192 research outputs found
Working 9 to 5: A Women\u27s Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie
No full textLibrarian, Judy Pinnolis, interviews Ellen Cassedy, author and co-founder of 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
Video editing by Stacey Snyder.https://remix.berklee.edu/library-books-at-berklee/1017/thumbnail.jp
Independent scholarly reporting about conflict interventions: negotiating aboriginal native title in south Australia
No full textThis thesis uses an action research methodology to develop a framework for improving independent scholarly reporting about interventions addressing social or environmental conflict. As there are often contradictory interpretations about the causes and strategic responses to conflict, the problem confronting scholar-reporters is how to address perceptions of bias and reflexively specify the purpose of reporting. It is proposed that scholar-reporters require grounding in conventional realist-based social theory but equally ability to incorporate theoretical ideas generated in more idealist-based peace research and applied conflict resolution studies. To do this scholar-reporters can take a comparative approach systematically developed through an integrated framework as described in this thesis.
Conceptual and theoretical considerations that support both conventional and more radical constructions are comparatively analysed and then tested in relation to a case study. In 2000 Aboriginal people throughout South Australia deliberated whether their native title claims could be better accorded recognition through conservative court processes or a negotiation process to allay deep-seated conflict. The author, in a scholar-reporter capacity, formulated a report attributing meaning to this consultative process.
As such a report could have been formulated according to alternative paradigms, methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks, the analysis of the adopted framework highlights how different approaches can bias the interpretation of the process and prospects for change. Realist-based conservative interpretations emphasise 'official' decision-making processes where legitimacy is expressed through political and legal frameworks based on precedent. Idealist-based interpretations emphasise that circumstances entailing significant conflict warrant equal consideration being given to 'non-official' 'resolutionary' problem-solving processes where conflict is treated as a catalyst for learning and outcomes are articulated as understanding generated about conflict and how different strategies can transform it.
The developed integrated framework approach establishes the independence of scholarly reporting. Its purpose goes beyond perpetuating scholarly debate about alternative 'objective' understandings of conflict; it focuses primarily on communicating a more inclusive understanding of the contradictions inherent in a particular conflict. It increases the capacity to understand when, where, why and how conflict precipitates social change, and articulates possibilities for reconceptualising what might be the more sustainable direction of change
Women Look into Love: Reimaginings of Heterosexual Love in Contemporary Women’s Fiction
No full textThis thesis explores how contemporary women writers write about heterosexual love, considering not only the ways it has been implicated in patriarchal models and traditional romance plots, but also its portrayal in light of developments in feminism and fiction in the 1990s and 2000s. The thesis examines Carol Shields’s The Republic of Love (1992), Toni Morrison’s Jazz (1992), Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1993), Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup (2001), Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (2001), Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (2000) and Doris Lessing’s Love, Again (1995). In this study it emerges that as well as illustrating continuities, the scope of the treatment of love is opened up further in recent fiction as aspects like age or social, economic and historical factors are centralised and considered in interesting ways. The thesis also identifies some positive approaches to heterosexual love, as in, for example, the emphasis on men’s capacity for emotions. However, this is not always the case, as a writer like Lessing further develops a vision of love without providing an affirmative view. Thus, the contemporary women writers’ work can be said to contribute to understandings of heterosexual love on many different levels, even as feminist criticisms of repressive, patriarchal forms of romantic relationship continue to remain relevant
The representation of trauma in narrative : a study of six late twentieth century novels
No full textThis thesis conducts a close analysis of representations of trauma in six
late twentieth century novels. I construct a theoretical framework by examining
debates about trauma and narrative which have taken place in the fields of
historiography, social studies, psychoanalysis and literary fiction. By drawing on
these debates, I argue that the relationship between narrative and trauma is
paradoxical: narrative is an essential tool, both for working-through and bearing
witness to the trauma, but it can also intentionally or unintentionally be used to
create an inauthentic version of events.
I illustrate the need felt by many late twentieth century theorists for the
development of a narrative form that will be able to produce an effective version
of trauma. This narrative needs to facilitate working-through and enable
witnessing of trauma. However, it must strive to avoid producing a falsifying
version of the trauma. I argue that it can achieve this by acknowledging its own
provisionality and therefore highlighting the limitations but also the necessity of
narrative representations of trauma.
I argue that the six contemporary novels I have chosen are examples of
narratives that strive to develop a more effective means of representing trauma.
The novels explore their concerns about trauma and narrative on both a thematic
and formal level. The story told in each novel follows a similar pattern of events:
in each novel the protagonist is depicted as suffering from the effects of trauma;
they all try to evade their traumas by creating falsifying versions of their
experiences; and they all offered a means of interpreting which will allow them to
work-though and, therefore, bear witness to their traumas. Finally, the six authors
utilise their narrative strategies to teach their readers this therapeutic and ethical
hermeneutics which corresponds with contemporary concerns about trauma and
narrative
Dressing the part : costuming of lesbian identities in contemporary film and television
No full textThis thesis examines lesbian costuming and dress in contemporary British and American
film and television, offering analyses of sartorial constructions of gay female identities in
modern media. It uses close textual analysis and interviews with producers and consumers
to examine the production, texts, and reception of selected representations, outlining current
social rituals of lesbian style. Interviews were held with Cynthia Summers, Lesley
Abernethy, Niamh Morrison, Catherine Adair, Janie Bryant, Tina Scorzafava and Mary Claire
Hannan about their designs. Spectators answered questions and responded to photographs
and a transcript. The thesis argues that the modern-day designer of lesbian costuming is
subject to a contradictory triangle of demands, encompassing the need for costume to
support character, resistance to stereotypes, and the recognition and perceived positive
politics of identifiable lesbianism. Chapters covering Lip Service and The L Word;
Desperate Housewives, Deadwood, and Mad Men, and Gillery’s Little Secret and The Kids
Are All Right examine differing results of these pressures. The thesis argues that while
anxiety over ‘butch’ stereotypes and heteronormative mainstream demands for assimilation
play a part in the overwhelming ‘femininity’ of many examples, an increase in lesbian
visibility has also paradoxically instigated a shift away from specificity in media
representations through dress because lesbianism is no longer seen as a ‘story’. It suggests
that lesbian authorship and using real-life lesbian styles as costume inspiration may offer a
way out of the stereotype vs. ‘authentic’ imagery impasse without erasing recognisably
lesbian iconography. Finally, the thesis concludes that the production, text and reception of
contemporary lesbian images at times comprises a complete circuit of communication, with
production decisions and everyday practices of lesbian dress both echoing and informing
one another
Nikolai Evreinov and Edith Craig as Mediums of Modernist Sensibility
No full textNikolai Evreinov (1870-1953) was a Russian playwright, director, and theorist of the theatre who played a leading part in the modernist movement of Russian theatre. Evreinov's 1911 monodrama The Theatre of the Soul (V kulisakh dushi) was staged by the Crooked Mirror theatre in St Petersburg in 1912. It was also performed in London (1915) and Rome (1929), and inspired Man Ray to create his aerograph The Theatre of the Soul (1917). In this article Alexandra Smith links Evreinov's play to Russian modernist thought shaped by the atmosphere of crisis associated with the Russo-Japanese War and the first Russian Revolution. It demonstrates that Edith Craig's production of Evreinov's play suggests that the philosophy of theatricalization of everyday life might enable modern subjects to overcome the fragmentation of modern society. Craig's use of the montage-like techniques of Evreinov's play prefigures cinematographic experiments of the 1920s and Marinetti's notion of synthetic theatre. Alexandra Smith is a Reader in Russian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and is the author of The Song of the Mockingbird: Pushkin in the Works of Marina Tsvetaeva (1994) and Montaging Pushkin: Pushkin and Visions of Modernity in Russian Twentieth-Century Poetry (2006), as well as numerous articles on Russian literature and culture.</p
Imagining pain: the representation of violence in beloved, push, and the dew breaker
No full textTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2011A presente tese reflete sobre maneiras de sermos afetados por representações de violência e sofrimento humano. A discussão parte da incapacidade do discurso midiático em sensibilizar sua audiência quando imagens violentas não são capazes de causar choque e empatia. Em contraste a estas representações, este estudo examina representações literárias e a experiência de leitura de narrativas que são temática e esteticamente violentas. O argumento segue a metodologia proposta por Marco Abel (2007) na qual a representação de eventos violentos é abordada em termos de sua força estética; em termos do potencial da literatura em suspender o significado e a verdade evitando, assim, a transformação da experiência da violência em uma representação da violência. As análises de Beloved (1987) de Toni Morrison, Push (1996) de Sapphire e The Dew Breaker (2004) de Edwidge Danticat ilustram como escritoras negras norte-americanas utilizam o recurso narrativo deferral of truth ("postergar a verdade"). Tal recurso carrega o potencial de subverter o conhecimento do leitor, trazer de volta sensação e oferecer a possibilidade de criarmos novos significados. Desta forma, estas narrativas de violência e dor tornam-se espaços de indeterminação e dúvida, mas também de imaginação, criatividade e reflexão
Preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle and low-income countries : a global review and analysis
No full textWorldwide, patterns of violence against women differ markedly from violence against men. For example, women are more likely than men to be sexually assaulted or killed by someone they know. The United Nations has defined violence against women as"gender-based"violence, to acknowledge that such violence is rooted in gender inequality and is often tolerated and condoned by laws, institutions, and community norms. Violence against women is not only a profound violation of human rights, but also a costly impediment to a country's national development. While gender-based violence occurs in many forms throughout the life cycle, this review focuses on two of the most common types-physical intimate partner violence and sexual violence by any perpetrator. Unfortunately, the knowledge base about effective initiatives to prevent and respond to gender-based violence is relatively limited. Few approaches have been rigorously evaluated, even in high-income countries. And such evaluations involve numerous methodological challenges. Nonetheless, the authors review what is known about more and less effective-or at least promising-approaches to prevent and respond to gender-based violence. They present definitions, recent statistics, health consequences, costs, and risk factors of gender-based violence. The authors analyze good practice initiatives in the justice, health, and education sectors, as well as multisectoral approaches. For each of these sectors, they examine initiatives that have addressed laws and policies, institutional reforms, community mobilization, and individual behavior change strategies. Finally, the authors identify priorities for future research and action, including funding research on the health and socioeconomic costs of violence against women, encouraging science-based program evaluations, disseminating evaluation results across countries, promoting investment in effective prevention and treatment initiatives, and encouraging public-private partnerships.
Black violence and the politics of representation: selected readings in the twentieth century American novel
No full textPhDThis thesis argues that the representation of black violence in the twentieth
century American novel is shaped by two principal rhetorical strategies, which I term
denial and demonisation. Denial refers to modes of literary discourse which seek to refute
the possibility of black violence, or to circumscribe it as an exclusively intraracial
phenomenon. Demonisation denotes textual strategies which figure a racially determined
form of violence as a natural element of black character. These strategies may appear
antithetical, but they are rarely deployed in isolation. Rather, they appear in complex
combinations in most representations of black violence in American literature, as I
demonstrate using a range of novels by black and white authors which span the twentieth
century. These strategies have their roots in racist ideologies which seek to obliterate any
connection between the impact of racism upon African Americans and black violence.
Hence they are most noticeable in literary texts which reflect and contribute to racist
ideology. However, texts which seek to expose social and cultural causes of black
violence are also unavoidably influenced by these modes of literary discourse, and this
includes the work of African American authors. They have to negotiate the racist tropes
and assumptions encoded within the language and literary forms of hegemonic American
culture, because they have no alternative, completely separate resources for cultural
production. External pressures experienced by any author representing black violence
compound these difficulties. These include the demands of black community leaders and
white liberals not to represent African Americans in ways which may hinder the cause of
racial equality, and the demands of publishers to represent black violence in ways with
proven commercial potential. Furthermore, despite the retreat of racism in modern
America, certain images and fantasies of blackness retain a hold over the American
cultural imaginary, and continue to influence literary discourse. As my thesis
demonstrates, this ensures that denial and demonisation can still be detected in
contemporary American novels
Seeing Queerness in Ibsen’s Pillars of Society
No full textThis article presents a queer reading of Henrik Ibsen’s Pillars of Society (1877). This reading of the “gender trouble” in the play arises out of what might be called its “genre trouble”; the author claims that Ibsen makes use of the ambiguities of the lystspill genre in order to satirize idealist discourses regarding patriarchy and capitalism. Building on reflections on queerness in Judith Jack Halberstam’s The Queer Art of Failure (2011) and Sara Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness (2010), the article then explores forms of resistance to heteronormativity visible in the characters Lona Hessel, Marta Bernick, and Hilmar Tønnesen
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