation Holm, Cyril January 2014 (has links) The dissertation concerns F. A. Hayek’s (1899–1992) critique of legislation. The purpose of the investigation is to clarify and assess that critique. I argue that there is in Hayek’s work a critique of legislation that is distinct from his well-known critique of social planning. Further that the main claim of this critique is what I refer to as Hayek’s legislation tenet, namely that legislation that aims to achieve specific aggregate results in complex orders of society will decrease the welfare level. The legislation tenet gains support; (i) from the welfare claim – according to which there is a positive correlation between the utilization of knowledge and the welfare level in society; (ii) from the dispersal of knowledge thesis – according to which the total knowledge of society is dispersed and not available to any one agency; and (iii) from the cultural evolution thesis – according to which evolutionary rules are more favorable to the utilization of knowledge in social cooperation than are legislative rules. More specifically, I argue that these form two lines of argument in support of the legislation tenet. One line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the dispersal of knowledge thesis. I argue that this line of argument is true. The other line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the cultural evolution thesis. I argue that this line of argument is false, mainly because the empirical work of political scientist Elinor Ostrom refutes it. Because the two lines of argument support the legislation tenet independently of each other, I argue that Hayek’s critique of legislation is true. In this dissertation, I further develop a legislative policy tool as based on the welfare claim and Hayek’s conception of coercion. I also consider Hayek’s idea that rules and law are instrumental in forging rational individual action and rational social orders, and turn to review this idea in light of the work of experimental economist Vernon Smith and economic historian Avner Greif. I find that Smith and Greif support this idea of Hayek’s, and I conjecture that it contributes to our understanding of Adam Smith’s notion of the invisible hand: It is rules – not an invisible hand – that prompt subjects to align individual and aggregate rationality in social interaction. Finally, I argue that Hayek’s critique is essentially utilitarian, as it is concerned with the negative welfare consequences of certain forms of legislation. And although it may appear that the dispersal of knowledge thesis will undermine the possibility of carrying out the utilitarian calculus, due to the lack of knowledge of the consequences of one’s actions – and therefore undermine the legislation tenet itself – I argue that the distinction between utilitarianism conceived as a method of deliberation and utilitarianism conceived as a criterion of correctness may be used to save Hayek’s critique from this objection. Hayek legislation rules law rationality rational action rational social order equilibrium utilitarianism method of deliberation criterion of correctness Elinor Ostrom Avner Greif Vernon Smith Joshua Epstein complexity knowledge social cooperation information know-how the Hayek problem the invisible hand Adam Smith Mises Keynes Marx welfare state Gilbert Ryle Michael Polanyi theory of legislation legisprudence jurisprudence Neo-Kantianism historicism cognitive closure theory of prices competition syntax grammar game theory generative social science agent-based computational modeling institutional policy analysis normative primacy of economics primacy of politics Sheri Berman constructivist rationalism socialism social democracy Nozick Rawls distribution justice freedom Kant polycentric government process of experimentation speculative philosophy analytical philosophy freedom under the law liberty philosophy of mind consequentialist

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