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1
Seyferth, Peter. "Utopie, Anarchismus und Science Fiction : Ursula K. Le Guins Werke von 1962 bis 2002 /." Münster : LIT, 2008. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=3075240&prov=M&dokv̲ar=1&doke̲xt=htm.
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Kamran, Shezra. "Fantastic languages : C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2014. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5749/.
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This thesis explores the nature and function of language as it is used in twentieth-century fantastic fiction, as represented by the work of C. S. Lewis and Ursula K. Le Guin. In it I argue that the anti-mimetic impulse behind the language of fantasy makes it a polemical, contentious mode, which situates itself against discourses (religious and scientific) that assume the existence of a reality to which language may be said to correspond in certain clearly understood, conventional ways. Both Lewis and Le Guin suggest, by contrast, that experiential reality is an arbitrary and shifting construct, although each writer has a very different attitude towards the category of the ‘real’ and the question of how it may best be articulated. Despite the fact that Lewis uses the language of authority and Le Guin the language of liberation, they both interrogate fundamental ethical, social, political and theological evaluative assumptions embedded in language, disrupting the rigidity that conventional usage confers upon words and the concomitant human tendency to submit unquestioningly to cultural conventions. Lewis challenges the modern, secular, materialist understanding of reality, contending that metaphor has the power to undermine post-secular fixed notions and reveal new semantic fields pertaining to what he understands as the ‘spiritual’. Le Guin celebrates human and non-human embodied existence, with its possibilities and limitations, refuting any transcendent reality. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part One deals with the ‘reactionary’ school of fantasy represented by Lewis. My contention is that Lewis’s Narnian Chronicles dramatise Owen Barfield’s theory of the concomitant evolution of human consciousness and language in relation to the phenomenal world. The three chapters in this part demonstrate that in the Narnia books Lewis represents initial forms of mythical, ‘participatory’ consciousness (as Barfield calls it) – that is, a world in which no linguistic or imaginative distinction is made between the human, animal, material and spiritual dimensions; followed by the loss of participation and the consequent alienation of human beings both from immaterial things and the environment; and concluding with the renewal of participation through a new use of language. Part Two is concerned with Le Guin’s sequence of fantasy novels about the imaginary world of Earthsea. Following Darko Suvin, I divide the sequence into two trilogies, which embody two contrasting responses to the conservative fantasy represented by the Narnia books. For me, the difference between these responses can best be understood through a close examination of Le Guin’s changing attitude to language in the First and Second Trilogies, which I undertake in four chapters. The first chapter explores Le Guin’s initial collusion with Lewis’s patriarchal politics, a collusion signalled by the rigid linguistic conventions and unchanging cultural practices of her imaginary world. The three final chapters deal with the Second Earthsea Trilogy, with particular emphasis on the last two books, since these have so far received little critical attention. In these books she deconstructs the earlier premises of her created world by finding new ways in which to represent the voices that had been excluded or marginalised in her previous trilogy, as well as in the work of her predecessors in fantasy. The thesis as a whole represents an effort to reassess the political implications of linguistic choices, and of attitudes to language, in twentieth-century fantastic fiction.
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Newell, Daniel. "The "Mother Tongue" in a World of Sons language and power in The Earthsea Cycle /." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University, 2010. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.
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Deetlefs, Dorothea Maria. "Action and activism in selected novels by Ursula K. Le Guin." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18259.
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This thesis examines individual and societal action and activism in five science fiction and utopian novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, namely, The left hand of darkness, The word for world is forest, The lathe of heaven, The dispossessed, and Always coming home. Le Guin is a politically committed author whose ideological perspective is informed by feminism, Taoism, and anarchism, as well as a strong ecological awareness. These determine the structure of her fictional societies and the actions of her characters. Each novel is approached on its own terms, with the commentary adhering closely to the text. Individuals and their societies are conceived of as embodying different and conflicting ways of being and doing. The author is seen as an activist by virtue of her political commitment, especially in the case of the self-reflexive, self-critical Always coming home. Included in the Introduction are sections on: Tom Moylan's concept of the critical utopia, which tailors the utopian genre to fit modern views; Le Guin's concept of the yin utopia, one possible form of the critical utopia; and a short section on Taoism, familiarising the reader with concepts and terminology used in the thesis.
5
Hedberg, Malin. "Failed Feminism? : Ursula K. Le Guin's Tehanu." Thesis, Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Education, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-1743.
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<p>Failed Feminism?: Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel Tehanu</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to show that Ursula K. LeGuin’s fantasy novel Tehanu instead of breaking away from traditional gender roles maintains them, despite the novel’s promises of change. I begin by showing the places where the possibilities of change are indicated, and then I use feminist criticism to show that there is no change in the gender roles.</p><p>I have examined the gender roles in Tehanu, by taking a closer look at the characters and the roles they have in the plot. Numerous critics claim that this novel is Le Guin’s attempt to revise her earlier, more traditional fantasy novels in the Earthsea trilogy, and that Tehanu works as a feminist reaction to the Earthsea trilogy. However, even though Le Guin makes the traditional patriarchal gender roles apparent to the unaware reader, the protagonists have internalised the patriarchal values of their society when the novel closes, which may be fairly disappointing to the reader who brings feminist awareness to the reading of novel. The women are depicted as caregivers, and the men are portrayed as the decision-makers. The gender roles are as traditional as they can be with Ged as the man who is capable to read the wizard’s books, with Tehanu who stays with her family and does not leave with the dragons, and with Tenar as the woman who takes care of the household.</p>
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Seyferth, Peter. "Utopie, Anarchismus und Science Fiction Ursula K. Le Guins Werke von 1962 bis 2002." Berlin Münster Lit, 2006. http://d-nb.info/987721437/04.
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Escudié, Hélène. "Ursula K. Le Guin, une alchimie de l'Ailleurs : de la structure au mythe." Université Marc Bloch (Strasbourg) (1971-2008), 2004. http://www.theses.fr/2004STR20066.
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La présente thèse se propose de montrer comment, malgré une notable diversité dans la forme comme dans les thèmes, l'œuvre d'Ursula K. Le Guin offre une remarquable cohérence autour d'images et structures fondamentales. Partant d'une organisation de base, fondée sur une opposition binaire, la romancière fait émerger un troisième terme, élément de synthèse entre les deux autres. C'est ce que démontre le système des personnages qui, mettant en regard deux clans, donne la vedette à des figures d'ethnologues qui, tout à la fois, maintiennent l'équilibre entre deux cultures et permettent la création de réseaux. Ce principe s'étend à des représentations purement linguistiques Le Guin postule en effet l'existence de deux langues, la langue du père, langue du pouvoir, et celle de la mère, langue du dialogue. Ces deux modes d'expression, pourtant si différents, semblent pouvoir atteindre une harmonie dans l'émergence d'une forme tierce, la langue de l'Art, dans laquelle s'élabore discours fondamentalement mixte et où se conjuguent oralité et écriture, poésie et prose. Deux personnages illustrent ce principe : l'androgyne, qui permet de poser la question du sexe et de mettre en lumière les disparités sociales auxquelles conduisent les caractéristiques masculines ou féminines ; le dragon qui s'offre comme la synthèse idéale des sexes, et donne toute leur part au maternel et au féminin. Ce rêve de synthèse se retrouve également dans une série d'images récurrentes, comme notamment celle de la pierre virile et du réseau maternel, combinées de façon idéale dans des représentations fondées sur le modèle du piège à rêves amérindien, modèle qui se retrouve aussi bien dans la toile d'araignée que dans certaines formes de mise en scène de l'activité onirique. L'œuvre se présente ainsi comme une forme d'hommage au père et à la mère de la romancière, ethnologues réputés, et parallèlement comme une illustration de la voix de la différence décrite par Carol Gilligan<br>This work aims at showing how, despite a great diversity in the forms and the themes, Ursula K. Le Guin's work organises its coherence around fundamental images and structures. Founded on a basic binary opposition, the writer develops a third term, a synthesis of the two others. This is illustrated by the system of characterisation (of the protagonists) which stages two clans featuring anthropologists who maintain the equilibrium between the two cultures while developing the creation of networks. This principle extends to purely linguistic representations. Le Guin postulates the existence of two languages, the Father tongue, the language of power, and the Mother tongue, the language of dialogue. These two modes of expression, although very different, tend towards harmony in the birth of a third term, the Language of Art, in which oral and written literature, prose and poetry intermingle. Two characters serve to illustrate this: first, the androgyn underlines the problem of sex and highlights the social differences; second, resulting from sexual differentiation, the dragon represents the ideal synthesis of the two sexes, and shows the importance of the maternal and the feminine features. This dream of two into one is also present in a series of recurrent images, namely the masculine stone, and the maternal network, ideally united in representations based on Amerindian dreamcatchers, a model also illustrated by the cobweb and in forms staging dreams. The work is thus a homage to Ursula K. Le Guin's father and mother, well-known anthropologists, and also an illustration of Carol Gilligan's theory of a "different voice"
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Clark, Edith Ilse Victoria. "Ursula K. Le Guin : the utopias and dystopias of The dispossessed and Always coming come." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26801.
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The thesis deals with the Utopian and dystopian aspects of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home. To provide a basis for comparison with the endeavours of previous utopists, the first part is devoted to a historical account of literary Utopias, and to an examination of the signposts of the genre. This history is restricted to practical blueprints for the ideal commonwealth and excludes creations of pure fantasy.
In tracing Utopian development from Plato to Wells, the influence of historical events and the mainstreams of thought, such as Renaissance humanism, the Reformation, the rising importance of science, the discovery of new lands, the Enlightenment, Locke's Theory of Perfectability, Bentham's utilitarianism, the Industrial Revolution, socialism, the French Revolution, Darwinism, and the conflict between capital and labour is demonstrated. It is also shown how the long-range results of the Russian Revolution and the two world wars shattered all Utopian visions, leading to the emergence of the dystopia, and how the author reversed this negative trend in the second part of the twentieth century.
In a study of forms of Utopian presentation, the claim is made that The Dispossessed features the first Utopia that qualifies as a novel: not only does the author break with the genre's tradition of subordinating the characters to the proposal, she also creates the conflict necessary for novelistic structure by juxtaposing her positive societies with negative ones.
In part two, the Utopias and dystopias of both books are examined, and their features compared to previous endeavours in the genre. The observation is made that although the author favours anarchism as a political theory, she is more deeply committed to the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, seeing in its ideals the only way to a harmonious and just existence for all. In order to prove her point, Le Guin renders her Utopias less than perfect, placing one society into an inhospitable environment and showing the other as suffering from genetic damage; this suggests that the ideal life does not rest in societal organization or beneficent surroundings, but in the minds of the inhabitants: this frame of mind—if not inherent in a culture—can be achieved by living in accordance with the tao.
Lastly, an effort is made to determine the anthropological models upon which Utopian proposals are constructed. The theory is put forth that all non-governed, egalitarian Utopias represent a return to the societal arrangements of early man, when his communities were still small and decentralized, and before occupational specialization began to set in; that all democratic forms of government are taken from the Greek examples, that More's Utopia might well have been modelled on the Athenian clans of the pre-Cleisthenes era, and that the Kesh society of Always Coming Home is based exclusively on the kinship systems of the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>English, Department of<br>Graduate
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Cadden, Michael J. Trites Roberta Seelinger. "Dialogues with authority children's literature, dialogics, and the texts of Ursula K. Le Guin /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1996. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9633412.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1996.<br>Title from title page screen, viewed May 19, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Roberta Seelinger Trites (chair), Jan C. Susma, Janice W. Neuleib. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-234) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Bordandini, Sofia. "Words Are My Matter: proposta di traduzione di brani scelti di Ursula K. Le Guin." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017.
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Il presente elaborato ha lo scopo di proporre una traduzione di tre brani scelti da Words Are My Matter, raccolta di saggi, discorsi e recensioni di Ursula K. Le Guin. Ai cenni biografici seguirà una panoramica delle opere, soprattutto di fantascienza, e delle idee riguardo alla narrativa di genere, al linguaggio, alla situazione delle donne scrittrici di science fiction. La contestualizzazione teorica verterà perciò sulla narrativa di genere e in particolare sulla fantascienza, con riferimenti allo sviluppo della stessa e alla traduzione fantascientifica in Italia. Il commento alla traduzione si prefigge infine di esplicare le scelte traduttive, avvalendosi anche delle problematiche presentate sopra.
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Robinson, Christopher. "La création onomastique dans le cycle de Earthsea d'Ursula K. Le Guin." Paris 10, 2004. http://www.theses.fr/2004PA100027.
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La fabrication des noms dans le cycle de Earthsea d'Ursula Le Guin est un processus génétique surdéterminé qui invite à la comparaison avec trois modèles familiers de la création littéraire : le bricolage, la déconstruction et la psychogenèse. Cette création onomastique se trouve au coeur de la genèse de ces romans, et il s'avère que le sujet de la genèse est une préoccupation centrale de la fantasy contemporain. En même temps, ce corpus littéraire a pris une tournure langagière qui marque l'épistèmè de toute production majeure de la littérature et des sciences humaines à l'époque actuelle. En faisant une synthèse de ces deux observations, on arrive à l'idée que l'essence linguistique de la fantasy réside dans un retournement langagier : un retour vers les origines du texte et du genre, mais aussi vers une perception ancienne ou prémoderniste du langage, semblables à celles qui se trouvent dans la pensée sauvage ou dans l'enfance, et qui mettent l'accent sur les éléments les plus concrets, voire corporels de la parole. Gardant ces idées à l'esprit, on peut constater que cette étude de la fabrication des noms chez Le Guin est matérialiste dans sa vision et sa méthodologie, et cet accent mis sur le ton et la forme, la voix et le corps, mène vers des champs d'investigation bien différents de ceux de l'onomastique littéraire traditionnelle<br>The making of names in the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin is an overdetermined genetic process that invites comparison with three familiar models of literary creation : bricolage, deconstruction and psychogenesis (jokework and dreamwork). Onomastic ceration lies at the heart of the Earthsea cycle, and the topic of genesis is in fact a central preoccupation of contemporary fantasy. At the same time, this literary corpus has taken that same linguistic turn which characterizes the épistèmè of the major part of literature and the humanities in the present age. Putting these two observations together, one arrives at the idea that, from the point of view of its language, the essence of fantasy lies in a linguistic return : a movement back to the origins of the text and the genre as a whole, and also to an ancient or premodernist perception of speech and writing similar to that found in La pensée sauvage (the savage mind) and childhood, both of which emphasize the concrete, corporal elements of language. Keeping these ideas in mind, one finds that this study of the fabrication of names in Le Guin's fantasy is materialistic in its outlook and methodology, and that the emphasis on sound and form, voice and body leads towards fields of investigation rather different from traditional literary onomastics, oftentimes exceeding the ordinary limits of interpretation
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Gleason, Benjamin P. (Benjamin Patrick). "The Rhetoric of Androgyny: Gender and Boundaries in Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277680/.
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The androgyny of the Gethenians in The Left Hand of Darkness is a vehicle for Ursula Le Guin's rhetoric concerning gender roles. Le Guin attempts to make the reader identify with an ideal form of androgyny, through which she argues that many of the problems of human existence, from rape and war to dualistic thought and sexism, are products of gender roles and would be absent in an androgynous world. The novel also links barriers of separation and Othering with masculine thought, and deconstructs these separative boundaries of opposition, while promoting connective borders which acknowledge difference without creating opposition. The novel thus criticizes gendered thought processes and social roles, because they lead to opposition and separation.
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Phillips, Rebecca S. "The emerging female hero in the fiction of Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Ursula Le Guin, and Barbara Kingsolver." Morgantown : [West Virginia University Libraries], 1998. http://157.182.199.25/etd/templates/showETD.cfm?recnum=115.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 1998.<br>Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 183 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-182).
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Hoyle, Gisela Beate. "Pushing out towards the limits, and finding the centre: the mystical vision in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002286.
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This thesis explores the major novels of science fiction and fantasy writer, Ursula K. Le Guin: it follows her journey from her first imaginary country, Orsinia, through the inner lands of Earthsea and the outer spaces of the Hainish Ekumen to her Yin utopia in a future California and an Earthsea revisited. In each of these worlds she moves towards an experience of an inner, unified truth which is comparable to the ecstatic experience of the religious mystics and that of which T.S Eliot writes in his Four Quartets. Through her reading of the Taoist sages and the discovery of their perception of Life as a constant and ongoing process rather than as a series of isolated events or states, whether mystical or mundane, these worlds and planets become symbols of a way of life instead of static objects. In her medium, narrative, this way is embodied in the story: the movement towards that moment of enlightenment, which is revealed as the heart, the life-giving centre of each world. It is the home to which each journey returns. "True voyage is return' (The Dispossessed). Owing to this perception of the immanent (w)holiness of life, of the many, different realities, she moves from a serene Taoist equilibrium to an angry feminist rejection of the masculine, dualist, Western civilisation, in which Man has largely been perceived as a creature apart; apart from nature, a guest on this planet, belonging to another world. In her anarchist and feminist utopias she seeks a new spititual home, a less alienated identity for humankind. Despite this apparent "development", at the heart of aU her books there is that same joy in this, mortal life, the search for which she sees as the most essential of aU human pursuits. That, ultimately, is both source and subject of Le Guin's work; and each new world explored is a different manifestation of the joyful Tao, a celebration of life.
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Keister, Patricia Lynn. "The Right Hand of Light: Dark and Light Imagery in the Science Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin." TopSCHOLAR®, 1993. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1754.
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Ursula K. Le Guin uses dark and light imagery to emphasize her theme of dynamic equilibrium. This theme can be found throughout her work; the novels discussed are The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, The Dispossessed, and The Beginning Place. In each novel, Le Guin focuses on a different aspect of dynamic equilibrium. The themes are respectively, gender identity, chaos and order, and the individual versus the community. The final novel, The Beginning Place, unites and sums up all three themes. In each novel, one or more main characters suffers from imbalance that reflects the theme of the novel. Throughout the course of the novel, the character learns to find balance, thus resolving the issues that Le Guin discusses.
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Boutenbat, Hanane. "Le féminin pluriel : construction de l'identité chez Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, et Daphne Marlatt." Paris 8, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA084111.
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La thèse traite de la question de la représentation féminine en jeu dans les œuvres de Joanna Russ, Ursula le Guin, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood et Daphne Marlatt. Cette thématique est élaborée à partir d'un questionnement philosophique sur le genre. Les utopies et les dystopies publiées aux Etats-Unis dans les années 1970 ont contribué à fournir de nouvelles possibilités narratives pour la représentation du féminin. Depuis les stratégies de résistance élaborées qui émanent des œuvres rendent compte d'un vaste champ de définitions conduisant à l'émergence de la notion d'un pluriel féminin. Les études des romans sont envisagées dans une perspective transdisciplinaire qui a pour but de rendre compte de leur aspect polyphonique. L'analyse de la construction de l'identité féminine repose sur l'étude d'autres domaines concernant le genre, l'identité, l'ordre symbolique, l'Histoire. La diversité structurelle et thématique observée ici constitue un domaine d'investigation privilégié et caractérisé par une densité linguistique. Cette thèse a pour objet d'analyser et de mettre en évidence les modes discursifs qui témoignent d'une vision poétique, esthétique de l' "agir" féminin. Une telle vision tend à décentrer les codes établis de manière subversive et par conséquent à en questionner la logique binaire prétendument immuable<br>This work deals with the question of the representation of feminine identity in the works of Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood and Daphne Marlatt. This topic is based on a philosophical questioning about gender. The literary utopias and dystopias published in the United States in the 1970's provided new narrative possibilities for feminine representation. Since that time, due to the strategies of resistance elaborated in the texts, a wide scope of definitions of the feminine has emerged, thus conveying the notion of a "plural feminine". The narratives are analyzed from a theoretical and cross-disciplinary perspective which enhances its polyphonic aspect. The analysis of the construction of feminine identity stems from other related questions linked to gender, identity, symbolic order, and History. The thematic and structural diversity observed here constitute a field of investigation characterized by symbolically dense language. This thesis analyses and emphasizes discursive modes which testify to a poetic, aesthetic and ethical vision of the feminine "will to act". Such a vision intends to subversively decenter established codes and consequently to question a supposedly immutable binary logic
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Dauphin, Matthew J. "No Good Utopia: Desiring Ambiguity in The Dispossessed." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1300740583.
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Ersoy, Gozde. "Trajectories, thresholds, transformations : coming of age in classic modern fantasy fiction." Thesis, Brunel University, 2016. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13606.
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This thesis examines and explores the process of coming of age in successful fantasy fiction series, including J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel and its prequel The Hobbit, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. In particular, it is suggested that the huge popularity of fantasy stems from the fact that it provides a representation of human agency significantly at odds with the everyday experience of an increasingly bureaucratized and financially-determined world. Analysis shows how fantasy texts provide a universal model that help younger readers to understand the process of maturity as individuation and entry into the intersubjective social world. The central protagonists of such texts have to learn to master concepts such as seeing oneself in the other through intersubjective dialogues, objectifying one’s self in the world, and coping with their own battles, in the process of finding their way to maturity. This fictional “quest” or “journey” provides a model for readers to assess their own realities and actions, which in turn has the effect of changing their understanding and enabling them to critique their own lives. It is demonstrated how these classic and widely translated works of fantastic literature, which reach a huge crossover readership, may be understood in terms of parallel transformational stages such as confusion, inattentional blindness, fear, courage and various attempts of learning the need for moderation. Overall, this analysis, comprising the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, anthropology, education, behavioural economics, sociology, media, and history, explores the processes of transformation and maturation within fantasy literature. At the same time, the case for fantasy literature’s uniqueness in its capacity to reveal the mechanisms of human agency is substantiated within a theoretical framework.
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Tapia, Silva Janice. "Hablar con la voz del Alien: un análisis de La mano izquierda de la oscuridad de Ursula K. Le Guin." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2014. http://www.repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/130251.
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Akcesme, Ifakat Banu. "Comparative Discourse Analyses Of Gender Constructions In The Novels Of Robert Heinlein, Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ And Samuel Delany." Phd thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612223/index.pdf.
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This dissertation examines the gendered discourses in the novels of the writers of different sexes/genders, Robert Heinlein&rsquo<br>s Stranger in a Strange Land, Ursula Le Guin&rsquo<br>s The Left Hand of Darkness, Joanna Russ&rsquo<br>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&rsquo<br>s performativity theory of gender and Foucault&rsquo<br>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&rsquo<br>linguistic choices for the constructions and descriptions of their characters are not ideologically or politically innocent but imbued with socio-cultural and ideological meanings.
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Andersson, Ellen. "Gender and Sexuality on Gethen : A Contemporary Analysis of Ursula K le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur (from 2013), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-78933.
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Ursula K Le Guin wrote The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) because she wanted to explore the limitations of gender and sexuality in a way that reflected the ongoing epistemic changes in her society. She created the Gethenians, an ambisexual, androgynous species that live most of their life without an assigned sex, making their entire society lack the concept of gender. Le Guin writes in her essay “Is Gender Necessary? Redux” (1988) that she wanted to erase gender to find out what was left. This essay will examine how the themes of gender and sexuality are explored in the Left Hand of Darkness, questioning if gender was actually erased. It is Le Guin’s linguistic choices and assumption that androgyny is masculine that assigns male gender to the Gethenians, without them having a biological sex. This renders the female experience invisible, creating a severe imbalance between the male and female part of them. However, by using Genly Ai - one of the main narrators, a male character from Terra (Earth) - gender is still presented as something fluid and non-binary, even though the Gethenians are generally perceived as more masculine. Sexuality, on the other hand, is more fluid and open, presenting a completely different idea than the norm present in the world of the reader. On Gethen, sexuality is celebrated when it is controlled and separate from everyday life, contrary to the celebration of a constant, masculine and aggressive view on sex. In conclusion, The Left Hand of Darkness presents the reader with a safe and comfortable version of androgyny, ultimately leaving many readers wanting more from the thought experiment.<br>Ursula K Le Guin skrev Mörkrets Vänstra Hand (1969) eftersom hon ville undersöka de begräsningar som är associerade med kön och sexualitet på ett sätt som reflekterade de pågående epistemiska förändringarna i samhället. Hon skapade folket Gethenians, en ras av människor som är androgyna och ambisexuella vilket gör att de lever majoriteten av sina liv utan kön i ett samhälle där konceptet genus inte existerar. Le Guin skriver i sin uppsats ”Is Gender Necesarry? Redux” (1988) att hon ville radera genus för att ta reda på vad som finns kvar. Denna uppsats kommer att utforska hur två teman, genus och sexualitet, hanteras i Mörkrets Vänstra Hand, samt ifrågasätta huruvida genus faktiskt blev raderat. Det är, i slutändan, Le Guins lingvistiska val och antagande att androgynitet är maskulint som ger Gethenierna ett manligt genus, även om de saknar ett fysiskt kön. Detta gör att den kvinnliga upplevelsen blir helt osynlig och skapar en tydlig obalans mellan den feminina och den maskulina sidan av dessa varelser. Dock, genom användningen av Genly Ai - en av berättarna, en manlig karaktär från Terra (Jorden) - så presenteras kön fortfarande som någonting icke-binärt och diffust. Sexualitet å andra sidan, presenteras som mer öppet och naturligt i jämförelse med normerna som existerar i läsarens värld. På Gethen är sexualitet firat när den är kontrollerad och en separat del av livet, i motsats till normen som firar en konstant, maskulin och aggressiv version av sex. Sammanfattningsvis presenterar Mörkrets Vänstra Hand läsaren med en trygg och bekväm version av androgynitet, vilket gör att många läsare vill få ut mer av/känner att något saknas i tankeexperimentet.
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Kron, Ida. "Kulturkrock i Övärldens farvatten : En analys av orientalistiska föreställningar i fantasylitteratur." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-412843.
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Syftet med uppsatsen är att belysa hur olika grupper framställs och förhåller sig till varandra vid kulturmöten på grundval av deras etnicitet i en skönlitterär fantasyserie och hur detta kan bidra till att upprätthålla eller problematisera koloniala maktrelationer som den västerländska kulturella normen. I denna studie analyseras fantasybokserien The Earthsea Cycle och de grupper som befolkar dess fiktiva värld: det hardiska och det kargiska folket. Med hjälp av bland annat begreppet den Andre, som syftar till att beskriva de som avviker från den egna gemenskapen, ämnar studien uppmärksamma vad som explicit förmedlas genom exempelvis karaktärsbeskrivningar och händelseförlopp samt synliggöra mer implicita mönster och strukturer i bokseriens framställning av de olika grupperna. Studiens resultat visar att relationen mellan de olika grupper i The Earthsea Cycle till stor del präglas av en dikotomi. Grupperna definieras i förhållande till varandra och framstår således som motpoler. Genom synen på den Andre och de egenskaper som tillskrivs respektive grupp är det möjligt att likna de fiktiva grupperna vid motsatsförhållandet mellan Occidenten och Orienten. Detta förhållande utmärks således även av en hierarkisk struktur till följd av att det orientaliskt kodade folket över lag attribueras vad som framstår som sämre egenskaper som outvecklat, våldsamt och irrationellt, i enlighet med redan befintliga stereotypa föreställningar. Detta folk underordnas följaktligen en kultur som tillskrivs en västerländskt kodad karaktär, vilken innefattar karaktärsdrag som fredlig, förnuftig och progressiv.
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Elfstrom, Ellen Irene. "Debate, social criticism and rhetoric in The Left Hand of Darkness: An analysis of strategy." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/841.
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Crawford, Amy S. "Re-charting the present : feminist revision of canonical narratives by contemporary women writers." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2015. http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/582051/.
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In this thesis, I explore the textual strategy of feminist revision employed by contemporary women writers. After investigating Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea as a prototype of feminist revision, I focus specifically on Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” as a revision of Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard,” Michèle Roberts’s The Book of Mrs Noah as a revision of the Old Testament Flood narrative, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad as a revision of Homer’s Odyssey and the Troy narratives, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lavinia as a revision of Vergil’s Aeneid. Through investigating the historical and literary contexts of each revisioned text, I identify the critical focus of the revision and analyse the textual effect produced by the revision. In each case, the feminist revision exposes the underlying ideological assumptions of the source text. By rewriting the canonical narrative from an alternative perspective, each revision extends beyond the source text, altering meaning and reinterpreting key symbols for feminist ends.
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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2007. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1001/.
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Glover, Jayne Ashleigh. ""A complex and delicate web" : a comparative study of selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002241.
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This thesis examines selected speculative novels by Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. Le Guin, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy. It argues that a specifiable ecological ethic can be traced in their work – an ethic which is explored by them through the tensions between utopian and dystopian discourses. The first part of the thesis begins by theorising the concept of an ecological ethic of respect for the Other through current ecological philosophies, such as those developed by Val Plumwood. Thereafter, it contextualises the novels within the broader field of science fiction, and speculative fiction in particular, arguing that the shift from a critical utopian to a critical dystopian style evinces their changing treatment of this ecological ethic within their work. The remainder of the thesis is divided into two parts, each providing close readings of chosen novels in the light of this argument. Part Two provides a reading of Le Guin’s early Hainish novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest and The Dispossessed, followed by an examination of Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, Lessing’s The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The third, and final, part of the thesis consists of individual chapters analysing the later speculative novels of each author. Piercy’s He, She and It, Le Guin’s The Telling, and Atwood’s Oryx and Crake are all scrutinised, as are Lessing’s two recent ‘Ifrik’ novels. This thesis shows, then, that speculative fiction is able to realise through fiction many of the ideals of ecological thinkers. Furthermore, the increasing dystopianism of these novels reflects the greater urgency with which the problem of Othering needs to be addressed in the light of the present global ecological crisis.
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Bjuggfält, Makz. "Den Queera Utopin : Queerutopiska läsningar av The Left hand of Darkness och The Female Man." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-189719.
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Crawford, Karie. "Turbulent times : epic fantasy in adolescent literature /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2002. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd41.pdf.
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Peksen, Yanikoglu Seda. "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." Phd thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609454/index.pdf.
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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 é<br>criture fé<br>minine. After a thorough discussion of the roots of é<br>criture fé<br>minine, 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 é<br>criture fé<br>minine, thereby the novelists mentioned in the study follow the propositions of Hé<br>lè<br>ne Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Lucé<br>Irigaray. The argument of the study is that the use of é<br>criture fé<br>minine as portrayed with reference to the novels, can be an efficient way in deconstructing the patriarchal system of language. Literature has a significant influence on social life, however women cannot make themselves heard using the language of patriarchy. Therefore an alternative such as é<br>criture fé<br>minine is essential. This study shows how this alternative can be practiced in various ways and it also creates the opportunity to consider the possibilities of alternative lives if this kind of thinking is widespread.
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Spallino, Jamie. "“It’s Queer that Daylight’s not Enough”: Interdependence Counters Othering in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness." Wittenberg University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wuhonors1624014925027157.
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Ismail, Farah. "'The shifting perils of the strange and the familiar ' : representations of the Orient in children's fantasy literature." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/31214.
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This thesis investigates the function of representations of the Orient in fantasy literature for children with a focus on The Chronicles of Narnia as exemplifying its most problematic manifestation. According to Edward Said (2003:1-2), the Orient is one of Europe’s ‘deepest and most recurring images of the Other… [which]…has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience.’ However, values are grouped around otherness in fantasy literature as in no other genre, facilitating what J.R.R. Tolkien (2001:58) identifies as Recovery, the ‘regaining of a clear view… [in order that] the things seen clearly may be freed from the drab blur of triteness or familiarity.’ In Chapter One, it is argued that this gives the way the genre deals with spaces and identities characterized as Oriental, which in Western stories are themselves vested with qualities of strangeness, a peculiar significance. Specifically, new ways of perceiving the function of representations of the Other are explored in the genre of fantasy.
Edward Said’s concept of imaginative geographies is then introduced and the significance of this concept in light of the fictional spaces of fantasy is explored. Next, fantasy’s links to representations of the Orient in Romance literature are explained, and the way in which these representations are determined by the heritage of Orientalist discourse is examined. Finally, the issue of children’s literature as colonial space and the implications of this in a fantasy framework are discussed.
Chapter Two begins by introducing C.S. Lewis and explaining the ideology at work in The Chronicles of Narnia. The order in which The Chronicles should be approached is then established, and the construction of identity in the first three of The Chronicles is examined. Chapter Three focuses on The Horse and His Boy, the book in which the pseudo-Oriental space of Calormen most prominently figures. Chapter Four is devoted to the last two books of The Chronicles with emphasis on the role played by the Other in the destruction of Narnia in The Last Battle.
In Chapter Five, I sum up the essential problems of representing the Orient as illustrated by my study of The Chronicles of Narnia. Representations of the Orient in The Chronicles are compared with pseudo-Oriental constructions in Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones, Emperor Mage and The Woman Who Rides Like A Man by Tamora Pierce and both Voices and The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin. The similarities and differences evident in the representations of the Orient in all these works are traced and the implications of them are explored. Le Guin in particular is noted as an author who demonstrates some ways to break free of Orientalist paradigms of identity.<br>Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.<br>English<br>Unrestricted
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Lindquist, Rowena Cory. "The T'En Exiles : an exploration of discrimination and persecution in High Fantasy novels." Queensland University of Technology, 2007. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16699/.
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High Fantasy is extremely popular, with publication and sales of High Fantasy titles outnumbering Science Fiction for thirty years, yet Fantasy is less respected by reviewers of the Speculative Fiction genre. One reason for this is that High Fantasy often fails to adequately address culturally or politically significant issues. Respected Science Fiction writers, such as Octavia Butler, on the other hand, use the issues such as discrimination and persecution on the basis of race and gender. In my exegesis I explore the ways in which High Fantasy has explored the problems of discrimination and persecution. In my novel, The T'En Exiles, I create a world populated by differently abled races. The ' ordinary ' people resent and fear the gifted people, who are less numerous and marginalised. Among the gifted there are those who are aware of mystical powers and those who can manipulate them; because of this a strict hierarchy has evolved. There is also a divide between the genders because the power of the females is expressed differently to that of the males. In The T'En Exiles I use the device of cognitive estrangement, a technique common in both Fantasy and Science Fiction, to examine discrimination and persecution. In particular in terms of how it affects individuals. In the exegesis I examine the ways in which issues of discrimination and persecution are dealt with in contemporary High Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the ways in which a more comprehensive and sensitive treatment of these issues in High Fantasy can address some concerns about the marginalisation of the sub-genre.
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Sandberg, Tommy. "Kuvad och jämlik på planeten Vinter : Le Guins feministiska science fiction-roman The Left Hand of Darkness ur Foucaults maktperspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Litteraturvetenskap, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-10631.
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Studien är en applicering av Foucaults Övervakning och straff på science fiction-romanen The Left Hand of Darkness av Le Guin. Fokus låg på hur makten drabbar huvudkaraktärerna; syftet var att notera hur de gör motstånd mot maktutövningen och att ta fasta på alternativa maktrelationer som kan influera verkligt politiskt arbete mot en bättre, mer jämlik värld. Att använda Foucaults idéer på liknande sätt är vanligt. Analysen består av sex sekvenser som utspelar sig på planeten Vinter i The Left Hand of Darkness. Landsförvisningar för att återupprätta härskarens makt, både avsaknaden och upprättandet av framstegsmyt och en etik som förespråkar jämlikhet utmärkte monarkin Karhide; kuvade kroppar i disciplinens förtecken och en makt som är sammantvinnad med vetandet kännetecknade byråkratin Orgoreyn. Slutsats: Det är nödvändigt att uppoffra sig för att få till stånd förändringar. Den politiske visionären kan dessutom ha användning för en särskild etik, en mindre aggressiv framstegsmyt och horisontellt samarbete.
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Bergue, Viviane. "La quête : mythe central de la fantasy." Thesis, Toulouse 2, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013TOU20045.
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La Fantasy est aujourd’hui l’un des genres majeurs des littératures de l’Imaginaire et l’un des plus prolifiques. Revendiquant le statut de littérature mythique de notre époque, elle puise ostensiblement son inspiration dans les récits mythologiques et les contes tout en organisant la majorité de ses récits autour d’une quête centrale. Celle-ci, parce qu’elle ne cesse de ressurgir dans les espaces-temps de la Fantasy, parce qu’elle implique toujours des êtres surnaturels mythiques associés aux commencements du monde, à l’instar des Elfes, et parce que, racontée au passé, elle devient objet d’un récit renvoyant à un passé disparu, fonctionne comme un véritable mythe du genre.Le présent ouvrage vise à étudier plus avant ce mythe questuel de la Fantasy afin d’en dégager les constantes et de mettre à jour les thématiques privilégiées par le genre. À travers l’analyse comparative du «Seigneur des Anneaux» et du «Silmarillion» de J.R.R. Tolkien, du cycle de «Terremer» d’Ursula K. Le Guin et du roman «La Glace et la Nuit. Opus un – Nigredo» de Léa Silhol, l’étude replace le mythe questuel de la Fantasy dans l’histoire littéraire et souligne, sous sa gangue faussement archaïque, la modernité du genre et sa pertinence comme discours sur la condition humaine<br>Fantasy is now one of the major literary genres of imaginative fiction and one of the most prolific. Claiming to be the mythic literature of our time, it is mainly inspired by mythological narratives and fairy-tales, and it often organises its stories around a central quest. Since that quest constantly reappears in Fantasy space-times, often implies mythic supernatural beings, such as Elves, and becomes the object of a tale about a lost past, it functions as a genuine myth inside the genre.The present study intents to analyse the Fantasy quest myth in order to highlight its main aspects, and, through them, the favourite themes of Fantasy fiction. Through the comparative analysis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s «The Lord of the Rings» and «The Silmarillion», Ursula K. Le Guin’s «Earthsea Series» and Léa Silhol’s «La Glace et la Nuit. Opus un – Nigredo», the Fantasy quest myth is replaced in the literary history. Besides the analysis shows that, despite its apparent archaic aspects, Fantasy fiction is a modern genre and a relevant discourse about human condition
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Crawford, Karie Eliza. "Turbulent Times: Epic Fantasy in Adolescent Literature." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2002. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/84.
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This thesis is a development of the theories presented by Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Bruno Bettelheim concerning archetypes, the anima/animus concept, the Hero Cycle, and identity development through fairy tales. I argue that there are vital rites of passage missing in Anglo-Saxon culture, and while bibliotherapy cannot replace them, it can help adolescents synthesize their experiences. The theories of Jung, Campbell, and Bettelheim demonstrate this concept by defining segments of the story and how they apply to the reader. Because of the applicability, readers, despite their age, can use the examples in the book to help reconcile their own experiences and understand life as it relates to them. The works I examine include J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy, and David Eddings' Belgariad. Though it is impossible to test the effects of reading such works on readers, the possibility of those effects exists. Bettelheim's work, The Uses of Enchantment, discusses similar themes and he provides scientific support through his use of anecdotal evidence. Following his example, I have tried to include evidence from my own life that exemplifies the effect reading epic fantasy has had on me.
The aspects of epic fantasy in relation to going through adolescence I examine include the concept of responsibility and its relation to progress and maturity; gaining a social identity; and reconciling oneself to the dark side within and without, in society. These aspects are found within the superstructure of the Hero Cycle and the actions and motivations of the characters—archetypes—within the cycle. They are also present in real life and necessary concepts to understand to be accepted into society as a mature contributor.
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Sheckler, Catherine. "Dancing on the Edge of the Word : Ursula K. Le Guin and Metaphor." Thèse, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/21712.
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"Writing the World: Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood’s Literary Contributions to Ecofeminism." TopSCHOLAR, 2007. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/114.
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Byrne, D. C. (Deirdre C. ). "Selves and others : the politics of difference in the writings of Ursula Kroeber le Guin." Thesis, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/16246.
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Selves and Others: The Politics of Difference in the Writings of Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
has two founding premises. One is that Le Guin's writing addresses the political issues of the late
twentieth century in a number of ways, even although speculative fiction is not generally
considered a political genre. Questions of self and O/other, which shape political (that is, powerinflected)
responses to difference, infuse Le Guin's writing. My thesis sets out to investigate the
mechanisms of representation by which these concerns are realized.
My chapters reflect aspects of the relationship between self and O/other as I perceive it
in Le Guin's work. Thus my first chapter deals with the representations of imperialism and
colonialism in five novels, three of which were written near the beginning of her literary career.
My second chapter considers Le Guin's best-known novels, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
and The Dispossessed (1974), in the context of the alienation from American society recorded
by thinkers in the 1960s. In my third chapter, the emphasis shifts to intrapsychic questions and
splits, as I explore themes of sexuality and identity in Le Guin's novels for and about adolescents.
I move to more public matters in my fourth and fifth chapters, which deal, respectively, with the
politicized interface between public and private histories and with disempowerment. In my final
chapter, I explore the representation of difference and politics in Le Guin's intricate but critically
neglected poetry.
My second founding premise is that traditional modes of literary criticism, which aim to
arrive at comprehensive and final interpretations, are not appropriate for Le Guin's mode of writing, which consistently refuses to locate meaning definitely. My thesis seeks and explores
aporias in the meaning-making process; it is concerned with asking productive questions, rather
than with final answers. I have, consequently, adopted a sceptical approach to the process of
interpretation, preferring to foreground the provisional and partial status of all interpretations.
I have found that postmodern and poststructuralist literary theory, which focuses on textual gaps
and discontinuities, has served me better than more traditional ways of reading<br>English Studies<br>D. Litt. et Phil. (English)
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Hynes, Catherine. ""Does Not Fempute": A Critique Of Liberal And Radical Feminism In Three Novels By Ursula K. Le Guin." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10222/35455.
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Ursula K. Le Guin is often called a feminist science fiction author. Drawing on such theorists as bell hooks and R. W. Connell, I analyze three novels by Le Guin from a social constructivist feminist perspective. I discuss The Dispossessed as it relates to gender and the family in utopian writing, The Lathe of Heaven with respect to gender and race, and Lavinia and gender within the context of the overall trajectory of Le Guin’s writing. I conclude that these novels depict gender in ways that often essentialize identity, whether the novels’ presentations of gender align with liberal or radical feminist ideas, and sometimes represent characters more conservatively than the label “feminist author” might imply. I propose that Le Guin’s status as a feminist writer requires more specific qualification that accounts for the variety of beliefs in existence in contemporary feminist discourse.
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Vale, Cláudia Patrícia Oliveira Matias do. ""Atingir a Maioridade em Karhide" e "Amor Não-Escolhido" - Traduzir os mundos de Ursula Le Guin." Dissertação, 2014. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/77197.
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Vale, Cláudia Patrícia Oliveira Matias do. ""Atingir a Maioridade em Karhide" e "Amor Não-Escolhido" - Traduzir os mundos de Ursula Le Guin." Master's thesis, 2014. https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/77197.
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Hsu, yunshuan, and 許芸瑄. "A Research on the way of talent by Ursula K. Le Guin — The Annals of the Western Shore." Thesis, 2018. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62ph6a.
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碩士<br>國立臺東大學<br>進修部兒文所碩士班(台北夜間)<br>106<br>Mentioned in the book The Annals of the Western Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin, the talents are not only known as innate abilities or gifts from the nature, but also the hidden theme that focus on “ who am I, where am I going ” in the way of fantasy. The thesis is mainly discussing the characters in The Annals of the Western Shore about the meaning and their spirits of pursuing talents by analysing the structure of the story, finding out the designed elements and changes during the developing process of talent. The first chapter is the introduction indicating research background ,research motive, research topics, research methods, study area and the limits. The literature not only analyses the differences between The Annals of the Western Shore and two other chapters in The Earthsea Cycle, which is The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, but gathers the definitions of Fantasy literature to figure out the meaning and possibilities of talent with parenting manual as a reference and to organize as the background of research.
Discussions in chapter 2 The Beginning of Talent focus on the talent and the following development of the four main characters which are Orrec Caspro, Gry Barre, Memer Galva and Gavir Aytana Sidoy after observing the developing process of their personalities through conquering the trials from reality. In Chapter 3 The Way of Talent discuss the relationship between the characters and themselves in the process of pursuing their talent by examining the structure and creation method of the story and the hidden viewpoints behind each characters. In Chapter 4 The Mirror of Talent discuss about the response to their talents and to the life afterwards. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. After a series of analysis about the main characters, the conclusion emphasized the necessity to build the awareness of pursuing our own talent and to begin the journey for ourselves.
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"Science Fiction is Good for You Too: A Reply to Martha Nussbaum's Theory of Literary Engagement." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-03-2012.
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In this study I examine the arguments made by Martha Nussbaum in Poetic Justice in defence of a positive role for literary engagement in the process of moral and political judgement formation. Nussbaum argues that novel reading offers a unique chance to engage our empathy in morally beneficial ways, because it stands as a kind of practice run for appropriate moral judgement through the adoption of an emotionally engaged yet critically distant “Judicious Spectator” stance when reading. I examine her account of the activity and purported benefits of reading and argue that her use of the Judicious Spectator concept is incompatible with her claims about the structure of novels and the experience of reading. I suggest examining an alternative set of fictions, namely the genre of science fiction and in particular Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Left Hand of Darkness as a means to assess whether Nussbaum’s account plausibly captures the moral value of reading fiction. I argue that even a charitable reading of Nussbaum’s Judicious Spectator concept cannot explain the central thought experiment at the heart of Le Guin’s novel, as it invites readers to contemplate a re-evaluation of their own self-identities or foundational assumptions, allowing them to abandon beliefs and understandings that have perhaps unwittingly coloured their previous moral reasoning without undergoing the scrutiny of justificatory rigour. This resulting type of re-evaluation is, I argue, primarily self-reflective in nature and not externally directed to programmatic outcomes like the possible interpretations of the novel available to Nussbaum. This good, which I label ‘appropriate doubt’, is defended as a general feature of certain kinds of novel reading, and as worthy of moral attention. I conclude that this shows Nussbaum’s account of engagement with fiction to be at best, incomplete.
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Prata, Ricardo. "The word for world is forest : Ursula K. Le Guin e a tradição da literatura americana sobre a natureza." Doctoral thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/2413.
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Tese de Doutoramento em Literatura na especialidade de Literatura Americana apresentada à Universidade Aberta<br>O nosso projecto ambiciona mostrar as formas através das quais a ficção de Ursula K. Le Guin pode ser usada num estudo sobre o modo como a literatura reflecte os relacionamentos, em constante mutação, entre a cultura e o cosmos, pondo a influência do seu trabalho a par com a de outros autores de literatura sobre a natureza contemporâneos. Escolhemos esta autora pelo facto de a sua vasta obra (tem dezenas de títulos publicados e traduzidos em várias línguas, desde 1961 até 2004) ser ainda pouco divulgada e estudada em Portugal, por um lado. Por outro lado, norteámos a nossa investigação utilizando o tema da natureza como fio condutor, uma vez que aquele se assume como um elemento constituinte essencial da identidade americana e da obra da autora.
A literatura sobre esta temática constitui um campo que abrange tópicos variados. Para os nossos intentos, optámos por analisar três que consideramos primordiais: os relacionamentos entre nomeação, posse e essência; as tentativas de encurtar a distância entre o Eu e o Outro, sem cooptar o Outro; e a necessidade de solidão de modo a experimentar e entender plenamente a relação com a natureza.
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Barrett, Mary Sarah. "Confrontations with the Anima in The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin." Diss., 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1651.
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This dissertation analyses the protagonists in The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin, and looks at the extent to which they confront the Jungian archetype of the anima. I demonstrate that individuation and wisdom are not achieved in these characters until they confront the anima archetype within their individual psyches. I analyse the experiences and behaviour of each protagonist in order to identify anima confrontation (or lack thereof), and I seek to prove that such confrontation precipitates maturity and wisdom, which are goals of the hero's journey. The essential qualities of the anima archetype are wisdom, beauty and love. These qualities require acceptance of vulnerability. I argue that the protagonist is far from anima integration when he displays hatred and fear of vulnerability, and conclude that each protagonist is integrated with the anima when wisdom, beauty and love are evident in his character.<br>English Studies<br>M.A. (English)
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"Dreams, Power, and Community: An Analysis of Balance in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest and The Lathe of Heaven." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2014-09-1745.
Full textAbstract:
Throughout her work as a novelist, Ursula K. Le Guin revisits the theme of balance. In The Word for World is Forest and The Lathe of Heaven, she brings dreaming into contact with balance as a force that either supports and facilitates a state of equilibrium or undermines and impedes it. The indigenous Athsheans of Word for World achieve psychological and physical balance by participating in a communal dreaming process in which they enter the lucid dream-time state that takes place between dreaming and waking. George Orr, in Lathe, however, fears his personal balance and that of the world are jeopardised by his capacity for “effective dreaming,” an ability that allows him to change “reality.” The ways in which balance is treated in the two novels provide grounds for comparison. This paper will reveal how balance is achieved through dreams for the Athsheans, while George Orr’s balance is threatened by dreams, and how community and threatening external forces play into this difference.
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""An experiment in the superorganic": empire and political evolution in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Universe." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2014-06-1389.
Full textAbstract:
ABSTRACT
Ursula K. Le Guin is an American author of novels, short stories, poems, children's books, and essays; she predominantly writes science fiction and fantasy. Le Guin first began publishing in the 1960s and continues her work today including speaking engagements in and around her home in Portland, Oregon. Her most recent publication is The Real and Unreal: Selected Stories (2 vol) from 2012.
Le Guin is particularly known for her books set in the Hainish Universe. These short stories and novels comprise what is sometimes referred to as the Hainish Cycle and discuss various themes of gender, ecology, religion, and politics. The universe is believed to be seeded from and governed principally by the world known as Hain. The Hainish global government undergoes a transformation from its original iteration as the imperial League of All Worlds into the more cosmopolitan peace-keeping Ekumen and while the publication chronology of the works and the internal chronology of the universe differ there is a notable political evolution from the League to the Ekumen.
By studying the characters of Raj Lyubov, Genly Ai, and Havzhiva from the novels The World for World is Forest (1972), The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), and Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995) this paper will examine assumed cultural understandings regarding themes of empire, imperialism, cosmopolitanism, and governance by building on the criticism of James W. Bittner and David M. Higgins. I will utilize the theoretical science fiction frameworks of Steve Shaviro and Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. in conjunction with Michael Ignatieff's theory Empire Lite to demonstrate Le Guin's capacity to continually envision new parameters for alien contact and negotiation and explain how her work in world building and character development challenges readers to question existing concepts of empire through the evolution and exhaustion of two systems of global governance.
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Le, Lievre Kerrie Anne. "The world is changing: ethics and genre development in three twentieth-century high fantasies." 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/56714.
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This thesis examines three genre high fantasy texts published between 1954 and 2001: J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings', Ursula K. Le Guin’s 'Earthsea' cycle and Patricia A. McKillip’s 'The Riddle-Master’s Game'. The emphasis is on examining how the three texts use a common set of structures to articulate a developing argument about forms of human engagement with the physical world in the face of environmental crisis. Using theories of literary ecology and narrative paradigm, I examine the common structure shared by the three high fantasies and the weight of ethical implications it carries. The texts position the transcendent impulse of the mode of tragedy, and the behaviour it generates, as the source of crisis, and posit as a solution to the problem the integrative ethic characteristic of the comedic mode. They argue that a transition between these two ethics is necessary for the continued survival of the Secondary World. This thesis examines each text’s use of narrative paradigm to articulate methods by which this ethical transition may be achieved. An argumentative trend is documented across the three fantasies through the representation of situation, problem and solution. In each text, as the Secondary World becomes more completely a closed physical system, the source of the solution to the problem caused by the transcendent presence and the achievement of ethical transition are both relocated within the control of human actors. The three fantasies express a gradual movement toward the acceptance of not only human responsibility for, but the necessity for action to remedy, the damaged state of the world. I argue that the texts’ dominant concern is with the human relationship with and to context. Indeed, I argue that the three fantasies reflect the developing understanding of the human role in not only precipitating, but responding to, environmental crisis, and may function as both a reflection of and an intervention in that crisis.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2004
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"Fractional Prefigurations : Science Fiction, Utopia, and Narrative Form." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-06-1808.
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The literary utopia is often accused of being an outmoded genre, a graveyard for failed social movements. However, utopian literature is a surprisingly resilient genre, evolving from the static, descriptive anatomies of the Renaissance utopias to the novelized utopian romances of the late nineteenth century and the self-reflexive critical utopias of the 1970s. The literary utopia adapts to the needs of the moment: what form(s) best represent the fears and desires of our current historical period?
In this dissertation I perform a close reading of three exemplary texts: John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar (1968), Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home (1985), and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004). While I address topics specific to each text, my main focus is on the texts’ depictions of utopia and their spatialized narrative forms. In Stand on Zanzibar Brunner locates the utopian impulse in three registers—the political/bureaucratic, the technical/scientific, and the human(e)—and explores how their interplay constitutes the utopian space. In Always Coming Home Le Guin renovates the classical literary utopia, problematizing its uncritical advocacy of the “Judaeo-Christian-Rationalist-West” but preserving much of the older utopia’s form. In Cloud Atlas the networked narrative structure reflects and enables the heterogeneous, non-hierarchical, and processual utopian communities depicted in the novel.
In these science fictional works the spatialized techniques of juxtaposition, discontinuity, and collage —commonly associated with a loss of historical depth and difference—are used to create utopian spaces founded on contingency and human choice. I contend that science fiction is a historical genre, one that is invested in representing societies as contingent historical totalities. Science fiction’s generic tendencies modify the context that a spatialized narrative form functions in, and in changing the context changes its effects. By utilizing a spatialized narrative form to embody a contingent practice, Brunner, Le Guin, and Mitchell cast the future—and the present—as historical, as something that can be acted upon and changed: they have provided us with strategies for envisioning better futures and, potentially, for mobilizing our visions of the future for positive change in the present.
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Donaldson, Eileen. "A chronology of her own : the treatment of time in selected works of second wave feminist speculative fiction." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28698.
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Prior to the 1960s and 1970s most studies of time undertaken in the West treated it as an objective phenomenon, devoid of ideological inscriptions. Second Wave feminists challenged this view, arguing that time is not neutral but one of the mechanisms used by patriarchal cultures to subjugate women. The argument was that temporal modes, like everything else in patriarchal reality, had been gendered. Linear time was masculine because it was associated with the male-dominated public domain in which science, commerce and production took place. The natural world, mysticism, the private domain, domesticity and women were relegated to a cyclical temporality that was gendered feminine. In her paper “Women’s Time” Julia Kristeva suggests that three generations of feminism can be identified according to the attitude each takes to time. I use her hypothesis as a framework in order to examine the positions regarding time taken up by various feminist groups during the Second Wave. I identify liberal and socialist feminisms with Kristeva’s first generation because they criticised the fact that women had been left out of linear time and the public domain and demanded that women be reinserted into linear time. I argue that Kristeva’s second generation is represented by cultural feminists of the Second Wave who recognised an alternative women’s time and suggested that women celebrate their connection with it, defying the authority of patrilinear time to dismiss “women’s experiences”. I then propose that the perspective of Kristeva’s third generation may be identified in the work of six authors of feminist speculative fiction who were writing during the Second Wave; this perspective entails a synthesis of the two previous opposing viewpoints. This can be identified in these novels because the female protagonists are first empowered through their access to an alternative (“feminine”) temporal space that subverts the authority of patriarchal culture embedded in linear time and then they move back into patrilinear time, claiming active roles and challenging patriarchal ideology. In this thesis I thus focus on the feminist examination of time during the Second Wave and consider how it was reflected in selected works of feminist speculative fiction written at the time. The authors discussed are Octavia Butler, Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ, Ursula Le Guin, Tanith Lee and Sheri Tepper.<br>Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2012.<br>English<br>unrestricted