The assumed divide : Examining gender, feminism and relationships through visual art
- Authors: Hollis, Sylvia
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Thesis , Masters
- Full Text: false
- Description: The Assumed Divide is a visual arts based, practice-led research project which explores expectations of gender within the context of interpersonal relationships, structured through feminist theory. I created a collection of small, figurative sculptures inspired by experiences of animosity and misunderstanding, to locate areas of gendered interpersonal ambivalence. This thesis proposes that feminism might enhance gender relations by deconstructing harmful stereotypes and by encouraging empathy and respect for diversity. Issues such as reproductive choice, intergenerational debate, and uncertainty in aims are discussed as apparent impediments to the unity of feminism, against a patriarchal tradition that grants men categorical universality. I argue that by dismantling the perception of male unification and by elucidating the multitudinous similarities and variances of human experience, feminism makes advances in eliminating sexism. I also examine how binary gender division, with an assumption of distinct difference between male and female, generates conflict and power dynamics advantageous to men, diminishing the quality of heterosexual and social relationships. The observation that overlapping gender traits blur boundaries of male and female, and that rigid categorisations are not indisputably representative of all people, may offer more points of connection to bridge the divide of gender. Each artwork in The Assumed Divide reflects on gendered experience, with sculpted depictions of disintegrated flesh acting as visual manifestations of the psyches and social conditions of the figures. Working realistically on a small scale, and integrating found silver trays as motifs of domesticity and relationships, my intent is to directly stimulate contemplation of the themes in context to viewers’ lives, recognising that the audience is free to find their own meaning in the works. Discussion of these pieces, alongside works by other artists who broach topics of feminism, gender, and relationships, exemplifies the capacity for art to infuse theory with personal insight, inspired and derived from the lives of both artist and viewer.
- Description: Masters by Research
Beyond the princess, the priestess and the galactic kitchen sink: Reformulation of feminine roles in certain work of Lois McMaster Bujold
- Authors: Herington, Caitlin
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In this thesis I examine the Science Fiction and Fantasy works of Lois McMaster Bujold in the Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series, in particular the way she reformulates women’s roles and identities in society through the characters presented in these novels. I use the term Speculative Fiction as an umbrella term that encompasses both Science Fiction and Fantasy as modes of speculation, in that they both rely on extrapolation and estrangement as narrative features. My main proposition is that Bujold is an important transitional figure in speculative fiction between second and third wave feminist thinking. Although her work mimics some distinctive features of speculative fiction that utilise patriarchal structures and traditional gender norms, it is not limited by them. As a result, Bujold conveys a more complex and insightful understanding of gender. The research method of this thesis is the close reading of a range of sample texts from Bujold’s Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series which feature female protagonists. I seek to explore the discussion of gender relations and reformulation that occurs within them in the context of both speculative and feminist criticism. Bujold’s exploration of the identities and social roles of women in these fictional worlds is complex and challenging, using a range of approaches from simple reversal, to hybridity of gender, to more complex partial positions. This thesis argues that she takes an implicitly feminist approach, focussing on female experiences and examining the modes of social control and exercise of power within patriarchal social structures as they impact on women. Science Fiction and Fantasy often seem to reiterate traditional patriarchal hierarchies. Validating gender norms that conform to social expectations rather than challenging them. Bujold is presented in this thesis as utilising established norms and tropes such that her texts are easily identified as examples of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but in other ways her reformulations present radical challenges to cultural expectations of gender. This thesis reveals that social critique and reformulation of gender roles is possible and powerful in both Science Fiction and Fantasy by examining the work of a significant author whose work has lacked critical attention until recently. Although numerous studies have examined the way gender has been treated in Science Fiction and Fantasy, the unique contribution of this thesis is to examine an author previously under-studied and to consider the patterns of these reformulations as expressed in Bujold’s works.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
- Authors: Herington, Caitlin
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
- Full Text:
- Description: In this thesis I examine the Science Fiction and Fantasy works of Lois McMaster Bujold in the Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series, in particular the way she reformulates women’s roles and identities in society through the characters presented in these novels. I use the term Speculative Fiction as an umbrella term that encompasses both Science Fiction and Fantasy as modes of speculation, in that they both rely on extrapolation and estrangement as narrative features. My main proposition is that Bujold is an important transitional figure in speculative fiction between second and third wave feminist thinking. Although her work mimics some distinctive features of speculative fiction that utilise patriarchal structures and traditional gender norms, it is not limited by them. As a result, Bujold conveys a more complex and insightful understanding of gender. The research method of this thesis is the close reading of a range of sample texts from Bujold’s Vorkosigan Series and Chalion Series which feature female protagonists. I seek to explore the discussion of gender relations and reformulation that occurs within them in the context of both speculative and feminist criticism. Bujold’s exploration of the identities and social roles of women in these fictional worlds is complex and challenging, using a range of approaches from simple reversal, to hybridity of gender, to more complex partial positions. This thesis argues that she takes an implicitly feminist approach, focussing on female experiences and examining the modes of social control and exercise of power within patriarchal social structures as they impact on women. Science Fiction and Fantasy often seem to reiterate traditional patriarchal hierarchies. Validating gender norms that conform to social expectations rather than challenging them. Bujold is presented in this thesis as utilising established norms and tropes such that her texts are easily identified as examples of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but in other ways her reformulations present radical challenges to cultural expectations of gender. This thesis reveals that social critique and reformulation of gender roles is possible and powerful in both Science Fiction and Fantasy by examining the work of a significant author whose work has lacked critical attention until recently. Although numerous studies have examined the way gender has been treated in Science Fiction and Fantasy, the unique contribution of this thesis is to examine an author previously under-studied and to consider the patterns of these reformulations as expressed in Bujold’s works.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
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