South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Americanization Of Tsuru Aoki: Orientalism, Melodrama, Star Image, And The New Woman, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

This article contextualizes issues of race and Orientalism in the career of Japanese actress Tsuru Aoki within changing representational strategies and ongoing cultural struggles over the public and domestic roles of women in the modern age. According to the author, Aoki's persona blurred the boundaries between Japanese and U.S. identities.

'Listen, Rama’S Wife!’: Maithil Women’S Perspectives And Practices In The Festival Of Sāmā-Cakevā, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

As a female-only festival in a significantly gender-segregated society, sāmā cakevā provides a window into Maithil women’s understandings of their society and the sacred, cultural subjectivities, moral frameworks, and projects of self-construction. The festival reminds us that to read male-female relations under patriarchal social formations as a dichotomy between the empowered and the disempowered ignores the porous boundaries between the two in which negotiations and tradeoffs create a symbiotic reliance. Specifically, the festival names two oppositional camps—the male world of law and the female world of relationships—and then creates a male character, the brother, who moves between the two, loyal …

Y A-T-Il Une Réception Critique De La Littérature Vietnamienne Francophone?, Ching Selao

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Three approaches seem to characterize the reception of Vietnamese Literature in French: socio-historical, "essentialist" and feminist discourses. This article proposes to analyse the lack of theoretical thought and pertinence in some of the works published on the subject, which appear to introduce and promote this literature rather than study it. Without denying contributions that are indeed interesting, this paper, however, emphasizes works that raise questions and oblige us to ask: is there a critical reception of Vietnamese Francophone Literature?

Linda Lê : Schizo-Positive?, Isabelle Favre

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In her novel entitled "Calomnies", Linda Lê depicts a "mad uncle" and a young female writer fascinated with her uncle’s marginality. In this book, Lê presents a complex view of schizophrenia. Sometimes, the actions and thoughts of the uncle are reminiscent of Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts such as le corps sans organe and la machine célibataire. Some other times however, Lê pays attention to the past of the uncle and shows how, in Vietnam, he witnessed the hypocrisy of his family during the war. These passages are then closer to Laing’s theories, since the environment and conditions in which he …

Feminist Tigers And Patriarchal Lions: Rhetorical Strategies And Instrument Effects In The Struggle For Definition And Control Over Development In Nepal, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

This article offers an analysis of a struggle for control of a women’s development project in Nepal. The story of this struggle is worth telling, for it is rife with the gender politics and neo-colonial context that underscore much of what goes on in contemporary Nepal. In particular, my analysis helps to unravel some of the powerful discourses, threads of interest, and yet unintended effects inevitable under a regime of development aid. The analysis demonstrates that the employment of already available discursive figures of the imperialist feminist and the patriarchal third world man are central to the rhetorical strategies taken …

Review Of Ladies Coupe, By Anita Nair, Haidar Eid

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Mirabai In The Academy And The Politics Of Identity, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Poetry Of Li-Young Lee: Identity, Androgyny & Feminism, Barbara Qualls

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In my investigation of Li-Young Lee's poetry, my concerns were two-fold: first, to find evidence of an androgynous quality or ideal; secondly, to demonstrate that ideal as authentically feminist. In the introduction, I investigate the feminist debate about the traditional definition and concept of androgyny, demonstrating the difference between the patriarchal traditional androgyny and the androgynous elements in Lee's poetry.

In Chapter Two, the rose as image and as symbol in Lee's poetry is examined and found to be strikingly androgynous as a symbol. As an image, however, it is more often than not used as a vehicle to describe …

Charting The Anger Of Indian Women Through Narayan's Savitri, Teresa Hubel

Department of English Publications

From the introduction:

Written in the late 1930s, when a new irascibility crept into the largely female-produced discourse on the status of women in India, The Dark Room is about a particular woman's indignation and revolt. Savitri is a Hindu wife following in the glorified footsteps of other Hindu wives, such as her namesake from the Mahabharata and Sita of the Ramayana. Although she lives up to the ideals of servitude and devotion implicit in these powerful feminine figures, Savitri of The Dark Room is betrayed by a patriarchal system that allows her husband the freedom of infidelity but denies …

The Perils Of Laura Watson Benedict: A Forgotten Pioneer In Anthropology, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.