Memorial University DAI: "Private acts of revolution" : feminism and postmodernism in the fictions of Aritha van Herk

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Title	"Private acts of revolution" : feminism and postmodernism in the fictions of Aritha van Herk
Author	O'Rourke, Jacqueline, 1964-
Description	Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1990. English
Date	1989
Pagination	iv, 249 leaves.
Subject	Van Herk, Aritha, 1954-; Feminism and literature
Degree	M.A.
Degree Grantor	Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of English
Discipline	English
Language	Eng
Notes	Bibliography: leaves 242-249.
Abstract	The fiction of Aritha van Herk allows feminism and postmodernism to overlap. Throughout her multi-layered texts van Herk questions humanist notions of unitary consciousness, universal truth and the objective construction of the past. Her weapons are narrative strategies, intertextuality and women's reclaimed mythologies. Through these techniques, van Herk manages to engender and, at the same time, deconstruct the rational consciousness at the heart of humanist discourse. -- Van Herk's subversions are both literary and societal. She works within established literary forms and simultaneously transforms and subverts the thematic and formalistic conventions of these forms. Furthermore, she questions the very power structure out of which her texts are generated. She especially critiques the social construction of gender and the marginalization of ex-centrics. The aesthetic and the political are inseparably integrated in van Herk's texts. Her textual practice is political and her politics are generated from her textual practice. Her texts are always situated in society and van Herk is always aware of her historical specificity. -- All of van Herk's work, from her short fictions and essays to her three novels - Judith, The Tent Peg, and No Fixed Address - disclose her feminist postmodern poetics. Her narrative experimentation is evident, to varying degrees, in all of her fictions. Also, her novels establish intertextuality with other texts. They question the construction of the mythologies of the past and present. Foregrounded in all of van Herk's texts is a concern with woman and her place in twentieth-century society. The treatment of women by various literary conventions and societal norms always places them as ex-centrics in van Herk's texts. -- Van Herk celebrates ex-centricity and pluralism. Her texts become more revolutionary as she dramatizes the conflict between the feminist and society. The metafictional layers of her works always remind the reader of the plight of the feminist postmodern in Canadian literary and social communities.
Type	Text
Resource Type	Electronic thesis or dissertation
Format	Image/jpeg; Application/pdf
Source	Paper copy kept in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University Libraries
Local Identifier	76058005
Rights	The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
Collection	Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Scanning Status	Completed
PDF File	(34.58 MB) -- http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/theses/ORourke_Jacqueline.pdf
CONTENTdm file name	223060.cpd