Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Femme Nue, Femme Noire : Tribulations D’Une Vénus, Lydie Moudileno

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article examines the return, in two contemporary novels, of the figure of the “naked black woman” as an emblematic site of difference. Two women of African origin take back this twice-appropriated figure and use it to question the ways in which the materiality of the body is again being written into contemporary postcolonial society. The aim of the essay is to underline the means and meaning deployed in these new appropriations of African icons, while pointing to some possible limits to the symbolic passage from the colonial imagination to a postcolonial one.

L’Inscription Du Corps Dans Quatre Romans Postcoloniaux D’Afrique, Augustine H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

More and more, contemporary African literature dwells on the body —as the subject and object of desire, as a refuge and as a commodified and objectified victim. Using as reference points four novels —Calixthe Beyala’s C’est le soleil qui m’a brûlée and Femme nue, femme noire, Williams Sassine’s Mémoire d’une peau and Nimrod’s Les jambes d’Alice— all of which inscribe the body onto and into the text, this article seeks to analyse diverse manifestations of the textualized body. Works of alienation and dispossession, these four texts also focus on corporeal quests for equilibrium. The presence of the body in the …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Ivy Leaves, 2006, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2006 edition of the Anderson University journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Jill Ayers, Cassie Kolasky, Maghan Lusk, Ashley McAdams, Jess Sopolosky, Danielle Webb, Kristy Eppolito, Wayne Cox, and Eric Whitlock.

[Introduction To] Her Best Shot: Women And Guns In America, Laura Browder

Bookshelf

The gun-toting woman holds enormous symbolic significance in American culture. For over two centuries, women who pick up guns have disrupted the popular association of guns and masculinity, spurring debates about women's capabilities for violence as well as their capacity for full citizenship. In Her Best Shot, Laura Browder examines the relationship between women and guns and the ways in which the figure of the armed woman has served as a lightning rod for cultural issues.

Utilizing autobiographies, advertising, journalism, novels, and political tracts, among other sources, Browder traces appearances of the armed woman across a chronological spectrum from …

Discours De La Sexualité Et Postmodernisme Littéraire Africain, Adama Coulibaly

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Representations of sex in the black Africa postcolonial novel often strike us because of their centrality and coarseness. Using examples from three texts (Cannibale; L'État honteux; Les naufragés de l'intelligence), this article examines the manifestation and mainly the motivation of what seems like inappropriate outbursts. In this transcultural approach (beyond the intertextual), the aggressiveness of the sexuality discourse allows the novel to be linked to the large movement of postmodernism. This strategy of “textual extravagance” represents a society that “lacks substance”, a society of pretence, in the � � Baudrillardian�

L’Écriture De La Femme Musulmane Dans Loin Demédine D’Assia Djebar, Yvonne-Marie Mokam

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Assia Djebar is one of the most important figures in contemporary African literature. Her views are structured around a critique of the misrepresentation of Muslim women. It is precisely this challenge that is undertaken in Loin de Médine (1991), in which Djebar challenges various stereotypes in order to offer a new image of Asian women.

Alien(Ating) Naturecultures: Feminist Sf As Creative Science Studies, Helen Merrick

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

“Alien(ating) Naturecultures” examines the potential of feminist science fictions to act as “cross-cultural” narratives in encounters between the humanities and sciences. Merrick argues that the conjunction of disciplines figured by the term “science fiction” bears re-examination as a resource for science studies, and a potential mediator in science-humanities dialogues.

Specifically, Merrick asks, when we are concerned with critiquing and unpacking technoscientific practices, cultures and knowledges, what can more creative forms such as science fiction (sf) offer? Such questions about “naturecultures” are intimately connected to the ways we construct and understand “life,” the “human” and difference in the discourses of Science. …

Contact: Little Orphan Ellie, Andrew Gordon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

By featuring a woman scientist as protagonist, Contact (1997) is a welcome change in the largely male-dominated territory of American science-fiction film. The astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway is an exceptional woman for recent SF film: a brilliant, dedicated visionary who defies the male scientific establishment, goes it alone, risks her career and life for her beliefs, and succeeds in the end by taking a dangerous journey to the stars to contact intelligent extraterrestrial life. Although the movie is largely faithful to the novel by Carl Sagan, it deviates from the novel in certain critical respects which end up making Contact …

Oy Science Fiction: On Genre, Criticism, And Alien Love: An Interview With Marleen S. Barr, Marlene S. Barr, Ximena Gallardo C., C. Jason Smith

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph of Abstract]

Marleen S. Barr is a pioneer of feminist science fiction criticism and a leader in the fight against the ghettoizing influences of genre-labeling in literary criticism. While the noteworthy Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction (University of Iowa Press, 1992) has been praised as Barr's seminal work in feminist science fiction criticism and theory, it is in Genre Fission: A New Discourse Practice for Cultural Studies (U of Iowa P, 2000) where she takes on literary critics' discriminatory practices against genre fiction in general and fantasy and science fiction in particular.

Beyond Cyborgs?, Ximena Gallardo C.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

What should we expect from a special issue on women and science fiction at a time when people compare Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the psychotic robot chick in Metropolis? We might want a forward-looking and hip post-post fem analysis of how the future is now, but one of the paradoxes of mainstream sf is that, when it comes to Woman, its future visions still mostly project the prejudices of the past.

A Place Between Heaven And Hell, Holley Barker

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

After twenty-some years of marriage, routine, and living life without feeling, time finally catches up to Effie Crunkleton, giving her the opportunity to confront a haunting past (her hell) which thwarts peace of mind (her heaven). As inner and outer voices lure Effie to a nearby cemetery (actually found at Twin Falls State Park), she exposes herself to a lifetime of suppressed memories and emotions that have taken place in the fictional Appalachian town of Coal Hollow.

Ivy Leaves, 2004-2005, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2005 edition of the Anderson College journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Joshua Burdette, Darcie Davis, Leanne Gray, Maghan Lush, Jessica Sopolosky, Marissa Sullivan, Sarah Swofford, Becky Bradstreet, Brian Burrell, Kayla Evett, Anthony Gonzalez, Melissa Johnson, Kari Pettit, Donavon Schmidt, Ashely Smoak, Alice Wilkins, Wayne Cox, and Jane Dorn. Cover art by Kari Pettit.

Mother Jones: A Dichotomy Of Feminity, Amanda Viana

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

Ivy Leaves, 2003-2004, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2004 edition of the Anderson College journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Amanda Burgess, Shannon Griffin, Tennille Owens, Jennifer Roman, Marissa Sullivan, Joshua Fleming, Brandon Fricks, Katy Gray, Shelli Hanshew, Brian Irving, Misty Kelley, Kristen Lambert, Matthew Mantooth, Theresa O'Rourke, Jessica Parks, Shelly Sawyer, Emerald Shumer, Jonathan Tribble, Wayne Cox and Jane Dorn. Cover art by Matthew Mantooth, and illustrations by Matthew Tolbert.

Ivy Leaves, 2002-2003, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2003 edition of the Anderson College journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Chris Bailey, Christin Bradley, Sarah Colson, Rich Gregory, Jason Johnson, Joshua Poe, Annabelle Robinson, Jay Strickland, Renee Tanner, Aaron Archibald, Tanner Capps, Ada Ezeokoli, Jessica Gregory, Kurtis Miller, Wayne Cox, and Jane Dorn. Cover art by Sarah Colson.

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Establishing An Elsewhere In Contemporary American Women's Autobiography, Jennifer Alena Gingerich

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

“Establishing an Elsewhere in Contemporary American Women’s Autobiography” explores women’s self-writing and the ways in which it offers another story or an elsewhere in the genre of autobiography. This elsewhere is distinct from traditional or conventional autobiography or, more specifically, how traditional autobiography has come to be understood. The project outlines various ways contemporary American women autobiographers deal with the issues of fragmentation (the lack of a coherent self), truth and lying (the self as a construction), and interconnectedness with others (the self as communal) when they write about themselves. It is both an analytical and creative thesis in which …

Saving "Cinderella": History And Story In Ashpet And Ever After, Elisabeth Rose Gruner

English Faculty Publications

An orphan is mistreated by a cruel surrogate family. The orphan is special, however, and with the intervention of kind and magical parental substitutes, rises to dizzying heights and achieves a happy ending. It’s a familiar tale, from “Cinderella” to Harry Potter —the difference is all in the details. In two fairy tale films of the 1980s and 1990s, those details remove the Cinderella story from the realm of fantasy. Ashpet and Ever After take pains to “realize” Cinderella—to remove almost all elements of magic and fantasy and to imagine, instead, what might make such a story real. Both incorporate …

Feathers And Hair, Farideh Dayanim Goldin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Plucking chickens the kosher way is quite an art. According to the laws of kashrut) a chicken should not be cooked or even brought close to a source of heat until it is kashered-bled, salted, and rinsed. The use of fire to sear feathers or hot water to loosen quills is absolutely forbidden. Poultry processors today use the force of air to pluck feathers for kosher markets; but when I lived in Iran, during the '60s and '70s, this job had to be done manually.

Blood Lines, Farideh Dayanim Goldin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The salty ocean air was pleasantly mixed with smoke rising from gas grills using volcanic stones, plain old-fashioned ones using regular coals, and smokers using mesquite wood chips. As my American husband and I stepped out of our car and walked around to the back yard of the Bechars, the only African Sephardi family in Virginia Beach that Fourth of July, the aroma of sizzling hot dogs and hamburgers stirred our appetite. In her all- American neighborhood, Sonia welcomed us with a platter of spicy Tunisian meat and herbs rolled in phyllo dough and fried to perfection. I …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

April, Contracts Class, First Year Of Law School, Mary Harter Mitchell

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Journeys: A Critical Analysis Of The Diary Of Sarah L. Wadley, Regina C. Davis

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

As a young woman living in Louisiana during the Civil War, Sarah Lois Wadley documented in her diary the fractured, conflicted perspective that was her experience as a woman living in the war ravaged South. Her writing is evidence of the confusion she felt as a result of the discrepancy between the expectations of Southern patriarchal society and her own needs as a woman. Wadley’s diary is a complex text similar to a novel in that it relates events through a construct that reflects her response to her reader’s/society’s expectations. From a deconstructionist perspective, the power of Wadley’s text lies …

Ivy Leaves, 2001-2002, Ivy Leaves Editorial Staff

Ivy Leaves

The 2002 edition of the Anderson College journal of art and literature, Ivy Leaves.

The names of the known editors for this issue of Ivy Leaves were Ada Ezeokoli, Aliya George, LaTonya Scott, Joyce Stein, John Lyons, Keith Babinchak, Matt Baston, Chastity Baxley, Carla Carter, Stacy Coleman, Lashanda Salters, Laura Wolfe, Wayne Cox, and Jane Dorn. The cover art for this edition included several different designs by Matthew Baston, Stacy Coleman, Lashonda Salters, Laura Wolfe, Keith Babinchak, and Chastity Baxley.

Only Friendship, Farideh Dayanim Goldin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) My Jewish daughter befriended a Muslim woman in her Islam class last Fall. She asked me where she could buy rosewater, saffron, and cardamom to make halwa. My kosher daughter was celebrating the end of Ramadan, Eide-fetr, with her first Iranian, her first Muslim friend.

This Man's Heart: Masculinity In The Poetry Of E.E. Cummings, Willis John Whitesell Iii

Masters Theses

"This Man's Heart: Masculinity in the Poetry of E.E. Cummings" explores changing masculinity in the life and poetry of E.E. Cummings. The relationship between Cummings and his father, his first male role model, became strained when Cummings was a teenager finding his own male identity. As he rebelled against his father, a Unitarian minister, he began writing poetry in a modernist style under the direction of a new mentor, Ezra Pound.

Cummings' early modernist poems criticize conventional male roles and configurations of masculinity as outdated. As Cummings continued to grow as a man and writer, he confronted new realities which …

The Invisible Can Or, Gendering Corporate Globalization Trouble: Technological Utopianism And The Language Of Erasure, Marleen S. Barr

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

I turn to Judith Butler to clarify my term corporate globalization trouble as well as to explain why this trouble should be situated in gendered terms regarding power, visibility, and subjectivity inequities. [1] Butler describes deviant gender identities failing to coincide with the matrix of intelligibility: precisely because certain kinds of 'gender identities' fail to conform to those norms of cultural intelligibility, they appear only as developmental failures or logical impossibilities from within that domain. Their persistence and proliferation, however, provide critical opportunities to expose the limits and regulatory aims of that domain of intelligibility and, …

Linda Grace Hoyer Updike: Woman, Author, And Mother, Leslie Hoffman

Library Summer Fellows

Linda Grace Hoyer was a brilliant individual. She graduated from Ursinus College at the age of nineteen, received a master's from Cornell University, and after many years of diligent work, published two novels and a myriad of short stories. She lived an unusual life: reflective, feminine in her thought processes, but nevertheless somewhat stubborn in a time when women were meant to fill a subordinate role. I have found through my research that Hoyer's brilliance did not lie in her intellect and writing alone. In fact, as demonstrated by her literature's autobiographical nature, her brilliance as a writer seemed to …

Fay Weldon's Late Bloomers And Comedy And A Lawyer, A Vet, And A Couple Of Dogs, One Of Them Dead, Susan Rote Siferd

Dissertations

Creative dissertation begins with a critical study of comedy as Weldon employs it in her novels of marriage, infidelity, and divorce. Traditionally, comedy ends in marriage; Weldon's dark comedies end in self-understanding as a necessary prerequisite to growth and possible future relationship. However, Weldon does not celebrate divorce. She recognizes the impact on women's lives of historic period, world events, and their own female nature. An avowed feminist, Weldon yet refuses to blame men for women's problems, but insists that while women struggle against sexism, they often conform to it. If there is no genre designation comparable to "bildungsroman" for …