Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture

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dc.contributor.advisorDriver, Dorothyen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBarsby, Tinaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-06-27T07:44:03Z
dc.date.available2016-06-27T07:44:03Z
dc.date.issued1988en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: pages 102-112.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation locates Olive Schreiner as a nineteenth-century colonial woman writer who challenges the traditional association of men with culture, and women with nature. In Schreiner's writing the oppression of women is situated within an understanding of the social construction of "woman" as closer to nature than man. Through the lives of her central female characters, Schreiner shows how this definition of "woman" works to position women as "other" to culture, both preventing their access to public power and marginalising their fully social activities within culture. Schreiner attempts to displace definitions of culture constituted through a system of binary oppositions which inevitably privilege masculinity as opposed to femininity by redefining culture in three distinct ways. The patriarchal conception culture as the sole preserve of men is rejected in Schreiner's demands for women's educational and legal equality, and for their right to economic independence. Conventional notions of culture are equally refused in Schreiner's stress on women's traditional domestic labour as essential to the very emergence and continuation of culture. Finally, the deconstruction of sexual difference as a fixed immutable category within Schreiner's writing exposes the definition of "woman" as socially constructed and legitimated. The contradictions and tensions within and between these demands illustrate the limits of Schreiner's feminist and socialist politics, and point to how her writing both challenges and articulates aspects of dominant nineteenth-century ideology. At the same time, such contradictions were vitally important in motivating Schreiner's on-going attempt to change radically the position of women within culture. Moreover, the co-existence of apparently conflicting demands within Schreiner's redefinition of culture suggests the terms of a resolution of the perennial problem within feminist discourse around competing claims for women's equality or for a recognition of their difference.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationBarsby, T. (1988). <i>Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20138en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationBarsby, Tina. <i>"Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20138en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBarsby, T. 1988. Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Barsby, Tina AB - This dissertation locates Olive Schreiner as a nineteenth-century colonial woman writer who challenges the traditional association of men with culture, and women with nature. In Schreiner's writing the oppression of women is situated within an understanding of the social construction of "woman" as closer to nature than man. Through the lives of her central female characters, Schreiner shows how this definition of "woman" works to position women as "other" to culture, both preventing their access to public power and marginalising their fully social activities within culture. Schreiner attempts to displace definitions of culture constituted through a system of binary oppositions which inevitably privilege masculinity as opposed to femininity by redefining culture in three distinct ways. The patriarchal conception culture as the sole preserve of men is rejected in Schreiner's demands for women's educational and legal equality, and for their right to economic independence. Conventional notions of culture are equally refused in Schreiner's stress on women's traditional domestic labour as essential to the very emergence and continuation of culture. Finally, the deconstruction of sexual difference as a fixed immutable category within Schreiner's writing exposes the definition of "woman" as socially constructed and legitimated. The contradictions and tensions within and between these demands illustrate the limits of Schreiner's feminist and socialist politics, and point to how her writing both challenges and articulates aspects of dominant nineteenth-century ideology. At the same time, such contradictions were vitally important in motivating Schreiner's on-going attempt to change radically the position of women within culture. Moreover, the co-existence of apparently conflicting demands within Schreiner's redefinition of culture suggests the terms of a resolution of the perennial problem within feminist discourse around competing claims for women's equality or for a recognition of their difference. DA - 1988 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1988 T1 - Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture TI - Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20138 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/20138
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationBarsby T. Olive Schreiner : women, nature, culture. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 1988 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20138en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherFeminism and literatureen_ZA
dc.subject.otherLiterary Studiesen_ZA
dc.titleOlive Schreiner : women, nature, cultureen_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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