University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Thesis (MA (English Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Drawing on theories of gender and subjectivity, this thesis explores the way in which constructions of modernity as well as tradition are mapped onto geographical localities and thus expressed through gender acts. The female protagonists in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Sindiwe Magona’s To My Children’s Children and Forced to Grow, as well as Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation undergo either transnational translocation or imagined translocation where they straddle multiple cultural contexts concurrently. The role of globalism and modernity amplifies the female’s ambiguous position and therefore challenges her gender identity as she takes on additional gender characteristics. This challenge, a result of translocation, causes both the individual and collective nature of the subject to be emphasised and placed in multiple cultures concurrently. The female’s subjectivity is under much tension as the cultures she immerses herself in interlace but also clash. As a result of this, her sense of self is constantly in flux as she attempts to achieve stability and coherence. This sense of a gendered, stable and located self will, I argue, both dissipate and transmutate upon undergoing physical or imagined translocation. In addition, this thesis examines the manner in which globalism allows for the dissolving of boundaries and explores the extent to which the ambiguous position these female protagonists occupy enables them to reformulate and refashion their gender identity as well as write themselves away from the marginalised positions they inhabit. I will further explore how female subjects are compelled to take on additional feminine or masculine attributes upon translocation, seeming to become androgynous in the reformulation of their gender identity for a certain period of time. I will argue that protagonists supplement their gender in order to obtain a sense of belonging in a specific cultural context which requires this alteration of gender, and argue that this is also a means by which they liberate themselves from the marginal positions they occupy in their ethnic culture where sexism and prejudice are prevalent. However, I will demonstrate that modernity does not only provide them with liberation and autonomy, but that simultaneously it is also restrictive on the subject’s gender identity. Finally, this thesis explores whether the female protagonists are able to use their ambiguous positioning strategically in order to generate coherence of the self yet, concurrently, maintain fluidity between multiple cultural boundaries of the self. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling gebruik geslags- en subjektiwiteitsteorieë om ondersoek in te stel na die maniere waarop konstruksies van moderniteit en tradisie uiting vind in geslagshandeling. Dieselfde teorieë word gebruik om ondersoek in te stel na die invloed van geografiese plasing op geslagshandeling. Die vroulike protagoniste in Maxine Hong Kingston se The Woman Warrior, Sindiwe Magona se To My Children’s Children en Forced to Grow, sowel as Eva Hoffman se Lost in Translation, ervaar elkeen óf transnasionale translokasie, óf verbeelde translokasie, waardeur hulle vele kulturele kontekste tegelykertyd in die dwarste beset. Die rol van globalisering en moderniteit versterk sonder twyfel die vroulike protagonis se dubbelsinnige posisie, en haar geslagsidentiteit word in twyfel getrek soos sy addisionele geslagseienskappe aanneem. Hierdie vertwyfeling – die gevolg van translokasie – veroorsaak dat beide die kollektiewe sowel as die individuele aard van die subjek benadruk word, en gelyktydig in meervoudige kulture geplaas word. Die protagonis se subjektiwiteit verkeer onder baie spanning omdat die kulture waarin sy haarself verdiep onderling vervleg is, maar tog ook bots. Derhalwe is haar beskouing van haarself voortdurend vloeibaar en veranderend terwyl sy probeer om samehorigheid en stabiliteit te bewerkstellig. Ek is van mening dat hierdie sin van 'n “geslaghebbende”, stabiele, gelokaliseerde self verdwyn en/of transmuteer wanneer dit fisiese of verbeelde translokasie ondergaan. Gevolglik ondersoek hierdie verhandeling dus ook die manier waarop globalisme die ontbinding van grense tot gevolg het, sowel as die mate waartoe die dubbelsinnigheid van die vroulike protagoniste se posisie hulle toelaat om hul geslagsidentiteit te herformuleer en te herontwerp, en hulself weg, of uit, die gemarginaliseerde posisies wat hulle beset te skryf. Ek wil ook kyk na die maniere waarop die vroulike subjek genoop is om, as gevolg van translokasie, addisionele vroulike of manlike karaktertrekke aan te neem, met dié dat dit blyk dat die protagoniste vir 'n ruk lank androgene eienskappe in hul geslagsidentiteit toon. Ek argumenteer dat die protagoniste hul geslag aanvul, nie net sodat hul aanklank binne 'n spesifieke kulturele konteks kan vind nie, maar ook as 'n manier waarop hul hulself kan bevry van die marginale posisies waarin hulle hul in 'n etniese kultuur, waar seksisme en vooroordeel gedy, bevind. Nietemin wil ek ook aantoon dat moderniteit nie bloot net bevryding en selfstandigheid aan die vroulike protagoniste bied nie, maar dat dit ook tegelykertyd beperkings op die subjek se geslagsidentiteit plaas. Die uitkoms van hierdie tesis is om te bepaal of die vroulike protagoniste in staat is tot die strategiese gebruik van hul dubbelsinnige posisionering, wat koherensie van die self sal meebring, en tog terselfdertyd vloeibaarheid tussen verskillende kulture sal behou.

Verifica e analisa o encadeamento ideológico utilizado por Homero para ordenar as mortes dos principais heróis gregos do ciclo épico; o ideal guerreiro da bela morte e o ideal heróico da glória imperecível; o destino do homem comum e o destino do herói; a vontade de Zeus e o plano de Zeus; a morte dos heróis; os jogos fúnebres, registrados na Ilíada e na Odisséia. Para a coleta dos dados utiliza-se de leitura sistemática, abrangendo textos de autores antigos e de autores contemporâneos, verificando o comportamento dos helenos do período Homérico diante da morte. Aponta como principais resultados: há um encadeamento ideológico que liga as mortes dos principais heróis homéricos, tecido pelo poeta e baseado no ciclo épico; há um plano de Zeus para eliminar os principais heróis porque as mortes destes heróis causam sofrimento nos deuses; as crenças na vida depois da morte e os processos funerários adotados pelos gregos do período Homérico ainda estavam em formação; os antigos gregos não mantinham uma crença sistemática em uma idéia de ressurreição da alma ou em uma idéia de vida pós-morte. Conclui que há uma diretriz ideológica que ordena a trama épica nos poemas homéricos; esta ordenação leva os heróis a cumprirem seus destinos, seguindo um encadeamento que leva em consideração o grau de honra e excelência guerreira; os ritos fúnebres dos gregos do período Homérico estavam se consolidando e Homero colaborou neste processo de consolidação, que já estava concretizado no período Clássico. / It verifies and analyzes the enchainment ideological used for Homer to order the death of Greek heroes principal of the epic cycle; the warrior ideal of the death beauty and the heroic ideal of the imperishable glory; the fate of the common man and the fate of the hero; the will of Zeus and the plain of Zeus; the death of heroes; the funeral games, registered in the Iliad and Odyssey. The data were obtained through: systematical reading of texts produced by ancients authors and by contemporarys authors, verifying the behavior of the Greeks of the Homeric period in the face of death. It points to as main results: there is a enchainment ideological what tie the deaths of the Homeric heroes principal, weaved for the poet and based in the epic cycle; there is a plain of Zeus to eliminate the heroes principal because the death these heroes cause suffering in the gods; the believe in the afterlife and the funerals processes adopted to the Greeks of Homeric period still were in formation; the Greek ancients not keep one systematic belief in one idea of resurrection of the soul or in one idea of life after-death. It finishes that there is a ideological directrix what order the epic plot in the Homeric poems; this ordering carry the heroes to accomplish their fates, following a enchainment what take into account the degree of the honor and warrior excellence; the funerals rites of the Greeks of Homeric period were consolidating and Homer collaborate in this process of the consolidation, what already was materialized in the Classic period.

Ce mémoire propose d’analyser une série phénomène à travers le concept de série monde développé dans les études télévisuelles et cinématographiques. Notre objet d’analyse est Xena la guerrière (Syndication 1995-2001), une série des années 1990 connue à l’ère contemporaine pour son phénomène de fandom autour de la série et des personnages Xena et Gabrielle. Les séries de la fin des années 1990 s’inscrivent dans une ère de transition, où numérique et mutations narratives vont participer à la création d’objets denses et complexes. Nous tenterons d’établir un parallèle entre la structure d’une série télévisée et sa réception qui reposent toutes les deux sur une logique de densification, à observer sous différentes formes : l’extension, la continuité et la dérivation, ainsi que sur deux niveaux : le texte et le fandom. L’analyse diégétique de la série nous permettra d’établir une conception de la série comme une expérience dense et complexe qui invite et suggère une pluralité interprétative. Les spectateurs/fans investissent l’objet de différentes façons jusqu’à produire des lectures riches et variées. Définir un phénomène sériel reviendrait donc à s’intéresser à cette corrélation : producteurs, texte, fans et contextes, qui permet l’expansion de l’objet dans de multiples directions. L’analyse de Xena la guerrière autour d’une logique de densification nous permettrait de mieux comprendre certains phénomènes de fandom autour de séries contemporaines. / This dissertation proposes an analysis of a series phenomenon through the concept of world series developed in television and film. Our object of analysis is Xena: Warrior Princess (Syndication 1995-2001), a television series from the 1990s known in the contemporary era for the phenomenon of fandom created around the series and characters Xena and Gabrielle. The series of the late 1990s are part of an era of transition, where digital and narratives mutations come together in the creation of dense and complex objects. We will try to draw a parallel between the structure of a television series and its reception, both of which are based on a logic of densification, to be observed in different forms: extension, continuity, and derivation, as well as on two levels: the text of Xena and the fandom of Xena. The diegetic analysis of the series will allow us to establish the conception and origins of the series as something dense and complex that invites and suggests a plurality of interpretations. Spectators/fans invest time and effort in the show in a variety of ways to produce rich and varied interpretations and fandom content. Defining a serial phenomenon would therefore take us back to examining the correlation of: producer, text, fans, and context, which allows this expansion of the series in multiple directions. The analysis of Xena: Warrior Princess around a logic of densification will allow us to better understand certain phenomena of fandom around contemporary series.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of the warrior-hero ideal as it evolves in Shakespeare's English and Roman plays, and its ultimate failure as a standard for exemplary conduct. What this study demonstrates is that the ideal of kingship that is developed in the English histories, especially in the Second Tetralogy, and which reaches its zenith in Henry V, is quite literally overturned in three Roman plays--Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. The method of determining this difference is a detailed analysis of these groups of plays. This analysis utilizes the body of Shakespearean criticism in order to note the almost total silence on what this study shows to be Shakespeare's growing disillusionment with the hero-king ideal and his final portrait of this ideal as a failure. It is the main conclusion of this study that in certain plays, and most particularly in the Roman plays, Shakespeare demonstrates a consciousness of something more valuable than political expediency and political legality. Indeed, the tragedy of these political heroes lies precisely in their allegiance to the standard of conduct of the soldier-king. Brutus, Antony, and Coriolanus, among others, suffer defeat in their striving to capture a higher reality. This investigation demonstrates that the concept of honor has lost its value in the social matrix of political machinations.

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This thesis argues for significant correlations in the politics of representation of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships in two literary texts by Maxine Hong Kingston and Fae Myenne Ng. The two novels do not follow traditional representations of Chinatown and provide critical representations of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships. First, Kingston's The Woman Warrior reveals how the heroine demystifies a powerful image of her mother and a mystic image of Chinatown in a process of establishing her autonomy. Second, Ng's Bone describes how the heroine tries to free her mother from a dismal image of Chinatown to live her own life outside Chinatown. The analyses of representation of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships rely on close readings of the textual motifs through a psychoanalytic framework and cultural theories. / Graduation date: 2012

本論文將用榮格的原型觀念(archetypes)探討瑪格麗特˙愛德伍小說《盲眼刺客》中的人物性格。 本論文由五章組成。第一章將大略介紹《盲眼刺客》的內容以及其評論。第二章將會介紹榮格對集體無意識(the collective unconscious)的概念以及其和原型概念的關連；接著，將會根據兩位新榮格學派的學者，瑪莉恩˙伍德曼(Marion Woodman)和卡蘿˙皮爾森(Carol S. Pearson)對原型理論的闡述，針對兩個原型加以探討──鬥士原型和殉道者原型。在父權社會的影響下，這兩個原型時常會被過度簡化成對兩性的刻板印象，而在這簡化過程裡，原本屬於這兩個原型的能量和複雜性都被忽視或壓抑了。 第三章始於對愛德伍小說人物的辯護，說明其人物並不是一般所說的刻版人物，而是充滿衝突與能量的原型人物。而後，我會把小說中的人物和象徵和神話及童話中的人物作連結。在一方面，我將會對於小說中的現實人物，如艾麗絲和蘿拉(Iris and Laura)，和小說中的象徵角色，盲眼刺客和獻祭少女，做連結且並討論；另一方面，我將會將這兩個象徵角色延伸出去，探討與之相關的神話或童話人物，或是，更上一層的原型人物。在第四章，我則會依據小說人物和其原型的關係加以剖析，檢視他們和其原型的認同狀況，及他們膨脹(Inflation)的程度。 在最後的第五章，將以原型的概念來詮釋小說中各個人物的悲劇做為總結。《盲眼刺客》中的每個人物都傾向於過份認同某個原型，而忽略了讓自我有平衡發展的重要性。 / This thesis is to discover the psychological depths of the characters in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin and to analyze them according to the Jungian conception of archetypes and the influence of archetypes upon the human psyche. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction, including the overview of the novel and its critical backgrounds. And Chapter Two introduces C.G. Jung’s conception of the collective unconscious and its relation with archetypes and follow with specific discussion of certain archetypes—the Warrior and the Martyr—mainly according to the theories of two neo-Jungian scholars, Marion Woodman and Carol S. Pearson. Since these two archetypes are often over-simplified to fit in gender stereotypes under the influence of patriarchal society, the energies and complexity of these archetypes are always neglected or repressed. Chapter Three begins with an argument that Atwood’s characters are not stereotypical but rather archetypal, for they possess the contradictory energies within them that are correspondent with that of archetypes. On the one hand, I discuss how the characters in the memoir are symbolized in the science-fiction allegory, being reflected as the blind assassin and the sacrificial maiden; on the other hand, I make a connection between the symbols of the novel—the blind assassin and sacrificial maiden—and the mythological and fairy-tale allusions, and further, the archetypes behind them. In Chapter Four, I examine the psychic problems of the characters according to their relations with the archetypes—to examine how much they identify unconsciously with the archetypes and the extent of their inflation. Finally, Chapter Five concludes with the archetypal explanation of the tragic life of the characters in the novel. Each of them is trapped in an overwhelming power of a certain archetype instead of having the ego balanced between these multiple archetypes, they turn themselves into mythical figures that are too rigid for humanity.

The paper deals with the use of unmanned aircraft of the American national security policy. It examines the history of unmanned aviation, its military use, and cost- efficiency. It then examines the main obstacles and problems with their use in national security that this technology meets and will meet in the future after a higher level of autonomy is developed. These problems involve legal issues, international and domestic American law, the issue of civilian casualties, the role of the media, and public opinion. The final chapter focuses on the problems of technical, strategic and operational issues. In this section the research paper comes to the first conclusion which claims that the introduction of more autonomous systems to war will radically change its structure and, consequently, standard procedures and strategies. Case studies are included to illustrate how successful the drone strategy is applied in the five countries where the United States leads a war on terror. The research using the theory of the revolution in military affairs concludes that these UAVs pose the greatest challenge in history and it goes well beyond military matters. UAVs in national security affect the understanding of the basic principles of war in relation to the concepts of warrior ethos and just war.

Eighteen elements, including: carbon, oxygen, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, strontium, and barium were measured using a scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy from deposits. The deposits were collected by burning eight different coals in a 160 kWth, staged, down-fired, swirl-stabilized combustor. Both up-stream and down-stream deposits from an oxidizing region (equivalence ratio 0.86) and reducing region (equivalence ratio 1.15) were collected. Within the deposits, the particle size and morphology were studied. The average particle cross-sectional area from the up-stream deposits ranged from 10 - 75 µm2 and had a standard deviation of 36 - 340 µm2. These up-stream particles were of various shapes: spherical, previously molten particles; irregular particle that had not melted, hollowed spherical shells; and layered or strands of particles. These particles were a mixture of burned and unburned coal being deposited at various stages of burnout and having completed some burnout after deposition. The average particle cross-sectional area from the down-stream deposits ranged 0.9 - 7 µm2 and the standard deviation range of 2.6 - 30 µm2. The shape of the particles on the bottom sleeves are typically spherical indicating melting prior to deposition. Particles contained a distribution of elemental compositions that were not tightly grouped on ternary phase diagrams. This indicated that particles were not single compounds or phases but each particle contained a mixture of multiple compounds. Coals' deposit sulfur was strongly correlated with the calcium and iron content of the ASTM ash analysis. The low rank sub-bituminous and lignite coals that had high calcium content produced high sulfur deposits, particularly in the oxidizing region, down-stream deposits. The high iron bituminous coals, also produced high sulfur deposits, but more so in the reducing region, up-stream deposits. The low calcium and low iron coals produced low sulfur deposits. Mahoning was an exception being high in iron content but remaining low in sulfur content in the deposit. Gatling coal showed numerous deposit particles that contained only iron and sulfur consistent with the high pyrite content of Gatling coal. The average concentration of chlorine was insignificant in all of the deposits with the concentration being less than 100 ppm. Individual particles containing chlorine were found and were associated with potassium, sodium, and iron.