scholarly journals The vicissitudes of victorian masculinity

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Μαρία Πυργέρου

Victorian canonical realist fiction was presumably the means of representing dominant ideological conventions especially those related to gender roles and norms. This dissertation argues that fictional bachelor figures evaded the contemporary construction of normative manhood, veering away from traditional masculine prerogatives, thus disrupting the cultural ideal of bourgeois domesticity which was part of the imperialist and industrialist expansion of the Anglo-Saxon world. Contemporary theoretical research in psychoanalysis and gender theory deconstructs what patriarchal ideology had so carefully constructed in terms of normative concepts of gender roles and relations. In my dissertation I contend that from the point of view of Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic concepts and Judith Butler’s insights into gender theory, Victorian bachelor figures are unrepresentable as masculine subjects within Victorian ideology as they do not fulfill their cultural gender objectives. In order to establish this thesis, I will deconstruct the representation of the figure of the bachelor as a masculine subject in the way/s he is “interpellated” both in dominant patriarchal ideology and in the realist texts which attempt to represent him. My analysis, then, aims to unravel the means by which the realist text can be read as subversive especially with regard to the representation of bachelor figures as transgressive masculine subjects functioning within the prescriptive politics of patriarchy. In this light, my reading of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, W.M. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Henry James’s Roderick Hudson and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray will demonstrate that the representation of the bachelor heroes’ subjectivities is elusive and undecidable because, a part of it, is never fully realized, expressed or articulated. As such, these subjectivities constitute a linguistic and thus representational gap, an omission which, in turn, reveals the inability of dominant ideology to represent what is deviant, different or incoherent

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Rajtar

The author analyzes the construction of gender and gender roles among the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the former East Germany. From a religious point of view, wives and women in general are subordinate to their husbands, fathers, etc. Within a family and in congregations men are expected to “take the lead” and are responsible for their wives and children. In the former German Democratic Republic this religious discourse competed with the egalitarian and secular discourse of the socialist state, which emphasized the necessity for women to work and the importance of public childcare. Thus, the author addresses the question: how and to what extent did this official state discourse influence the Witnesses’ discursive practices on gender during socialism and until the present day? The author has based her article on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Saxony, eastern Germany.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Zaindy Roby Hilaldo ◽  
Eko Suwargono ◽  
L. Dyah Purwita Wardani

This article dicusses the gender struggle of Shauzia in Mud City by Ellis. The struggle implies the gender condition and critical point of view of the author based on the theory of representation and gender oppression. The representation theory based on Stuart Hall helps to uncover the dominating cultural codes which oppress Shauzia as a person while the gender theory contributes to analyze the layer of dominationin the level of individual, interactional and institutional. This study results in several findings as:the cultural codes represented in the novel are giving benefit the man by the power of military and powerful patriarchy where Shauzia finds hard to go out from camp and work as woman. Furthermore, gender theory plays on scrutinizing the idea as individual woman lacks of rights, and influence her interactional competence as well to stay inside the compound. The institutional system determines her exixtence only to accept what the compound has given to her and not more. Thus she is rejected when she wants to go to France. Ellis poses her self to tell the reader that the value of women in Afganistan at war is unworthy compare to what happens in Europe. 


1994 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-209
Author(s):  
Stig Welinder

The village of Nyberget, Dalarna, Central Sweden, during the 19th century is studied from an ethnoarchaeological point of view. The dynamic flexibflity and ambiguity of the cultural landscape of the village and its households are stressed. This is understood in relation to economic structure and gender roles. The concepts used in understanding the historical village form a challenging starting-point for understanding a prehistoric cultural landscape.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (16) ◽  
pp. 189-213
Author(s):  
Dolunay ŞENOL ◽  
Sümeyye KILIÇ

In this study, in which the effect and consequences of gender roles and patriarchy on women's marriage and divorce experiences were tried to be understood, face-to-face interviews were conducted with twelve divorced women and a semi-structured interview from specially created for the study was used in the interviews. In line with masculine ideology and gender roles; It is possible to say that it is perceived and evaluated within the framework of private space, motherhood, body and honor. Accordingly, it is seen that women’s life is tried to be organized and disciplined on the basis of these ideological foundations in all processes before marriage, after marriage and after divorce. It is inevitable that women, who are not given equal opportunities and opportunities in access to education and working life as much as men, face much more severe situations in marriage and divorce processes. Depending on gender, it is understood that divorce creates different problems and grievances for women than man. In this study, the problems experienced by the divorced women before, during and after the divorce were evaluated only through the data of the interviews with the women included in the interview group and tried to be interpreted from a sociological point of view.


Demografija ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 29-54
Author(s):  
Ankica Šobot

This text is aimed at the consideraton of differences related to fertility of urban and non-urban settlements in Serbia, from the point of view of differentiation concerning education and gender roles. The discussion framework consists of the results of relevant empirical researches that consider gender equality, as well as the presented data about level of education for both types of settlements. In terms of fertility, we used census data and presented two indicators. These are the cumulative live birth rates and the shares of women who have not given birth. The focus is on the generations born in the second half of the 20th century, observing the cohorts that are in the reproductive period, as well as those that came out. Differences between urban and non-urban settlements are not only observed for Serbia as a whole, but are also placed within the framework of statical regional areas. The decline in cumulative fertility, the postponement of parenthood and the shares of women without children both in the optimal reproductive period and in the cohorts at the end of reproductive period are more pronounced in the urban population. However, these tendencies also have existed in non-urban settlements, despite the fact that the observed fertility indicators do not reflect the difficulty of regulating low fertility in this type of settlement. Very low cumulative fertility rates in the urban settlements are the result of insufficient adjustment of the institutional framework to emancipatory processes in the sphere of gender roles. The negative effects of traditional patriarchy in non-urban settlements are more visible through some other demographic indicators that are closely related to the issue of low fertility. Hence, the importance of the gender aspect cannot be neglected when it comes to non-urban settlements.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-509
Author(s):  
Ágnes Erőss ◽  
Monika Mária Váradi ◽  
Doris Wastl-Walter

In post-Socialist countries, cross-border labour migration has become a common individual and family livelihood strategy. The paper is based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with two ethnic Hungarian women whose lives have been significantly reshaped by cross-border migration. Focusing on the interplay of gender and cross-border migration, our aim is to reveal how gender roles and boundaries are reinforced and repositioned by labour migration in the post-socialist context where both the socialist dual-earner model and conventional ideas of family and gender roles simultaneously prevail. We found that cross-border migration challenged these women to pursue diverse strategies to balance their roles of breadwinner, wife, and mother responsible for reproductive work. Nevertheless, the boundaries between female and male work or status were neither discursively nor in practice transgressed. Thus, the effect of cross-border migration on altering gender boundaries in post-socialist peripheries is limited.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Y.V., Netsvitay T. V. Tararoev

Background. Goals In recent years, there is a growing interest in musical thinking, which is a key element of musicology and music philosophy, since music is a conscious, mental activity of a person and understanding the mechanisms of this activity, we can signifi cantly expand and deepen our understanding of music. The purpose of this study is to defi ne and supplement and clarify the concept of M. G. Aranovsky musical thinking our author’s approach, concretizing and clarifying the methodological and heuristic function of symmetry in musical thinking and its anthropological content. The work uses methods of comparison, analysis and synthesis. Musical thinking manifests itself in three forms of basic musical activity - composing, performing, listening, to which we also add theoretical (research) and pedagogical They are based on the processes of musical thinking and the fulfi llment of certain goals: the creation of an artifact, interpretation, reproduction, perception, analysis and theoretical understanding. The three spheres of realization of musical thinking are emotional-sensual, rational-logical and textual, semantic. These forms are closely intertwined and function on the basis of musical language, which is the foundation of any musical creative activity. The direct interaction of music and rationality is displayed in terms of “musical logic” and “architectonic musical ear”. Logic is the science of the most common laws of thought. These laws of thinking are expressed in the most abstract forms, patterns, rules that can be interpreted as conformity of something to specifi c norms, patterns. With regard to music, logic implies following certain standards and rules. Since the rational principle in music is closely associated with the irrational unconscious, the common logical norms that have been formed in a certain historical epoch within the framework of the dominant system of musical language are refracted through the individual stylistic features of the composer. A specifi c type of thinking - musical - generates the corresponding type of logic. Therefore, it is possible to express musical thinking by the sum of concepts - musical logic, musical speech and semantics of musical speech. M. G. Aranovsky identifi es four layers of musical logic: combinatorial, linguistic, contextual and artistic, i.e. those aspects (levels, edges) of the creative activity of a musician, in which there is logic. The lowest and at the same time fundamental level of musical logic is combinatorial, it is the sphere of primary elementary logical combinations of the simplest elements. However, the logic of this level extends to all scales of structures, from small motive links to sections of a one-part form. M. G. Aranovsky proposes to distinguish three types of logical combinations: 1. Identical - based on a constant repetition of structural units, where the formed elements are identical with each other (for example, AAAAAA). In terms of symmetry, this is a transformation of a simple movement along the time axis. It can again be noted as the simplest type of isomorphism, where only one characteristic changes - temporary. If we exclude it from consideration, then we can say that this is a “degenerate case” of isomorphism, which is an automorphism. 2. Equivalent - based on the modifi ed version of the repetition, in which there are both similarities and differences, i.e. incomplete identity is formed (for example, A1A2A3A4). From the point of view of symmetry, this combination of sequences represents the “unity” of the operation of symmetry, movement and violation of symmetry as such, i.e. in this sequence, some properties are repeated, while others change. This temporal process can be represented as isomorphism in the proper sense of the word, when some elements remain identical, while others change, and in general the objects are different, but similar. 3. Alternative - a combination of sequences of different units with complete exclusion of formal or obvious similarity (for example, ABC). Through symmetric transformations, this kind of logical combinations of primary elements can be described as an even greater symmetry violation, which preserves only the general “sequence of elements”, i.e. a small number of common properties, while these elements themselves are significantly different from each other. In this case, one can speak of a deep “transformation” of isomorphism, which can be called “metamorphism” (gr. Metamorphoómai - transformation of form). The basis of this transformation is a violation of the original symmetry in such a way that much more properties change than in the case of isomorphism. It can be schematically represented as A1 → B, A2 → C, etc. Thus, metamorphism can be considered both as a similarity, which has undergone a rather strong transformation, and as a symmetry violation, leading to a signifi cant complication of the structure. Thus, the result of this study is the position that, from the point of view of M. G. Aranowsky, the temporal process is the basis of musical thinking. The built-up chain “temporal process → musical logic → musical thinking” is the anthropological specifi city of human thought (in the musical sphere) associated with temporal processes in which a person is “immersed” and from which he cannot “exit” under any circumstances. Findings. we conclude that this chain can be called the “temporal-anthropological triad”. It represents the sequence “automorphism → isomorphism → metamorphism”. Each of its stages is different from the previous increase in the level of complexity. Of particular interest is the transition from isomorphism to metamorphism, since it is associated with the process of symmetry breaking. The mechanisms and principles of this disorder need further investigation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document