Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Human body – Fiction'

Children find decomposing bodies on a beach. A girl becomes a ghost and finds someone. A dog dies but its owner is out of his mind and eating waffles. Sheep are a perfect species. A woman experiences a pregnancy that is out of this world! A raccoon dies and you watch its body break down. A father does his best fathering. You take a textual road-trip tour of America’s oldest hobby. A trauma is slowed down, picked apart. A soupfin shark is dissected and you watch. A homestead becomesa ghost town in rural Oregon. Joseph Beuys is an artist. A sister falls in love with an object, has a difference of opinion with her sister.

This study explores the interaction between feminist science fiction and feminist theory, focusing on the body and embodiment. Specifically, it aims to demonstrate that feminist science fiction novels of the 1990s offer an excellent platform for exploring the critical theories of the body put forward by Judith Butler in particular, and other feminist/queer theorists in general. The thesis opens with a brief history of science fiction's depiction of the body and feminist science fiction's subversions and rewritings of this, as well as an overview of Judith Butler's theories relating to the body and embodiment. It then considers a wide range of feminist science fiction novels from the 1990s, focusing on four key areas; bodies materialised outside patriarchal systems in women-only or women-ruled worlds, alien bodies, cyborg bodies and bodies in cyberspace. An in-depth analysis of the selected texts reveals that they have important contributions to make to the consideration of bodies as they develop and expand the issues raised by theorists such as Butler, Elisabeth Grosz, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2003.
Title from title page screen, viewed October 17, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Karen S. Coats (chair), Anita C. Tarr, Janice Neuleib. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-151) and abstract. Also available in print.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2014.
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A literatura contemporânea escrita por mulheres demonstra como o contexto histórico e sociocultural em que as personagens femininas são construídas afeta a percepção que as personagens têm do corpo e do self. Romances como os de Margaret Atwood exploram a corporealidade, ou, em outras palavras, a experiência material, social, cultural do corpo feminino, incluindo o corpo físico, emocional e as funções mentais na interligação do corpo com o mundo. Considerando tal contexto, esta tese investiga conceitos relacionados com gênero, o desconforto do corpo feminino enraizado nas relações sociais e a experiência material do corpo nos romances escritos por Margaret Atwood, Cat?s Eye (1989) e Bodily Harm (1981). A pesquisa centra-se na articulação literária e nos temas principais dos problemas de ser mulher, na análise da relação entre o corpo biológico e o conceito cultural do corpo, na crítica das representações sociais das mulheres e na possibilidade de transformação individual e social. Ela oferece uma análise por meio da literatura, juntamente com um diálogo entre os textos analisados e trechos de escrita criativa produzidos pela pesquisadora, refletindo a postura pós-estruturalista que inclui o observador nos fenômenos observados e funcionando como uma ponte entre o analítico e o criativo, o acadêmico e o artístico, bem como entre outras dicotomias históricas.

À en croire Chris Hables Gray nous sommes tous devenus des cyborg citizen. La science-fiction regorge de ces corps fantasmés de cyborgs aux allures de dieux antiques parcourant les espaces intersidéraux ou bien voyageant dans le temps. Toujours plus beaux, performants, rapides et intelligents que l'homo sapiens sapiens, les êtres humains du futur sont généralement divisés en deux catégories : ceux qui ont évolué et ceux qui sont toujours aussi limités que l'homme actuel, « obsolètes » pour employer le mot de néo-mutants comme Lukas Zpira ou Stélarc. Tantôt machine anthropomorphe aux airs de dieu omnipotent, tantôt cerveau synthétique omniscient, l'I.A. renvoie en partie à « la fin », au double sens du terme, de l'humanité. Le cyborg, la fin de l’homme ou un homme meilleur ? Ces « intentions mélioristes » qui laissent sceptique un David Le Breton sont perceptibles dans le cinéma, la littérature ou le jeu vidéo. Le corps s’altère. Humain, trop humain, surhumain, posthumain ? Au travers des progrès scientifiques, tant de la génétique que des technologies de l'information, le corps humain lambda se retrouve trié sur le volet à la naissance par des politiques eugénistes dissimulées sous des propos de luttes contre les maladies à la manière d'un Bienvenue à Gattaca, puis propulsé dans les mondes virtuels, pénétrant des royaumes, jusqu'à présent fictifs, sur une base quotidienne par le biais des technologies qui l'entourent. Le rêve des body hacktivistes est une hétérotopie futuriste, où chacun est libre de choisir sa mutation et où La Mouche de David Cronenberg pourrait côtoyer un Na'vi d'Avatar sans que personne ne s’étonne de ces corps de freaks qui ne sont plus simplement des corps de cyborgs à l'aspect humain mais des corps de monstres à l'esprit humain. Ces biocyborgs sont paradoxalement plus humains que nous. Quelle part restera-t-il de notre corps charnel dans le corps futur ? Y-a-t-il encore une place pour l'homo sapiens sapiens dans le futur ou bien sera-t-il forcé d'abandonner son corps ? À en croire Paul Virilio ou Jean Baudrillard, la disparition du corps est inévitable. Après avoir mis en évidence l’histoire et la généalogie du cyborg, du mythe fictionnel à sa réalisation actuelle, cette thèse se demandera « qu’est-ce que vivre en cyborgs aujourd’hui ? »
According to Chris Hable Gray we all are cyborg citizen now. Science-fiction is full of fantasy bodies looking like ancient gods wandering through space and time, always more beautiful, capable of more performances, faster and smarter than homo sapiens sapiens, generally beings of the future belong to two types: those who evolved and those that remained as limited as present humans, « obsolete » to quote the word of neo-mutants like Lukas Zpira or Stélarc. Some are anthropomorphic almighty god-like machines, others all-knowing synthetic brains, A.I. partly refers to « the end » of Humankind in its double meaning. Is the cyborg the end of man or a better human? Those intended enhancements which puzzled David Le Breton are seen in films, literature or video games. The body alters itself. Human, too human, superhuman, posthuman? Through scientific progress both in genetic and in mass media, the everyday human body finds himself screened at birth by eugenic policies hidden under motives like fight against diseases, as depicted in Gattaca and then thrown into virtual worlds on a daily base, entering kingdoms, fictive so far, using the surrounding technologies. The Body Hacktivist's dream is a futuristic heterotopia, where everyone is free to choose his mutation and where the David Cronenberg's Fly could walk alongside a Na'vi from Avatars surprising no one by their freaks bodies, ultimately: not cyborg bodies looking like humans but freak bodies implanted with human souls. Those biocyborgs are paradoxically more human than we are. What part of our carnal body will remain? Does homo sapiens sapiens have a future or will he need to shed away his body ? If we follow Paul Virilio or Jean Baudrillard, the vanishing of the body is inescapable. After bringing out the history and genealogy of the cyborg, from fictional myth to actual realisation, this thesis will endeavour to show “what is living as a cyborg nowadays?”

Notre thèse intitulée "La mise en récit du corps masculin du migrant africain: étude comparative de fictions arabophones et francophones" est né du constat de l'actualité de plus en plus pressante de la migration.En tant que fait ethnosociologique se nourrissant notamment des évolutions et bouleversements sociaux, la littérature reflète les questionnements de ces populations touchées par le phénomène migratoire et par l'inéluctable problème de leur reconstruction identitaire. Elle met en scène leurs réflexions sur les difficultés à s'inscrire dans un espace hétérogène et hétéroculturel et sur les sacrifices qu'ils seraient disposés à faire pour y remédier et faire le lien entre passé et avenir : jusqu'à quel point seraient-ils prêts à renoncer à leur culture, à abandonner une part d'eux-mêmes, à altérer leur identité, à devenir de nouveaux individus, tout en conservant des éléments identitaires et culturels de leur passé ?Une thématique en particulier permet de répondre à ces questions fondamentales pour les migrants : la représentation du corps physique varie en effet en fonction de l'espace dans lequel il s'inscrit, et a fortiori, en contexte de transplantation dans un territoire étranger.Cette question est peut-être plus cruciale encore pour les migrants africains, immédiatement stigmatisés par la couleur de leur peau et par des comportements et des codes gestuels différents. C'est la raison pour laquelle il nous a paru intéressant de consacrer notre thèse à l'étude de la mise en récit du corps masculin des migrants négro-africains dans la littérature africaine. Cette étude a pris en compte tant des aspects biologiques du corps et de ses rapports avec la société, que des projets narratifs des auteurs. Elle a porté, en priorité, sur l'inscription du corps dans le récit et a permis de dégager les procédures et significations narratives du corps masculin
The narrative of the male body of the African-African migrant. A comparative study of Arabic-speaking and Francophone fictions emerged from the increasingly pressing reality of migration.As an ethno-sociological fact feeding notably on social evolutions and upheavals, the literature reflects the questioning of these populations affected by the migration phenomenon and the inevitable problem of their reconstruction of their identity. It reflects on the difficulties of entering into a heterogeneous and heterocultural space and on the sacrifices they would be willing to make to remedy them and make the link between past and future: how far would they be Ready to renounce their culture, to abandon a part of themselves, to alter their identity, to become new individuals, while preserving the identity and cultural elements of their past?One theme in particular allows us to answer these fundamental questions for migrants: the representation of the physical body varies according to the space in which it is inscribed, and a fortiori, in the context of transplantation in a foreign territory.This question is perhaps even more crucial for African migrants, who are immediately stigmatized by the color of their skin and by different behavior and gesture codes. This is why it seemed interesting to us to devote our thesis to the study of the narration of the male body of African-African migrants in African literature. This study will took into account both the biological aspects of the body and its relations with society, as well as the narrative projects of the authors. It focused on the inscription of the body in the narrative and will aim at identifying the narrative procedures and meanings of the male body

Cette thèse de littérature comparée a pour objectif de mettre en rapport des œuvres habitées par l’Histoire, et d’interroger les représentations littéraires du corps face à l’épreuve extrême de l’enfermement. Le but de cette recherche, qui se déploie en trois temps, est de questionner la nature humaine à travers le prisme de l’écriture face à l’expérience bouleversante des camps de concentration et d’extermination nazis pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en mettant en parallèle des œuvres tant de témoignage que de fiction, qui puisent leurs ressources chacune dans le réel et le fictionnel, dans un jeu de vases communicants.Plus précisément, dans le cadre de la première partie, nous nous concentrons sur la manière dont l’expérience-limite de l’être se manifeste dans ces récits : la confusion identitaire et la déshumanisation y bousculent la représentation du corps, le mettent en doute. Ce doute s’inscrit dans le langage même : comment raconter ce qui paraît inimaginable ? Dans cette deuxième partie, nous mettons l’accent sur l’aspect indicible de l’évènement, et réfléchissons aux contournements, aux déplacements que peut offrir la littérature pour dire ce qui semble, au premier abord, inénarrable. Les images et symboles créent de nouvelles formes littéraires. Ces analyses nous permettent de développer enfin la thématique de ce que nous appelons l’écriture organique, qui se compose et s’articule autour de la corporéité. Langage et corps se superposent dans une dynamique architecturale. Écrire laisse une trace. L’écriture engendre. La littérature serait alors le terrain fécond d’une renaissance, de l’écriture d’un homme nouveau, à jamais métamorphosé par l’expérience concentrationnaire
This thesis of comparative literature aims to relate pieces inhabited by history and to question literary representations of the body in the face of the extreme hardship of confinement. The aim of this research, which unfolds in three parts, is to question human nature through the prism of writing when confronted with the traumatic experience of concentration camps and Nazi exterminations in the Second World War, by paralleling pieces, factual and fictional, which draw their ressources from both reality and fiction like interconnecting vessels. More specifically, as part of the first section we concentrate on the way the limit-experience of being manifests itself in these accounts. The confusion of identity and the dehumanization disrupt the representation of the body, thus impeaching it.This doubt fits into the language itself : how does one tell the unimaginable ? In the second section we focus on the inexpressible aspect of the event and reflect on the diversions, the displacements that literature can offer to say what, at first, seems indescribable. Imagery and symbolism create new forms of literature.This analysis allows us to develop the theme that we call organic writing, which is composed of and articulates itself through corporeity. Language and body superpose themselves in an architectural dynamic. Writing leaves a trace. Writing gives rise to new forms. Literature would therefore be the fertile soil of revival, the writing of a new human being, forever metamorphosed by the concentration camp experience

L’observation de la présence des arts non verbaux au cœur des œuvres de Marguerite Duras, Lawrence Durrell, Elfriede Jelinek et Péter Nádas nous invite à considérer la musicalité et l’iconicité des écritures dramatiques et romanesques contemporaines en termes de modèle mais aussi de dispositif. Des phénomènes de dialogue, d’hybridation, de polyphonie, de dialogisme, d’intermédialité, de ce que Jacques Rancière nomme « l’impurification » au cœur d’un « régime esthétique de l’art » révèlent les rêves, désirs et pulsions du verbal pour d’autres arts, mais aussi pour des représentations à l’artisticité discutable. La fabrique d’un corps organique, sexuel, érotique voire pornographique par les écritures contemporaines nous convie à envisager le métissage entre art et non-art en termes de dispositif performatif et à proposer une lecture queer des œuvres. À l’heure du postmodernisme, le recours des écritures au non-verbal se donne à lire à la fois comme la manifestation d’une crise du logos et de la représentation et comme l’enjeu d’une rénovation esthétique et politique de la littérature. Qu’ils modélisent le verbal ou fassent brutalement irruption et déchirure en son sein, les arts non verbaux concourent au renouvellement des formes littéraires, mais aussi à leur politicité et au renouveau de la fiction. Cette étude ambitionne donc d’explorer le carrefour esthético-politique que dessinent, entre le milieu du XXe siècle et ce début de XXIe siècle, les relations plurielles entre les arts verbaux et non verbaux dans l’art verbal par excellence, la littérature
The observation of the presence of non verbal arts within the works of Marguerite Duras, Lawrence Durrell, Elfriede Jelinek and Péter Nádas leads us to examine the musicality and the iconicity of contemporary dramatic and novelistic writings in terms of model, pattern and devices. Dialogue, hybridization, polyphony, dialogism, intermediality, and what Jacques Rancière calls “impurification” within the “Aesthetic Regime of Art”, display the dreams, desires and longings of verbal art for other arts, but also for representations whose artistic content is arguable. The fact that contemporary writings produce an organic, sexual, erotic, even pornographic body invites us to focus on the interactions between arts and non-arts with regard to their performative devices and to propose a queer reading of the works. In Postmodernism, the fact that writings draw on non verbal forms can be understood as the expression of the failure of Logos – both language and reason – and of representation. Moreover, what is also at stake is an aesthetic and political reform of literature. Whether they tend to impose new verbal models or break into them, non verbal arts contribute not only to reshape literary forms but also to emphasize their political substance and renew their fictional content. This dissertation aims to investigate the crossroads between aesthetics and politics that the various relationships between verbal and non-verbal arts display, from mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, within Literature, the verbal art par excellence

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Film and Video.
Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-180). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ67716.

This dissertation focuses on selected novels written by contemporary indigenous authors from Aotearoa/New Zealand and examines the fictional imagination of the human body as a medium of cultural identity and memory. The novels discussed are Keri Hulme’s »The Bone People« (1984), »Nights in the Gardens of Spain« (1995) and »The Uncle’s Story« (2000) by Witi Ihimaera as well as James George’s »Hummingbird« (2003). In order to further decolonisation processes and to come to terms with the colonial past and the complexity of present realities, the fictional works position the human body as an active entity in the negotiation of specific cultural epistemologies. This project explores the narrative translation of corporeality that is used to locate alternative concepts of identity and cultural memory. Taking into account indigenous perspectives, this thesis makes use of the current theoretical approaches presented by pragmatism and affect theory in order to analyse the investment of the novels in feeling and the reciprocal relationship between text and corporeality depicted by the narratives. On the one hand, the novels aim to undermine oppressive and marginalising categories by placing particular emphasis on »sensuous gaps« in the text. On the other hand, the narratives intend to construct alternative identities and evoke specific aspects of indigenous histories and knowledge by imagining the human body in terms of »sensuous inscription«. The novels portray individuals who act from a place in-between different cultures, and articulate a desire to dissolve polarities and emphasise individual and cultural transformation as a formative element in the creation of complex identities and new perspectives
Diese Dissertation stellt einige ausgewählte Romane, die von zeitgenössischen neuseeländischen Autoren mit Wurzeln in der Maori-Kultur stammen, im Hinblick auf deren Darstellung des menschlichen Körpers als Mittler kultureller Identität und Erinnerung in den Fokus. Betrachtet werden Keri Hulmes »The Bone People« (1984), die beiden Romane »Nights in the Gardens of Spain« (1995) und »The Uncle’s Story« (2000) von Witi Ihimaera sowie James Georges »Hummingbird« (2003). Im Zuge von Dekolonialisierungsprozessen, der Vergangenheitsbewältigung und Komplexität gegenwärtiger Realitäten positionieren die Fiktionstexte den menschlichen Körper als vermittelnde Instanz kulturspezifischer Epistemologien. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit richtet diese Arbeit auf die im fiktionalen Rahmen angestrebte Translation von Leiblichkeit, die zur Verortung alternativer Identitätskonzepte und kultureller Erinnerungsmuster sinnstiftend genutzt wird. Unter Berücksichtigung indigener Konzepte werden neuere Ansätze des Pragmatismus und der Affekttheorie für die literaturwissenschaftliche Analyse herangezogen, um die sinnlich-emotional gefasste Investition der Romane und die Wechselbeziehung zwischen Text und Körperlichkeit, die in den Fiktionstexten zum Tragen kommt, zu untersuchen. Dabei rücken die Narrationen zum einen eine Unterhöhlung einschränkender und marginalisierender Lebensmodelle durch eine Betonung »sinnlicher Risse« im Textfluss in den Vordergrund; zum anderen beabsichtigen sie durch eine »sinnliche Gravur« des imaginierten menschlichen Körpers eine Konstruktion alternativer Identitäten und kulturspezifischer indigener Erinnerungsstiftung. Die Romane zeichnen Individuen, die zwischen mehreren kulturellen Horizonten agieren, und artikulieren dabei ein Bestreben, Polaritäten aufzulösen und durch die Betonung individueller und kultureller Transformation komplexe Identitäten und neue Perspektiven zu verhandeln

This study explores the construction of the Gothic female body in three films by the director Tim Burton, specifically Batman Returns (1992), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Dark Shadows (2012). Through a deployment of Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, the intention is to indicate the degree to which Burton crafts his leading female characters as abject Others and embodiments of Barbara Creed’s ‘monstrous-feminine’. In this Gothic portrayal, the director consistently draws on the essentialised stereotypes of Woman as either ‘virgin’ or ‘whore’ as he shapes his Gothic heroines and femmes fatales. While a gendered duality is established, this is destabilised to an extent, as Burton permits his female characters varying degrees of agency as they acquire monstrous traits. This construction of Woman as monster, this study will show, is founded on a certain fear of femaleness, so reinstating the ideology of Woman as Other.
English Studies
M.A. (English Studies)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The ‘loss of self’ trope is a pervasive shorthand for the prototypical process of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the popular imagination. Turned into an effect of disease, the disappearance of the self accommodates a biomedical story of progressive deterioration and the further medicalization of AD, a process which has been storied as an organic pathology affecting the brain or, more recently, a matter of genetic calamity. This biomedical discourse of AD provides a generic framework for the disease and is reproduced in its illness narratives. The disappearance of self is a mythic element in AD narratives; it necessarily assumes the existence of a singular and coherent entity which, from the outside, can be counted as both belonging to and representing an individual person. The loss of self, as the rhetorical locus of AD narrative, limits the privatization of the experience and reinscribes cultural storylines---storylines about what it means to be a human person. The loss of self as it occurs in AD narratives functions most effectively in reasserting the presence of the human self, in contrast to an anonymous, inhuman nonself; as AD discourse details a loss of self, it necessarily follows that the thing which is lost (the self) always already existed. The private, narrative self of individual experience thus functions as proxy to a collective human identity predicated upon exceptionalism: an escape from nature and the conditions of the corporeal environment.

This thesis examines the representation of animality in Australian literature by a close analysis of Eva Hornung’s Dog Boy (2009) and Evie Wyld’s All the Birds, Singing (2013). In these novels, the protagonists are exposed to violence because of their age, gender and circumstances, yet experience moments of connection with animals and the natural world that ameliorate their suffering and enable them to gain insight into animals’ worlds. Giorgio Agamben’s conception of ‘bare life’ and his monographs Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life and The Open: Man and Animal provide a frame for thinking about the biopolitical lives of contemporary citizens. I also read moments during which humans feel embodied empathy for the creatures under their care. I argue that the act of empathy presents a form of resistance to ‘biopower’. The Flood is the Flawless Mirror for the Sky: A Novel The novel takes up questions of animal-human relations in the narrative of a mother and daughter, Sarah and Bethany Francis, whose relationship is shaped by the ways in which they care for domestic and native animals. In the opening pages of the novel, Sarah’s life changes course because she diverges from the expectations of her religious family, and because she falls pregnant. Questions about sovereign authority and legal abandonment are treated obliquely; the plot moves from America to Australia and back again. Sarah nurses injured Australian wildlife at the expense of her bond with her daughter Bethany, whom she abandons for several months in an attempt to repair the relationship with her own mother. In the second half of the novel, Beth, a newlygraduated veterinarian, deals with news of her mother’s mysterious death and discovers that birds, animals and the natural world ameliorate her grief and her unresolved relationship with her grandmother. While Sarah’s care of animals is instinctive and builds on knowledge she has obtained from experience, Beth’s is influenced by her professional training. This contrast forms the centre of a plot based on complicated intimacies.

La tesi si propone di problematizzare il ruolo marginale delle persone disabili nei nostri mondi socioculturali. L’analisi si articola principalmente in tre assi: la natura contestabile e relazionale della disabilità; il radicamento delle persone disabili nel tessuto sociale, politico, e culturale, registrandone e valorizzandone i contributi; l’espansione delle condizioni di vivibilità del presente e del futuro. In tale percorso mi sono concentrata su quattro temi, che si intrecciano in ognuno dei capitoli: il rapporto con le tecnologie; le relazioni di cura e assistenza (umane e non umane); la partecipazione politica e l’attivismo; le narrazioni da aggiornare sul piano immaginativo-culturale. Sebbene i Disability Studies siano l’area di ricerca di riferimento, ho impiegato la figurazione del cyborg come uno strumento di navigazione che potesse porli in dialogo col lavoro di Donna J. Haraway, il postumanesimo e la tecnoscienza femminista: ho infatti evidenziato quali possano essere le potenzialità di tale incontro nell’esaminare proficuamente ciascuno dei temi trattati. Nello specifico, la tesi si struttura in tre sezioni, ognuna focalizzata su un macrotema: (I) il rapporto che intercorre tra il cyborg – in senso largo – e la disabilità; (II) la relazionalità e l’apertura verso l’esterno, in termini esperienziali e politici; (III) la collocazione delle persone disabili nel futuro, tanto in ambito culturale, quanto immaginato nella fiction fantascientifica. --- The thesis critically assesses the marginal role of disabled people in our sociocultural worlds. The analysis is structured into three axes: the debatable and relational nature of disability; the rooting of disabled people in the social, political, and cultural fabric, recording and valuing their contributions; the possibility to produce livable presents and futures. In this path, I focused on four topics, intertwined in each of the chapters: the connection with technologies; the relationships of (human and non-human) care and assistance; political participation and activism; the urge to update cultural and imaginative texts. Although Disability Studies are the research area of reference, I employed the figuration of the cyborg as a navigation tool that could put them in dialogue with the work of Donna J. Haraway, posthumanism and feminist technoscience: I have highlighted the potentiality of this conversion, to examine profitably each of the mentioned topics. Specifically, the thesis is structured in three sections, each focused on a macro theme: (I) the association between the cyborg – in a broad sense – and disability; (II) the experience of relationality, in biographical and political terms; (III) the positioning of disabled people in the future, both in the cultural world and in science fiction.