Tesi sul tema "Feminists – biography"

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.

Life for nineteenth century American women was full of restrictions and limitations. Frowned upon or simply not permitted to enter "male" spheres of activity such as professions, business and politics, many middle class women turned to philanthropy and reform work as the sole acceptable outlet for their energy, talents, and time. American Jews of German descent adopted the "Victorian ideal of womanhood" popular in the United States at this time, propelling many German-Jewish women to engage in charitable Zionist activity despite the general lack of support for Zionism in America earlier in this century. Among this group of bourgeois German-Jewish women involved in American Zionism was a poet, Jessie Ethel Sampter, whose contributions to the movement far exceeded those of the norm. Despite her limited Jewish education and upbringing, and extreme physical limitations, Sampter emerged as a pioneer feminist and Zionist, both in America and in her adopted country, Palestine.

This thesis aims to interrogate the notion that biography is a 'traditional, old-fashioned' genre immune to change through an investigation of the work of contemporary female biographers. Whilst biography is constrained by what could be defined as an historicist definition of fact, evidence that is immutable and cannot be altered to make a psychological or artistic point, the genre has been transformed because women's life writing has taught us that conventional biography is inadequate for telling the narratives of women's lives. Women writing biography have made experiments. Whilst some have failed, female biographers have demonstrated that the form can be adapted to incorporate a post-modern understanding of the self and the role of the author, and act as a valuable medium for telling the stories of the lives of women who have been hidden or ignored by history. The first two chapters provide a theoretical and historical framework for the writing of individual female biographers. Today a feminist epistemology has emerged- a more sophisticated post-modern form that is concerned with the theories or grounds of Knowledge rather than with the politics of feminism that dominated the biographies of the seventies. Chapters Three to Seven are devoted to contemporary female biographers who have made a significant contribution to the genre and thus helped to redefine the form. The final chapter is a synthesis of the conversations undertaken with women biographers for this thesis in order to provide a conceptual framework for my conclusions.

This thesis explores the international dimensions of Rosario Castellanos’ writings, which exhibit a constant—and evolving—preoccupation with feminist literature from across the world. The Mexican woman, public intellectual, professor, author, and ambassador dialogued with Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Betty Friedan, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Gabriela Mistral, and Clarice Lispector, among others, while relating their ideas to Mexican women’s lives. Her journalistic production, essays, poetry, and narrative undergo an evolution as Castellanos articulates a unique Mexican feminist project that factors in race, class, and other intersections affecting Mexican women. I access Castellanos—who has been considered the “Simone de Beauvoir of Mexico”—through the lens of global feminism, which considers the varying layers of power and powerlessness when women of disparate regions and cultures seek solidarity. Through a global feminist perspective, we see how Castellanos, rather than blindly importing First World women’s agendas, carefully intervenes in global feminist discouses with what Mexican women need. In her evolution, Castellanos grows closer to a feminist project that, rather than buying into the myth of a global sisterhood, evokes instead a desire for a Latin American sisterhood and for Mexican women’s self-definition.

The historical analysis of any individual life is augmented by an incorporation of the complexity of identity formation and representation. Using an intersectional framework and with reference to various insights from some of the recent scholarship on historical biographies, this thesis focuses on the life of one Australian woman, Anna Brennan (1879-1962). Brennan was a pioneering lawyer in Victoria and an ardent advocate for the rights of women. The central issue that is examined in this thesis is how Brennan’s personal commitment to Catholicism propelled her advocacy in this domain. A significant feature of Brennan’s life was her active involvement and leadership in many clubs and organisations for women, within and beyond the Catholic community. Besides her extensive engagement in legal and social welfare issues, Brennan was also known for her literary ability and her promotion of the arts. It is suggested in this thesis, that the close examination of the influence of Catholicism in Brennan’s life supports an argument for investigating the significance of religion from an intersectional standpoint. This study of Brennan’s life will assist in highlighting the leadership of lay women in the Catholic Church in Australia, providing a role model who successfully navigated the gendered historical context of twentieth century Australian society and culture.

The thesis is concerned with the construction of women's authority as it is manifested in biographical speech; that is, in written or oral narratives, or sub-narratives, about others. The emphasis is on women's biography but certain other genres (notably gossip and the biographical research interview) are also examined.The central premise is that women as patriarchal subordinates are significantly disadvantaged in the cultural processes that construct (public) authority; also, that speaking about (defining) both ourselves and others is a significant means by which we construct knowledges - an important basis for authority. Women's collusion with patriarchal structures and processes, whether this be conscious or unconscious, creates problems with the construction of their authority on numerous levels in public and private domains. Moreover, even when women intend to operate subversively from sites of resistance, and when they succeed in doing so to some extent, the workings of power through discourse often render the overall effect of subversion to be consistent with, and ultimately supportive of, dominant ideology.The thesis examines a variety of aspects of these complex dynamics as they apply to women in the context of contemporary western societies. To this end, the first and last chapters consider women's relations to formal biography with the aim of identifying their (historic) engagement with lifestorying. Two chapters discuss the psychological/ideological aspects of biographical authority with relation to western women's subjectivities. And two chapters analyse the political and ethical implications of postmodernist/postcolonial theory on women's biographical speech. The study concludes that women's authority manifested in biographical speech is undoubtedly problematic but that feminist-inspired initiates continue to be productive.

The thesis is concerned with the construction of women's authority as it is manifested in biographical speech; that is, in written or oral narratives, or sub-narratives, about others. The emphasis is on women's biography but certain other genres (notably gossip and the biographical research interview) are also examined.The central premise is that women as patriarchal subordinates are significantly disadvantaged in the cultural processes that construct (public) authority; also, that speaking about (defining) both ourselves and others is a significant means by which we construct knowledges - an important basis for authority. Women's collusion with patriarchal structures and processes, whether this be conscious or unconscious, creates problems with the construction of their authority on numerous levels in public and private domains. Moreover, even when women intend to operate subversively from sites of resistance, and when they succeed in doing so to some extent, the workings of power through discourse often render the overall effect of subversion to be consistent with, and ultimately supportive of, dominant ideology.The thesis examines a variety of aspects of these complex dynamics as they apply to women in the context of contemporary western societies. To this end, the first and last chapters consider women's relations to formal biography with the aim of identifying their (historic) engagement with lifestorying. Two chapters discuss the psychological/ideological aspects of biographical authority with relation to western women's subjectivities. And two chapters analyse the political and ethical implications of postmodernist/postcolonial theory on women's biographical speech. The study concludes that women's authority manifested in biographical speech is undoubtedly problematic but that feminist-inspired initiates continue to be productive.

Writing Women into the Law in Queensland consists, as well as an exegesis, of profiles of seven significant women in the law in Queensland which have been published in A Woman's Place: 100 years of women lawyers edited by Susan Purdon and Aladin Rahemtula and published by the Supreme Court of Queensland Library in November 2005. Those women are Leneen Forde, Chancellor of Griffith University and former Governor of Queensland; Kate Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court and now of the Court of Appeal; Leanne Clare, the first female Director of Public Prosecutions; Barbara Newton, the first female Public Defender; Carmel MacDonald, President of the Aboriginal Land Tribunals and the first female law lecturer in Queensland; Fleur Kingham, formerly Deputy President of the land and Resources Tribunal and now Judge of the District Court and Catherine Pirie, the first Magistrate of Torres Strait descent. The accompanying exegesis investigates the development of the creative work out of the tensions between the aims of the work, its political context, the multiple positions of the biographer, and the collaborative and collective nature of the enterprise.

Writing Women into the Law in Queensland consists, as well as an exegesis, of profiles of seven significant women in the law in Queensland which have been published in A Woman's Place: 100 years of women lawyers edited by Susan Purdon and Aladin Rahemtula and published by the Supreme Court of Queensland Library in November 2005. Those women are Leneen Forde, Chancellor of Griffith University and former Governor of Queensland; Kate Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court and now of the Court of Appeal; Leanne Clare, the first female Director of Public Prosecutions; Barbara Newton, the first female Public Defender; Carmel MacDonald, President of the Aboriginal Land Tribunals and the first female law lecturer in Queensland; Fleur Kingham, formerly Deputy President of the land and Resources Tribunal and now Judge of the District Court and Catherine Pirie, the first Magistrate of Torres Strait descent. The accompanying exegesis investigates the development of the creative work out of the tensions between the aims of the work, its political context, the multiple positions of the biographer, and the collaborative and collective nature of the enterprise.

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Bachelors
Arts and Sciences
English

This is a biographical study of Elizabeth D. Kane (1836-1909), travel writer and wife of Thomas L. Kane, non-Mormon friend of the nineteenth-century Mormons of Utah. Primary source materials are mainly Elizabeth's fourteen diaries (spanning the years 1853 to 1909), letters and narrative accounts. Elizabeth was greatly influenced by Thomas, while maintaining her independence. She was interested in religion and feminist issues, and those interests, combined with her marital relationship, shaped her life's direction. Thomas Kane's interest in the Mormons also influenced Elizabeth's religious and feminist views, and she initially struggled with accepting Thomas's work for them because of their practice of polygamy. When Elizabeth went to Utah in 1872, her religiosity, feminism, and marriage provided the context in which she wrote her travel accounts, Twelve Mormon Homes (1874) and A Gentile in Utah's Dixie (1995).Elizabeth and Thomas had a companionate marriage. Theoretically they were equal partners, but Thomas often acted as Elizabeth's mentor, introducing her to well-known feminists, encouraging her to attend medical school and develop her writing talents. Religion was important to her, particularly as she tried influencing Thomas to join her Christian (Presbyterian) faith. Elizabeth thought about the Women's Rights movement and wrote her own ideas regarding women's role, endorsing feminist concepts like voluntary motherhood and addressing issues like polygamy and the double moral standard.This study analyzes Elizabeth's travel accounts which provide information on rural Utah and Mormon polygamous women from the perspective of a trusted outsider. During her Utah visit, Elizabeth changed from being resentful of the Mormons because of Thomas's devotion to them, to being friendly towards them. After Thomas's death in 1883, Elizabeth worked as a local leader in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and was a prominent citizen of Kane, Pennsylvania, the town which she and Thomas founded in the 1860s.This study is important to women's history because Elizabeth represents how many nineteenth-century women became more independent and socially conscious. It is significant in Mormon history because of her her travel accounts and because her writings provide information on the important relationship between Thomas L. Kane and the Mormons.

This thesis offers a case study in adapting Australian literary biography to the theatre, specifically in the form of a one woman show or monologue performance. The thesis consists of a novel play script, together with exegetical writing which outlines the source materials used and the process and themes under consideration. These themes include those of family (specifically a difficult relationship with her mother), love (including a lesbian affair), life as an aspiring writer, and the protagonist’s difficult to shake sense of damage, pain and struggle. The play offers a portrait of West Australian writer Mollie Skinner (1876- 1955). Sources included her autobiography (both the original manuscript and that edited and published by Mary Durack), Mollie’s novels and her letters—particularly her extensive correspondence with the British author D.H. Lawrence, who she met in WA—and secondary writings. Skinner’s writing has been described as akin to an “untended garden,” rich in imagery, but scattered and often difficult to follow. In recognition of this, my play takes the form of a series of vignettes and images, a succession of heightened moments, choreographed with sound and movement elements for dramatic impact. Mollie’s life thereby emerges as one marked by pain and suffering, yet suffused with rich language and visions. Although Mollie was more than just a friend of D.H. Lawrence, it is nevertheless clear that the better known author offered her support and encouragement that few others did. Together with her Sybil these two figures emerge as Mollie’s only true loves and companions, figures physically separated from her, yet who enabled her life and many of her joys. Skinner emerges then as a modest but indomitable spirt, poised on the veranda, looking at the world through her failing eyesight; touched by the beauty of it all. The aim of the play is thus to do justice to the spirit of Skinner, without presenting an exhaustive account of her entire life, and in doing so, to present her story to a new generation of West Australians.

In twentieth century America, women continue the age-old struggle for recognition as whole, intelligent individuals, not just an "other," less hearty, less deserving or less capable being than man. Sarah Grimke spoke of the inequalities over 150 years ago during the abolitionist movement when she compiled her major arguments into a series of letters originally published individually in the New England Spectator, then as a volume in 1838 entitled Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman. Grimke gets to the core of the matter and dares to challenge long-standing patriarchal tradition and beliefs. Feminists have since tried to categorize her ideas into a particular philosophy, giving her credit as the first American feminist. However, the difficulty lies in labeling her from a twentieth century perspective (feminism) when her intent was to be heard as an individualshe wanted to break the barriers which categorizing creates. The strength of the Letters lies in their rhetorical soundness as an art which speaks profoundly to its audience, transcending the boundaries of time. This study focuses on the rhetorical soundness of the Letters, providing a close analysis, that reveals Sarah Grimke's rhetorical methods, and her reaffirmation of classical notions of rhetoric. The study also contextualizes the letters while answering the critical question: Why should we read the letters now, in the twentieth century when slavery is an issue long since resolved and women have been given the right to vote and have been assured of equal rights under the equal rights amendment? We must read primary texts, not secondary or interpretive texts, to experience the author's rhetoric and recapture her intentions.
Graduation date: 1992

This biographical study explores the life and career of a woman, Doris McRae, who, although virtually unknown today, played a significant role in a number of areas of public life. She taught in government schools for over thirty years ending her career as headmistress of Flemington Girls’ School. She was an active unionist and at one time was vice president of the Victorian Teachers’ Union. She was a social and peace activist. She was a passionate advocate of equal pay and cared deeply about the welfare of the children she worked with, her fellow teachers and society in general. She travelled in England and Russia and in 1937 represented Australian women teacher unionists at the Pan Pacific Women’s Conference in Vancouver. She joined the Communist Party in 1938, teaching for them at Marx House in Melbourne and writing articles in their publication the Guardian. At the peak of her career, her activities were monitored by conservative politicians and the Catholic Church. She first came under the notice of the Commonwealth Investigation Service (later ASIO) in 1939 and was the subject of heated debate in the Victorian Parliament in 1946. Forced out of teaching as a result of a Royal Commission into Communism in 1950, Doris McRae then put all her energies into the activities of the Union of Australian Women, her active involvement lasting until the 1980s. In 1952 she travelled as an Australian delegate to the Defence of Children Conference in Vienna. Her last trip overseas was in 1960 when she spent most of the year in Europe. When Doris McRae died in 1988 aged 95, a memorial service was held for her at Coburg High School. Joan Kirner, then Minister of Education, gave the eulogy.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church has used visual imagery as a powerful didactic tool to support and validate the patriarchal structure of the Christian faith. This study focuses on the prevalent visual portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a penitent prostitute. This visual conceptualisation is exposed as an unjust condemnation of a biblical woman whose apostolic calling is validated by the Gospel accounts. A critical examination of the Christian iconography within a representative selection of Mary Magdalene imagery further identifies a bias of condemnation towards women's sexuality. Thus, Mary Magdalene is epitomised as the archetypal immoral woman, and unfavourably contrasted to the chaste purity of the Virgin Mary. The study evaluates the ethical implications of this mis-representation, and proposes, as a corrective to the imbalance, the creative actualisation of positive woman-affirming imagery. · An extended chronological index of Mary Magdalene imagery is appended to the study as Appendix A
M.Th. (Theological Ethics)

This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971).
Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others.
The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration.
Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly.
The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era.
The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.

Le présent mémoire de maîtrise étudie la fortune critique de l'artiste états-unienne d'origine française Louise Bourgeois. Il suit le parcours de l'artiste vers une reconnaissance critique et publique plutôt tardive, et une consécration comme figure importante de l'art de la deuxième moitié du 20e siècle. Favorisant une approche historiographique qui porte attention au genre d’écrits comme les survols et les monographies, il procède à l'analyse d'ouvrages concernant la place de Bourgeois dans le cadre des histoires de la sculpture moderne et des textes de nature diverse (historiques, théoriques et critiques) émanant de la mouvance féministe en art, avant de considérer les études réservées exclusivement à la trajectoire de Bourgeois et au développement de son œuvre. Plus largement, cette étude propose d'examiner les subtilités de la construction d'un réseau d'interprétations qui puisse répondre de la complexité d'une production artistique s'étalant sur près de soixante-dix ans, faisant appel à une grande variété de matériaux non conventionnels, oscillant entre la fascination pour la figure totémique et l’installation, tout en résistant aux classifications conventionnelles de mouvements et d’écoles, de même qu’à celles de développements formels et stylistiques continus.
This master's thesis is a study of the French born American artist Louise Bourgeois' critical review. More precisely, it considers the artist’s progress from her beginnings as an American sculptor in the forties to her critical but albeit late public recognition as an important figure in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. From a historiographical perspective, and working with texts dealing with modern sculpture in the U.S.A., feminism in the visual arts and more specifically the career of Bourgeois, we want to examine the situation of this artist amidst the different interpretations of her artworks. This study proposes to look at the subtleties in the construction of a web of interpretations. This web, we will see, is as complex as the production of an artist who created for more than seventy years. The intent of the first chapter is to grasp the position occupied by Bourgeois in some of the major texts constituting the history of modern sculpture. This overview will lead us to the second chapter where we will analyze the manner Bourgeois' work is addressed by feminist literature and practice. In this context, and by the fact that Bourgeois revealed tragic aspects of her childhood at the turn of the eighties, we will seek to understand the changes in the way her work has been perceived. The third chapter focuses on the study of the artist’s national and international recognition in parallel to the monographs having her as their main subject. Those texts, which have been often tied to biographical writing, reassess in a certain way the old concept of the mythical artist.
Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de ce mémoire a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A feminist examination of the life of the Afrikaans poet Ingrid Jonker is preceded by a look at the conventional literary biography with its unique dual nature: scientific enquiry combined with the art of storytelling, which is aptly called “fiction under oath” (Gutiérrez 1992: 49). Subsequently, an overview of the theoretical basis of feminist ideology and literary approaches is presented with the emphasis on the psychoanalytical point of departure, which views women’s marginalized position as social instead of biological in origin, and therefore as changeable. Biography owes its important place in contemporary women’s writing to the fact that it documents the history and experience of women in the patriarchal system. Feminist biographers, influenced by Postmodernism, force the genre from its traditionally linear form and narrow focus on a famous, usually male subject. The result is a more fluid, cyclical portrayal of (usually) influential women, shedding more light on the social, domestic and personal spheres. Because this kind of biography does not claim to be authoritative, the biographer’s personal contribution and her methods are made explicit. The intuitive and experimental nature of feminist biography makes it suitable for an intertextual and even interdisciplinary approach. Jonker’s life is analysed against the background of a folk tale, The Red Shoes, which is an allegory for the sacrifice of the instinctive creative self or archetypal “wildish woman”. Ancient myths, which narratives of almost every culture share, are seen as responsible for the tenacious survival of the patriarchy through time, social change, and across cultural boundaries. For this reason, feminists see the creation of new myths or infusing old myths with new meaning as the key to women’s emancipation. Against this background, the following subtexts also act as shaping elements in the Ingrid Jonker biography: · The concept of a person’s life “script” unfolding according to repetitive messages laid down in the unconscious by authority figures; · The “conspiracy” between a biographee and her biographers in forming her public image; and · Six archetypes in the Jungian idiom that characterise a person’s journey to spiritual maturity, Examined with these subtexts in mind, Ingrid Jonker’s life story unfolds as follows: A poet in conflict with her time and “abandoned” by her parents, is displaced in pre-adolescence from a unstructured rural milieu where her instinctive creativity was allowed to develop freely, to a highly structured, limiting and artificial urban environment. She seems prophetically destined for a tragic end. Her obsession with death is fed by an inability to have meaningful relationships and to adjust to society’s double standards. Ever the victim of imagined or real betrayal, she joins the ranks of other female artists who follow the same destructive archetypal pattern. She is spurred on not only by her own feral recklessness, but also by other artists who are inspired by her flirtation with death. Upcoming generations are mesmerised by her “moth around a flame” life and, like children, ask time and again for the disastrous though darkly romantic story with its mythical proportions, which turned Jonker into an icon. In doing so, they manage their own collectively unconscious fear of the annihilation of death. The Red Shoes links with Kristeva’s distinction between semiotic and symbolic language. The former is non-rational, intuitive and signifies the maternal whereas the latter represents language that is masculine, rational, linear and therefore patriarchal and logocentric.
Dissertation (MA (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2005.
Afrikaans
unrestricted

Madeleine duBois de Fontaines (1578-1637) was the first French prioress of the Teresian Carmelites in France. During a period of over thirty years as a Carmelite nun, Mere Madeleine de Saint-Joseph served as mistress of novices and was elected prioress for two tenns in the Carmel of the Incarnation, faubourg St. Jacques in Paris. She established and was elected prioress of a second Parisian Cannel nt the rue Chapon; and helped to establish and stabilise the Carmels in Lyon and Tours. Madeleine de Saint-Joseph's contribution to the development ofCannclitc life and French spirituality was a significant one due to many factors. Among these were: her leadership of the Carmelite community in Paris; her association with Pierre de Berulle; her influence on the members of the French aristocracy; and her deftness at spiritual direction. Within the corpus of her writings, there is significant evidence of what may be called theistic mystical experience. An analysis of the writings of Madeleine de Saint-Joseph also indicates mystical practice and doctrine that Mere Madeleine developed during the course of her lite. The present study introduces the study and presents a survey of relevant literature written by or about Madeleine de Saint-Joseph. Secondly, it explores the notions of mystical consciousness, knowledge, experience, offers a working definition of mysticism, relating these to Lonergan's cognition theory and work on religious experience, and to the feminist critique of philosophy of religion. Thirdly, the study contextualises the life and work of Madeleine du Bois de Fontaincs within sixteenth and seventeenth century french civil and ecclesiastical society. Fourthly, it determines by theological, phenomenological, and philosophical analysis that Mere Madeleine de Saint-Joseph is a true mystic; and finally, it presents the mystical doctrine and teachings of Madeleine de Saint-Joseph within a theological context. Thereby, it is hoped that this study recognises the valuable contribution to mystical literature of this relatively unknown and unreCQgnised woman.
Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology
D.Th. (Christian Spirituality)

My PhD thesis, entitled ‘The activist life of Dr Janet Irwin, and my activist response in researching and writing her story consists of a biography, ‘A Prescription for Action: the life of Dr Janet Irwin, and an exegesis, ‘Biography, motivation and writing the life of Dr Janet Irwin’. My research question led me to investigate how a woman born in 1923, who grew up in a remote area of New Zealand, came to be a leader in the provision of university health services in Australasia, and a successful activist on social justice issues, particularly those involving women. It also led me to explore the link between my subject’s activism and my own activism in researching and writing about her life, and, from this, the importance of motivation for biographers. The biography describes the influence of Janet’s father, who set up a healthcare service which even today is viewed as innovative, and the impact of the early death of her brother. It recounts how she completed her medical degree in her forties when her children were teenagers, and how she discovered she had siblings in Scotland. In Edinburgh, Janet worked with children with psychological problems, and was influenced by the new school of thinking on psychosocial development. Offered a position at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, she carried out original research which challenged conventional thinking on a range of issues relevant to student health, came to view the doctor-patient relationship as the focus of medical practice, took part in her first political rally, and declared herself a feminist. 1974 saw her relocate to Australia and take up the role of Director of Student Health Services at the University of Queensland where she focused on the importance of teamwork, again carried out relevant research, played a role in changing the nature of medical education and practice, and was appointed to the National Better Health Commission. She mentored female students and general practitioners, ensured that the university developed a broad view of occupational health and safety, and played a major role in improving the status of women staff and students. She was an activist on health and women’s issues at the community level and the national level as well as at the university. Her retirement from the university saw her take up an active role on the Criminal Justice Commission, charged with the reform of a corrupt system. She continued to speak out on issues of social justice and campaigned for A Woman’s Place to honour the achievements of women. The exegesis validates the disciplinary context of my work as practice-led research within the field of creative non-fiction in the creative arts. It outlines the evolution of biography; how both literature and history have, at various times, both claimed biography and rejected it from their domains; and the impact of this research on my biography. It explores the context of Virginia Woolf’s stance that biography is not an art, and suggests that her problems with the form related to her problems with motivation in writing one. It claims that motivation is a significant factor for biographers, and that novelists hold biographers in low esteem for reasons related to motivation. It details my own motivation in wanting to understand what made Janet such an unusual woman for her time and how she achieved what she did; wanting to honour her life as a fellow feminist; and seeing her as a role model for others wanting to make a difference to society. It also describes the process of writing the biography, including my experimentation with biographical form before returning to a fundamentally narrative, chronological approach.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
As white settlers and pioneers moved westward in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, some of the first to settle the Indiana territory, near the Ohio border, were members of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers). Many of these Quakers focused on social reforms, especially the anti-slavery movement, as they fled the slave-holding states like the Carolinas. Less discussed in Indiana’s history is the impact Quakerism also had in the movement for women’s rights. This case study of two of the founding members of the Indiana Woman’s Rights Association (later to be renamed the Indiana Woman’s Suffrage Association), illuminates the influences of Quakerism on women’s rights. Amanda M. Way (1828-1914) and Mary Frame (Myers) Thomas, M.D. (1816-1888) practiced skills and gained opportunities for organizing a grassroots movement through the Religious Society of Friends. They attained a strong sense of moral grounding, skills for conducting business meetings, and most importantly, developed a confidence in public speaking uncommon for women in the nineteenth century. Quakerism propelled Way and Thomas into action as they assumed early leadership roles in the women’s rights movement. As advocates for greater equality and freedom for women, Way and Thomas leveraged the skills learned from Quakerism into political opportunities, resource mobilization, and the ability to frame their arguments within other ideological contexts (such as temperance, anti-slavery, and education).

In view of the scarcity of Indian women in the South African art field, this study investigates how issues of race, class and gender can affect the decision to become and sustain a career as a professional artist. By exploring the historical background of the Indian community and their patriarchal mind set it becomes clear that women's roles in this community have always been prescribed by tradition and cultural values, despite western influence. Moreover the legacy of apartheid created a situation in which black artists, especially women. have not always benefitted in terms of career opportunities. The research is based on case studies of five Indian women who have received due recognition as artists: Lalitha Jawahirilal, Usha Seejarim, Sharlene Khan, Simmi Dullay and Reshma Chhiba. These artists' lives, careers and artistic output are closely studied, documented and critically interpreted using key concepts such as orientalism, black feminism and post colonialism.
Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
M.A. (Art History)

The purpose of the research The dissertation presents and analyses the experience of women associated with the Polish counterculture theatre. I analyse experiences of selected women who took part in this movement, as conveyed by their interpretations in the form of biographical narratives they constructed and theatrical activity they took up. The starting point of the reflection I am undertaking is a preliminary hypothesis about the specificity of the experience of being a woman in the counterculture theatre – both in theatre ensemble's operation and work organisation as well as in an actor training resulting in the roles they performed. The counterculture theatre ensembles based their actions on the idea that life and creation are mutually inseparable and postulated a different mode of existence than that of institutional or repertory theatres. Defying the administratively unified model of theatre, countercultural collectives were going beyond both temporal and spatial frameworks of theatre work, by defining their members' whole existence. By that very fact, they proposed an alternative lifestyle, their theatrical ventures went beyond the framework of theatre. Striving to change the fundamental, dominant cultural clichés, they were becoming something “more than theatre” (Jawłowska 1988). The aspirations of the counterculture theatre which proposed changes both on the level of artistic expression and cultural reality, that this movement was immersed in, seem inconsistent with the difficulties faced by the women who wanted to achieve their creative self-fulfilment in this environment. By analysing the movement's female participants' experiences as reconstructed by themselves, the dissertation not only aims to restore the memory of the actresses whose creative work has been neglected in the existing theatre studies, but also attempts to re-read the history of the Polish counterculture. Moreover, while treating a theatre group as an "ideal type" of social and public life model, the dissertation is meant to open a reflection on the basic cultural patterns, and in particular those concerning gender paradigms. Furthermore, the dissertation research methodology has become the means to achieve goals – by analysing the expression of women's experiences the dissertation recovers the cognitive potential contained in the experience category, which is significant for contemporary human studies. 2 Research Methodology The dissertation has an interdisciplinary character for at least two reasons. Firstly, due to the subject of the research, which combines theatre studies issues with sensitivity to women’s traditional cultural roles, projecting these questions on a wider social perspective, including especially the important category of experience. Secondly, due to the rich, varied methodology which will include deepened biographical interviews with selected figures of the theatrical movement, analysing and interpreting theatre performances and historical – including archival – research on the development of the counter-culture movement in the Polish theatre. The most important research category for the dissertation is an experience which I define as something "lived through" (Wilhelm Dilthey). I assume that experience is incomplete until "the livedthrough" is attributed with meaning during a creative retrospection (Victor W. Turner) which may result not only in a narrative but also, in the context of women that I study, be it theatrical activities. Hence, while studying the women's biographies, I determine their all creative acts as interpretations and representations of their own experiences, thus as an experience which they put in a structural framework. Therefore, I assume that studying an experience is studying its expression, analysing the experience mediated by an interpretation which, in turn, is always socially based. By that very fact, I observe the processual way of culture's existence and the category of experience becomes for me a process which is not only shaped by culture, but also shapes and re-shapes both the individual and – through its articulation, namely objectivization of its meaning – culture. The plan of the dissertation The dissertation consists of five analytical and interpretative chapters dedicated to individual biographies. While selecting the cases for individual interpretation, I was guided by the diversity of experiences criteria in order to outline a full range of possible stances, for example strategies of acting in the group as well as paths to artistic self-realisation. In effect, I dedicated particular chapters to: Ewa Benesz (1943), Anna Zubrzycki (1950), Jolanta Krukowska (1950), Ewa Wójciak (1951) and Erdmute Sobaszek (1957). As a result of each case study I created five figurations of subject of actresses of Polish counterculture – Oma, She-Foreigner, She-Dervish, She-Revolutionist and She- Acrobat. Each of these figurations appear as the alternative subjectivity of each protagonist of this work; alternative to subjectivity designed by the countercultural ethos established and implemented by the male leaders of the counterculture in Poland. Figuration as a method of analysis was applied also in searching for similarities and analogies between five individual figurations. By that means – by synthetizing selected cases and on the basis of its compliance – it emerged the figuration subjectivity of counterculture women in general in figuration of She-Jocker, whereby I describe the experience of being a woman in the theatrical counterculture movement in Poland, which is the second part of the dissertation.
Cel podjętych badań Rozprawa przedstawia i analizuje doświadczenia kobiet związanych z teatralnym ruchem kontrkultury w Polsce. Analizie poddane zostały doświadczenia wybranych uczestniczek tego ruchu, zapośredniczone przez ich własną interpretację, zarówno w postaci narracji biograficznej, jak i prowadzonej przez nie działalności teatralnej. Punktem wyjścia podejmowanej refleksji było, oparte na wstępnie przeprowadzonych badaniach, przekonanie, że bycie kobietą w teatrze kontrkultury jest doświadczeniem szczególnym – zarówno w obszarze funkcjonowania i organizacji pracy w grupie teatralnej, jak i treningu aktorskiego, którego efektem są grane przez nie role. Zespoły teatralnej kontrkultury, opierając swoje działania na idei nierozdzielności życia i twórczości, zakładały inny od teatrów instytucjonalnych czy repertuarowych tryb istnienia. Przeciwstawiając się administracyjnie ujednoliconemu modelowi działania teatrów, przekraczały zarówno czasowe, jak i przestrzenne ramy pracy teatralnej, definiując całość egzystencji należących do nich osób. Tym samym proponowały alternatywny model życia, wykraczając poza ramy teatru, a dążąc do zmiany podstawowych, dominujących wzorców kultury, stawały się czymś „więcej niż teatr” (Jawłowska 1988). Tak budowany kontrkulturowy etos jawi się jako sprzeczny z trudnościami, jakie napotykały kobiety pragnące twórczo realizować się w tym środowisku. Poprzez analizę zrekonstruowanych przez uczestniczki tego ruchu ich własnych doświadczeń, rozprawa ma na celu nie tylko przywrócić pamięć o aktorkach, których twórcza działalność była pomijana w dotychczasowych syntezach teatrologicznych, lecz także podjąć próbę odczytania na nowo historii teatralnej kontrkultury w Polsce. Ponadto, traktując grupę teatralną jako „typ idealny” modelu życia społecznego, rozprawa umożliwia podjęcie refleksji nad podstawowymi dla kultury wzorcami, w szczególności dotyczącymi płci i przypisanych jej ról społecznych. Badania stawiały przed sobą także realizację celów w zakresie przyjętej metodologii – poprzez analizę ekspresji doświadczenia kobiet podejmuję próbę odzyskania doświadczenia jako kategorii badań humanistycznych. Metodologia Badania mają charakter interdyscyplinarny z dwóch przynajmniej względów. Po pierwsze, z uwagi na podejmowaną problematykę, która łączy zagadnienia teatrologiczne z wrażliwością na rolę kobiet w kulturze, rzutując te kwestie na szerszą płaszczyznę społeczną, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem ważnej kategorii doświadczenia. Po drugie, ze względu na bogatą, zróżnicowaną metodologię, która obejmuje pogłębione wywiady biograficzne z wytypowanymi postaciami ruchu 2 teatralnego, analizę i interpretację prac teatralnych oraz badania historyczne (w tym archiwalne) nad rozwojem kontrkulturowego nurtu w teatrze polskim. Najważniejszą dla rozprawy kategorią badawczą jest doświadczenie, które definiuję jako „to, co przeżyte” (Wilhelm Dilthey). Przyjmuję, że doświadczenie jest niepełne do momentu, gdy „temu, co przeżyte” nie zostanie przypisane znaczenie w trakcie twórczej retrospekcji (Victor W. Turner), której efektem może być nie tylko narracja, lecz także – w kontekście badanych przeze mnie kobiet – teatralna działalność. Tym samym, badając biografie twórcze kobiet, ujmuję każdy akt ich twórczości jako interpretację i reprezentację ich własnych przeżyć, a więc jako doświadczenie ujęte przez nie w strukturyzacyjne ramy. Przyjmuję zatem, że badanie doświadczenia jest badaniem jego ekspresji, analizą doświadczenia zapośredniczonego przez interpretację, która z kolei ma zawsze podstawy społeczne (Kirsten Hastrup). Tym samym, zauważam procesualny sposób istnienia kultury, a kategoria doświadczenia staje się dla mnie procesem, który nie tylko jest kształtowany przez kulturę, lecz także sam przekształca i kształtuje zarówno jednostkę, jak i – poprzez jego artykulację, a więc obiektywizowanie jego znaczenia – kulturę. Struktura pracy Praca składa się z pięciu rozdziałów analityczno-interpretacyjnych poświęconych poszczególnym biografiom. W selekcji przypadków do case study kierowałam się kryterium różnorodności doświadczeń, by zakreślić pole możliwych postaw – zarówno strategii funkcjonowania w zespole czy poza nim, jak i dróg twórczej samorealizacji. Do studium przypadku wybrałam: Ewę Benesz (ur. 1943), Annę Zubrzycki (ur. 1950), Jolantę Krukowską (ur. 1950), Ewę Wójciak (ur. 1951) i Erdmute Sobaszek (ur. 1957). W wyniku każdego studium przypadku powstało pięć figuracji aktorek polskiej kontrkultury – Oma, Cudzoziemka, Derwiszka, Rewolucjonistka i Akrobatka – stanowiących alternatywną podmiotowość każdej z bohaterek tej pracy; alternatywną wobec podmiotowości zaprojektowanej przez kontrkulturowy etos powołany i wdrażany przez męskich liderów kontrkultury w Polsce. Figurację jako metodę analizy zebranego materiału zastosowałam także badając powstałych pięć figuracji pod kątem odnalezienia części dla nich wspólnych, wyszukania podobieństw i analogii, by na podstawie tych zgodności ująć za pomocą jednej figuracji podmiotowość kobiety kontrkultury w ogóle. W ten sposób przeprowadzona synteza zebranego materiału, w efekcie której powstała figuracja Błaźnicy, przez którą opowiadam o doświadczeniu kobiet teatralnego nurtu kontrkultury w Polsce, stanowi drugą część rozprawy.