Women authors in mid to late nineteenth century American society were unafraid to shed the old domestic ideology and set new examples for women outside of racial and gender spheres. This essay focuses on the ways in which Elizabeth Stoddard's The Morgesons, Louisa May Alcott's Behind a Mask, and Elizabeth Keckley's Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House represent the function of fashion and attire in literature. Each author encourages readers to examine dress in a way that defies the typical domestic ideology of nineteenth century America. I want my readers to understand the role of fashion in literature as I progress through each work and ultimately show how each female author and protagonist set a new example for womanhood through their fashion choices.

In this essay we follow a professional female photographer on the island of Gotland in Sweden around the turn of the twentieth century. The story of Laura Stenman’s life has for a long time been hidden, but through literature- and archival studies, her biographical story was pieced together and revealed during the winter of 2019. Through this essay her family life and photographic work has emerged. In parallel, a piece of the history of photography and the first photographers on Gotland are revealed.  The essay highlights the educational opportunities and advice available to those interested in photography at this time. It also describes the photographic studios that Laura Stenman and her second husband worked in. How the studio was planned and what inventories you would find in them. It also describes which assignments were the most common, which customers they had, how they communicated with the customers and how they found new ones. The economic conditions and aspects both for the photographer and the person to be portrayed, were of the utmost importance, and this is also being discussed. Some of the photographic pictures that Laura Stenman made were found and studied in detail in order to find patterns in her work. The essay also highlights how both the married and unmarried women were affected by changes in two big reforms in Sweden. First in 1846 when new opportunities arose for those who wanted to carry on activities in the craft profession, and second in 1864 when a business freedom regulation was introduced. Laura Stenman was married twice an both marriages changed her life and her history in different directions which is also being discussed throughout the essay. / I denna uppsats får vi följa en kvinnlig yrkesverksam fotograf på Gotland under sekelskiftet 1900. Laura Stenmans historia var länge dold men genom litteratur- och arkivstudier pusslades hennes biografiska skelett under vintern 2019 åter samman. En bild av hennes familjeliv och fotografiska arbete utkristalliserade sig. Parallellt har frågor om när fotokonsten och fotograferna egentligen kom till Gotland och vilka de första fotograferna var, besvarats. Vilka utbildningsmöjligheter och råd fanns för den intresserade vid denna tid?Arbetet beskriver de fotoateljéer som Laura Stenman och hennes andra man var aktiva i. Vart de byggdes upp, hur de planerades, fungerade och vad som fanns i dem. Även vilka fotografernas vanligaste uppdrag var, vilka kunder de hade, hur de kommunicerade med dem och hittade nya. De ekonomiska förutsättningarna och aspekterna både för fotografen och den som skulle låta sig avporträtteras var av allra största vikt vilket också diskuteras. Ett antal fotografiska visitkort som Laura Stenman lämnat efter sig studerades närmare. Vid 1846 års reform avskaffades skråväsendet i Sverige vilket gav nya möjligheter för den som ville bedriva verksamhet inom hantverksyrken och 1864 infördes sedan näringsfrihetsförordning. Uppsatsen lyfter hur både gifta och ogifta kvinnor påverkades av detta. Laura Stenman själv var gift två gånger och dessa giftermål påverkade hennes liv och historieskrivning i olika riktningar vilket har diskuterats genom hela arbetet.

Caliban, the ultimate figure of linguistic and racial indeterminacy in The Tempest, became for African-American writers a symbol of colonial fears of rebellion against oppression and southern fears of black male sexual aggression. My dissertation thus explores what I call the "Calibanic Quadrangle" in essays and novels by Anna Julia Cooper, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins. The figure of Caliban allows these authors to inflect the sentimental structure of the novel, to elevate Calibanic utterance to what Cooper calls "crude grandeur and exalted poesy," and to reveal the undercurrent of anxiety in nineteenth-century American attempts to draw rigid racial boundaries. The Calibanic Quadrangle enables this thorough critique because it allows the black woman writer to depict the oppression of the "Other," southern fears of black sexuality, the division between early black and white women's issues, and the enduring innocence of the progressive, educated, black female hero ~ all within the legitimized boundaries of the Shakespearean text, which provides literary authority to the minority writer. I call the resulting Shakespearean intertextuality a Quadrangle because in each of these African-American works a Caliban figure, a black man or "tragic mulatto" who was once "petted" and educated, struggles within a hostile environment of slavery and racism ruled by the Prospero figure, the wielder of "white magic," who controls reproduction, fears miscegenation, and enforces racial hierarchy. The Miranda figure, associated with the womb and threatened by the specter of miscegenation, advocates slavery and perpetuates the hostile structure. The Ariel figure, graceful and ephemeral, usually the "tragic mulatta" and a slave, desires her freedom and complements the Caliban figure. Each novel signals the presence of the paradigm by naming at least one character from The Tempest (Caliban in Cooper's A Voice from the South; "Mirandy" in Harper's Iola Leroy; Prospero in Hopkins's Contending Forces; and Ariel in Hopkins's Hagar's Daughter).

Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte' untersucht die Rolle von Frauen in der Vergangenheit und der Geschichtsschreibung, hebt sie als Handelnde hervor und dekonstruiert die binäre Geschlechterordnung, die seit dem 19. Jahrhundert zunehmend Eingang in die Geschichtswissenschaft gefunden hat. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Genese dieser Disziplin in der Nachkriegszeit, ihren bis in die Gegenwart bestehenden emanzipatorischen Charakter sowie über die 'nützliche Kategorie Gender' (Scott) und ihre Interaktion mit anderen Wissensfeldern.

Le Mouvement de libération des femmes en France ne fut pas seulement un mouvement politique et social, ce fut également l’une des dernières, si ce n’est la dernière, avant-garde littéraire que la France a connue. Du point de vue international, l’activité des littératrices au sein du Mouvement constitue un des principes distinctifs de la lutte des femmes en France. Les manifestantes qui déposent publiquement une gerbe de fleurs à la femme plus inconnue encore que le soldat inconnu sous l’Arc de Triomphe le 26 août 1970, sont déjà pour certaines – appelées à le devenir pour d’autres – des écrivaines. Dix ans plus tard, le MLF, depuis peu marque déposée à l’Institut national de la propriété industrielle, appartient à une éditrice, Antoinette Fouque, promotrice d’une écriture dite féminine. Dans l’espace circonscrit par ces deux points fixes, paraît un ensemble de textes qui s’inscrivent au sein de deux tendances majoritaires – mais antagonistes – du Mouvement, le féminisme d’une part et la néo-féminité, ou éloge de la différence, d’autre part. En miroir, un double rhizome éditorial se développe, partageant maisons d’édition et revues en deux factions militantes et littéraires bien distinctes. Pendant dix ans, la littérature se met tout autant au service du Mouvement des femmes que le Mouvement irradie la littérature, chacun-e influençant et informant la pratique et la pensée de l’autre. C’est de cette coïncidence entre littérature et Mouvement de libération des femmes que le présent écrit se propose de rendre compte, afin de retracer un mouvement politique qui fut et se fit littéraire, et, dans le même élan, une littérature qui fut et se fit politique. Par là même, la thèse redouble la question posée par tout un mouvement de femmes à la littérature elle-même, contestant ses définitions premières et repoussant les limites qui lui ont été assignées. / The Women’s Liberation Movement (MLF) was not only a political and social movement, but one of the last, if not the very last, literary avant-garde that France has experienced. From an international perspective, the activity of the literary women within the movement represents one of the fundamental principles of the fight for women’s rights in France. The demonstrators, who publicly placed a bouquet of flowers for the unknown wife of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe on August 26th 1970, are for some, and are soon to become for others, women writers. Ten years later, the MLF, a recently registered trademark with the National Institute for Intellectual Property Rights, belongs to the editor, Antoinette Fouque, promotor of female writing. Within the space determined by these two fixed points, there exists a collection of texts that adhere to two major trends – although antagonistic – of the movement, Feminism on one hand and Neofeminity, or the praise for “difference”, on the other hand. Mirroring each other, a dual editorial form develops, sharing publishers and scholarly journals, into two distinct literary and militant factions. For ten years, literature served the purpose of the Women’s Liberation Movement as much as the latter promoted literature, each influencing and informing the other by practice and thought. It is precisely this coexistence between literature and the Women’s Liberation Movement that the present dissertation proposes to examine, in order to trace the political movement that was and made itself literary, and, by the same token, a literature that was and made itself political. At the same time, the dissertation continues the question asked of literature by an entire women’s movement, challenging its assigned definitions and pushing back its boundaries.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis centers on a country that has produced some of the greatest and most important English language dramas of the past two centuries. Within this cultural context, this thesis is also about a feminine revival in Irish theatre and how this can be a powerful tool to incite change. Early in history, Irish writers, and specifically dramatists, recreated a type of theatre that captured the true essence of what it meant to be Irish by representing their struggles, frustrations and humor. The Irish talent for storytelling connects back to its Gaelic roots and has remained a constant in the life of a culture that has passed down this art form for centuries. The focus of this thesis is to examine three contemporary Irish plays by prominent playwrights who came to the world of theatre from very different backgrounds. Each play is written by a different hand, yet all share a vital common denominator: the interaction of female character groups – groups that are central to the action of each play. What incited my interest in these three plays – Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, Anne Devlin’s Ourselves Alone and Marina Carr’s The Mai – was the playwright’s ability to expose what had been silenced in Irish history for so long. Each female character portrays one important aspect of Irish womanhood that has been tragically understated in the nation’s literature since the death of John Millington Synge: woman’s struggle between what she wants to be and who she is expected to be. These three plays will be scrutinized in terms of three elements of social control contributing to woman’s struggle in Irish society: myth, church and patriarchal tradition.

This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS & THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie verhandeling word die tekste van onderskeidelik Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - I974 ), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) en Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) bespreek as verteenwoordigend van die koloniale literatuur deur die vroulike outeur. Die doel is om vas te stel hoe daar deur die vroue outeur in die Vlaamse letterkunde aan die Afrika-ervaring gestalte gegee is. Eerstens word 'n oorsig van die begrip koloniale literatuur gegee en daama word literer-histories op die Vlaamse Afrika-literatuur vanaf die prekoloniale- tot die postkoloniale era gefokus. Nadat 'n analise van die tekste gedoen is om die individuele perspektiewe te evalueer, blyk dit dat die vroue outeurs in 'n groot mate gemeenskaplike visies in hul siening van die koloniale era openbaar. 'n Beeld van die koloniale Kongo soos dit in die ervaringswereld van die vroue outeurs bly voortleefhet, kan so verkry word / In this thesis, the texts of Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - 1974), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) and Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) were respectively studied as representative of the colonial literature written by female authors. The aim is to establish how stature is given in the literature to the Africa experience by the female author. In the first instance the concept colonial literature is discussed followed by a historical review of the Flemish African literature from the pre-colonial to the postcolonial era. After an analysis has been completed to evaluate the individual perspectives of the different authors, it appears that the female authors reveal shared perspectives in their views on the colonial era. Through knowledge of the work of these authors, an image of the colonial Congo can be found, as it lives on in the world of the female literator / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)

This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS and THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie verhandeling word die tekste van onderskeidelik Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - I974 ), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) en Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) bespreek as verteenwoordigend van die koloniale literatuur deur die vroulike outeur. Die doel is om vas te stel hoe daar deur die vroue outeur in die Vlaamse letterkunde aan die Afrika-ervaring gestalte gegee is. Eerstens word 'n oorsig van die begrip koloniale literatuur gegee en daama word literer-histories op die Vlaamse Afrika-literatuur vanaf die prekoloniale- tot die postkoloniale era gefokus. Nadat 'n analise van die tekste gedoen is om die individuele perspektiewe te evalueer, blyk dit dat die vroue outeurs in 'n groot mate gemeenskaplike visies in hul siening van die koloniale era openbaar. 'n Beeld van die koloniale Kongo soos dit in die ervaringswereld van die vroue outeurs bly voortleefhet, kan so verkry word / In this thesis, the texts of Mireille Cottenje (Dagboek van Carla - 1968), Daisy Ver Boven (Mayana - 1974), Henriette Claessens (Afscheid van Rumangabo - 1983) and Lieve Joris (Terug naar Kongo - 1987) were respectively studied as representative of the colonial literature written by female authors. The aim is to establish how stature is given in the literature to the Africa experience by the female author. In the first instance the concept colonial literature is discussed followed by a historical review of the Flemish African literature from the pre-colonial to the postcolonial era. After an analysis has been completed to evaluate the individual perspectives of the different authors, it appears that the female authors reveal shared perspectives in their views on the colonial era. Through knowledge of the work of these authors, an image of the colonial Congo can be found, as it lives on in the world of the female literator / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)