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This paper investigates how Kogawa juxtaposes the public and the private discourses, silence and speech, as well as dream and reality (or historical events) in order to constitute multiple layers of perception. It examines and explicates Naomi’s psychological undercurrent by looking closely at her dreams and memories, the interactions with Obasan and Aunt Emily, and the departure of her mother. As the book title suggests, it is crystal clear that Obasan plays a crucial role in Naomi’s life; yet, Naomi’s mother and Aunt Emily are also indispensable in awakening Naomi’s self-consciousness. Throughout the novel, Kogawa deploys the interweaving of historical documents and Aunt Emily’s vociferousness as a foil to Obasan’s and her mother’s silence for the sake of raising Naomi’s awareness of being a Japanese Canadian immigrant, highlighting the importance of silence and maternal power, and ultimately scrutinizing her trauma. By meticulous investigation of their interactions, the boundaries are transgressed in the following dichotomies: dream/reality, silence/speech, old generation/new generation, etc. One question raised at the beginning will be answered in the conclusion: Is Naomi’s psychological trauma truly “incurable”?
Modern Intellectual History
"The Brides of Deconstruction and Criticism" and the Transformation of Feminism in the North American Academy2020 •
“The Brides of Deconstruction and Criticism,” an informal group of feminist literary critics active at Yale University during the 1970s, were inspired by second-wave feminist curriculum, activities, and thought, as well as by the politics of the women’s and gay liberation movements, in their effort to intervene into patterns of female effacement and marginalization. By the early 1980s, while helping direct deconstructive reading away from the self-subversiveness of French and English prose and poetry, the Brides made groundbreaking contributions to—and in several cases founded—fields of scholarly inquiry. During the late 1980s, these feminist deconstructionists, having overcome resistance from within Yale’s English Department and elsewhere, used their works as social and political acts to help pave the way for the successes of cultural studies in the North American academy. Far from a suppl ́ement to what Barbara Johnson boldly called the “Male School,” the Brides of Deconstruction and Criticism arguably were the Yale school. Examining the distinct but interrelated projects of Yale’s feminist deconstructive moment and how local and contingent events as well as the national climate, rather than the importation of so-called French theory, informed this moment gives us a clearer rendering of the story of deconstruction.
Plotted, Shot, and Painted: Cultural Representations of Biblical Women
IS THIS NAOMI? THE NAOMI–RUTH–BOAZ TRIANGLEThe paper examines ways that biblical scholarship, modern essays and poetry, selected paintings and Hollywood film deal with interpersonal relationships and sex in their interpretations of the book of Ruth. It focuses on two major issues in Ruth studies: (1) the strong bond between women illustrated in Ruth’s attachment to her mother-in-law Naomi, and (2) what is widely perceived as a textual gap concerning what happened between Ruth and Boaz on the threshing floor (Ruth 3:6-15). Interpretations influenced by the desire to foreground the heterosexual relationship at the expense of the bond between women—seen in the romanticizing of Ruth and Boaz’s relationship, and in one of our culture’s most striking reversals, the transfer of Ruth’s oath of loyalty to Naomi (“Where you will go I will go; where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God...”) to the traditional marriage ceremony—are unsettled by the counter-claims of lesbian readings of Ruth and Naomi’s relationship and by their own uneasy (?) and potentially deconstructive acknowledgments of the “unusual” or “unexpected” character of Ruth’s devotion. In the paper, I consider the appropriation of the book of Ruth by the rival claims of same-sex and opposite-sex interests to see how they construct a binary opposition requiring a choice between the Ruth-Naomi and the Ruth-Boaz dyad, and to ask the question, what happens if we opt instead for an eternal(ly unstable) triangle?
Yale and New Haven’s history is rich with moments of feminist activism that garner similar media attention, from Yale’s decision to become coeducational in 1969, Title IX controversies with the women’s crew team and Alexander v. Yale court case (both in the late 1970s) through the Local 34 strike of 1984, and up to present day conflicts about sexual misconduct in the university. After Yale College moved into co-education in 1969, the 1970s were largely characterized by individual moments of survival and resistance, with undergraduate women only starting to push for university policy change near the end of the decade. However, as Yale moved into the 1980s and some of women’s policy suggestions were put into place, feminist activism shifted from being focused on undergraduates and adaptation within the status-quo university framework to building coalitions across parts of Yale and New Haven, especially that could challenge the university’s framework and rhetoric. This departs from the general activist periodization of the mid-to-late 20th century, which argues that American feminist and university activism peaked in the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, previous characterizations of Yale focus on individual successes and forms of resistance without covering the far more intertwined landscape of activism across Yale and New Haven. A common national feminist and student activist periodization, as well as a Yale and New Haven history centered around singular historical moments, is complicated by this research. This evidence demonstrates that critical successes in specific issues—labor, anti-rape, reproductive freedom, and institutional recognition—were much more intertwined with previous organizing, local coalitions and the radical potential of the university. Feminist trailblazing in Yale and New Haven provide a larger corrective to feminist and student activist historiography, giving us a broader understanding of what terminology, frameworks, and strategies we have inherited from organizing predecessors and which have been lost over time.
‘Courtship and marriage, servants and children, these are the great objects of a woman’s thoughts, and they necessarily form the stable topics of their writings and their conversation. We have no right to expect anything else in a woman’s book’ (New York Times extract, Fern: 1857, 1748). This statement from the 1800s sums up the difficulties which women writers have experienced in terms of gaining respect and recognition for their work. Women’s writing has long been considered unimportant and inferior to “male” literature. Women’s novels were ridiculed or ignored; women’s issues were silenced. Chick lit is the latest genre of women’s writing to be ridiculed and criticised. In the 21st century, not much has changed in terms of the reception of women’s novels; many of the same criticisms are used today regarding chick lit as in the 19th century in relation to female writers. The phrase “chick lit” is often viewed as a derogatory term to dismiss any possible literary worth in a genre which many – mistakenly – believe deals with nothing more than shoe-shopping and finding Mr. Right. However, defenders of the genre insist that a ‘serious consideration of chick lit brings into focus many of the issues facing contemporary women and contemporary culture’ (Ferriss: 2006, 2-3). If chick lit is aiming to be placed as a positive, potentially feminist, form of contemporary fiction, it must discuss all aspects of women’s lives. So, as well as romantic relationships, which many claim are the central focus of much chick lit, the novels must also include issues concerning career, family, friends, and the body. Related to this issue of the body, this paper will specifically examine the genre’s discussion of women’s reproductive lives – from female sexual freedom to menstruation to childbirth. Using examples from the novels of Irish chick lit authors, including Marian Keyes, Kate Thompson and Colette Caddle, this paper will explore how these novels tackle issues that many genres shy away from as they are considered ‘taboo’ by societal standards.
Alternate version of the above: a full scan of the entire unpublished work, with index.
A Source for all culture and traditions
Anything and everything that is not restricted to only one culture and transcends the boundaries of nations and extends through all human cultures is termed as transcultural. Feminism, the women liberation movement in literary discourses, is one such widespread phenomenon which has massive significance in all over the world. It can be argued that the pioneers of feminism were the dwellers of the west such as Virginia Woolf, Elaine Showalter and Simone de Beauvoir. However this idea of giving voice to the voiceless is later seen to be celebrated all over the world. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century there was flowering of poets in America, Africa, Canada, India and as many countries as possible, who in their poetry developed a sort of feminism which was more of a personal experience rather than a passive spectacle. Among them one such poet was Eunice Desouza, the Goan-origined poet who offers a wide range of women-centric ideas in her poetry based on her personal experiences. The kind of feminism, she deals with, is heavily inspired by western as well as Indian poets of varying cultures. Though feminism developed as a reform later it became confessional in the writings of some poets. Thus it is obvious that the confession varies from individual to individual. However there is some sense of similarity among them all. This paper shows how the poetry of Eunice Desouza is a record of a transcultural aspect of feminism inspired by poets like Sylvia Path, Emily Dickinson, and Kamala Das and many more. Keyword: Transcultural, feminism, confession, personal experience, emotions.
مجلّةُ اجتِهاد للدّراساتِ العَربيّةِ والإسْلامِيّة
ظاهرة الإلحاد في المجتمعات الإسلامية؛ تشخيص العوامل واقتراح العلاج2024 •
*[Avec M. Aouad], « Himma, a Pivotal Concept between Psychology and Politics », Philosophical Studies Journal, 1 (2024), 5-48
Himma, a Pivotal Concept between Psychology and Politics2024 •
Quando fazer é pensar: conectando design e filosofia
Estudos discursivos em design: fundamentos teóricos2023 •
Minerva: Revista del Círculo de Bellas Artes
El futuro de la izquierda2021 •
International journal of academic research in business & social sciences
An Investigation of Relationship Across All Types of Presence in Online Learning2023 •
2011 •
International journal of georesources and environment
Mining of the Waterberg - a Unique Deposit Requiring Innovative Solutions2018 •
2016 •