Browsing by Subject "Female masculinity"
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Item Female Masculinity in Janny Scott’s A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother(Department of English, 2018) Ghimire, Manju DeviThis thesis entitled "Female Masculinity in Scott’s A Singular Woman" unfolds the story of Stanley Ann Dunham, the central female character who challenges the established norms and values of the society where interracial marriage is against the law. This thesis revolves around the biography of Stanley Ann Dunham, who revolts against the society by showing her bravery which is the main source of her victory over patriarchal norms and values. Stanley is attributed with masculine characteristics as she feels herself as more masculine than a feminine. Janny Scott includes Stanley’s biography in her writing because Obama has written a lot about his father who left him, but has revealed less about his mother who raised him. In this thesis, the theory of "Female Masculinity" by Judith Halberstam is applied to portray the characteristic of Stanley who is known as single working mother of two bi-racial children. Scott portrays Obama’s mother as a masculine character to encourage all the women who still believe in patriarchal norms and values of the society. Stanley is not masculine by birth but in the process of dealing with patriarchal society as a single woman she faces many obstacles in her life such as problem between family, making money and work. Based on the reviews of different critics and library-based materials, this research focuses on the dominant role of Stanley who challenges the established values and revolts against racist society.Item Female Masculinity in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters(Department of English, 2019) Ghimire, ApsharaThis thesis examines the Female Masculinity of the central female character Virmati in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters. In the novel, we see the beginnings of new women and women emancipation in the novel. Analogically, India fights for freedom from British Raj, as Virmati fights for freedom to live on her own ways. This novel moves around the protagonist Virmati who feels more comfortable behaving and looking masculine. She is attributed with masculine traits like reason, rebellion, power and potency, courage, combativeness, assertiveness and so on. She consists of a dream to live an independent and a dignified life full of happiness and bliss. She disobeys her family members ‘advice to get married and deliver children accomplishing her feminine gender roles expected by the society. Set in Lahore and Amritsar, this novel is both a romantic and critique of English society at the beginning of the twentieth century as represented the protagonist by Virmati.Item Gender Role as Performance in GhanashyamKhadka’sNirvana(Department of English, 2021) Thapa, SushmaThis research analyzes Ghanashyam Khadka’s novel Nirvana from the perspective of gender role as performance and female masculinity. It examines the social construction of power, femininity and gender roles corresponding between sex and gender identity. The characters show their performances through masculinity and challenge the conventional gender roles. The major thrust of this research is to examine how female characters have challenged the stereotypical patriarchal system where women are tagged as inferior, feminine, and fragile. In addition, it also analyzes how female characters establish their identities possessing confidence, assertiveness, and independence. Using Judith Butler’s theory of gender perform ativity where everyday action, gestures and representation, and behaviors challenge the prescriptive and proscriptive approaches of sex, sexuality, and gender. In addition,masculinity is exhibited through the perspective of Judith Halberstam’s theoretical concept of Female Masculinity, where female characters Dipti, Monica, Savita, and Aaryaa act like male characters and establish their identities.Finally the analysis proves that the novelistis against the imposition of gender roles and identities by patriarchal society. Also, this research emphasizes how a woman can perform like a man. It also suggests that masculinity is not the sole property of male. Masculinity is the social position that can be practiced in an individual way. Keywords: Gender performativity, Female Masculinity, Femininity, AgencyItem Subversion of Conventional Gender Roles in James Joyce’s Selected Stories from Dubliners(Central Departmental of English, 2019) Thapa, Mangal BahadurThe present research paper analyses how James Joyce in Selected Stories fromDublinerssubvertsconventional gender roles. It claims that Joyce’s protagonists and their actions, behaviors, attitudes and personality as a whole virtually challenge the long-standing heterosexual celebration of traditional gender roles that prevailed at the turn ofthe twentieth century Ireland. It further investigates how the ongoing political, religious and social transformations that spread across Ireland in the late nineteenth and early Twentieth contributed to break the conventional gender roles. Being a witness to the contemporary transformations, Joyce documents the breakthrough that refuted the continuity of hegemonic power distribution between males and females. The research concerns withthe liberation and empowerment of female from the limited traditional roles. The paper incorporates the theoretical insights from Gender Studies in order to historicize the gender hegemony of Ireland’s patriarchal structure. It takesJudith Halberstam’s notion ofFemale Masculinityand Judith Butler’s notion of Performativity of gender to show how Joyce’s characters, especially female characters remain non-conformist to the conventional gender roles for their new social identity. It contends that Joyce suggests the potentiality of women’s independent individuality in the face of modernity. Inthis way, the paper concludes with the finding that Joyce’s portrayal of characters, especially female Dublinersas new women destabilizesdiscursive gender stereotypes under the influence of political, religious and social transitions in Ireland during the early twentieth century. Keywords:female masculinity, male femininity, new woman, individuality, subversion of gender roles, freedomItem Subversion of Patriarchal Norms in Arthur Halley's Hotel(Department of English, 2017) Gurung, BirendraThis research analyzes Hailey’s Hotel as the defiance of social norms through the lady characters of the novel, i.e. Christine Francis, Duchess of Croydon and Marsha Prescott. What made them to live a life with constant struggles are the matters of concern in this research. Theories of feminism are taken as the methodological tool particularly the concept of Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Simon de Beauvoir, Elaine Showalter and Judith Halberstam to foreground the struggle of females and their attempt to release themselves from the clutches of patriarchal discriminatory normativities so as to live a life with independence and without any restrictions within the society and domesticity. It is Christine Francis’s female masculine attitude to live the life of her own, not designed by the patriarchy. It is her own choice to live her life in the circumstances she is living. The Duchess of Croydon dominates the male characters and often makes the decision of her own. Similarly, Marsha, despite being nearly raped by four men in the hotel, struggles a lot to protect herself and protest against the patriarchal norms. Thus, due to their valiant nature, they have lived the life of constant struggle. Their reluctant attitude to subvert the male oriented social norms and cultural values are the hallmark of the novel.