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Robin O. Warren. Women on Southern Stages, 1800-1865: Performance, Gender and Identity in a Golden Age of American theatre. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2016. Pp. x + 267. What principally [...]

Ploughshares is pleased to present Dantiel W. Moniz with the eighth annual Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction for her short story 'Milk Blood Heat,' which appeared in the Spring 2018 [...]

Contemporary women writers have provided a wide range of interpretations of the relationship between motherhood and female identity, drawing into their stories a range of issues related to the various experiences of motherhood. Among this rich variety, I analyse here two contemporary Italian novels: Lo spazio bianco (2008) by Valeria Parrella, and Lettera a un bambino mai nato (1975) by Oriana Fallaci. I argue that Parrella engages with the same question tackled by Fallaci thirty years earlier: can motherhood find its place in the life of an independent woman? Have thirty years opened up any possibility of negotiating a different balance? The two novels share many similarities in structure, length and theme. Both texts centre on female protagonists who are alone in their experience of pregnancy. Neither novel depicts motherhood as an unavoidable destiny for women, but as a choice. However, the change in the social, political and economic context underlying the two texts leads to radically different outcomes. In spite of the obvious differences in style and generational background, the continuity between the two works provides the opportunity for a case study of the shifts (or the lack thereof) in the relationship between motherhood and female identity in contemporary Italian society. In addition, the affinity between the two novels allows a reflection on “the corrective and conflictual nature of inter-female intertextuality” (Giorgio 2002, 13), which I analyse using the tools provided by Italian Feminist Theorists.

This volume of intervalla centres on the themes of choice and conflict, refusal and rejection, and analyses how mothers and non-mothers are perceived in Italian society. The nine essays cover a variety of genres (novel, auto-fiction, theatre) and predominantly address how these perceptions are translated into literary form, ranging from the 1940s to the early twenty-first century. They study topics such as the ambivalent feelings and difficult experiences associated with motherhood (doubt, post-natal depression, infanticide, IVF), the impact of motherhood and non-motherhood on female identity, attitudes towards childless/childfree women, the stereotype of the “good mother,” and the ways in which such stereotypes are rejected, challenged or subverted. Major Italian writers, such as Lalla Romano, Paola Masino, Oriana Fallaci, Laudomia Bonanni and Elena Ferrante, are included in these analyses, alongside contemporary “momoirs” and works by Valeria Parrella, Lisa Corva, Eleonora Mazzoni, Cristina Comencini and Grazia Verasani.

Spindle whorls are one of the most durable traces of the textile craft in the archaeological record. They can be found in copious quantities and diverse types in forts and extramural settlements on the Romano British northern frontier. The connection between spinning tools and female identity, although widely recognised and studied in the burial record, has seldom prompted in-depth observation of whorls and their characteristics, either individually or as assemblages, along the frontiers of the Empire. The following paper will explore how shape, size, decoration, and use wear marks on spindle whorls from Vindolanda and Corbridge can reveal insights into the practice of spinning. By analysing the distribution and physical properties of whorls in the north-western quadrant of Vindolanda, an attempt will also be made to connect the spinning practice to the construction and performance of female identity.

The following is an interview with five women working in the Beijing contemporary art world. This interview along with other artist profiles and reviews of exhibitions and artworks in Beijing can be viewed on the Open Ground Blog (http://www.opengroundblog.com).

This essay investigates the Iranian film ʿArus-e Ātash, directed by Khosrow Sināʾi in 1999, through the lens of gender studies. In doing so, it employs Claude Lévi-Strauss' theory of kinship and elementary structures in order to create a context for the social structure of ʿashira as the prevailing unit of society among Khuzestāni Arabs of Iran. The significance of gift exchange as the predominant form of making alliances, as well as the position of women as the nucleus of these exchanges, is further discussed to shed light on the different socialization of male and female individuals in the ʿashira. Using Lévi-Strauss' ideas in conjunction with the gender feminism of Kate Millett and Catharine A. MacKinnon, the study explores how women in primitive societies have the dual function of being the men's property on an objective level as well as the means for alliance-making on a subjective one—a sign and a value at the same time. The essay concludes that men can also be considered as the victims of the patriarchal system since it creates a cultural image of men imbued with excessive masculinity that they may not be able live up to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Basic Education College Magazine For Educational & Humanities Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An American First Lady, argues Karin Vasby Anderson, ‘influences conceptions of American womanhood’ and by ‘virtue of their husband’s elections[,] First Ladies become sites for the symbolic negotiation of female identity’. The process of negotiation in female identity appears in various forms after women assume political power, for example: Golda Meir in Israel, Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, Indira Gandhi in India and most recently, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (2010–13). While the position of First Lady is unique to American politics, the ways in which Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama each rejected a ‘suitably feminine’ image provides an important lesson for all women in power. Therefore, we argue here that this analysis of two Democratic American First Ladies and their employment or disregard of fashion informs the gender-based and race-based issues affecting women in political leadership through their choices in dress. When ‘dressing up’ both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama struggled with issues of individual identity, subjectivity and power, and negotiated their First Lady roles in their fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we seek to understand, from reading some texts of the work Metade Cara, Metade Máscara (2004), by Eliane Potiguara, what form(s) the indigenous separation in brazilian territory interfere in the constitution of these people, especially in the female identity. At the same time, we investigated characteristics of the literature of indigenous authorship, based in the author's poetics, seeing the implication of these forced migrations and yours violence of dynamics and the silencing of indigenous voice and subjectivities. Therefore, we veriefied that the identity is supported by the memory and the ancestral knowledges, besides that we realized that there are aspects of poetic-literary production that appear linked to the movement of these people, motivated by the invasions of the indigenous territories. Besides that, the literature produced by the indigenous intellectuals, as an expression of the subjectivity of the different ethnic groups, become a place of conflicts and the materialization of the indigenous voices, that become this literature an important instrument to the expression and the fortification of yours subjectivities. This is a text that, sometimes supported by the perspective of Cultural Studies, involves a qualitative and bibliographic methodology. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this analytical work is in dialogue with important theoretical and methodological concepts, recurrent in the discussions of Cultural Studies, such as diaspora, deterritorialization, transculturation, poetics of movement, according to the works of Stuart Hall, Bhabha, Ette, Ortiz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity is political rather than natural. It is always influenced by the politics of race, class, gender, religion, education, disability, and so on. This paper examines the complexity of political forces that shape female identity at the beginning of the 20th century Java and the reaction the women show in response to the circumstances where they find themselves, with reference to Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Gadis Pantai. The novel, which is based on the true story of his own grandmother, portrays the life of a practice wife of priyayi, the hereditary governing class of Java. Using interpretive analysis and close reading of the text, the study argues that feudal and patriarchal circumstances help shape female identity in the 20th century Java. Women are doubly discriminated; they find themselves subject to higher powers, i.e. the powers of the feudal lord and the male. However, throughout the novel, the author displays a brandnew female image different from the socially dominant discourses, an image that has qualities of rebellious fervor to trouble the discriminating social category of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities Researches is the property of Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Institute of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The massive entrance of Iranian women into the labour market and higher education has formed a type of women's experience of modernity in Iran, which is followed by many consequences for women who are both educated and employed. Women with traditional identities and roles, above all, were defined within the home environment and with traditional sexual roles. It was within this traditional framework that most important religious socialisation and practices of women were defined. The main subject of the present article is the consequence of women's reflexive identity on their religious and spiritual identity. For this purpose, interviews and ethnographic methods were used. The reflexive identity of Iranian women has led them to move out of traditional roles and find a combination of traditional roles (housekeeping, motherhood, and wife-hood in the traditional sense) and new roles (defined by individualism and realisation of self and reflexive identity) as a result of higher education and employment experiences. Field data indicate the shift by this group of women from traditional spirituality as the realm dominated by traditional religious institutions to modern spirituality and consequential redefinition of individual assignments and inner life accordingly. The results show that Iranian women's choice to achieve social ideals through education and employment and by following the principle to consecrate life have transformed the spiritual aspects of their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Signa is the property of Editorial UNED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)