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East Asian Languages and Societies

University of Central Florida

Theses/Dissertations

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Compulsory Conformity In Modern Japanese Culture: An Exploration Of Asexuality In The Works Of Murata Sayaka, Kawakami Mieko, And Kamatani Yuki, Nicholas Colecio Jan 2022

Compulsory Conformity In Modern Japanese Culture: An Exploration Of Asexuality In The Works Of Murata Sayaka, Kawakami Mieko, And Kamatani Yuki, Nicholas Colecio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

This thesis investigates the representation of asexual individuals in the works of Murata Sayaka, Kawakami Mieko, and Kamatani Yuki, all of whom are contemporary Japanese writers that portray near–suffocating social environments in their depictions of modern-day Japan. Their texts illustrate the augmented demands Japanese society places upon a cross-section of asexual and neurodivergent individuals. Despite the thematic and character–related similarities in their works, I argue that each author presents a unique interpretation of how these asexual individuals interact with—and try to integrate into—wider Japanese society and mainstream culture. Murata's texts demonstrate an unapologetically radical separatism by invoking an idealized queer …


The Rhetoric Of Transgression: Reconstructing Female Authority Through Wu Zetian's Legacy, Rachael Rothstein-Safra Jan 2017

The Rhetoric Of Transgression: Reconstructing Female Authority Through Wu Zetian's Legacy, Rachael Rothstein-Safra

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study examines representations of Wu Zetian in the biographical tradition of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, as well as within the subsequent vernacular literature of the Ming and Qing periods. I analyze the traditional use and construction of female stereotypes (and female-oriented flaws and vices) in the rhetoric of official histories and fictional narratives and their application to representations of Wu Zetian. I argue that authors, anxious of discord engendered and caused by women occupying positions of political authority, sought to delegitimize Wu Zetian’s reign and subsequently cultivated a “rhetoric of female transgression.” I further argue that the …