Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cross cultural feminism'

The aim of this thesis is to consider how Nawal El Saadawi's literary work can be examined on a theoretical level and to locate a possible theoretical framework, in her feminist texts, through which to explore the subjective identity of Arab women and the authenticity and creativity of their discourses. As it is Saadawi's literary output t~at lies at the heart of this research, this thesis begins, after establishing the theoretical framework and terminology that will be employed, with a very necessary situating of her activist and feminist literature within the context of Arabic feminist writing within the male-dominated Arabic literary tradition. The role of Arab women's creative writing in consciousness-raising, the debates around Arab female identity and subjectivity and women's awareness ofthe cultural and political dilemmas oftheir time are all drawn into the discussion. The thesis goes on to present a psychoanalytical approach to Saadawi's feminist literature as a part ofthe study of colonial relations. As I argue, the concept of colonial relations between the colonizer and the native Other can be translated into, and therefore help understand, the dynamics of gender relations within the patriarchal domination of the female Other in the Arab world. This thesis explores Saadawi's fiction and non-fiction work between 1983 and 2002, which present the Arab woman as doubly traumatized by her struggle against foreign domination and a patriarchally hierarchized system. The texts will be used to explore Arab women's oppression and struggle for freedom, and to consider Saadawi's examination of the psychological and physical imprisonment she was subjected to. The thesis culminates in an examination of the writing of the female body and of women's perception of their sexuality through creativity and imagination,a creativity and imagination which is crucial, as Saadawi's work shows, for Arab women's transcendence of gendered hierarchy. Saadawi's novel The Circling Song will be explored through a framework of (Western) poststructuralist theory, with a specific focus on Helene Cixous' concept of feminine writing, revealing the relevance and importance of such ideas for the novel. Ultimately then, what this thesis proposes is a new way of reading Saadawi's work, one which I consider an example of Arab women's struggle to achieve and locate a subjectivity in the Arab as well as the Western worlds. It draws on Western theory, not to colonise or suppress the difference.

This thesis examines the trans-border circulation and production of feminist knowledge through translation. More specifically, my research focuses the translation of the U.S. women’s health book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, by a Chinese feminist NGO in 1998. My dissertation studies the social, cultural and political aspects of feminist translation, and examines the relation between translation and feminist praxis. Through the lens of gender and (feminist) health politics in 1990s China, I examine how the 1998 Chinese translation conveys the book’s message about how women should relate to their bodies. Set in the context of Chinese society opening up during the late 1970s, my research outlines the emergence of gender awareness in China with the influx of translated feminist texts, especially in the realm of women’s health research. Medical discourses were then assigned a privileged position in the studies of women’s sexual and reproductive health. However, with increased communications between Chinese and foreign feminists, Chinese women scholars developed new ideas around women’s sexual and reproductive health. The Chinese translation of OBOS addresses the lack of gender awareness in local discussions about women’s health. With a multi-method study, I emphasize the social and linguistic dimensions of translating a feminist health project into post-reform China. This study is based on both interview and comparative textual analysis data. Using feminist translation theories, I examine how the Chinese translators handled the book’s presentation of women’s sexuality and reproductive health. This thesis also highlights the constraints on translating feminism from the local context. This raises questions about the power of (feminist) translation, and emphasizes the need to examine the social-political context of translation practices.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Both democracy and civil society is seen to be dysfunctional in many African countries. Political leaders are not accountable to the people and citizens’ participation in the democracies is low. Particularly, women have often been neglected both within formal politics and the civil society. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate the role of the women’s movements in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. The study has focused on the relationship between the women’s movement and the state, and further addressed the extent to which the women’s movements have been able to direct the state and influence policymaking for improved women’s rights and gender equality in the respective countries. The thesis has found that the relationship between the women’s movements and the state in the three countries inhibits very different characteristics that give rise to varying degrees of success from the work of the women’s movements. Further, the relationship has been subjected to changes in accordance with the overall political developments in the three countries. In Uganda and South Africa the political transitions of the mid 1980s and early 1990s, each respectively represented a period of good connection and communication between the women’s movements and the state. The women’s movements were able to present a strong voice and, thereby, were able to influence the state for the adoption of national gender machineries. After the political transitions, the relationship between the women’s movements and the state in both Uganda and South Africa has, however, become more constrained. In South Africa, the debates on women’s rights and gender equality have been moved from the terrain of the civil society and into the state, leading to a seemingly weakened voice for the women’s movement outside the state. In Uganda, the women’s movement have come to be subjected to pressure for co-optation by the government. The government does not genuinely uphold a concern for increased women’s rights and gender equality, and the women’s movement has at times been directly counteracted. Further, in Kenya, the women’s movement’s relationship with the state is characterised by competition rather than communication. The women’s movement is subjected to high degrees of repression, attempts of cooptation and silencing from the state, and the women’s movement have been effectively restricted from presenting a strong voice and influence the state to any great. The three case- studies illustrates that the political opportunity structures present at a particular time influence the extent to which women’s movements can work effectively in different contexts.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Menige Afrikaland se demokrasie sowel as burgerlike samelewing word as disfunksioneel beskou. Politieke leiers doen geen verantwoording aan die mense nie, en burgers se deelname aan demokrasie is gebrekkig. Veral vroue word afgeskeep in die formele politieke sfeer én die burgerlike samelewing. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om die rol van die vrouebewegings in Uganda, Suid-Afrika en Kenia te ondersoek. Die studie konsentreer op die verhouding tussen die vrouebeweging en die staat, en handel voorts oor die mate waarin die verskillende vrouebewegings die staat kan lei en beleidbepaling kan beïnvloed om beter vroueregte en gendergelykheid in die onderskeie lande teweeg te bring. Die tesis bevind dat die verhouding tussen die vrouebewegings en die staat in die drie lande onder beskouing baie uiteenlopende kenmerke toon, wat wisselende grade van sukses in die vrouebewegings se werk tot gevolg het. Voorts verander dié verhouding namate die oorkoepelende politieke bestel in die drie lande verander. Uganda en Suid-Afrika se politieke oorgange in die middeltagtiger- en vroeë negentigerjare onderskeidelik het ʼn tydperk van goeie bande en kommunikasie tussen die vrouebewegings en die staat verteenwoordig. Die vrouebewegings se stem het groot gewig gehad en kon dus die staat beïnvloed om nasionale beleid en werkswyses met betrekking tot gender in te stel. Ná die onderskeie politieke oorgange is die verhouding tussen die vrouebeweging en die staat in sowel Uganda as Suid-Afrika egter aansienlik ingeperk. In Suid-Afrika het die debat oor vroueregte en gendergelykheid van die gebied van die burgerlike samelewing na die staat verskuif, wat die vrouebeweging se stem buite die staat aansienlik verswak het. In Uganda is die vrouebeweging weer onderwerp aan druk van koöpsie deur die regering. Die regering blyk nie werklik besorg te wees oor beter vroueregte en gendergelykheid nie, en die vrouebeweging word by tye direk teengewerk. Daarbenewens word die Keniaanse vrouebeweging se verhouding met die staat gekenmerk deur kompetisie eerder as kommunikasie. Die vrouebeweging het te kampe met heelwat onderdrukking en koöpsie- en muilbandpogings van die staat, en word in effek daarvan weerhou om hul menings te lug en die staat in enige beduidende mate te beïnvloed met die oog op groter doelgerigtheid en beter beleidbepaling wat vroueregte en gendergelykheid betref. Die drie gevallestudies toon dat die politieke geleentheidstrukture op ʼn bepaalde tydstip ʼn uitwerking het op die mate waarin vrouebewegings doeltreffend in verskillende kontekste kan funksioneer.

The study sought to uncover the constitution of migrant women's agency as they rebuild their lives in Australia, and to explore how contact with any publicly funded services might influence the capacity to be self determining subjects. The thesis used a framework of lifeworld theories (Bourdieu, Schutz, Giddens), materialist, trans-national feminist and post colonial writings, and a methodological approach based on critical hermeneutics (Ricoeur), feminist standpoint and decolonising theories. Thirty in depth interviews were carried out with 6 women migrating from each of 5 regions: Vietnam, Lebanon, the Horn of Africa, the former Soviet Union and the Philippines. Australian based immigration literature constituted the third corner of triangulation. The interviews were carried out through an exploration of themes format, eliciting data about the different ontological and epistemological assumptions of the cultures of origin. The findings revealed not only the women's remarkable tenacity and resilience as creative agents, but also the indispensability of Australia's publicly funded infrastructure or welfare state. The women were mostly privileged in terms of class, education and affirming relationships with males. Nevertheless, their self determination depended on contact with universal public policies, programs and with local community services. The welfare state seems to be modernity's means for re-establishing human connectedness that is the crux of the human condition. Connecting with fellow Australians in friendships and neighbourliness was also important in resettlement. Conclusions include a policy discussion in agreement with Australian and international scholars proposing that there is no alternative but for governments to invest in a welfare state for the civil societies and knowledge based economies of the 21st Century.

This study proceeds on the assumption that maternal discourse in the West, according to Kristeva, is repressed, which has resulted in the serious fracture of the mother-daughter relationship and seeks to isolate a restorative model in contemporary Chinese culture. Chapter One explores the feminist claim that this fractured relationship is the result of patriarchal oppressions (and the cause of twice as many women than men suffering depression) and attempts to reconcile feminist psychology with Kristeva‟s thesis that abjection per se is the cause of widespread depression among women. The next chapter delineates the features of a cross-cultural feminist analysis, which includes exploring notions of Foucaultian and Lacanian discourse, by situating gender as a tool within the context of feminist and postcolonial perspectives. An argument is made that cinema is a privileged site to cull material from which to probe discourses on m/other and the thesis of a sunken maternal metaphor across all cinematic genres is demonstrated. Contemporary Chinese culture is scrutinized for possibly curative discourses and Bourdieu‟s idea of „rebel‟ and „orthodox‟ discourse models is employed to this end. After finding dominant discourse on gender in contemporary Chinese societies unsatisfactory for this purpose, I examine three contemporary Chinese films, with Gong Li as the female lead, in which I unearth two rebel discourses on m/otherhood. I argue that men and boys need to be encouraged to develop their aptitude and skills to nurture and care. This will allow women much needed space and time to come to terms with themselves and their own needs. In short, women and especially m/others, worn-out from guilt and expectations, are desperate for nurturance themselves.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-332). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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O presente trabalho trata da presença de homens vestidos de mulher na cena pública soteropolitana: o transvestismo como oportunidade para desconstruir polaridades de Gênero. Trata-se de uma abordagem etnográfica, misturando reflexões sobre etnografia e transformismo, para pulverizar e re-significar as apresentações cênicas ditas marginais no âmbito das revisões de perspectivas e de assuntos nas artes cênicas no Brasil. Sendo uma autoetnografia transformista, onde a escritura encontra a performance, este estudo comporta trejeitos da escrita performativa, para tentar atender o “ser” da performance, assim como a sua ontologia, ou seja, a representação sem reprodução. Considera ainda as encenações do desaparecer e, ao escrever sobre o indocumentável evento da performance, tem consciência de que altera o próprio evento. Assim, também compreende: os Rastros do Desaparecimento, a Presença do Corpo em Performance, o Cross-dressing ou Transvestismo ou Transformismo, a Política/Poética Camp, Alteridade, ou as representações transnacionais do feminino coreográfico, uma grafia acerca dos Global Queerscapes, a drag queen na atualidade soteropolitana, em uma Epistemologia Drag, assim como, Nacionalidade, Transformismo e Homocultura nos cortejos e movimentos políticos públicos, em Salvador, e sua aproximação com a figura icônica da Carmem Miranda, que tem sido apropriada por homossexuais transvestidos, em todas as latitudes, como o epítome camp do excesso e da frescura internacionais.
What a Drag!: Ethnography, Performance and Female Impersonation by Fernando Antonio de Paula Passos examines the performative presence of cross-dressed men in Salvador’s public scenes: cross-dressing as the opportunity for the deconstruction of gender polarities. It consists of an approach that blends self-reflexive ethnography with issues of female impersonation and cross-dressing in order to study the multiplicity of their performances, their re-signification, their relatively recent arrival in the context of revisionist perspectives and subject matters in the academic field of the performing arts in Brazil. Incorporating concepts of auto-ethnography and theoretical transvestism, it brings together writing and performance in what is now known as performative writing, as it struggles to uncover what the “being” of performance is all about. In dealing with the ontology of performance as representation without reproduction, it is particularly focused on issues of disappearance. It is also aware that writing about the undocumentable event of the performance alters that same event. It also deals with: traces of disappearance, the presence of the body in performance, cross-dressing, camp, alterity, feminine choreography, Global Queerscapes, drag epistemology, nation, surrealism, pastoral, allegory, political resistance and Carmen Miranda, as the epitome of inter/national camp.

Chan Kit Sze Amy.
"June 2002."
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 332-354).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Dissertação de mestrado em Língua, Literatura e Cultura Inglesas
This thesis focuses on traditional fairy tales especially the well-known in Western literature, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White to shed light on another side of the popular viewpoints by means of modern retellings such as rewritings, film adaptations to reveal how the development of those tales can go further in contemporary society. In addition, the comparison with fairy tales in the East, mainly in China, through cross-cultural studies, will show us a different understanding of tales from Eastern and Western cultures, which will be helpful to reduce misunderstandings and discriminations. This dissertation starts by referring to the development of fairytales, a concept and a term invented in Western society, and to explore women issues and their desires, cultural and social similarities and differences. Then, we will try to demonstrate how contemporary rewritings show women stepping out of the shadow of men, and how the woman story teller becomes a heroine stepping into readers’ eyesight and fighting for what she desires through reading and analyzing those classical fairytales and their rewritings. In the final part, with the comparison with Chinese versions and Chinese culture and history, we will have discussions about the interpretations of Chinese variants in terms of morality, beliefs, religions to see the diversity and similarity of literature and culture existing in the two civilizations.
Esta tese de mestrado foca-se em contos de fadas tradicionais, essencialmente aqueles mais conhecidos da literatura ocidental, como por exemplo, O Capuchinho Vermelho, A Bela Adormecida, Cinderela e a Branca de Neve, com o objetivo de clarificar um outro ponto de vista popular através de modos de propagação modernos como a reescrita e publicação de contos ou adaptações cinematográficas, que revelam como o desenvolvimento destes contos pode continuar na sociedade contemporânea. Para além disso, através da comparação com contos de fadas orientais, maioritariamente provenientes da China, e de estudos interculturais, será possível obter uma perspetiva diferente acerca de contos do Ocidente e do Oriente, de modo a reduzir mal-entendidos e ideias discriminatórias que possam existir. Este documento começa com o desenvolvimento dos contos de fadas, um conceito e termo inventado pela sociedade ocidental, pela descoberta dos problemas e desejos das mulheres, e pelas diferenças e similaridades culturais e sociais. De seguida, será demostrado como a reescrita contemporânea retrata as mulheres a saírem da sombra dos homens, e como a mulher contadora de histórias se torna numa heroína que se atravessa na visão do leitor e luta por aquilo que pretende ao ler e analisar esses contos de fadas clássicos e as suas versões mais recentes. Na parte final, através da comparação entre versões chinesas e a cultura e história da China, serão discutidas as interpretações das variantes chinesas em termos de moralidade, crenças e religião para ver a diversidade e similaridade da literatura e cultura existente nas duas civilizações.

by Li Tsui-yan.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-105).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Chapter Chapter One --- The Dilemma of Liberation and Confinement: Female Subjectivity in Comparative Perspectives --- p.1
Chapter Chapter Two --- Deconstructing Patriarchal Discourse: Female Subjectivity in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook and The Summer Before the Dark --- p.18
Chapter Chapter Three --- "Resistance to the Stereotypes of Femininity: Female Subjectivity in Zhang Jie's “Love Must Not be Forgotten"" and “The Ark´ح" --- p.50
Chapter Chapter Four --- The Multiple and the Dynamic: Doris Lessing and Zhang Jie's Strategies in the Construction of Female Subjectivity --- p.73
Notes --- p.86
Works Cited --- p.99

Since 2005, the United States has experienced a significant influx of international students from Saudi Arabia, particularly women (Bollang, 2006). The American educational structure is something Saudi women have never experienced due to the vast differences between both cultures in all facets. There is very little to no research conducted on Saudi Arabian women pursuing higher education in an academic culture drastically different from what they are accustomed to. A review of current literature illustrates the critical need for a more in- depth analysis of this phenomenon. Although there is much research available regarding the subjugation of Saudi women in the past and present, the surge in Saudi women pursuing education in the United States has not been researched. This thesis study explores how Saudi women are adapting to the differences in educational structural between what they have experienced back home and what they are experiencing here at Oregon State University. This study also looks at how Saudi women are adapting to the differences in teaching methods at OSU in comparison to what they are used to back home. The traditional teacher-centered approach versus that at OSU that heavily incorporates a student-centered approach. This study utilizes qualitative research methods to find common themes that arose from interviews with the sample group. Findings suggest that the Saudi women studying at Oregon State University developed intercultural competence due to their strong personal desire to succeed in their studies abroad. These Saudi women also proved to have strong levels of motivation and desire to succeed academically in hopes that they will return to their country and assist in improving the status of women.
Graduation date: 2012

碩士
龍華科技大學
商學與管理研究所碩士班
93
This study concentrated in analyzing female performance such as body language, eye contact, role portrayal, or occupation from 735 copies of print advertising. This research adopted content analysis and depth interview to figure out contemporary female role portrayals in advertising arousing audiences’ different reaction. The results are following：(1)The feminine role portrayals in prints advertisements are product user, non-professional, and real life celebrity. The female roles are almost manipulated by the fit body and the feminine/classic beauty of the female model in print ads. Also it is less use the sexuality expression in print ads. (2) We found that the most often visual appears used in foreign woman magazine and financial management magazine are high and low angle. It can emphasize the characteristic and style.The body contact and sexual posture are often used in foreign woman magazine. In foreign woman magazine and financial management magazine, it focuses to inform the reader its product information and the ad’s content. The endorser is mainly the fem and classic beauty. (3) The results show that the power distances are strength and the individualism in foreign woman magazine and financial management magazine to reveal the ad’s content.

The present study Investigated the role of the breast and the uterus in the feminine self-concept of black and white South African women. It was hypothesised that the loss of the breast would be more traumatic for the white woman than for the black woman. This rested on the belief that the role of the female breast as an erotic stimulus for the male and an assurance of femininity for the female appears to be more pronounced in Western society than in African societies. In addition, it was suggested that the loss of the uterus would be more traumatic for the black woman than for the white woman as the meaning of the uterus appears to go beyond that of a childbearing organ, in so far as it is linked wo the issue of sexual desirability* Two groups of black women undergoing mastectomy and hysterectomy and two groups of white women undergoing similar operations were assessed pre- and postoperatively. Women completed the Berscheid, Walster and Bohrnstedt Body Image Scale (1972) which elicited data on body image, self-concept and satisfaction with intimate relationships. The observed data were analysed using analyses of convariance. No significant differences between the black and white

This study argues that literary and womanist perspectives on the book of. Esther can be used as resources for gender-social transformation in the South African Indian Pentecostal community. It maintains that Biblical scholarship cannot be confined only to the academy, while the Bible is used in the community to oppress women. When culture and interpretation both collude in the oppression of women, putting their lives at risk, it is imperative, this study argues, for those working in the field of liberation hermeneutics to not restrict their work to the academy. Hence, this study seeks to find ways to read the Bible in ways that liberate rather than oppress. The dissertation is divided into two sections. An examination of the ways in which ideology, plot, narrative time and characterization elucidate the theme of power in the narrative of Esther, form the first section of the dissertation. Each chapter of the first section focuses on the literary details of the text, but always with a hermeneutic of transformation in mind. In the second section, an analysis of how these critical interpretations contribute to the process of gender-social transformation is undertaken. This is done through a process of an analysis of a series of Bible studies conducted by the author with South African Indian Pentecostal women from the Durban area. Issues of representation and the scholar's role in the process of the transformation and conscientization of the community are also examined in this second section. The conclusion is a reflection of the implications of this study both to the academy and to the community. It reiterates that the collaboration between scholars and the community is a vital one, and the challenge that remains is for more organic intellectuals to use the opportunities which they have been given through their privileged access to education, to empower those in the community who have afforded them the opportunity.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) and The Eastern Seaboard of Tertiary Institutions (ESATI).

This thesis examines how cultural competency operates as a regime of governmentality. Inspired by Foucauldian genealogy, institutional ethnography, and Said’s concept of contrapuntality, this thesis problematizes the seamless production of racialized bodies in relation to mental disorder. I begin by elaborating a theoretical framework for interpreting race and madness as mutually constructed ordering practices. I then analyze what cultural competence produces and sustains in a position paper published by the Ontario Federation of Community Mental Health and Addiction Programs. I argue the Federation dismisses ongoing institutional violence—suggesting it is simply the perception, as opposed to the everyday reality, of discrimination that causes problems such as low educational attainment among youth of colour. To further support this claim, I deconstruct narratives of low self-esteem, maladaptive coping, depression, and denial of mental illness in the community needs assessments of two of the Federation’s member organizations: Hong Fook and Across Boundaries.