East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …

My Life Is Like A River, Christine Tsou 9731206

Creative Writing Publications

What a woman does in writing, in telling, is to search, sifting through the many versions and possibilities to find the shape and truth of her life, the story she doesn’t yet know, the image and narrative she struggles to bring, like herself, into being. (Modjeska, 1994, p.31)

Reflecting on my life journey, I realize that my life is like a river, no holding back. Like the river flowing from one place to another, my life constantly changed and was always on the move. In due course, the river itself changed, so did my life. Many years ago, on the …