USB Journals (Univ. Köln)
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Staging Femicide/Confronting Reality: Negotiating Gender and Representation in Las Mujeres de Juárez
Get PDFFocusing on the maquiladora system and the cases of femicide that continue to take place on the U.S.-Mexican border, this paper asks how theatre, in performance and as dramatic literature, can be employed in the form of "staged narrative" to explore human rights violations around the world. I will use Anzaldúa\u27s transfronterista feminist lens, Saldaña\u27s qualitative research framework for ethnodrama, and a feminist view of Brechtian performance theories, in an attempt to unpack some of the gender-based violence issues that seem to be causing the city of Ciudad Juárez to implode on itself. Using Las Mujeres de Juárez by Rubén Amavizca, I hope to reinforce Arriola\u27s conclusion that "[i]n general, what can be said about the maquiladora system is that it is hardly a humane system of employment and hardly something the knowing United States citizen would want to support" (809)
Frontmatter and Editorial
No full textIn lieu of an abstract, here is the first pragraph of the frontmatter and editorial:
Resuming the discussion of gender, health, and illness begun in Illuminating Gender I, the contributions to our current issue continue to address discursive conceptualizations of illness. In their analyses of a wide array of women\u27s narratives and poetry, dealing with illnesses so diverse as breast cancer, depression, and HIV/AIDS, the articles comprised in Illuminating II illustrate how women have contested normative notions of gender and illness. The discussion of these questions is completed by the outline of a newly founded health sciences master\u27s program focusing on the nexus of gender and public health
Abortion and the single woman as literary tropes in the works of Amos Oz
Get PDFThis paper provides a gender-based reading of texts by Israeli Author Amos Oz, in particular Fima, My Michael, A Perfect Peace as well as several short stories. The constructions of unmarried women and of abortion are focused on as tropes betraying the reactionary gender politics in these texts. The analysis reveals that the representation of abortion is rhetorically biased, representing the decision as selfish, the operation as inhumane and the foetus as a child, while exaggerating the psychic risks for women undergoing abortion. The unmarried female characters in Oz\u27 texts are shown to be presented according to sexist stereotypes, which is further supported by the asymmetry in comparison to their male counterparts
Performing the Covenant: Akedah and the Origins of Masculinity
Get PDFFollowing Derrida\u27s open-ended question why woman is excluded from the biblical covenant, I suggest that the feminine ethics of self-sacrifice evolved from the Judeo-Christian discourse of the sacred: the contract between man and God is grounded in the economy of sacrifice. In fact, woman\u27s self-sacrifice, though irrelevant for the sacrificial economy, is the satellite around which the performative language of ethics and theology could revolve.
Narratives of Class, Gender and Medicine in the American South: The Dr. Annie Alexander Story
Get PDFDr. Annie Alexander (1864-1929) of Charlotte, North Carolina, was an early general practitioner specializing in the diseases of women and children in the U.S. South. Her life and career were marked by a sense of duty to her community, as an elite southern white woman and physician. The interplay of gender, class, race, and profession can be traced through Alexander’s extensive unpublished essays, medical case records, correspondence and personal papers, and the published reactions of her (largely male) contemporaries. This study seeks to answer the questions: why did an elite southern woman follow a career path selected by few of her peer group, and with what consequences for her and her community
Frontmatter and Editorial
No full textIn lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the frontmatter and editorial:
This thematic issue of gender forum is part II of a collection of essays focusing on the intersections of medicine, literature, and gender. In contrast to the first issue with its contributions on the representation of women in the medical profession from historical and literary points of view, in this second part personal narratives take center stage. Here, all contributions emphasize the healing power of grief and illness narratives in their various sub-genres, such as written testimonies, diaries, blogs, and artists’ books, thus in a multiplicity of autobiographical or auto-ethnographical writings. Some of the authors interweave theoretical discussions or analyses of other people’s narratives and their own illness narratives. In doing so, they all demonstrate that they share a belief in the illness narrative as a new space of communication between readers and artists and, ultimately, doctors and patients
Frontmatter and Editorial
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The notion of ageing within western culture is informed by highly ambivalent associations. While on the one hand old age seemingly speaks of a mature and accomplished self awareness, warranting a stabilised identity through the accumulation of experience and memory, age on the other hand is linked to the fears of fading health, the gradual reduction of physical capability and ultimately death. The assumed dwindling of one\u27s "sex appeal" and sexual desire additionally marks this stage of life as a noteworthy perspective, from which to look at prevailing ideas of gender and sexual identity
The Pure and the Sodomite: Masculinity, Sexuality and Antisemitism in the Leo Frank Case
Get PDFBy examining the Leo Frank case in respect to the perceived crisis in white premodern manhood, the article demonstrates the connection between changes in gender relation, as a result of industrialization and urbanization, and the rise of antisemitism. The environment of urban regions and the increasing number of female wage laborers undermined the male mastery of women which was an important component of premodern white manhood. Especially, the changes regarding sexuality, which resulted from growing autonomy of women, evoked a sentiment of emasculation among white men. This anger and bewilderment about losing control over subordinated women played an important part in the Leo Frank case. By attributing this loss of male mastery to “Jewish power,” which was symbolized through ”Jewish lusts,” Jews became responsible for this development. This alleged responsibility contributed to the conviction that Leo Frank, and not Jim Conley, was the murderer of Mary Phagan. Since, in the antisemitic discourse, “the Jews” became responsible for the emasculation of white men, antisemitism was considered as a defensive measure against the perceived Jewish activities to reconstitute white manhood
Frontmatter and Editorial
No full textIn lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the editorial:
"To this day, you don\u27t expect women to be funny." (Joan Rivers) What happens when women laugh outright, seemingly out of control, making a spectacle of themselves? Ever since Freud claimed that it is woman being laughed at and man doing the laughing,On the tendentious joke in particular, i.e. the \u27dirty\u27 joke ("Zote"), Freud remarks: "Der tendenziöse Witz braucht im allgemeinen drei Personen, außer der, die den Witz macht, eine zweite, die zum Objekt der feindseligen oder sexuellen Aggression genommen wird, und eine dritte, an der sich die Absicht des Witzes, Lust zu erzeugen, erfüllt. [...] Durch die zotige Rede des Ersten wird das Weib vor diesem Dritten entblößt, der nun als Zuhörer – durch die mühelose Befriedigung seiner eigenen Libido – bestochen wird" (114). See, however, Michael Billig, who in discussing this passage concedes: "Freud\u27s argument is theoretically interesting for the way that he links male sexual joking with both sexual frustration and aggressive degradation. It is also rhetorically interesting: the section contains not a single example. Freud did not want smutty talk in his book" (162). laughter has entered contested gendered territory. What, indeed, happens when Medusa returns the male gaze and laughs herself as Hélène Cixous famously suggested making fun of the Freudian theory of woman\u27s notorious lack? "You only have to look at the Medusa straight on to see her. And she\u27s not deadly. She\u27s beautiful and she\u27s laughing," claims Cixous (2048). But why, however, is it that whenever women (dare to) laugh, this laughter is considered breaking limits, rules and taboos? Does that mean, on the other hand, that male laughter necessarily remains within established boundaries of proper conduct and expected behaviour? What then happens when men become the objects rather than subjects of laughter, being ridiculed by women\u27s humour? And above all we may ask whether humour is necessarily gendered, thus invariably reinforcing gender boundaries that otherwise have long been contested and overturned