Obedient Wife Research Articles

“An obedient wife never says “no” to her virtual god.” High fertility conceptions and barriers to contraceptive use among mothers of Southern Pakistan: a qualitative study

IssueBiomedical approaches want to change locals’ behaviors without understanding the sociocultural rationales and contextualizing the cultural and structural backdrop of women’s agency.ObjectivesThis study explored the perceptions and practices of rural mothers about fertility and reproductive health and further examine the lack of preference for contraception and birth spacing in Southern Pakistan.MethodologyUsing purposive sampling we recruited 15 healthcare providers and 20 mothers from Southern Punjab. Key informants and in-depth interviews were used for data collection. We extracted themes and sub themes to analyse qualitative data.FindingsFive major themes identified preventing birth spacing and contraceptive use: (1) cultural barriers (2) economic difficulties and demographic factors; (3) gender-related hurdles; (4) spiritual and religious obstacles, and (5) medico-ethical complications. Nearly, ten sub-themes contributing to these major themes were: custom of girls’ early marriages, in-laws’ permission for contraception, women’s concern for medical complications and preference for safer methods, misuse of contraceptive methods by the medical community, mothers’ perception of contraception as sinful act and controlling birth is against faith, economic and rural-ethnic factors for high fertility, masculine disapproval of condom use, and wishing to give birth to male children.SuggestionsWe advocate for understanding the sociocultural explanations for low contraceptive use and urge practice of more natural methods of birth spacing over commercial solutions. The study suggests socio-economic development of less developed communities and empowerment of poor, illiterate, and rural women along with behavior change communication strategies.

Cultural-Feminist Tendencies in Turkish Society in the Example of Filiz Bi̇ngölçe’s Creativity

In Turkish society, feminism in themes of women’s emancipation and women’s rights began to develop more intensively in literary and artistic creativity in the second half of the 20th century and continues to varying degrees until today. In addition to literary works, sociological studies, and various forms of artistic creativity expressing feminist content, a unique example of a specific female expression appeared in a specialized dictionary of female jargon. The subject of this paper is the lexicographic and literary analysis of social contribution of the author Filiz Bingolče who devoted a significant part of her work to pointing out the position of Turkish women in a traditional society, which requires them to be humble and obedient wives and mothers, which represents a challenge for new generations of young women who are living in a time of accelerated scientific and technological developments while at the same time trying to find their place as respected individuals in society. Using the method of analyzing the selected corpus of the author’s significant work, which consists of the “Dictionary of Feminine Jargon” and “Threnody of Murdered Women”, our goal is to present to the scientific public the author’s feminist struggle and her contribution to the understanding of the intimate and hidden female being in a traditionally male environment. We can conclude that according to Turkish women, even in the modern era, the constraints of traditions cannot be easily unchained and that the battle for equal existence continues both on a wider social scale and in the individual context of women as individuals.

Two Faces of the Hindu Great Goddess

The paper presents the multifaceted identity of the Hindu goddess Mahādevī, the dynamic feminine absolute of the religious tradition Śāktism, whose philosophical foundations have shaken several assumptions of established religious and social norms. Śāktism remains an integral part of the philosophical-religious landscape of the complex totality of Hinduism, while also stretching beyond narrow religious contexts and critically examines normative patterns of patriarchal social reality. In the first chapter, the paper outlines the origins of the formation of the goddess cult, from the earliest period of Indian civilization to the Purāṇas, and then introduces the key ideas of the goddess myth in the Devīmāhātmya, where, for the first time in the spiritual history of India, a goddess is defined as the Supreme Reality, who reconciles all opposites within herself. The interpretation of the most significant segments of the goddess myth is built on the basis of an analysis of the changes in metaphysics, specifically the transition from the pre-Tantric dualistic metaphysical system to the non-dualistic one in Tantra. This is followed by an outline of the two branches of Śāktism that were formed out of the two seemingly incompatible poles of the identity of the Supreme Goddess: on the one hand, as a benevolent mother and obedient wife, and on the other as a fierce, ruthless and independent female, which is discussed in more detail in the last chapter through a case study of two goddesses, Lakṣmī and Kālī.

PATRIARCHAL, RACIAL AND SOCIAL OPPRESSION ON ADAH AND HER EMANCIPATION THROUGH EDUCATION AND WRITING IN BUCHI EMECHETA’S SECOND CLASS CITIZEN

Buchi Emecheta is a prominent Nigerian writer in African feminist literature. In Buchi Emecheta’s novel Second Class Citizen (1994), the protagonist Adah suffers from tripple oppression. Emecheta’s Second Class Citizen (1994) puts emphasis on the concerns of racism, gender, sexism, marriage, bride price, polygamy, women’s obligation to bear male children, education, financial freedom, and writing fiction, as well as class oppression. In her opinion, subalternation and oppression of African women should be put an end. Buchi Emecheta analyzes the gender, class, and race intersectionality in her novel Second Class Citizen as a representation of African female literature on the basis of patriarchy. The analysis is made from the post-colonial feminist and Afro-centric perspective; therefore, it reveals how the social and ideological constructions of gender, class, and race cause racism, classism, and sexism in society. The female character, Adah, lives in the margins both at home and in the public. Emecheta not only wants to underline the patriarchal roots of her own Igbo tribe, but also wants to be critical of the British society that lets them stay in second-class citizen conditions. Adah has to experience the feeling of being the other in Western society whereas she has to struggle with the paternal thoughts of the African culture. In her novel, Emecheta underlines the lack of educational opportunities for girls in a culture which pushes girls to grow up as obedient wives. The novel clearly illustrates the difficulties of Igbo immigrants in London, who are regarded as second-class citizens, are supposed to stay in hovels in slum districts and simultaneously cope with the problems of sexual discrimination both in the domestic sphere as well as in the public sphere. As a black woman, the main character is both trapped by her gender and race. In her post-colonial feminist depiction, Emecheta attributes tripple oppression to Adah character. With her description of the protagonist, Adah, the author shows how it was difficult to be a black woman both in Nigeria and in England. Emecheta is not only critical of the gender discrimination practices in her own country, but also wants to criticize the hostilities in England towards the black people. In accordance with Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval Davis’ ideas, this article will argue that Adah has complex relations with her state as a black woman who suffers from patriarchy, racism and class distinction. Thus, this study articulates how Adah Obi is dejected in the patriarchal discourses of Nigeria or England and how she is marginalized as a black woman, as an immigrant, as a young girl, and as a woman. Finally, Adah’s gaining self- confidence and her self affirmation will be related to Helene Cixous’ ideas about the importance of writing in women’s lives for their emancipation process.

Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience by Laura Jurgens

Reviewed by: Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience by Laura Jurgens Mary Elizabeth Anderson Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience. By Laura Jurgens. New York: Peter Lang, 2020. 161 pp. This is a thoroughly researched account of Martin Luther's views on women, arguing convincingly that the complexity of his understanding is revealed only when one considers his interactions with women alongside his writings. To provide context, the book begins with an overview of the common beliefs on the place and standing of women in early modern Europe, as well the influences of classical and medieval thought on these convictions. As the author summarizes, "They believed that women were physically weak, less intellectually capable, and less competent at controlling their emotions" (7). The author then explores Luther's commentaries referencing biblical women, particularly Eve, but also Tamar and Sarah. Mary was not considered because Jurgens questionably asserts Luther did not think Mary was "involved in this temporal life" (42). The author shows Luther's ideas were consistent with those of his time, save for some development in his discussion of Eve in the later lectures on Genesis. Even here, while the mature Luther acknowledged aspects of Eve's equality with Adam, he simultaneously maintained traditional claims of her inferiority (35). Jurgens next considers Luther's general understanding of women's nature. Again, he did not deviate from the thinking of his day, viewing women as weaker and intellectually inferior to men. Likewise, Luther's conception of the ideal woman as an obedient wife, mother, and homemaker was not unique. While these conclusions are not surprising, the author's quotations from Luther are taken from numerous writings but provide no context and no sense of a particular order, chronological, genre, or otherwise. One is left to wonder if context could have provided additional insights. Next the author investigates Luther's communication with actual women, and it is here that Jurgens finds a more complex picture. She first addresses Luther's relationships with his mother, Margarethe Luther, and his wife, Katharina von Bora. Jurgens then looks at his correspondence with two female reformers, Argula von Grumbach and Katharina Schütz Zell. In all these encounters, which we only [End Page 197] know of primarily through Luther's letters, Jurgens sees that Luther treated the women as intellectually capable and did not reprimand them for transgressing the ideal female roles. Similarly, a survey of Luther's pastoral letters reveals that his pastoral advice to women differed little from that offered to men. Jurgens concludes that Luther's actions, consequently, did not fit with his "strict theological convictions" about women (84, 110, 140). While there is no reason to argue with the author's thesis, there are some questionable assumptions within the analysis including noting that Martin Brecht's Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation, 1483–1521 does not even mention Katharina von Bora (83), whom Luther did not know until 1523. The author also asserts that Argula von Grumbach was the first to employ the printing press to support the Protestant message (92), although Luther and others clearly did this previously. The most striking, however, is the notion that if Luther's beliefs about women were consistent, his pastoral care to women would somehow be different than that to men because he considered women more emotional and less intelligent. Yet Luther's "strict theological convictions" ultimately are about the gospel and care of souls, not anthropology. A true theological evaluation must take the core of his theology under consideration. This work will prove valuable to researchers and experts with its numerous quotations from Luther's writings and frequent references to other scholarship. The price of the book and the literature review style of the writing in portions of the text, however, will make it inaccessible to others. Nonetheless, the author's conviction that Luther's actions as revealed in his correspondence should be considered alongside his treatises and biblical commentaries is significant for all. [End Page 198] Mary Elizabeth Anderson Loras College Dubuque, Iowa Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Sophia Devereux Turner and the Troubled Female Mind in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South

Sophia Devereux Turner and the Troubled Female Mind in the Late-Nineteenth-Century South Sylvia D. Hoffert (bio) Late in 1877 a distraught Josiah Turner Jr. wrote to his brother-in-law, "I am unwilling the world should know what a place of torture and torment my house has been made to my children and myself, these many years. I must find some place for Sophia other than my house. I am sure neither God [n]or Society require that I should longer tolerate and suffer; nor will I attempt to say how much agony and anguish this announcement creates." He and his wife, Sophia Devereux Turner, lived just outside Hillsborough, North Carolina, a small Orange County village on the Eno River. Sophia was addicted to morphine. Desperate to be rid of her, Josiah used emotional blackmail to induce her to seek treatment and convinced the doctors at the North Carolina Hospital for the Insane in Raleigh to admit her in 1878.1 A great deal of ink has been devoted to the subject of mental illness and its treatment in nineteenth-century America. Historians have focused on the development of insane asylums, the reform-minded male doctors who ran them, and the therapies they used to treat their patients.2 Specialists in women's history have noted the degree to which [End Page 681] social and cultural considerations, including the assumption that women's reproductive capacity predisposed them to insanity, guided male doctors in their diagnosis and treatment of female mental disorders.3 And feminist literary scholars have critiqued the post–Civil War memoirs of northern women who protested their involuntary commitment to that region's mental hospitals in an effort to bring about legal reform.4 Little attention has been paid, however, to the intellectual and emotional life of drug-addicted women diagnosed as insane who populated southern insane asylums in the late nineteenth century. One exception is John S. Hughes's edition of Andrew Moore Sheffield's letters, published in 1993. Accused of arson; known to abuse chloral hydrate, an opiate used to induce sleep; and fond of alcohol, Sheffield was committed to the Alabama Insane Hospital (eventually called Bryce Hospital) in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by her brother and father in 1890. An intelligent, socially prominent, single woman of forty-one, she was noted for refusing to conform to prevailing social conventions pertaining to women. Despite her angry and persistent pleas for release, her lobbying efforts failed, and she remained in the asylum for almost thirty years, until her death in 1920. Sheffield's letters are particularly valuable for the details they provide about conditions in insane asylums and the care that patients diagnosed as mentally ill received in the South after the Civil War.5 The case of Sophia Turner offers another perspective on life among the mad in the South. Family correspondence relating to the time she spent in the hospital provides further evidence of the willingness of laypeople and their doctors to equate drug addiction with mental illness. [End Page 682] The compellingly introspective poems that Sophia wrote during the almost three years she spent as an asylum patient provide extraordinary insight into the way that one afflicted woman dealt with the consequences of a diagnosis of insanity. The poems also allow us to enter not just the world of the asylum but also the mind of an inmate experiencing separation from her loved ones, treatment for an addiction she could not control, and life among strangers.6 Unlike the reminiscences and memoirs of former asylum patients, Sophia's poems served as a vehicle that allowed her to express feelings and emotions in the moment, raw and uncensored by the passage of time or concern about the judgment of others.7 Carefully dated, they helped her keep track of time in an environment where one day could be very much like every other. The act of writing poetry as much as any treatment prescribed by her doctors served as a balm to her troubled mind as well as a vehicle that allowed her to transcend her identity as an obedient wife, devoted mother, and dutiful housekeeper in a southern culture that...

Stereotyping ideal Woman in American blogs

Abstract: An ideal woman stereotype presents a verbalized standard of what is most desirable in a woman. A middle class housewife, who fanatically pursues her goal to be an ideal woman is designated the Stepford Wife. She is a diligent mother, a conscious citizen, an attractive woman, and an obedient wife. The study presents qualitative analysis of American blogs. Conversational tone, the author’s stance orientation, and freedom of speech approximate linguistic material to that received experimentally. Based on implicit assumptions and evaluative characteristics, psycholinguistic profile of the Stepford Wife presents attitudinal ambivalence: housewife’s positively assessed qualities come along with criticized subordination of a wife to her husband. Verbal, situational, and associative types of irony convey criticism and sneer at the Stepford Wife. The text graphic execution and illustrations used in blogs emphasize emotionally colored focal points of the utterances. Keywords: stereotype; Stepford Wife; modern media discourse; American blogs; attitudinal ambivalence; different types of irony.

АНАЛІТИЧНИЙ ОГЛЯД СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ

The article gives a brief analytical overview of modern Ukrainian literature; presents the literary career of several bright, in our opinion, artists, who represent different geographical regions of Ukraine and also different generations of writers. The author of the article made an attempt to analyze the literary works by Lina Kostenko (the first prose novel, The Notes of a Ukrainian Madman, 2011), by Yuri Andrukhovych (collection of essays “Here was buried Fantomas”, 2015), by Lys Volodymyr (novel-chronicle “Jacob’s century”, 2010 and “Solo for Solomiya”, 2013),·by Yuri Vynnychuk (novel “Tango of death”, 2012), by Irene Rozdobudko (“LSD. Lyceum of obedient wives”, 2013), by Maria Matios (novels “Hardly ever otherwise”, 2007), by Yevgeniya Kononenko (novel “Imitation”, 2001), by Jana Dubinyanska (novels “The ghosts’ wives”, 2003). Emphasis is placed on the importance of studying these works in secondary and higher educational institutions of Ukraine, as they present existential issues relevant to our time, and, what is very important, show the true history of Ukraine, hidden for decades. The works depict the realities of Ukrainian life since Austro- Hungarian times to the totalitarian regime of the USSR, in particular , the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, its consequences and reaction of the Soviet government to this tragedy, the Cold War between America and the USSR and more. The originality of life and worldview of Ukrainians in Galicia (Yu. Vynnychuk), Polissya (V. Lys), Bukovyna (M. Matios) is illustrated. The modern issues in the works of Yu. Andrukhovych and Lina Kostenko, that is, problems of education, culture (music, books, cinema, radio, television), politics and economics, universal values and temporary fashion and the need to rethink them in today’s context are revealed. Now we can state that the works of modern Ukrainian literature presented in the article reproduce the main realities of the Ukrainian society in their historical context: they try to formulate the questions correctly and encourage seeking answers for these questions. In our article, we did not claim to make a full coverage of the research topic, because we are well aware of its scale. However, choosing the subject of our study to analyze the creative work of contemporary authors, we aim at proving the need to promote the texts of contemporary Ukrainian authors among young people to involve them in discussing important issues of our time and to make them be aware of responsibility for their own destiny, their people and humanity. We hope that the literary works by the proposed authors can be of interest to a wide range of readers not only in Ukraine, but also abroad.

Anthropological Study of a Young Perm Family

The article considers the gender culture in the family, one of the most closed and local socio-cultural institutions. The relevance of this topic is determined by the anthropological turn in modern humanitarian knowledge, and the involvement of new data in scientific circulation, which is obtained as a result of the use of case-study semi-formalized techniques for interviewing respondents. Thus, on the basis of the interviews received, there are reconstructed contradictory forms of gender identity in a young married couple in Perm. The article presents the materials of the respondents’ interviews in the form of narratives consistently presenting the key stages of the relationship. Gradually, the narrative’s characters begin to construct a gender identity in a new cultural institution – their own family. There can be seen a conflict between the characters’ symbolic self-identity and their real practices. The man takes a dominant role in the beginning of the relationship. He objectifies the woman and alone decides when to start the relationship. Then the situation changes. The man’s dominant role is replaced with a passive one. The initiative goes to the woman, who repeats the man’s behavior. At the same time, it turns out that in everyday life, the respondents fill the roles of the husband and wife with special content. The wife’s role includes the mother’s behavior towards her husband, and the husband’s role includes the child’s behavior towards his wife. The family is an inverse patriarchal type of relationship. The woman has a dominant role, but identifies herself as an obedient wife.

Lou Andreas-Salomé about women

The article deals with gender issues by analyzing the views of the Russian researcher with German roots Lou Andreas-Salomé. It is noted that despite her lack of explicit participation in women’s protest movements, she actively supported the idea of gender equality. That is why Lou Andreas-Salomé so often in his work touched on the role of women in society and criticized the erroneous judgments about its insignificance based on the traditional views that the woman should only be an obedient wife, keeper of the family home and pious mother. Lou Andreas-Salomé argued that women need the possibility of finding their own way in life and the freedom to choose it. She proclaimed the innovative ideas of women’s emancipation, the right of women to control their own destiny. In the works of Lou Andreas-Salomé, the woman appears as a free and firm in her judgments personality, finding her own vocation in life. It is noted that the Russian writer gives a significant place in her works to sexuality as an important element of human life. In her opinion female sexuality is harmonious and it is expressed through sensitivity and feminine emotionality, while male sexuality is impulsive and aimed mainly at satisfying his own needs. Rejecting the view of the passive role of women in society, Lou Andréas-Salomé emphasized that women and men contribute equally to procreation. Lou Andréas-Salomé was far ahead of her time and showed through her work the importance of self-actualization and freedom for women.

Le théâtre de Madame de Maintenon: outil de soumission ou lieu d’affrontement social?

Conversations and Proverbes dramatiques are texts written by Madame de Maintenon with the thought of raising the girls at Saint-Cyr (moral and social education). Conversations resemble a role-playing game, while Proverbes dramatiques are short plays made up of only a few scenes. After a brief presentation of both works, I analyse the way the author presented womensʼ duty of submission and the role of plays in shaping obedient wives and mothers. Theatre is an effective means of communication of the author’s convictions, but dialogues presenting other views — even if only to argue against them — the varied nature of the plays and comical elements made the theatre of Madame de Maintenon a tool for teaching both submission and freedom.

Impressions of The Agonised Women in Padma Sachdev’s “Caretaker”

Regional short stories in translation have always been a pasture of research in the field of English literature. It opens a vista of information, debate and discussion on the cultural and social crisis faced by the people lying hidden in the smaller pockets of our country. Jammu region is embedded with a rich heritage of Dogri language with an idiosyncratic regional flavour of its folk-tales and short-stories. Translation of Dogri works into other languages has helped the readers in the country and across borders, to peruse the social and cultural milieu of Jammu region. This paper critically examines the Dogri short story “Caretaker” by Padma Sachdev which reveals the agony, insecurities and position of Dogra women in the male-dominated society.
 In the earlier Dogra society, women suffered at the hands of complex social‑cultural norms, rituals and patriarchal models of suppression. They were often forced into ill‑matched marriages and dohri (reciprocal marriages). Further, they were expected to become obedient wives to their husbands while their own identity got submerged under the burden of family responsibilities, catering to husband needs and rearing children. They often longed for a “home” of their own blessed with love and respect. However, the marital home failed to provide them this blessed home and the parental home became alien to them after marriage. The relationship between husband and wife seems like that of an orient and the occident as man becomes the agent of power, domination and male-centric prejudices against woman. On the other hand, woman acts as an orient who suffers from the societal prejudices for misinterpreted identity and enslavement for her social-cultural representation. As Simone de Beauvoir in her book, The Second Sex analyzes that man fundamentally tries to oppress women by characterizing them as the ‘Other’. Men impose his will on the other and women are cursed with the feelings of inwardness and suppressed voices. “[Man] attaches himself to woman –not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.” Hence, Padma Sachdev tries to echo a critical view of the patriarchal social institutions, which subjugate women’s identity for the gains of male supremacy. She also focuses on an unsaid bonding between women as they can sense the misery of each other. They may get corrupted by the feeling of insecurity at some point of time but soon they reconcile as they realise the pain of the other.

A ‘New’ Woman in Verga and Pirandello: From Page to Stage by Enza De Francisci

MLR, .,   perspective that tends to prevail in the first half of the volume to a decisive focus on the aesthetics of migration. e essays collected in ‘Proximity’ reimagine the colonial encounter between Europe and Africa through analyses of contemporary artistic expressions (installations, documentaries, literary texts, and theatre practices ) that, in a reversed trajectory, bring Africa ‘back’ to Europe. Part  addresses the crucial challenge of ‘memorializing’ migration. While Itala Vivan discusses practices, problems, and potential benefits of migration museums in the Mediterranean , Dagmawi Yimer and Roberto Pedretti argue for documentary practice and hip-hop music, respectively, as forms of memory and political resistance. Iain Chambers’s final essay draws the volume to a coherent and insightful conclusion by reassessing the Mediterranean ‘as an open, unfinished archive’ (p. ), and foregrounding the crucial role of art in offering ‘other modalities of belonging to both the Mediterranean and modernity’ (p. ). U  S A S C A ‘New’ Woman in Verga and Pirandello: From Page to Stage. By E D F- . Cambridge: Legenda. . x+ pp. £. ISBN ––––. Focusing on two much-discussed early twentieth-century Sicilian authors, Giuseppe Verga and Luigi Pirandello, Enza De Francisci argues that contrary to the view that their work is ‘patriarchal’, their drama, in particular, favourably portrays a ‘new woman’ emerging in Italy in the early twentieth century. She does not use the phrase ‘from page to stage’ in its normal sense (from written script to staged play) but rather to describe the changes that occur in each writer’s conversion of their narratives to written drama. Although De Francisci does not focus much on actual productions, she argues that each writer’s relationship with the celebrated actresses who starred in their plays—Eleonora Duse and Marta Abba—was instrumental in his portrayal of a ‘new woman’ in his drama. e definition of the Italian donna nuova is somewhat problematic. De Francisci attempts to differentiate it from the British and American ‘new woman’ of the same period, but the difference is not entirely clear. Both were influenced by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (Duse was the first to play Nora in Italy); both were struggling to claim more autonomy for women. Sibilla Aleramo’s  novel Una donna was of course highly influential in portraying a woman who seeks independence from men. De Francisci might also have mentioned the role of Verga’s and Pirandello’s contemporary Grazia Deledda in making women’s voices heard. De Francisci does effectively demonstrate how, in spite of patriarchal views that both Verga and Pirandello held and that tend to dominate through the voice of the narrator in their stories, the female characters in their dramas speak for themselves. e adaptations, she argues, deconstruct what she calls ‘three archetypal images of women: the innocent persecuted heroine, the silent obedient wife, and the mad sexual adulteress’ (p. ). For example, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Mommina in Questa sera si recita a soggetto, resemble innocent persecuted heroines, but become active agents. Verga’s character Màlia in the story Il canarino del n.  and  Reviews his play In portineria is primarily silent in the story, but expresses herself through non-verbal communication and broken speech in the play. Pirandello’s Signora Ponza, in Così è (se vi pare), makes use of her silence, and her few words, to eclipse the verbosity of the narrator, Laudisi. Gna Pina, called ‘la lupa’ (the she-wolf) in the story and play of that name, is a woman mad with sexual desire and a predator in the story recounted by a male narrator; in the play she is more ‘a Phèdre-like character who is powerless against her all-consuming passion’ (p. ). She analyses and explains her behaviour, transformed from a stereotype into a reflective individual. Pirandello’s character Cristina, in the story Quando si è capito il giuoco, is seen, as an adulteress, primarily from the point of view of her husband. In the play derived from it, Il giuoco delle parti, the main character, now called Silia, expresses herself. She resents being seen as a mere object of sexual desire and manipulates the men pursuing her. ese analyses of ‘page...

Taste and Touch as Means of Coercion in The Taming of the Shrew

In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina, the “shrew” of the title, is immediately and unsurprisingly described as choleric. Her suitor and later, husband, Petruccio accordingly attempts to subdue the excessive humour in her body by mitigating it with the complementary humour of melancholy. He thus tries to reach a hypothetical balance of humours which, by restoring Katherina’s good health, would also make her return within the bounds of society as an obedient wife. The taming techniques Petruccio implements are not only inspired by falconry manuals, but also resemble some of the treatments suggested in the medical treatises of the time, such as the favouring or avoiding of certain types of food, which were thought to have either beneficial or detrimental effects on the humours. In IV. 3, Petruccio repeatedly offers and withdraws food and clothes from Katherina, using the most physical and immediate of the five senses, i.e. taste and touch, to manipulate her humours and force her into submission. Yet Katherina’s final speech, which extols the virtues of the submissive housewife, calls the efficacy of such methods into question while revealing the circulation of the humours within the play.

NEGOTIATING THE PATH OF FAME: TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN THE PUBLIC PERSONA OF ROEKIAH (1917–1945)

The first great dame of the Indonesian cinema, Roekiah, rose to fame just as the medium of film came into its own. Born in 1917, she, as with many of her contemporaries, had a background in stage and was renowned for her vocal abilities. Her first filmic role, in Albert Balink's Terang Boelan (1937), catapulted her to stardom. Over the next five years she appeared in a further eight films, first opposite Rd. Mochtar then Ismail Djoemala, becoming one of the colony's best-loved stars. In her personal life, Roekiah was married to Kartolo, and would often defer to him when speaking to reporters. The couple had five children. This paper examines how the damsel-in-distress roles played by Roekiah and her public persona as a demure and obedient wife positioned her between two ideals: the traditional woman and the modern woman. It argues that, by negotiating between these two ideals and emphasizing her traditional attributes, Roekiah was able to capitalize on the patriarchal society's views of women, thus enabling her to reach a level of success unattained by such contemporary actresses as Fifi Young, Hadidjah, and Ratna Asmara. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijhs.2017.010102

NEGOTIATING THE PATH OF FAME: TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN THE PUBLIC PERSONA OF ROEKIAH (1917�1945)

The first great dame of the Indonesian cinema, Roekiah, rose to fame just as the medium of film came into its own. Born in 1917, she, as with many of her contemporaries, had a background in stage and was renowned for her vocal abilities. Her first filmic role, in Albert Balink's Terang Boelan (1937), catapulted her to stardom. Over the next five years she appeared in a further eight films, first opposite Rd. Mochtar then Ismail Djoemala, becoming one of the colony's best-loved stars. In her personal life, Roekiah was married to Kartolo, and would often defer to him when speaking to reporters. The couple had five children. This paper examines how the damsel-in-distress roles played by Roekiah and her public persona as a demure and obedient wife positioned her between two ideals: the traditional woman and the modern woman. It argues that, by negotiating between these two ideals and emphasizing her traditional attributes, Roekiah was able to capitalize on the patriarchal society's views of women, thus enabling her to reach a level of success unattained by such contemporary actresses as Fifi Young, Hadidjah, and Ratna Asmara.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijhs.2017.010102

The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, by Charles F. Walker

The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, by Charles F. Walker. Cambridge, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. 376 pp. $29.95 US (cloth). Charles Walker has produced an accomplished narrative history focused on events of Tupac Amaru rebellion of 1780 through 1782, and provides far more detailed account of conflict than has heretofore been available in English. Walker sees his study as enriching extant scholarship by devoting more attention than other historians to Tupac Amaru's spouse, Micaela Bastidas, analyzing role of Church more carefully, ascribing much more importance to developments after Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui Tupac Amaru II's brutal execution in May of 1781, and giving the reader feel for lived experience of (p. 9). Already established as one of most important historians currently studying late colonial Peru, Walker succeeds admirably in attaining each of these objectives. Walker describes Bastidas as a full-blown partner (p. 55) in uprising rather than merely an obedient wife. Her correspondence with Tupac Amaru shows that she was trusted advisor, and some sources later described her as more effective and stem leader than her husband. She ensured rebel base at Tungasuca was well protected, and was central to uprising's logistics, doing all she could to maintain regular flow of recruits and supplies to rebel forces. She could be very tough, threatening to execute kurakas (local Indigenous leaders) who did not comply with her orders. Walker argues that this partnership should not be considered exceptional, not only an extension of Bastidas's long-standing involvement in wide-ranging commercial dealings of her muleteer husband, but as typical of Andean marriages of this period, in which women often were engaged extensively with cash economy and managed household budget. Walker sees evidence in letters exchanged between Bastidas and Tupac Amaru of affectionate concern for one another's safety, but also raises issue of Bastidas's testimony when captured by colonial authorities: she alleged she was beaten by her husband, claim he did not deny. Walker contributes thoughtful chapter on role of Church. He contends that some of his predecessors have made too much of decidedly limited support for rebellion amongst clergy. Walker sees Bishop Moscoso of Cuzco as heart of resistance to rebellion in its earliest phase, and without his strenuous efforts, Walker argues, Cuzco may very well have fallen to insurgents. Walker stresses profound Christianity of Bastidas and Tupac Amaru: they refused to silence priests within areas they controlled who preached against insurrection. …

Los ángeles de Charly: entre el ser nacional ideal del Proceso de Reorganización Nacional y el ser real del rock nacional argentino

Desde su inicio, la dictadura argentina que se auto-denominó el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional se propuso la consolidación de un único ser nacional, una identidad nacional compartida por todos los argentinos, que se basaba en una exagerada e idealizada visión de la tradición hispánica de la figura heterosexual masculina fuerte y la figura femenina sumisa y obediente. En sus declaraciones y comunicados oficiales, el Proceso intentaba la reinstauración de valores correspondientes a un pasado imaginado, que constituía casi una caricatura de ideales clásicos como el "ángel del hogar" y el "código de honor". Pero esta represiva maquinaria censora y propagandista vio su contrapunto en otra "máquina": nace en los mismos días que el Proceso una banda de rock del músico Charly García llamada La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros. El discurso poético de La Máquina contradecía sutilmente el discurso del régimen, en momentos en que era sumamente peligroso disentir. En este trabajo se analiza el discurso del ser nacional ideal, que el régimen militar intentaba imponer por la fuerza, en contraste con el ser nacional real que contraponían las letras de las canciones de Charly García. En contra del rol tradicional de esposas e hijas obedientes que se bombardeaba desde el discurso oficial, en las canciones de La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, las mujeres eran protagonistas: heroínas, diosas, y bailarinas. En lugar del "ángel del hogar" que proponía el Proceso, los "ángeles" en las canciones de García son las mujeres independientes del siglo XX.

Schoolgirls, money and rebellion in Japan

Japanese society in the 1990s and 2000s produced a range of complicated material about sexualized schoolgirls, and few topics have caught the imagination of western observers so powerfully. While young Japanese girls had previously been portrayed as demure and obedient, in training to become the obedient wife and prudent mother, in recent years less than demure young women have become central to urban mythology and the content of culture. The cultic fascination with the figure of a deviant school girl, which has some of its earliest roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, likewise re-emerged and proliferated in fascinating and timely ways in the 1990s and 2000s. Through exploring the history and politics underlying the cult of girls in contemporary Japanese media and culture, this book presents a striking picture of contemporary Japanese society from the 1990s to the start of the 2010s. At its core is an in-depth case study of the media delight and panic surrounding delinquent prostitute schoolgirls. Sharon Kinsella traces this social panic back to male anxieties relating to gender equality and female emancipation in Japan. In each chapter in turn, the book reveals the conflicted, nostalgic, pornographic, and at times distinctly racialized manner, in which largely male sentiments about this transformation of gender relations have been expressed. The book simultaneously explores the stylistic and flamboyant manner in which young women have reacted to the weight of an obsessive and accusatory male media gaze. Covering the often controversial subjects of compensated dating (enjo kosai), the role of porn and lifestyle magazines, the historical sources and politicized social meanings of the schoolgirl, and the racialization of fashionable girls, Schoolgirls, Money, Rebellion in Japan will be invaluable to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, sociology, anthropology, gender and women's studies.

“Sita Puts Out the Fire”: Some Depictions of the Testing of Sita’s Virtue in Indonesian, Malay, and Thai Literature

The Ramayana has been known in many forms throughout South and Southeast Asia for almost two thousand years. This paper deals with one incident in the epic: Sita’s trial by fire as proof of her chastity and loyalty to her husband Rama immediately following the defeat of Sita’s captor, the ten-headed monster Ravana, and her residence in the monster’s palace for four years. The story is told somewhat differently in the classical Malay Hikayt Seri Rama and the Thai Ramakien—partly for religious reasons but retaining a patriarchal emphasis. There are also modern retellings of this incident in Indonesian and Thai. These sympathetically describe Sita’s response to Rama’s harsh demands and might be considered “anti-Sita” works in as far as they contradict the traditional representations of Sita as a virtuous and obedient wife in favor of contemporary understandings of human freedom and autonomy, especially as these relate to women.