Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69).

Ursula K Le Guin wrote The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) because she wanted to explore the limitations of gender and sexuality in a way that reflected the ongoing epistemic changes in her society. She created the Gethenians, an ambisexual, androgynous species that live most of their life without an assigned sex, making their entire society lack the concept of gender. Le Guin writes in her essay “Is Gender Necessary? Redux” (1988) that she wanted to erase gender to find out what was left. This essay will examine how the themes of gender and sexuality are explored in the Left Hand of Darkness, questioning if gender was actually erased. It is Le Guin’s linguistic choices and assumption that androgyny is masculine that assigns male gender to the Gethenians, without them having a biological sex. This renders the female experience invisible, creating a severe imbalance between the male and female part of them. However, by using Genly Ai - one of the main narrators, a male character from Terra (Earth) - gender is still presented as something fluid and non-binary, even though the Gethenians are generally perceived as more masculine. Sexuality, on the other hand, is more fluid and open, presenting a completely different idea than the norm present in the world of the reader. On Gethen, sexuality is celebrated when it is controlled and separate from everyday life, contrary to the celebration of a constant, masculine and aggressive view on sex. In conclusion, The Left Hand of Darkness presents the reader with a safe and comfortable version of androgyny, ultimately leaving many readers wanting more from the thought experiment. / Ursula K Le Guin skrev Mörkrets Vänstra Hand (1969) eftersom hon ville undersöka de begräsningar som är associerade med kön och sexualitet på ett sätt som reflekterade de pågående epistemiska förändringarna i samhället. Hon skapade folket Gethenians, en ras av människor som är androgyna och ambisexuella vilket gör att de lever majoriteten av sina liv utan kön i ett samhälle där konceptet genus inte existerar. Le Guin skriver i sin uppsats ”Is Gender Necesarry? Redux” (1988) att hon ville radera genus för att ta reda på vad som finns kvar. Denna uppsats kommer att utforska hur två teman, genus och sexualitet, hanteras i Mörkrets Vänstra Hand, samt ifrågasätta huruvida genus faktiskt blev raderat. Det är, i slutändan, Le Guins lingvistiska val och antagande att androgynitet är maskulint som ger Gethenierna ett manligt genus, även om de saknar ett fysiskt kön. Detta gör att den kvinnliga upplevelsen blir helt osynlig och skapar en tydlig obalans mellan den feminina och den maskulina sidan av dessa varelser. Dock, genom användningen av Genly Ai - en av berättarna, en manlig karaktär från Terra (Jorden) - så presenteras kön fortfarande som någonting icke-binärt och diffust. Sexualitet å andra sidan, presenteras som mer öppet och naturligt i jämförelse med normerna som existerar i läsarens värld. På Gethen är sexualitet firat när den är kontrollerad och en separat del av livet, i motsats till normen som firar en konstant, maskulin och aggressiv version av sex. Sammanfattningsvis presenterar Mörkrets Vänstra Hand läsaren med en trygg och bekväm version av androgynitet, vilket gör att många läsare vill få ut mer av/känner att något saknas i tankeexperimentet.

Licenciado en artes con mención en teoría e historia del arte / La Relación Autobiográfica de sor Úrsula Suárez (1678) y el Epistolario de Sor Josefa de Peñaillillo (1739) son dos textos coloniales producidos en el encierro del claustro conventual en nuestro país. Ambos documentos son considerados como material inédito en lo que refiere a la escritura conventual femenina en Chile, portando en ellos una riqueza enorme a los estudios de la vida conventual, cotidiana y espiritual del Chile colonial. Con respecto a esto último, en esta investigación reparo especialmente en las manifestaciones sobrenaturales, como escucha de hablas, arrobos y sobre todo, las visiones místicas que lograron alcanzar dichas monjas. Este trabajo propone una relación entre las visiones que escriben estas monjas en sus respectivos textos y los cuadros coloniales a los que estuvieron constantemente expuestas dentro de sus respectivos monasterios: Las Clarisas de la Victoria en el caso de Úrsula y Dominico de Santa Rosa de Lima en el de sor Josefa. Dentro del relato de estas dos monjas es posible identificar elementos literarios, simbólicos y plásticos que influyeron tanto sus relatos visionarios, como las visiones mismas que experimentaron y que refirieron en los textos que ambas dejaron. Para llevar a cabo esta relación es necesario hacer una sucinta revisión de lo que fue la vida conventual femenina en el chile colonial –puntualizando cada uno de los monasterios-, las normas conventuales –reglas y constituciones de cada convento-, las influencias literarias –Santa Teresa de Ávila principalmente- a las que fueron expuestas nuestras monjas, los modos de comportamiento dentro de los claustros –retórica del diminutio, mortificaciones corporales, etc.- y el factor más trascendente para nuestra disciplina, la normalización de la mirada dentro del claustro a través del cuadro. De este conjunto de factores, resulta un tipo de monja ideal, que a su vez produce un tipo de relato con características visionarias que se alimenta de cierta influencia de la pintura sobre sus experiencias místicas.

This thesis is a commentary on Patrick McCabe's novel, The Butcher Boy, which was published in 1992. The novel is told through the perspective of the main character, Francie Brady, who through the majority of the narration is depicted as a young boy. Francie's life is riddled with tragedy with his moving from the loss of one important person in his life to another until the pain of these losses triggers a violent paranoid outburst resulting in the murder of the fixation of an obsession of his, Mrs. Nugent. This thesis looks at the events of the novel through the perspective and insight provided by Ursula K. Heise's theories of "posthistory" and the "hyper-present," as well as Paul Grainge's concepts of the "Mood" and the "Mode" of nostalgia.

The literary utopia is often accused of being an outmoded genre, a graveyard for failed social movements. However, utopian literature is a surprisingly resilient genre, evolving from the static, descriptive anatomies of the Renaissance utopias to the novelized utopian romances of the late nineteenth century and the self-reflexive critical utopias of the 1970s. The literary utopia adapts to the needs of the moment: what form(s) best represent the fears and desires of our current historical period? In this dissertation I perform a close reading of three exemplary texts: John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar (1968), Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home (1985), and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004). While I address topics specific to each text, my main focus is on the texts’ depictions of utopia and their spatialized narrative forms. In Stand on Zanzibar Brunner locates the utopian impulse in three registers—the political/bureaucratic, the technical/scientific, and the human(e)—and explores how their interplay constitutes the utopian space. In Always Coming Home Le Guin renovates the classical literary utopia, problematizing its uncritical advocacy of the “Judaeo-Christian-Rationalist-West” but preserving much of the older utopia’s form. In Cloud Atlas the networked narrative structure reflects and enables the heterogeneous, non-hierarchical, and processual utopian communities depicted in the novel. In these science fictional works the spatialized techniques of juxtaposition, discontinuity, and collage —commonly associated with a loss of historical depth and difference—are used to create utopian spaces founded on contingency and human choice. I contend that science fiction is a historical genre, one that is invested in representing societies as contingent historical totalities. Science fiction’s generic tendencies modify the context that a spatialized narrative form functions in, and in changing the context changes its effects. By utilizing a spatialized narrative form to embody a contingent practice, Brunner, Le Guin, and Mitchell cast the future—and the present—as historical, as something that can be acted upon and changed: they have provided us with strategies for envisioning better futures and, potentially, for mobilizing our visions of the future for positive change in the present.

High Fantasy is extremely popular, with publication and sales of High Fantasy titles outnumbering Science Fiction for thirty years, yet Fantasy is less respected by reviewers of the Speculative Fiction genre. One reason for this is that High Fantasy often fails to adequately address culturally or politically significant issues. Respected Science Fiction writers, such as Octavia Butler, on the other hand, use the issues such as discrimination and persecution on the basis of race and gender. In my exegesis I explore the ways in which High Fantasy has explored the problems of discrimination and persecution. In my novel, The T'En Exiles, I create a world populated by differently abled races. The ' ordinary ' people resent and fear the gifted people, who are less numerous and marginalised. Among the gifted there are those who are aware of mystical powers and those who can manipulate them; because of this a strict hierarchy has evolved. There is also a divide between the genders because the power of the females is expressed differently to that of the males. In The T'En Exiles I use the device of cognitive estrangement, a technique common in both Fantasy and Science Fiction, to examine discrimination and persecution. In particular in terms of how it affects individuals. In the exegesis I examine the ways in which issues of discrimination and persecution are dealt with in contemporary High Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the ways in which a more comprehensive and sensitive treatment of these issues in High Fantasy can address some concerns about the marginalisation of the sub-genre.

The present article studies the case of the black donada Ursula de Jesus (Lima, 1604-1666), whose exceptional religiosity was described by a Franciscan friar and nun, both anonymous. She spent the greater part of her life inside the convent of Santa Clara, which she entered as the slave of a nun of the black veil. Later she obtained her liberty and, supported by certain nuns, entered as a donada. She went on to write a Spiritual Diary in which she described her everyday life in the convent and the vicissitudes of her spirituality. While we know of other Afro-descendants who were recognized for their piety, we know them only through the dominant discourse that shaped their individual experiences to make them fit the models of Western sanctity. In this case, it is the opposite: the Spiritual Diary allows us to hear the voice of an Afro-descended woman. Through an analysis of the Spiritual Diary, written between 1650 and 1661 and published in Lima in 2004, this article studies the identity that Ursula de Jesus constructs in her text, which reinterprets the reigning Catholic dogma and constructs a Black mystical spirituality. / El presente artículo estudia el caso de la donada negra Úrsula de Jesús (Lima, 1604-1666), cuya excepcional religiosidad ha sido retratada por un franciscano y una clarisa anónimos. Ella vivió la mayor parte de su vida al interior del monasterio de Santa Clara, al cual ingresó como esclava de una monja de velo negro. Posteriormente, consiguió su libertad y, apoyada por algunas monjas, profesó como donada y, además, escribió un Diario Espiritual en el que contó su vida cotidiana en el monasterio y las vicisitudes de su espiritualidad. Si bien se tiene conocimiento de otros afrodescendientes que fueron reconocidos por su piedad católica, solo los conocemos a través del discurso dominante que moldeó sus particulares experiencias espirituales para hacerlas calzar con los modelos de santidad occidentales. En este caso, sucede lo contrario: el Diario Espiritual nos permite oír la voz de una mujer afrodescendiente. Por ello, por medio del análisis de su Diario Espiritual, escrito entre 1650 y 1661, y publicado en Lima en el 2004, este artículo estudiará la identidad que construye Úrsula de Jesús en su texto, la cual reinterpreta el dogma católico imperante y construye una espiritualidad mística negra.

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This thesis analyses the life and activity of the Sisters from the Order of St. Ursula in the Czechoslovak Republic between 1918 and 1945. Using obtainable archival sources and secondary literature, it observes the working of monasteries and the life of the Sisters from St. Ursula in the first half of the 20th century and how it impacted the inhabitants of locations where monasteries were operating. Specifically, it covers the educational activity of the Order of St. Ursula, which was perceived as their main mission. KEY WORDS: Religious history - Modern history - Czechoslovakia in 1918-1939 - Order of St. Ursula - Ursulines