La poesia testimonial Womanista de Excilia Saldaña, Nancy Morejón y Georgina Herrera

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ana Zapata-Calle

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My Ph.D thesis, entitled "The Womanist Testimonial Poetry Written by Excilia Saldana, Nancy Morejon and Georgina Herrera," is a post-colonial, sociological, and historiographical analysis of the testimonial poetry written by three Afro-Cuban women poets. The theoretical framework applied is the social theory of womanism from Kemberle Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins and Clenora Hudson-Weens, among others. This theory received its name from Alice Walker, who proposed it for the first time in her book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens (1983), and fills a gap that previously existed between western feminism and ethnic studies. The poems of these three authors describe not only the simultaneous oppression of gender and race that the Afro-Cuban women suffer within their society, but also celebrate the tradition, history, beauty, spirituality, arts and accomplishments of black women as a collective and cultural group. Thus, Excilia Saldana's, Nancy Morejon's and Georgina Herrera's work emerge from a different perspective than the poetry of Nicolas Guillen and the testimonial novel of Miguel Barnet, which had previously provided the main Afro-Cuban representation in the literary canon of the twentieth century. In particular, these three poets write from the female gender approach and about the social reality of Afro-Cuban peoples in the contemporary historical period. The dissertation is composed of an introduction, three chapters, one for each writer, and a conclusion. The first chapter is about Excilia Saldana's poems "Mi Nombre (Antielegia familiar)" and "Monologo de la esposa". Her work portrays a society full of violence and contradictions that causes the fragmentation of the black woman's identity. The phenomena of alienation, endoracism, gender and racial oppression, as well as the sexual trade in Cuba, are included in the analysis. The writer uses her poetry to ask for respect for the Afro-Cuban woman, considering her as a full human being and citizen. The s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Andrew Darr

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My dissertation "(Re)Contextualizing Gender Representation in Hamlet" argues that all Hamlets reflect their historically specific gender crisis, which helps explain why Hamlet remains the most adapted Shakespearian drama. Each Hamlet recontextualizes its representation of gender to reflect the gender norms of that historical period, beginning with Shakespeare's. My first chapter traces the ongoing conversation regarding male and female gender norms from Italian conduct books to their English translations, which in turn instigated an English counter-response. My second chapter interrogates gender representation in the English dramatic genre of revenge tragedy from its Senecan roots through Thomas Kyd's foundational play The Spanish Tragedy to Shakespeare's first revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus. My third chapter explores twentieth century film adaptations of Hamlet as each film recontextualizes Hamlet and Ophelia within that period's dominant scholarly perception of the characters. My last chapter centers on the emergence of video game adaptations of Hamlet, which was made possible by the arrival of independently funded independent games. These innovative and interactive reimaginings of Hamlet participate within the larger, ongoing conversation concerning the representation of gender within the video game medium. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the transitional moment that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet during accounts for the play's incredible afterlife, especially in regards to the representation of gender.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Roslyn Fraser Schoen

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation is about the lives of women and girls during a period of economic and demographic change in rural Bangladesh. This bulk of this change, often referred to as economic development, occurs at the intersection of social and economic institutions at a time when agricultural modes of production are being replaced by wage labor within a globalizing labor market. The lived experiences of this change are structured by family and kinship arrangements, ideology, history, tradition, and deeply-internalized gender norms. The purpose of this research is to document via ethnographic methods several important local effects of the shift to a wage-based economic mode from the perspective of women in terms of their roles as wives, mothers, and daughters.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lawrence Loiseau

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study addresses Lacan's comments on Marx. While much has been done towards reading Marx with psychoanalysis generally, little had has been done to unpack the meaning and extent of Lacan's own statements on Marx. For example, while Lacanian Marxists like Slavoj Zizek have wielded Lacan to great effect in a critique of post-structuralism, they have neglected the full meaning and complexity of Lacan's own stance. What is argued thereby is that Zizek not only omits the discrete knowledge within Lacan's commentary, but misses what I describe as a Lacan's theory of the social. On the one hand, it is commonly known in Lacanian thought that discourse is responsible for making the subject. On the other hand, what is less known is that Lacan defined discourse as that which makes a social link which, in contrast with Marxist thought, introduces a certain affect and materialism premised on discourse itself, commonly known, but also for providing the underlying strata of topology (namely, paradox) requisite for making any social link between subjects. Although less commonly known, we can nevertheless gain new insight into Marx. On the one hand, Lacan concedes Marx's underlying structuralism. On the other hand, Marx fails to see the true source of discourse's origins, the real itself, and consequently fails to see the true efficacy of discourse. He fails to see how discourse, although negative, stands as entirely positive and material in its distinctive effects. Discourse negotiates subjects and their inimitable objects of desire in this singularity itself. This is where true production lies; it is that which precedes any social or economic theory, which are otherwise premised on reality. Lacan rejects reality.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Jeremy Bowling

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation examines few of the determinants and effects of international cooperation. There are three broad themes that run throughout this dissertation, which are the ideas of reciprocity, opportunity, and cooperative norms. Reciprocity is a large part of the development of cooperation theory, particularly in the study of the evolution of cooperation. While it is mentioned across international relations scholarship, empirical testing of its existence in international politics is scarce. Opportunity is a ubiquitous concept across social science. The concept is used in this dissertation as a challenge to the notion that cooperation reduces the likelihood of conflict, which pervades the study of international conflict, particularly from those that study conflict from the theory of liberalism. Lastly, an exploratory analysis of cooperative norms is examined. Studying the social construction of cooperative norms is important for the broader study of international cooperation. I find that direct and indirect reciprocity are important indicators of cooperation, cooperation will increase the likelihood and severity of dyadic conflict unless both states are highly cooperative with each other, and domestic political institutions may be important for the development of cooperative norms that extend to the international level. Overall, international relations scholars should reexamine how cooperation in viewed and studied, particularly in relation to conflict.


Author(s):  
Ciro Portella Cardoso ◽  
Tiago Anderson Brutti ◽  
Marcelo Cacinotti Costa ◽  
Gabriela Dickel das Chagas ◽  
Deivid Jonas Silva da Veiga ◽  
...  

The present work is the result of the reflections provided by the classes of the Postgraduate Program in Sociocultural Practices and Social Development, at the University of Cruz Alta - UNICRUZ (RS). Thus, the proposal of analyzing and explaining the literary work "The House of Spirits" by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende was brought forward. Book that became a bestseller in Brazil, after its release in April 1984. This work aims to examine the construction of Isabel Allende's success in the 1980s, through the biographical and historical analysis of the representations of Chile, the Chilean military dictatorship and the reference to the female gender, elements that appear in her writings. The history of the work "The House of Spirits" portrays the life of the Trueba family, which over four generations was part of the social and political movements of Chile. The main figures of the plots are always women, especially the one who embodies the role of the writer, with the function of organizing and recreating the memory of the family in a text that allows establishing deep connections with other narratives of Latin American women.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Rose M. O'Donnell

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Autism Spectrum Disorders are increasing in prevalence (CDC, 2014), and can cause a number of negative outcomes for caregivers who raise these children. Most of what is known about Autism treatments focus on the children who have autism, but there are limited resources for their caregivers. However, because these caregivers are also experiencing significant problems, it is important to focus on focusing on their needs as well. Although workshops are often used as a way to share information with parents, there has been limited research that shows that parents benefit from these learning opportunities. This dissertation research focuses on working with caregivers on issues their children may experience as a way to make them feel less stressed about caring for their child, feel confident in their ability to address their children's needs, feel better physically and mentally, and to feel like they can advocate on behalf of their child. Overall, the results of this dissertation research show that while some parents may experience improvements in these areas, others did not. While the reasoning for the variability in response to this workshop is currently unknown, it does show that this is an area in need of more investigation in the future.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Anastacia Schulhoff

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This ethnographic research looks at people who reside, visit, and work at a Native American tribal nursing home. Using grounded theory to sort through 18 months of participant observations, extensive fieldnotes, and 22 interviews -- 12 with staff, three administrators, and seven residents' interviews -- my findings show that there is a complex tension between institutional and cultural particulars competing with one another in a tribal nursing home. The goal of this dissertation is to make visible the assemblages of meaning that are passed over by managerial views of nursing homes. By doing so, I show that a tribal nursing home cannot simply be understood as another nursing home, but must be understood in terms of its cultural resonance. I show how different fields of meaning engender culturally specific signifying practices and narratives that construct the nursing home under study as distinctly "Native American." Fields in this context is much like the social worlds that Gubrium (1975) defines as a setting where they create order, meaning, and structure. I trace how particular objects of signification practices -- family talk, discursive and material anchors, and ceremonies - help define what it means to be Native American in a tribal nursing home, thus constructing a unique institutional culture. This dissertation begins to fill the large gap in the fields of gerontology and sociology about Native Americans in general, and Native Americans use and understanding of nursing homes, in particular.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Natalie Melle McCabe

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My dissertation, "Where Have All the Mothers Gone?: The Liminalities of Child Loss in Contemporary Drama," focuses on the liminal states in which female characters in two specific plays, my autobiographical play And Then It Was Gone and Marina Carr's play By the Bog of Cats, find themselves due to various forms of child loss, such as infanticide and miscarriage, the social drama processes they encounter along the way, and the rituals with which they may release themselves from these transitional states. The social processing of child deaths is present in these plays as a literal (social) drama and as a concept discussed by performance studies scholar Victor Turner. As such, I draw upon Turner's notions of social drama performance and other scholarship centered around autobiographical performance. Also influential in my research are works by Leigh Gilmore and more modern feminist performance studies scholarship such as works by Judith Butler. I use these works to examine the aforementioned plays and the readings, performances, and productions thereof. And Then It Was Gone received a workshop reading at the Missouri Playwrights Workshop in 2016 and a concert reading at the Mizzou New Play Series in 2017. I directed a sold-out production of Marina Carr's play By the Bog of Cats for the mainstage season of the University of Missouri Department of Theatre in the fall of 2017.


2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-397
Author(s):  
Catherine Ming T'ien Duffly

In looking forward to the important issues of this coming decade, we need only turn to the events of the past year for a sense of what is at stake for theatre, performance, and performance pedagogy. Last year, student activists protested racism on college and university campuses across the United States. At Yale, students protested the hostile racial climate on campus following several incidents, including a professor's dismissal of concerns about racist Halloween costumes, numerous swastika graffiti, and the explicit exclusion of black women from fraternity events. At the University of Missouri, the student group Concerned Student 1950—named for the year the first black students were admitted to the university—called for the resignation of university president, Tim Wolfe, citing the administration's inaction in the face of numerous racist incidents on campus. At Ithaca College, Claremont McKenna University, the University of Kansas, and many other colleges and universities across the United States, students held rallies, performed die-ins, and signed petitions in support of students at the University of Missouri and Yale and to call attention to inequality on their own campuses. Set against the backdrop of Ferguson and an increased awareness of institutionalized violence against black and brown bodies, these events remind us that colleges and universities have always been sites where racial discrimination and inequality have been both perpetuated and protested.


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