Comparative discourse analyses of gender constructions in the novels of Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Samuel Delany

Download
index.pdf
2010
Akçeşme, İfakat Banu
Show full item record
320
views
162
downloads
This dissertation examines the gendered discourses in the novels of the writers of different sexes/genders, Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, Joanna Russ’ The Female Man and Samuel Delany`s Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia. This study investigates how writers linguistically construct their characters as gendered/sexed beings as an effect of certain identity politics, ideologies and power structures. In order to do so, critical discourse analysis is applied to the passages chosen from different parts of the novels under consideration. Moreover, Butler’s performativity theory of gender and Foucault’s theory of discourse/power/knowledge and his conceptualization of subjectivity are employed in the discursive analyses of the novels. The argument of the study is that there is a close relationship between discourse, ideology and the constitution/representation of gender/sex as contingent on a particular socio-cultural and historical context. This study is based on Butler`s assertion that gender is a doing, a performance, and it is a cultural and ideological construct. Thus, the study shows that writers’ linguistic choices for the constructions and descriptions of their characters are not ideologically or politically innocent but imbued with socio-cultural and ideological meanings.
Sex role in literature., Sexual deviation in literature., Sex differences in literature.
http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612223/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20025
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

Psychological bisexuality and otherness in the novels of angela carter, virginia woolf, marge piercy and ursula le guin : a study from the perspective of ecriture feminine
Pekşen Yanıkoğlu, Seda; İçöz, Nursel; Department of English Literature (2008)
This study analyses The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin from the perspective of écriture féminine. After a thorough discussion of the roots of écriture féminine, the theory of the French feminists is put into practice in the analysis of the novels. The study asserts that the concepts of bisexuality, the other and the voice are common elements in novels of écriture féminine, thereby the n...
Constructing and deconstructing chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature
Çankaya, Tuğçe; Alpakın Martınez Caro, Dürrin; Department of English Literature (2015)
Although generic, psychoanalytic and postcolonial approaches differ in nature, each of them might be helpful in revealing the strong affinity between chivalric romance and modern fantasy. In the light of generic analysis of these two genres, it is apparent that modern fantasy is the generic revival of the chivalric romance. Among these generic features, the quest motif, adventures to the other worlds, imaginary characters/settings and the battle between light and darkness, circular plot pattern and anachron...
The moral dimension of disguise and role-playing in Ben Jonson’s volpone, the alchemist and the silent woman
Tekin, Çağla; Sönmez, Margaret Jeanne M.; Department of English Literature (2015)
This thesis studies the plays Volpone, The Alchemist and The Silent Woman in order to show that through his characters who adopt multiple identities, Ben Jonson aimed to show his audience that disguise and role-playing are morally wrong. As a classicist, Jonson was influenced by Stoicism (mainly by Seneca). Stoicism was a philosophy that advocated being harmonious with nature and consistent in identity, which were seen as the ultimate paths to virtue. Therefore, Jonson, following Stoic’s analogy of life as ...
Theatricality and the chronotope in "The Magus" by J. Fowles and "England, England" by J. Barnes
Filimonova, Alexandra; Sönmez, Margaret Jeanne M.; Department of English Language Teaching (2009)
The thesis reveals the main principles of the theatrical chronotope and examines the ways in which it is embodied in the novels of two postmodern authors – The Magus by John Fowles and England, England by Julian Barnes. These are analyzed as presenting two different variants of texts that employ the theatrical chronotope to exploit its different possible semantic implications. The thesis argues that in The Magus theatricality is employed to convey the author’s philosophical and aesthetical thoughts. The mai...
Absurdity of the human condition in the Novels by Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett
Zileli, Bilge Nihal; İçöz, Nursel; Department of English Literature (2005)
This study carries out both a technical and a thematic analysis of the novels by Albert Camus, L̕Etranger, La Peste, and La Chute, and Samuel Beckett, Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In the technical analysis of the novels, the study explores the differences in characterization and narrative technique. It argues that the differences in these two issues mainly emerge from the difference in the two authors̕ views of art. In the thematic analysis, on the other hand, the study focuses on the recurring t...
Citation Formats
İ. B. Akçeşme, “Comparative discourse analyses of gender constructions in the novels of Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Samuel Delany,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2010.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr