DOCSLIB.ORG

Proquest Dissertations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Proquest Dissertations nm u Ottawa L'Universite canadienne Canada's university FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES nm FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTDOCTORALES u Ottawa POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES L'Universiui canadiennc Canada's university Jackie Frances Steele AUTEUR DE LA THESE / AUTHOR OF THESIS Ph.D. (Political Science) GRADE/DEGREE School of Political Studies FACULTE, ECOLE, DEPARTEMENT / FACULTY, SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT Liberte, diversite, co-autorite : Towards a Late Modern Praxis of Radical Representative Democratic Corporealpolitks TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS L. Cardinal DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR cb"bWcTE"uR7co"-¥^ EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE /THESIS EXAMINERS C. Andrew D. Moggach C. Denis G , Nootens Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Liberie, Diversite, Co-Autorite : Towards a Late Modern Praxis of Radical Representative Democratic Corporealpolitiks Jackie F. Steele These soumise a la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales dans le cadre des exigences du programme de doctorat Ecole d'etudes politique, Universite d'Ottawa © Jackie F. Steele, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de Pedition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Voire reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59476-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-59476-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication VI Gratitude vu The Political is Personal! vin Abstract IX Introduction The End of Equality? 1 Liberal Politics in Canada at an Impasse 4 Canada: Constitutional Democracy without Democratic Constitution 7 Diverse Citizenship in Canada and Descriptive Representation 12 Diverse Citizenship in Canada and Substantive Representation 17 International Trends in Women's Political Representation 19 Power-Sharing and the Rights of Minority Nations 22 Crafting Interlocking Solidarities 24 Democratic Theory and the Disciplinary Blind spots on Power-Sharing 26 Reconnecting Democratic Theory with Theories of Representation 31 Anne Phillips, Melissa Williams, Jane Mansbridge, Iris Marion Young 33 Beyond the Liberal Bodypolitik 42 Statecrafting Diverse Representation, by Democratic Design 43 Contributions to the Field 48 Limitations of the Project 51 Existensions 54 Chapter I A Genealogy of Feminist Subjectivity 59 Feminist Political Theory 60 Squires' Typology of Feminist Theory 61 Equality-Neutrality-Inclusion 65 Difference-Affirmation-Reversal 67 Beyond Equality and Difference 68 Diversity-Deconstruction-Displacement 71 The Politics of Displacement 75 The Butler-Braidotti Debates 77 Judith Butler: Proliferating Gender Performances 77 Rosi Braidotti: Nomadic Speaking Subjectivities 82 The Politics of Language 86 Beyond the Butler-Braidotti Debates 91 li Chapter II « Diversite » : Epistemological Existensions of Feminist Corporeality 93 The Politics of Corporealization 97 Corporealities: Interlocking Axes of Corporeal Significations and 99 Worldviews Corporealizations: Processes of Corporeal Constitution 100 CorporealpoUtiles: Contexts of Corporeal Penalties/Privileges 100 Corporeal Agency: Constellations of Corporeality 101 Desiring Corporealizations 102 The Corporealpolitiks of Intelligibility: Sex, Gender, Woman 103 The Corporealpolitiks of Marriage: The Incredible Shrinking Woman 106 Inter-national / Multinational Corporealpolitiks 110 The Contingent Corporealpolitiks of Identity 113 The Ethico-Political Existensions 117 Discursive Existensions 124 Conclusion 130 Chapter HI A Genealogy of Republican Liberty 135 Republicanisms and the Republican Revival 137 Republicanism and Diversity Feminisms: Strange Bedsisters? 139 Republican Existensions of Political Liberty 142 Early Modern Republicanism: Machiavelli 142 The Ethical Interdependence ofCivitas, Politicus, and Corruption 144 Civil Discord as a Productive Praxis of Liberty 151 Modern Republicanism: Arendt 157 Political Liberty as a Performative Praxis of Inter-Subjective 158 Individuation The Public Realm as Precondition for the Constitution of Political 161 Imaginaries Late Modern Republicanism: Tully 166 Problematizing the Norms of Modern Constitutional Democracy 168 Struggles for/over Recognition as a Democratic Praxis of Freedom 172 Conclusion 175 Chapter IV « Liberte » : Epistemological Existensions of Republican Bodypolitiks 179 The Subject of Republican Liberty? 181 De-reifying Machiavelli's Umori 181 In-Corporealizing Arendtian Action 187 Silent Partners in the Constitutional Multilogue 193 Displacing the Threats of Corruption 199 in Republicanism and Diversity Feminisms: Strategic Bedsisters 206 The Limits of Liberal Equality and Liberal Politics 208 Conclusion 211 Chapter V Political Representation, Re-loaded 213 To Discursively Diversify? Or To Discursively Deconstruct? 214 Dropped Stitches: Corporealizing Late Modern Democracy 217 Deconstruction-Displacement-Practical Impotence 219 Dropped Stitches: Democratizing Late Modern Corporealization 223 Diversity-Deconstruction-Precarious Inclusion 225 Dropped Stitches: Reconstructing Later Modern Democratic Statecraft 227 Implicating Ourselves: Critical Theory, Practical Philosophy, and 230 Democratic Risk Democratic Existensions: Conjugating Liberty and Diversity 233 Co-Authority 238 Co-Authorship 244 Co-Authorization 251 Dropped Stitches: Re-Constructing Democratic Institutions 254 Chapter VI « Co-autorite »: Democratic Existensions of Self-Representation 255 Inter-National Discords / Solidarities: Restoring the Canada-Quebec 257 Equlibrium Co-A uthority 257 Co-A uthorsh ip 257 Co-Authorization: Democratic Existensions 258 Intra-National Discords / Solidarities 259 Co-Authority 260 Co-Author ship: Democratic Existensions 263 Inter-Sexual Conflicts / Solidarities 263 Sex/Gender Quotas in Costa Rica 268 Inter-Generational Conflicts /Solidarities 269 Interlocking Conflicts: Gender, Generation, Ability in Rwanda 269 Co-Authorization: Democratic Existensions 270 Femocracy: Between the No Longer and the Not Yet 273 Conclusion Towards a Late Modern Praxis of Radical Representative Democratic 276 Corporealpolitiks IV Figures Figure 1.0 History of Democratic Exclusions in Canada 8 Figure 2.0 Rhetorical Commitments of Canadian federal Governments 1967-2000 13 Figure 3.0: Electoral Representation of Immigrants, Minorities and Women 16 across Canada Figure 4.0 Conjugating Liberty and Diversity 234 Figure 5.0 Mapping a Praxis of Co-authority as Self-Representation 243 Figure 6.0 Heterogeneous Sites of Democratic Co-authorship 246 Figure 7.0 Democratic Constitution of Relative Effective Self-Representation 265 (Sex/Gender) Figure 8.0 Mechanisms Democratically Constituting of Co-authorship 267 (Sex/Gender) Figure 9.0 Concurrent Majorities Constituting Democratic Co-Authorization 273 Figure 10.0 Election Law Quota (Sex/Gender) Regulation, National Parliament 287 Figure 11.0 Election Law Quota (Sex/Gender) Regulation, National Parliament 288 Figure 12.0 Constitutional or Legislative Quota, Sub-National Level 290 Bibliographic References 291 Books and Articles 291 Academic Conferences, International Conventions 314 Canadian and Quebec Government References and Resources 314 Legislation and Jurisprudence 315 Web References and Resources 316 v Dedication I wish to dedicate this thesis to my Chinese (AKA Spanish) Canadian Grade 10 Math teacher, Mr. Wei. His recognition and belief in my individual potential to become a "leading political woman" challenged the dominant corporealpolitiks of sex/gender and allowed me the psychic space to contemplate politics and a life as a "femme politique" amongst the possible corporealizations for my selves in my future. In fact, this nourished an ontological desire for the politicus and equipped me to continually question and (re)imagine my current and future "selves", as well
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath from a Kristevan Perspective
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OpenGrey Repository Transforming the Law of One: Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath from a Kristevan Perspective A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Areen Ghazi Khalifeh School of Arts, Brunel University November 2010 ii Abstract A recent trend in the study of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath often dissociates Confessional poetry from the subject of the writer and her biography, claiming that the artist is in full control of her work and that her art does not have naïve mimetic qualities. However, this study proposes that subjective attributes, namely negativity and abjection, enable a powerful transformative dialectic. Specifically, it demonstrates that an emphasis on the subjective can help manifest the process of transgressing the law of One. The law of One asserts a patriarchal, monotheistic law as a social closed system and can be opposed to the bodily drives and its open dynamism. This project asserts that unique, creative voices are derived from that which is individual and personal and thus, readings of Confessional poetry are in fact best served by acknowledgment of the subjective. In order to stress the subject of the artist in Confessionalism, this study employed a psychoanalytical Kristevan approach. This enables consideration of the subject not only in terms of the straightforward narration of her life, but also in relation to her poetic language and the process of creativity where instinctual drives are at work. This study further applies a feminist reading to the subject‘s poetic language and its ability to transgress the law, not necessarily in the political, macrocosmic sense of the word, but rather on the microcosmic, subjective level.
    [Show full text]
  • Genderealisations: Locating Gender
    Issue 2002 1 Genderealisations: Locating Gender Studies Edited by Prof. Dr. Beate Neumeier ISSN 1613-1878 Editor About Prof. Dr. Beate Neumeier Gender forum is an online, peer reviewed academic University of Cologne journal dedicated to the discussion of gender issues. As an English Department electronic journal, gender forum offers a free-of-charge Albertus-Magnus-Platz platform for the discussion of gender-related topics in the D-50923 Köln/Cologne fields of literary and cultural production, media and the Germany arts as well as politics, the natural sciences, medicine, the law, religion and philosophy. Inaugurated by Prof. Dr. Tel +49-(0)221-470 2284 Beate Neumeier in 2002, the quarterly issues of the journal Fax +49-(0)221-470 6725 have focused on a multitude of questions from different email: [email protected] theoretical perspectives of feminist criticism, queer theory, and masculinity studies. gender forum also includes reviews and occasionally interviews, fictional pieces and Editorial Office poetry with a gender studies angle. Laura-Marie Schnitzler, MA Sarah Youssef, MA Opinions expressed in articles published in gender forum Christian Zeitz (General Assistant, Reviews) are those of individual authors and not necessarily endorsed by the editors of gender forum. Tel.: +49-(0)221-470 3030/3035 email: [email protected] Submissions Editorial Board Target articles should conform to current MLA Style (8th edition) and should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in Prof. Dr. Mita Banerjee, length. Please make sure to number your paragraphs Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) and include a bio-blurb and an abstract of roughly 300 Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • A Feminist Inheritance? Questions of Subjectivity and Ambivalence in Paul Mccarthy, Mike Kelley and Robert Gober
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 A Feminist Inheritance? Questions of Subjectivity and Ambivalence in Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley and Robert Gober Marisa White-Hartman Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/334 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] A FEMINIST INHERITANCE? QUESTIONS OF SUBJECTIVITY AND AMBIVALENCE IN PAUL MCCARTHY, MIKE KELLEY AND ROBERT GOBER by Marisa White-Hartman A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 © 2014 MARISA WHITE-HARTMAN All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Art History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dr. Anna Chave ––––––––––––––––––– Date Chair of Examining Committee Dr. Claire Bishop Date Executive Officer Dr. Mona Hadler Dr. Siona Wilson Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract A FEMINIST INHERITANCE? QUESTIONS OF SUBJECTIVITY AND AMBIVALENCE IN PAUL MCCARTHY, MIKE KELLEY AND ROBERT GOBER by Marisa White-Hartman Adviser: Professor Anna Chave This dissertation assesses the impact of feminist art of the 1970s on specific projects by three male artists: Paul McCarthy’s performance Sailor’s Meat (1975), Mike Kelley’s installation Half a Man (1989) and Robert Gober’s 1989 installation at the Paula Cooper Gallery.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminist Utopia and the New Fathers: from Matrifocal Monotropism to Biologically Grounded Universal Father Hunger
    University of Wollongong Thesis Collections University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Year Feminist utopia and the new fathers: from matrifocal monotropism to biologically grounded universal father hunger Erika Haubold University of Wollongong Haubold, Erika, Feminist utopia and the new fathers: from matrifocal monotropism to biologically grounded universal father hunger, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Department of So- ciology - Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, 2002. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1725 This paper is posted at Research Online. FEMINIST UTOPIA AND THE NEW FATHERS: FROM MATRIFOCAL MONOTROPISM TO BIOLOGICALLY GROUNDED UNIVERSAL FATHER HUNGER ERIKA HAUBOLD A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wollongong September 2002 /, Erika Haubold, hereby declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Sociology, University of Wollongong, is my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other University or Institution. Erika Haubold ABSTRACT From the early fifties, the defining control over 'the best interest of the child' has developed into the perhaps most powerful tool in sexual politics. An essential part of this ongoing process of redefinition is the men's movement's declaration of the emotionally absent father as psycho- and social pathology and the son's demand for his restitution into their lives. This rhetoric transforms mid-century maternal deprivation into paternal deprivation and almost imperceptibly transmutes the exigencies of the fathers into the essentialized needs of the child.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary Feminist Theories Author: Jackson, Stevi
    cover next page > title: Contemporary Feminist Theories author: Jackson, Stevi. publisher: Edinburgh University Press isbn10 | asin: 0748606890 print isbn13: 9780748606894 ebook isbn13: 9780585123622 language: English subject Feminist theory. publication date: 1998 lcc: HQ1190.C667 1998eb ddc: 305.4 subject: Feminist theory. cover next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Contemporary Feminist Theories Edited by Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones Edinburgh University Press < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv © The contributors, 1998 Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Baskerville and Futura by Norman Tilley Graphics, Northampton, and printed and bound in Finland by WSOY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 0689 0 (paperback) ISBN 0 7486 1141 X (hardback) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v Contents 1 Thinking for Ourselves: An Introduction to Feminist Theorising Stevi Jackson And Jackie Jones 1 2 Feminist Social Theory Stevi Jackson 12 3 Feminist Theory and Economic Change Lisa Adkins 34 4 Feminist Political Theory Elizabeth Frazer 50 5 Feminist Jurisprudence Jane Scoular 62 6 Feminism and Anthropology Penelope Harvey 73 7 Black Feminisms Kadiatu Kanneh 86 8 Post-colonial Feminist Theory Sara Mills 98 9 Lesbian Theory
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Liberation 1
    Welcome to the electronic edition of Dangerous Ideas: Women’s Liberation — Women’s Studies — Around the World. The book opens with the bookmark panel and you will see the contents page. Click on this anytime to return to the contents. You can also add your own bookmarks. Each chapter heading in the contents table is clickable and will take you direct to the chapter. Return using the contents link in the bookmarks. The whole document is fully searchable. Enjoy. Susan Magarey Susan Magarey has degrees from the University of Adelaide and the Australian National University. At ANU she was Lecturer-in- charge of the Women's Studies Program 1978-1983. At Adelaide University, where she is now Professor Emerita, she founded the Research Centre for Women's Studies 1983-2000 and the journal, Australian Feminist Studies 1985- . In 2006, she was made a member of the Order of Australia for her work in establishing Women's Studies as a field of intellectual endeavour. Susan Magarey, 2013 Photograph courtesy of Susan Magarey Other books by this author: Unbridling the tongues of women: a biography of Catherine Helen Spence, 1985, revised 2010 Roma the First: A Biography of Dame Roma Mitchell, 2007, revised imprint 2009, with Kerrie Round Looking Back: looking forward. A century of the Queen Adelaide Club 1909-2009, 2009 Passions of the first wave feminists, 2001 Contents Acknowledgements vii Preface ix Part I — Women's Liberation 1 1 The sexual revolution as big flop: Women's Liberation Lesson One 15 2 Sisterhood and Women's Liberation in Australia 25
    [Show full text]
  • Venus Rising, Furies Raging: Bodies Redressed in Contemporary Visual Art
    ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: McKenzie, Laurel (2017) Venus rising, Furies raging: bodies redressed in contemporary visual art. PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/5c85c13dfeba7 Copyright © 2017 Laurel McKenzie The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] Venus Rising, Furies Raging: Bodies Redressed in Contemporary Visual Art Exegesis submitted by Laurel McKenzie Grad Dip Visual Arts, Gippsland IAE TTTC, Hawthorn State College Dip Fine Art – Printmaking, RMIT in December 2017 with creative work in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts, Society and Education James Cook University 1 Acknowledgements There are several people who graciously helped and supported me during the course of this research project. I am especially indebted to my advisors, Dr Allison Craven and Dr Barbara Dover, for their generous encouragement and expert knowledge and guidance in shaping this project. For exhibition assistance, thank you to Miriam Carter, Curator and Justin Bishop, Director at KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Christina Arum Sok, Curator and Ben Hampe, Director at Shophouse 5 Gallery, Singapore; Angela Little, Gallery and Media Coordinator and Jonathon McBurnie, Director at Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville. The support I received from friends and peers was invaluable. In particular I would like to express sincere gratitude to Margaret Genever for ongoing encouragement, and to Sandi Hook for technical assistance at a time of need.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Beauty? Examining How Women Negotiate and Respond to Contemporary Beauty Ideals
    Resisting Beauty? Examining How Women Negotiate and Respond to Contemporary Beauty Ideals Jamie Pei Fen Khoo PhD University of York Centre for Women’s Studies September 2019 Abstract This thesis examines how women discursively respond to and resist beauty ideals through their talk. From conducting qualitative group and individual interviews with 42 women in Malaysia, Singapore and UK, I employ a discourse analysis to study how women make sense of beauty pressures in complex, contradictory ways that often reinforce these ideals as much as resist them. I first challenge taken-for-granted notions of dominant media influence by examining how women, as both media content producers and consumers, conceptualise and construct their own and other imagined audiences’ interactions with media-perpetuated beauty ideals. I then move to study other repertoires and discourses that women engage and ‘translate into’ (DeVault 1990) – namely health, professionalism, and personal development – to negotiate their relationship with and resistances against beauty/ideals. Through my discussion, I demonstrate how previous concerns for fulfilling physical bodily ideals have now evolved into a preoccupation with securing ideals of successful enterprising, self- determined selfhood instead. This thesis argues that ostensible assertions of resistance against beauty are thus often redirected to fulfilling yet another ideal – the neoliberal, postfeminist demand for “compulsory individuality” (Cronin 2000) and confidence, which increasingly places responsibility on individuals to overcome beauty oppression and attain bodily contentment, while eliding the systemic inequalities that create and sustain these pressures in the first place. I also explore how these manifestations of resistance to beauty are enacted in specific ways by cosmopolitan women of a “global sisterhood” (Chen 2009), who possess class privileges, resources and cultural capital that enable and encourage them to employ a particular range of discourses.
    [Show full text]
  • Romancing Visual Women: from Canon to Console
    English Faculty Publications English 12-1994 Romancing Visual Women: From Canon to Console Roberta Sabbath University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/english_fac_articles Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Repository Citation Sabbath, R. (1994). Romancing Visual Women: From Canon to Console. iv-196. University of California, Riverside. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/english_fac_articles/95 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript _has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus. some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face9 while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality or this reproduction is depeudeat upon the quality or the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct prin~ colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthro~ substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionary Feminism in Late-Victorian Women's Poetry
    EVOLUTIONARY FEMINISM IN LATE- VICTORIAN WOMEN’S POETRY: MATHILDE BLIND, CONSTANCE NADEN AND MAY KENDALL by CATHERINE ELIZABETH BIRCH A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham April 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract In recent years, feminist critics have moved from focusing on the misogynistic aspects of late-Victorian evolutionary science to recognising that many women found liberating possibilities within this science. However, most studies of evolution and gender in New Woman writing have concentrated on serious novels. This thesis is the first full-length study of representations of evolution in women’s poetry. Focusing predominantly on the work of Mathilde Blind, Constance Naden and May Kendall, I examine how the depiction of evolution in women’s poetry of the 1880s and 1890s, particularly comic poetry, responds to the conclusions of professional scientists about the application of evolutionary theory to human society. By reading the poetry in the context of contemporary scientific works, in books and periodicals, I demonstrate that, unlike many social Darwinists, who used evolutionary theory to reinforce the status quo, these poets found aspects within Darwin’s work that could be used to disrupt assumptions about natural femininity and to argue for the necessity of social change.
    [Show full text]