DOCSLIB.ORG

University of California Santa Cruz the Speculative

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
University of California Santa Cruz the Speculative UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE SPECULATIVE AGENCY OF THE NONHUMAN: ANIMAL, OBJECT, AND POSTHUMAN WORLDINGS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LITERATURE by Sophia Booth Magnone June 2016 The Dissertation of Sophia Booth Magnone is approved: Professor Carla Freccero, Chair Professor Kimberly J. Lau Professor H. Marshall Leicester, Jr. Dean Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Sophia Booth Magnone 2016 Table of Contents Abstract v Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Anthropocentrism and its discontents . 1 Why speculative fiction? . 8 Defining nonhumanity: the “who” and the “what” . 15 Nonhuman agency . 20 Worlding . 23 Chapters: the cyborg and the beast . 27 I Decadent Posthumanism: Loving the Object in Rachilde’s Monsieur Vénus 32 Prologue: “un unique monstre” . 32 “Je fais tout le contraire de ce que j'ai promis”: reading the Decadent writer . 35 Inventing vice: Raoule the artist . 46 Monsieur Galatée: Jacques the objet d’art ....................... 52 Authoring the idol . 60 The agency of the object . 67 Reading hysteria in Monsieur Vénus .......................... 69 Rachilde as hysterical author . 73 Raoule as hysterical author . 79 Conclusions . 89 II Eves of the Future: Cyborg Gender in Villiers’s L’Eve future and Carter’s The Passion of New Eve 92 Yesterday’s Eve of the future: situating Villiers and Carter . 98 1. “Ah! qui m’ôtera cette âme de ce corps?”: Miss Alicia Clary . 106 2. “I never knew a girl more a slave to style”: Leilah . 115 3. “Ecce puella!”: Evelyn Habal . 124 4. “The perfect man’s woman”: Tristessa de St Ange . 134 “To be a pane the sun shines through”: affirming feminine objectification . 145 iii Conclusions . 150 III Woman/Animal/Object: Monstrous Agency in Carter’s Nights at the Circus and Darrieussecq’s Truismes 155 Speculating feminine monstrosity . 158 The enduring trope of the womanimal . 161 Objectifying the womanimal . 168 “She felt herself turning, willy-nilly, from a woman into an idea”: the significance of difference . 171 “The wonderful quality of my flesh”: carnivore sexuality . 178 The hazards of love: Jack and Yvan . 185 “Think of him as an amanuensis”: co-authoring a love story . 186 “A lovely way to die”: love as consumption . 195 Monstrous appetites: eating as resistance . 202 Humanist and posthumanist appetites . 208 Conclusions . 219 IV Cyborg Companion Species: Stapledon’s Sirius and Bakis’s Lives of the Monster Dogs 221 Theorizing man’s best friend . 233 Reading and writing dogs . 237 “After all, I am a novelist”: Robert’s self-authorization . 240 Resurrection through text: Cleo and Ludwig . 246 Textsandtraces..................................... 252 “Glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere”: Sirius and the spirit . 254 “The spaces in between”: Ludwig’s theory of love . 261 Dogs and masters: being-for-the-other . 266 Love and/as domestication . 272 Conclusions . 281 Bibliography 284 iv Abstract The Speculative Agency of the Nonhuman: Animal, Object, and Posthuman Worldings by Sophia Booth Magnone This dissertation explores representations of nonhuman agency across the diverse literary tradition of speculative fiction. I identify speculative fiction as a site where cultural discourses of personhood, species, and power might be challenged and reworked; a loosely defined genre, SF insists on an openness to disruption, exploiting the creative and politically radical possibilities of imagining the world otherwise. The project draws upon an archive of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French, English, and U.S. American texts that adopt a speculative mode in order to literalize long-standing associations of the feminine, animal, and object in the Western patriarchal imagination, populating their pages with figures of feminized cyborgs, animalized women, and mechanized animals. By worlding a range of beings defined by their difference from the human norm, the texts intervene in longstanding anthropocentric discourses of “who” versus “what,” proposing a more inclusive notion of personhood that recognizes collective, interdependent, and passive forms of agency. I draw upon feminist theory, gender and queer theory, animal studies, and posthumanist scholarship to articulate an intersectional approach to multispecies ethics. The four chapters separate into two parts, each concerned with one vector of the infinitely multiple field of the nonhuman. The first two focus on artificial, machinic life as one v alternative to human species-being; Rachilde’s Monsieur Vénus in Chapter 1 and Villiers’s L’Eve future and Carter’s The Passion of New Eve in Chapter 2 employ cyborg figures to challenge dominant discourses of gender propriety and authorial agency. The second two chapters focus on animals and animality as a second alternative to humanity; Carter’s Nights at the Circus and Darrieussecq’s Truismes in Chapter 3 and Stapledon’s Sirius and Bakis’s Lives of the Monster Dogs in Chapter 4 attend to the perils and pleasures of bestial life on the margins of human-dominated society. Together, the chapters build toward a notion of worlding as collaboration—between humans, animals, and machines; between genders; between storytellers and stories, authors and texts. vi Acknowledgments This project was completed under the generous support of the Division of Graduate Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, through the Chancellor’s Dissertation-Year Fellowship (2015-2016). Additional support for research and travel came from the UCSC Department of Literature, the UCSC Institute for Humanities Research, and the UCSC Science and Justice Research Center. Research for this project was conducted at the Angela Carter archives at the British Library. For their guidance, support, and attention, I thank the members of my dissertation committee: Carla Freccero (chair), Kimberly Lau, and Marsh Leicester. As teachers, mentors, and interlocutors, each of them has contributed immensely to this project and to my intellectual growth at UCSC. I am inspired by the ways each of them weaves enthusiasm and passion into rigorous scholarship. I am especially grateful to Carla Freccero for her thoughtful feedback on my work over the past seven years, as well as her unflagging encouragement. Thanks are also due to the UCSC faculty whose teaching has shaped my thinking in myriad ways: Wlad Godzich, Peter Limbrick, Jim Clifford, Warren Sack, Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Martin Berger, Christine Hong, Vilashini Cooppan, Dan Selden, and Andrew Matthews. I give tremendous thanks to all my graduate colleagues, past and present, in the UCSC Literature department. My fellow members of the 2009 cohort made this path seem possible, even at its most difficult. This dissertation owes its existence in no small part to the members of my dissertation writing group: Kendra Dority, Joanna Meadvin, and Keegan Finberg. I could not ask for more attentive, enthusiastic, and helpful readers. Though our final projects stand vii alone, we are collaborators in the profoundest sense, and I cherish the threads that stitch our work together across disciplines, genres, and traditions. I also thank Dennis Brand, Bethany Sweeney, and Sam Skinazi for many years of conversation on animals, cyborgs, science fiction, and other topics dear to my heart. Thanks are due to all of my undergraduate students at UCSC, especially the members of Gender and Speculative Fiction (Fall 2014), whose enthusiastic dedication to everyday critical thinking and to issues of inclusion and justice helped me become a better teacher and scholar. For training me in the everyday joys and obligations of companionship, I owe thanks to the many nonhumans who have shared my life, especially to Gertrude, the feline collaborator who was never far from my side as I wrote this dissertation. I also thank the Santa Cruz Derby Girls for showing me what bodies are capable of, and for providing much-needed balance on long days spent lost in thought; special thanks goes out to Rhiannon Soto for her constant friendship and support, and for hitting me hard when I needed it. I extend heartfelt thanks to Amey Mathews and Kendra Dority (again) for enriching my life with their compassion, generosity, and love. I’m proud to be associated with you. With love and gratitude, I thank my wonderful family: Sonya Booth, Steve Magnone, Celia Magnone, and Louis Diamond. I am lucky to be kin to people who value curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in many forms; their influence shapes my life and work in countless ways, and their affection and encouragement has been crucial to this project. Finally, for love and support beyond words, I thank my partner Carroll L. Wainwright. You make this one the best of all possible worlds. This dissertation is dedicated with love to the memory of Victoria Rogers Booth. viii Introduction Anthropocentrism and its discontents In a short article entitled “Ms. Found in an Ant Hill,” a pair of literary scholars undertake a close reading of a found text. Their work is hindered by material difficulties: “the messages are fragmentary,” they note, “and the translation approximate and highly interpretive” (200). But convinced of the text’s significance for their field, they proceed with caution, examining each fragment in turn. They consider multiple translations: does the author mean to say, in the opening lines, “[I will] not touch feelers. [I will] not stroke,” indicating an autobiography, or “[Do] not touch feelers. [Do] not stroke,” indicating a manifesto (200-201)? They draw on thorough background research about the language of this text to identify the author’s linguistic experimentation, noting that “the mark translated ‘Praise!’ is half of the customary salutation ‘Praise the Queen!’… but the word/mark signifying ‘Queen’ has been omitted” (201). The most crucial part of the text, the scholars argue, is its final exhortation: “Eat the eggs! Up with the Queen!” (202). The meaning of these lines has provoked considerable controversy among interpreters; the scholars, making an important intervention in their field, suggest that previous readers have been led astray by “an ethnocentric interpretation of the word ‘up’” (202).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • FORALL12-13 Proof Read
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331998586 FOR ALL: The Sustainable Development Goals and LGBTI People Research · February 2019 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23989.73447 CITATIONS READS 0 139 2 authors: Andrew Park Lucas Ramón Mendos University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles 17 PUBLICATIONS 6 CITATIONS 4 PUBLICATIONS 69 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Gender Identity and Expression View project LGBTI and international development View project All content following this page was uploaded by Andrew Park on 26 March 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. FOR ALL The Sustainable Development Goals and LGBTI People “We pledge that no one will be left behind…. [T]he Goals and targets must be met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society.” United Nations General Assembly. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. PREFACE This report was produced pursuant to a consultation contract (2018-05 RAP/SDGs) issued by RFSL Forbundeẗ (Org nr: 802011-9353). This report was authored by Andrew Park and Lucas Ramon Mendos. The views and interpretations expressed in this report are the authors’ and may not necessarily reflect those of RFSL. Micah Grzywnowicz, RFSL International Advocacy Advisor, contributed to the shaping, editing, and final review of this report. Winston Luhur, Research Assistant, Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law, contributed to research which has been integrated into this publication. Ilan Meyer, Ph.D., Williams Distinguished Senior Scholar for Public Policy, Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law, Elizabeth Saewyc, Director and Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, and Carmen Logie, Assistant Professor at Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, provided expert guidance to the authors.
    [Show full text]
  • Regulating Violence in Video Games: Virtually Everything
    Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary Volume 31 Issue 1 Article 7 3-15-2011 Regulating Violence in Video Games: Virtually Everything Alan Wilcox Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/naalj Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons Recommended Citation Alan Wilcox, Regulating Violence in Video Games: Virtually Everything, 31 J. Nat’l Ass’n Admin. L. Judiciary Iss. 1 (2011) Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/naalj/vol31/iss1/7 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Regulating Violence in Video Games: Virtually Everything By Alan Wilcox* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ................................. ....... 254 II. PAST AND CURRENT RESTRICTIONS ON VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES ........................................... 256 A. The Origins of Video Game Regulation...............256 B. The ESRB ............................. ..... 263 III. RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED IN OTHER COUNTRIES . ............ 275 A. The European Union ............................... 276 1. PEGI.. ................................... 276 2. The United
    [Show full text]
  • Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 43.2 | 2021 Negotiating Dataveillance in the Near Future: Margaret Atwood’S Dystopias 2
    Commonwealth Essays and Studies 43.2 | 2021 In Other Worlds Negotiating Dataveillance in the Near Future: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias Claire Wrobel Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ces/7718 DOI: 10.4000/ces.7718 ISSN: 2534-6695 Publisher SEPC (Société d’études des pays du Commonwealth) Electronic reference Claire Wrobel, “Negotiating Dataveillance in the Near Future: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias”, Commonwealth Essays and Studies [Online], 43.2 | 2021, Online since 23 July 2021, connection on 29 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ces/7718 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ces.7718 This text was automatically generated on 29 July 2021. Commonwealth Essays and Studies is licensed under a Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Negotiating Dataveillance in the Near Future: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias 1 Negotiating Dataveillance in the Near Future: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopias Claire Wrobel 1 Imagining what comes next is the stuff that Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novels are made of.1 In retrospect, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) may seem to have been prescient. While it may be read in the context of the backlash against feminism in the United States in the 1980s (Neuman 2006), it has gained new significance in the misogynous context of the Trump administration. The handmaid’s outfit, with its scarlet robe and white cornet, has become a visual rallying cry for women protesting against attempts on their reproductive rights in places as diverse as Texas, Northern Ireland or Argentina (Beaumont and Holpuch 2018). Atwood’s awareness of the threat that uncontrollable viruses constitute may also seem prescient in light of the ongoing pandemic.
    [Show full text]
  • Revisionist Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood's
    Author: Keck, Michaela Title: Paradise Retold: Revisionist Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy Paradise Retold: Revisionist Mythmaking in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy Michaela Keck Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany [email protected] Abstract This paper focuses on the subversive potential of myths by exploring Margaret Atwood’s feminist revision of creation, more specifically the myth of paradise. According to Adrienne Rich’s definition, the “re-vision” of myths signifies the critical adaptation, appropriation, and invasion of traditional texts. As such, myths have not only legitimized exploitative power relationships, but they have also served as a powerful means to participate in and subvert hegemonic discourses. By drawing on the theories of Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Hans Blumenberg, for whom myths constitute cultural-artistic mediations that involve the polarities of affect and intellect, terror and logos, Atwood’s revision of paradise in the MaddAddam trilogy may be approached in itself as—to use a term by Hans Blumenberg—a “work of logos.” I argue that Atwood revises paradise by duplicating the ancient human dreams of paradise into Crake’s techno pagan and Adam One’s eco-millennialist “gardens of delights,” both of which are refracted through evolutionary science and ecology. Characterized by human destructiveness, these posthuman paradises feature multiple Eves alongside the dominant male figures. Among Atwood’s Eves, there is the brazen Oryx as exploited racial “Other” of white society in the pathos formula of the Asian “digital virgin prostitute.” Atwood employs a self-reflexivity regarding myths that is characteristic of postmodern pastiche and thus highlights storytelling as the distinguishing characteristic of humankind, while her use of an evolutionary grotesque aesthetics erodes clear-cut distinctions between humans, animals, and post- humans.
    [Show full text]
  • The “Jūdō Sukebei”
    ISSN 2029-8587 PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 21st CENTURY Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015 85 THE “JŪDŌ SUKEBEI” PHENOMENON: WHEN CROSSING THE LINE MERITS MORE THAN SHIDŌ [MINOR INFRINGEMENT] ― SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR IN JŪDŌ COACHES AND INSTRUCTORS Carl De Crée University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium International Association of Judo Researchers, United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The sport of jūdō was intended as an activity “for all”. Since in 1996 a major sex abuse scandal broke out that involved a Dutch top jūdō coach and several female elite athletes, international media have identified many more abuses. To date no scholarly studies exist that have examined the nature, extent, and consequences of these anomalies. We intend in this paper to review and analyze sexual abuses in jūdō. To do so we offer a descriptive jurisprudence overview of relevant court and disciplinary cases, followed by a qualitative-analytical approach looking at the potential factors that prompt jūdō-related bullying and sexual harassment. Sex offenders may be attracted to jūdō because of: 1. the extensive bodily contact during grappling, 2. the easy access to voyeuristic opportunities during contest weigh-ins and showering, 3. Jūdō’s authoritarian and hierarchical structure as basis for ‘grooming’, 4. lack of integration of jūdō’s core moral component in contemporary jūdō coach and instructor education, and 5. its increasing eroti- cization by elite jūdō athletes posing for nude calendars and media and by specialized pornographic jūdō manga and movies. Cultural conceptions and jurisprudence are factors that affect how people perceive the seriousness and how these offences are dealt with.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Works by Margaret Atwood
    LIST OF WORKS BY MARGARET ATWOOD Note: This bibliography lists Atwood’s novels, short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction books. It is current as of 2019. Dates in parentheses re- fer to the initial date of publication; when there is variance across countries, the date refers to the Canadian publication. We have used standard abbreviations for Atwood’s works across the essays; how- ever, contributors have used a range of editions (Canadian, American, British, etc.), reflecting the wide circulation of Atwood’s writing. For details on the specific editions consulted by contributors, please see the bibliography immediately following each essay. For a complete bibliography of Atwood’s works, including small press editions, children’s books, scripts, and edited volumes, see http://mar- garetatwood.ca/full-bibliography-2/ Novels EW The Edible Woman (1969) Surf. Surfacing (1972) LO Lady Oracle (1976) LBM Life Before Man (1979) BH Bodily Harm (1981) HT The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) CE Cat’s Eye (1988) RB The Robber Bride (1993) AG Alias Grace (1996) BA The Blind Assassin (2000) O&C Oryx and Crake (2003) P The Penelopiad (2005) YF Year of the Flood (2009) MA MaddAddam (2013) HGL The Heart Goes Last (2015) HS Hag-Seed (2016) Test. The Testaments (2019) ix x THE BIBLE AND MARGARET ATWOOD Short Fiction DG Dancing Girls (1977) MD Murder in the Dark (1983) BE Bluebeard’s Egg (1983) WT Wilderness Tips (1991) GB Good Bones (1992) GBSM Good Bones and Simple Murders (1994) Tent The Tent (2006) MD Moral Disorder (2006) SM Stone Mattress (2014) Poetry CG The Circle
    [Show full text]
  • October 23, 2019 Good Morning Chairman Allen and Members Of
    October 23, 2019 Good morning Chairman Allen and members of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Sasha Buchert and I’m a Senior Attorney at Lambda Legal. I’m testifying in support of the Tony Hunter and Bella Evangelista Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2019 and in support of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2019. LGBTQ people, and transgender women of color in particular, move through the world under the constant threat of impending violence. In the words of one transgender woman of color in a recent New York Times article, “it’s always in the forefront of our minds, when we’re leaving home, going to work, going to school.”1 This fear is well-substantiated. At least 21 transgender people, almost all of them transgender women of color have been murdered this year already.2 Almost all of the murders involve the victims being shot multiple times, and commonly involve beatings and burnings. Two of those murders this year took place in the DC area; Zoe Spears a Black transgender woman, was found lying in the street with signs of trauma near Eastern Avenue in Fairmount Heights last June and Ashanti Carmon, also a black transgender woman was fatally shot this year in Prince George's County, Maryland.3 There has also been a troubling increase in violence targeting people based on their sexual orientation. Hate crimes have increased nationally over the last three years,4 and there were a record number of suspected hate crimes in D.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Dutroux Affair the Reality of Protected Child Abuse and Snuff
    Beyond the Dutroux Affair The reality of protected child abuse and snuff networks the victim-witnesses | the investigators | the accused | the apparently assassinated Warning: The information in this article is not suited for anyone below the age of 18, as it involves extreme sexual violence against children. A certain amount of normally-illegal visual evidence (it is censored) has been included. Important notes, three years after 1This site continues to be visited by Belgian and Dutch Justice ) departments, just as many major news outlets (who won't publish on the affair naturally). There's never been one complaint about the pictures used. 2Except for the John DeCamp ) information (for now) and a few newspaper-reported cases, all America-based sources to compare the Dutroux Affair with have been deleted. Not reliable. 3For all the people who have ) faith in the alternative media: Alex Jones only published this article (as a Click to watch an intro to this article not news item) on Prison Planet made by ISGP. De Bonvoisin has been after paying him $500. And named by more witnesses, by the way. only then did several other major "alternative" sites pick it up. But soon thereafter, the amount of money offered didn't seem to matter anymore. Funny, as all these sites never get enough of the John DeCamp story. 4On the internet you can find several prominent skeptical articles about ) the only witness who ever went public: X1. It's obvious that these articles still have a huge capacity to seed doubt. Just know that all of the claims they make have been based on manipulations, as this article will show.
    [Show full text]
  • SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-Přírodovědecká Fakulta V Opavě
    SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě Bc. Matěj Hanslik Obor: Angličtina (jednooborové) Analysis of Terms in Adult Movies Diplomová práce Opava 2020 Vedoucí diplomové práce: PhDr. René Kron, Ph.D. Abstract This master thesis deals with terminology used in categorization of adult movies. The theoretical part covers the basic theory of terminology and word formation processes and briefly introduces the theory of corpus linguistics and taboo words. Furthermore, the thesis provides fundamental information about pornographic industry. The analysis dealing with individual terms gathered from the pages RedTube and PornHub is based on the data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the online etymology dictionary and several online English dictionaries. The aim of the practical part is to provide an analysis of selected words, study the difference between the meaning used in pornographic terminology and in the general language, to track the etymology and to analyze their frequency in current American English. Keywords: terminology, term, pornography, COCA, analysis, corpus, taboo words Abstrakt Tato diplomová práce se zabývá terminologií užívanou pro kategorizaci pornografických filmů. Teoretická část obsahuje základní teorii terminologie a formování nových slov a stručně pokrývá korpusovou lingvistiku, teorii tabuizovaných slov a nabízí náhled do pornografického průmyslu. Praktickou část pak tvoří analýza jednotlivých termínů nashromážděných z internetových stránek RedTube a PornHub a je založena na datech získaných z korpusu současné americké angličtiny, etymologického slovníku a online Anglických slovníků. Cílem praktické části je vypracování analýzy vybraných termínů, sledování rozdílů ve významech těchto slov používaných v běžném jazyce a specifické pornografické terminologii, vypátrání jejich původu a zkoumání četnosti výskytu dle jednotlivých jazykových sekcí v současném americkém jazyce.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Club Kit Discussion Guide Handmaid's Tale by Margaret
    Book Club Kit Discussion Guide Handmaid’s Tale By Margaret Atwood Author: Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa, and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec, and in Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College. Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her latest book of short stories is Stone Mattress: Nine Tales (2014). Her MaddAddam trilogy – the Giller and Booker prize- nominated Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013) – is currently being adapted for HBO. The Door is her latest volume of poetry (2007). Her most recent non-fiction books are Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008) and In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011). Her novels include The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; and The Robber Bride, Cat’s Eye, The Handmaid’s Tale – coming soon as a TV series with MGM and Hulu – and The Penelopiad. Her new novel, The Heart Goes Last, was published in September 2015. Forthcoming in 2016 are Hag-Seed, a novel revisitation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, and Angel Catbird – with a cat-bird superhero – a graphic novel with co-creator Johnnie Christmas. (Dark Horse.) Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson. (From author’s website.) Summary: In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dutroux Case
    Confronting An Atrocity: The Dutroux Case Printed in Trouble and Strife, 1998, 36. Marc Dutroux kidnapped and sexually abused a number of young Belgian women. When the case came to light in the summer of 1996 it prompted outrage and raised serious questions about both the investigation and how societies should respond to sex offenders. In exploring this case and its implications Liz Kelly highlights the need for remembering, making connections and developing coherent approaches to child sexual abuse. Little more than a year ago international consternation and outrage focussed on one case of child abuse - the Dutroux case in Belgium. This short piece has two aims: to pull together what is currently known and reflect on its implications for how sex offenders and child sexual abuse is understood and responded to. As with many other high profile child sexual abuse cases we are confronted by a paradox: we know both too much and too little. Too much in the sense that the abuse and its consequences were 'unbelievable', too much to bear. Too little in that we have only fragments of information, and even when the legal cases take place the stories that will be presented are unlikely to approximate to any kind of coherence or truth. This exploration is limited by what we currently know. The sources I have used include recent issues of a US newsletter Believe the Children and two searches on the Internet - one in May and one in September (searching on the name Marc Dutroux in May produced 452 hits - mostly from French, German and Belgian newspapers).
    [Show full text]
  • SB-2 Submitted On: 2/7/2019 9:40:07 AM Testimony for JDC on 2/12/2019 9:00:00 AM
    SB-2 Submitted on: 2/7/2019 9:40:07 AM Testimony for JDC on 2/12/2019 9:00:00 AM Testifier Present at Submitted By Organization Position Hearing Testifying for Public John Tonaki Oppose Yes Defender Comments: Office of the Public Defender State of Hawai‘i Testimony of the Office of the Public Defender, State of Hawai‘i to the Senate Committee on Judiciary February 12, 2019 S.B. No. 2: RELATING TO CRIMINAL DEFENSE Chair Rhoads, Vice Chair Wakai and Members of the Committee: The Office of the Public Defender opposes S.B. No. 2. This measure would prohibit the accused from claiming discovery, knowledge, or disclosure of a victim’s gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation resulted in extreme mental or emotional disturbance sufficient to reduce a charge of murder to a charge of manslaughter unless the other circumstances of a defendant’s explanation are already sufficient to reasonably find extreme mental or emotional disturbance. Our current manslaughter statute provides, in pertinent part, “The reasonableness of the explanation shall be determined from the viewpoint of a reasonable person in the circumstances as the defendant believed them to be. The added language is simply not necessary for fair application of the defense. A defendant asserting the affirmative defense of EMED must present a reasonable explanation for the defendant to be under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance. The trier-of-fact has always should determine the reasonableness of the accused’s explanation from the viewpoint of a reasonable person in the circumstances as the accused believed them to be Moreover, this measure would create a “preferred class” of individuals to the exclusion others who might equally be aggrieved as potential victims of manslaughter.
    [Show full text]