Letteratura scientifica selezionata sul tema "Feminists – biography"

Abstract: The multivalent processes by which historic activists are remembered are shaped by contemporary political projects. Drawing on recent insights into the relationship between memory and activism, I contend that the longstanding cultural remembrance of three late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century revolutionaries has depended on their reappraisal by “second-wave” feminist movements in the late twentieth century. Moving from an account of their adversarial relations to the women’s movements of their day to their subsequent interpretation as exemplary feminists, selected works of feminist auto/biography have undoubtedly contributed to these figures’ changing remembrance over time. A rhetoric of repair is therefore central to life writing by second-wave feminists, and reparative remembrance has had a continuing impact on these figures’ representation up to the present day. Abstract: Les processus polyvalents par lesquels la mémoire des militants et militantes historiques est perpétuée sont façonnés par les projets politiques contemporains. Sur la base d’observations récentes concernant la relation entre la mémoire et l’activisme, nous soutenons que la mémoire culturelle pérenne de trois révolutionnaires de la fin du XIXe et du début du XXe siècle s’est articulée autour du réexamen qu’en ont fait les mouvements féministes de la « deuxième vague » à la fin du XXe siècle. Certains ouvrages biographiques ou d’auto-biographie féministes ont sans aucun doute contribué à l’évolution du souvenir de ces figures au fil du temps, en faisant passer le récit de leurs relations conflictuelles avec les mouvements féminins de leur époque à une interprétation ultérieure faisant d’elles des féministes exemplaires. Nous pouvons donc avancer qu’une rhétorique de la réparation est au cœur de l’écriture des féministes de la deuxième vague, et que la remémoration réparatrice a eu une incidence continue sur la représentation de ces figures jusqu’à ce jour.

As the film industry developed, movies became a concern for some people. One of them is feminists, feminists are starting to infiltrate the film world, and like actors and directors, like Nancy Meyers, Nancy is a gender equality person. The purpose of this research is to find similarities between the characters in the film The Intern (Jules Ostin) character and the director and the reasons why the director included those elements. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method and the sources are the film itself (The Intern 2015), transcripts from the film and news media. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that there are similarities between the life of the director and the character of Jules Ostin. The director tries to include and portray several elements of feminism and gender stereotypes that are presented through the director’s own biography, and also emphasizes that the director (Nancy Meyers) wants people and views to notice a woman when she brings this subject in the film to change and consider them equal to men. in matters of life or choosing a profession.

From the start, biography played a vibrant and significant part in the growth of women's history, especially American women's history, as a well-respected and popular field within the historical profession. The insistence of feminist biographers that the personal is political, and that attention must be paid to the daily lives of their subjects as well as to their more public achievements, continues to ripple through the field of biography as a whole. To talk about biography is also to talk about the biographer, for the precise reason that behind every biography lies autobiography—that special spark that draws the biographer to the subject in the first place and the interaction that unfolds as the project moves forward (or stalls, as often happens). As feminist theory reminds us, the personal element is relevant to the broader intellectual agenda.

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269). Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269). Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

This paper proposes to explore gender relations in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Operating from the knowledge that gender is culturally determined feminists criticize male-dominated patriarchal societies, which they argue marginalize or discount women by limiting their opportunity for self-definition and self-actualization. The question that needs to be addressed, then, is: Is gender relation in The Secret Agent constructed around stereotypical representations? Or can this work be read otherwise? Our assumption is that Conrad’s criticism of such patriarchal system is done through irony. The ‘Edenic home’ that would embody Conrad’s cherished ideals is, as we know, a home browbeaten by a political exile. We shall argue that Conrad deals narratively with his own traumatic history by displacing it onto Winnie’s otherness. This traumatic event is ironically expressed in the falling down of the novel’s house, the house of an overweening, unquestioned patriarchy. On one hand, the fallen house symbolizes the ‘idealization’ of the Western society. On the other hand, it raises ideological issues in relation to the “Other”, the oppressed. We shall argue that the evidence of his biography, correspondence, and the fictional work under study suggest a complex relationship between the writer, the women in his life, and the fictional female characters. The importance of the female character, Winnie Verloc, may be explained by the fact that women played a vital role during his youth in Poland. In a letter of 1900 to Edward Garnett, Conrad himself remarked on the benefit he had received from the close bond and the extraordinary ‘sister-cult’ established amongst the Bobrowski women.

Božena Slančíková Timrava (1867-1951) is an eminent Slovak writer. Her highly regarded realistic novels dealt with the rise of the modern Slovak nation. The intricate historical circumstances of the early 20th century, and the eventual emergence of the Slovak nation within complex European culture, made Timrava’s effort even more important. Due to the multicultural nature of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Timrava’s work is also meaningful in our trans-national and trans-cultural Global village. Timrava and other Slovak literary women were virtually unknown outside Slovakia until the extensive work done by Professor Norma L. Rudinsky (1928-2012), whose translation of six “Slovak stories by Timrava” was published in1992. However to truly understand and appreciate the importance of Timrava’s work, the English-speaking reader needed cultural and historical context. Rudinsky’s life-long effort culminated in the publication of “Incipient Feminists: Women Writers in theSlovak National Revival,” which was meant as a preamble to the works of Timrava for the English-speaking world. This paper introduces the life and work of Timrava within the intricate historical context of Slovak nation-building. It further outlines the importance of Rudinsky’s work and describes some interesting aspects of her translation. Attempting to present a practical cultural and historical approach to translation, the paper stresses the significance of so called ‘cultural grids’ and identifies the key elements, the ‘historical grids’, as well as author’s and translator’s biography, all within the wider context of the translator’s historical and sociological ‘matrix’ which ultimately determines the success of any translation of realistic historical literature.

Lamia Rustum Shehadeh’s timely book, The Idea of Woman inFundamentalist Islam, begins with a brief biography of influential “fundamentalists.” She examines the context in which they formulated their theoriesand the extent to which they influenced each other, a process thatallows us to see their ideas as a response to the historical, political, andsocial environments in which they lived. For example, the MuslimBrotherhood, founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, not only helped formulateand consolidate Islamic revivalism in Egypt, but also helped provide ablueprint for a sociopolitical organization that promoted the political Islamor Islamism influencing chapters in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine.The ideas promoted by the Brotherhood also spread to Sudan, where theycontinue to guide the current regime’s policies. In some cases, as in Iran andSudan, pronouncements of these ideologues influence state law and publicpolicy. At other times they challenge the state, as in Tunisia.Al-Banna promotes the view that Muslim countries became impoverishedand fell under European control because they have deviated fromIslam. He suggests that Muslims see Islam as the solution to their problems.However, al-Banna and other Islamists believe that Islam’s historicaltraditions are irrelevant for modern times. Instead, they propose areturn to what they believe to be the traditions of the Prophet’s time andthat of the first four caliphs. Moreover, they advocate the use of ijtihad(independent judgment), a practice that allows them to interpret seventhcenturytraditions in light of modern needs. Islamist ideologues reservethis practice for themselves, and thus largely marginalize its alternativeuses by feminists and other progressive groups to advance women’s rightsor minority rights ...

An attempt is made to identify the female personalities behind the specific attributions of four of William Baird's Scottish ostracod species: viz. Philomedes brenda (Baird, 1850), Macrocypris minna (Baird, 1850), Cylindroleberis mariae (Baird, 1850) and Cypris joanna Baird, 1835. A Scottish borderer by birth, although he spent most of his career in the British Museum (Natural History), Baird (1803–1872) was co-responsible, with two older brothers, plus George Johnston (the Club's first President) and five other gentlemen, for establishing the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club in 1831. This is generally regarded as the first society of its kind. In common with most of his contemporaries, it seems that he held Sir Walter Scott's romantic works in high regard. Brenda and Minna are Shetland heroines from Scott's novel The pirate, which would tie in with these species' type localities being in the wild waters offshore from that archipelago. The suggestion is advanced that the other two names honour two ladies of high literary repute, who were also prominent associates of Walter Scott: Joanna Baillie and Maria Edgeworth (though it is possible though that the epithet mariae might also acknowledge Baird's wife, Mary). Both these writers, of plays, poetry and novels (respectively) were radical proto-feminists who espoused social reform. As such their views and reputation may have resonated with William Baird. His brother, the Revd John Baird of Kirk Yetholm, became famous for espousing the rights of gypsies. William Baird's biography is considered in the context of his social contacts in the Scottish borders. Various associations between these ladies, Sir Walter Scott, the Baird family and the type localities of these ostracods are brought forwards in support of these contentions.

Our work is a feminist biography of Gabrielle Duchene (1870-1954), feminist activist, unionist, pacifist, antifascist, fellow traveller of the French Communist Party and an innovator as a propagandist. She represents one of the few personalities of the interwar period to symbolize the ideological congruence of these movements and to have tried to find a solution, another way, to the clash of their contradictions. All along her engagement, Gabrielle Duchene will make non-conventional choices. The objective of our research is to analyze her atypical reactions in order to put the multi-marginalization process into context and to understand all the influences in the creation of her amalgamated pacifism. The term 'multi-marginalization' is employed to name the exclusion or mistrust toward Gabrielle Duchene, openly expressed or not, by more than one social or political group. These exclusions generally come from the non-conformist reactions of Gabrielle Duchene. The example of her support to the Feminist Pacifist Congress held at The Hague, in 1915, is revealing: her choice is rejected by the majority of the French bourgeois feminists. What Gabrielle Duchene proposes to transcend the divisions with is her amalgamated pacifism: the fusion of the feminist, pacifist, antifascist (procommunist) principles, allowing to reconcile the points of view and the different methods of action in a common goal.
One of the most important factors of Gabrielle Duchene's activism is the impact of the Russian experience and the communist control on her integral pacifism. From 1927 to 1931, she develops a tinged pacifism, characterized by a change of rhetoric, influenced by the manipulation mechanisms put into place by the communists. As of 1932, she takes part in the antifascist movement, controlled by the communists, without however abandoning her feminist pacifism. The analysis of the different periods of activism of Gabrielle Duchene allows us to consider women's activities, still largely unexplored, in antifascist and communist history, and to demonstrate the convergence between the antifascist and the feminist pacifist movements in the 1930s. Moreover, our research takes a 'gendered' perspective. We use gender as an analytical tool, and not as an analytical category, in order to understand our subject as a sexualized being, whose activist and social experiences are defined by the inequalities resulting from this differentiation.

This practice-led thesis explores the use of lyric poetry as a form of feminist biography through the writing of a poetic biography, No Camelias, on the life of Anne Brennan, a figure of Australian literary history whose life has been sparsely recorded, and whose existing historical profile is marred by misogyny and indifference. The creative manuscript is accompanied by an exegetical essay which analyses poetry by Natalie Harkin and Jessica Wilkinson, two poets who explore marginalised histories through contrasting poetic approaches to archival research. Together, these connected components re-present Anne Brennan’s life through feminist grief, subjectivity and empathy.

This essay is a close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: a Biography that focuses on representation of gender in the novel and the possible response it elicits in the reader. The essay argues that the implied reader of Orlando - as manifested in the novel - is a feminist one, as well as it explores the possibility of this implied feminist reader being a female. The reasons as to why this could be are extensively examined by analyzing the main character Orlando as he metamorphoses from an English nobleman into a grown woman. To support the thesis, the essay looks both into reader response criticism and feminist criticism to clarify what an implied reader actually is. The similarities between Orlando and “A Room of One’s Own” are also touched upon as these suggest that the implied reader is a feminist. The essay then takes a closer look at the narrator of the novel and what this narrator suggests about the identity of the implied reader of the novel. In addition to this it is also concluded that s/he controls the reader’s perception of Orlando’s gender in the novel, and that this also echoes the ideals presented in “A Room of One’s Own”. The essay concludes that the implied reader of Orlando indeed is a feminist, but not necessarily a female one.

The subject of this thesis is Leonora written by Elena Poniatowska. The aim of the study is to analyze the literary technique and strategy used in constructing this book which depicts the life of a famous painter, Leonora Carrington. The analysis concentrates on two aspects: the extent of its feminist character and whether it can be classified as a fictional biography or a biographic fiction. In order to arrive at a conclusion on these issues a brief summary of literary and feminist theory is presented as well as a short description of relevant aspects of the surrealist movement. According to the author Leonora does not pretend to be a biography but rather a tribute to a great woman and artist. This esay however sustains that the book is a feminist fictional biography. In fact it builds upon books written by Carrington herself with a highly autobiographical content as well as on biographical texts. Both the author and her protoganist are well-known for their feminist stand and the analysis shows how feminist theory or thinking is reflected both on behalf on the writer as well as in the construction of the hero and certain aspects of her life that build up this biographical fiction.

AbstractFeminist scholars such as Donna Haraway (Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan©Meets_OncoMouse™: Feminism and technoscience, Routledge, 1997, Making oddkin: Story telling for earthly survival, YaleUniversity, 2017, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 34(3): 565–575, 2019) have been using storytelling in their research, challenging dominant thinking and writing practices in academic work. To counter dominant knowledge practices, storytelling interweaves a plurality of voices and knowledges which speak to one another in order to move toward the imagination and creation of new words, therefore new worlds. Our chapter explores the rich opportunities and challenges that narrative approaches provide for feminist research. We discuss what we could learn from the varied engagements with storytelling as an alternative methodological approach. To do so, creatively and in a dialogue, we bring together literature and insights from feminist narrative studies. At the same time, we ask each other questions, thinking through and reflecting on the use of this method.