Abstract
This essay explores and evaluates Katherine Mansfield's literary style with reference to her short story Bliss. It discusses the ways in which Bliss demonstrates her desire to break with the past and experiment with new methods of writing. The paper evaluates the story as an example of Modernist literature and reviews Mansfield's importance in the Modernist movement. The paper also provides a detailed analysis of Mansfield's original and distinctive delivery of the short story.

From the Paper
"An important figure in the modernist movement, Katherine Mansfield was a highly experiential writer who sought to find new ways of representing the world. The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of terrific change due to technological advances, scientific theories and capitalism. The First World War compounded this disturbance and literally shattered the universal values which held society together. Society was left fragmented and disillusioned and the Modernists felt that the traditional mode of representing the world in literature, specifically realism, was outdated and no longer appropriate. Mansfield's short story Bliss, 1918, demonstrates the desire to break with the past and experiment with new methods of writing which would express this transformed society more aptly."

Tags:literature, mansfield, modernism, modernist, short, story, women, writers

Abstract
Examining the autobiographical content of the novel and discussion with relation to current feminist criticism and new historicism. The writer explains how the novel is an examination and perhaps a critical analysis of Behn's role as a woman and a writer as separate entities and also her status as a woman writer.

From the Paper
"Aphra Behn s novel Oroonoko can be read from a feminist perspective very effectively as it is possible to draw parallels between the slave experiences of Oroonoko and the experience of being a woman at that time. The novel has a somewhat autobiographical content. Behn moved from her birthplace near Canterbury in England to Surinam in the West Indies during her childhood, her father died during the crossing, as did the narrators, so we assume that the narrator is Behn herself. There she met an enslaved prince called Oroonoko who was the basis for her novel Oroonoko or the Royal slave."

Tags:criticism, enlightenment, historicism, literature, new, rennaissance, women, writers

Abstract
This paper explains that poet Anna Akhmatova, born in Odessa, Russia, in 1889, began writing poetry at the age of eleven and experienced lifelong grief and heartache, which is clearly illustrated in her poetry. The author believes that the "Requiem", a set of fifteen thematically linked verses written in 1935, is one of Akhmatova's best pieces. The paper relates that anyone reading "Requiem" could identify with Verse Four because it describes the time Akhmatova looks back on her life wishing someone would have warned her of the troubles that lay ahead.

From the Paper
"Akhmatova's use of describing emotions felt collectively by the masses of women makes the reader associate with them. One can almost imagine how it would feel to know that your loved one is innocent but locked away, to wait only to hear that the sentence is death, to be strong yet look so weak and desperate. Once these feelings have captured the reader, they become more and more vivid as one finds out Akhmatova's feelings as an individual:
"At dawn they came and took you away.
You were my dead: I walked behind.
In the dark room children cried,
The holy candle gasped for air.""

Tags:russia, grief, emotions, sinner, prison

Abstract
This essay on "The Wide Sargasso Sea", (a prequel) to Bronte?s Jane Eyre, explores the inter-dependence of madness and sexuality. The importance of the place of the ?woman? as prone to madness and how feminism affects our interpretations of an individuals actions and desires is also explored.

Tags:antoinette, cosway, eyre, jane

Abstract
This paper discusses the two contrasting theories regarding gender differences in speech: the Dominance approach and the Difference approach, by reference to Deborah Tannen?s study "You Just Don?t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation" and West and Zimmerman?s study "Sex Roles, Interruptions and Silences in Conversation". The paper critically evaluates these positions and considers explanations for the differences in male and female languages usage. In conclusion, the paper reviews possible strategies to decrease the confusion, frustration and hurt that is caused by men and women?s contrasting speech styles.

From the Paper
"A wide range of socio-linguistic research shows that men and women do use speech in different ways. Yet interpretations of these differences, and arguments concerning what causes them are complex and varied. The two main stances taken when analyzing gender and language are a Dominance approach or a Difference approach, with some linguists taking a position somewhere in between the two. This paper evaluates two studies that demonstrate a Difference and a Dominance approach and explores the different ways in which they analyze gender differences in speech."

Tags:feminist, sociolinguistics, speech, tannen, west, zimmerman

Abstract
The media has a large effect on society as a whole and there has been an increase in media exposure over the years. The thin, waif-like look is seen as the ideal, a standard for women to be measured against. The paper shows that women are under lots of pressure to conform to the ideals of society and the majority of women are on diets or have dieted at some point in their life. This leads to low self esteem and poor body image, which is a precipitating factor in eating disorders. This essay discusses whether the media is the catalyst for preoccupation with slimness and a major contributor to eating disorders in young women.

From the Paper
"The media is often quoted as a scapegoat for the increase in eating disorders. Linda Grant's opinion is that: "Women don't set out to become anorexic, they begin by thinking they're too fat because everywhere they go the media is telling them that they are right" (Barrett, 1997). This assumes that the causes of eating disorders are simply triggered by an individual feeling overweight, which is not the case. Eating disorders have many causes, some evidence suggests that an eating disorder can exist without this pathological fear of being overweight (Lai, 2000). If these effects of the media are obvious then why is it that only 1-3% of women suffer from an eating disorder? "

Tags:anorexia, bulimia

Abstract
This essay examines the role of women and motherhood during the 1930?s, when the Nazi regime took over Germany. It takes a hard look at the views and opinions about women by the leaders of the Nazi regime.

From the Paper
"The Nazi regime's views of what a woman's role should be and what they actually were, were very different. A woman's place was in the home, looking after her husband, her home, and most importantly, her children. The Nazi ideology saw women as inferior to men, a woman should be at home and having children, "Kinder, Kirche, Kuche". Goebbels said "a woman's primary, rightful, and appropriate place is in the family, and the most wonderful task that she can perform is to present her country and people with children."[i] The image of marriage and motherhood was sold not only as a benefit to the individual and family but also an obligation to the state. The regime believed in this so much that women could apply for marriage loans, where a woman who was getting married could apply for a marriage loan, on the proviso that she left the job market. "

Tags:germany, history, hitler, motherhood, nazi, roles, homemaker, women, marriage, ideology

Abstract
This paper examines how the stories "Quicksand" and "Passing" illustrate the profound pressures felt by Nella Larsen as a female writer in the male dominated Harlem Renaissance. It looks at how Larsen grapples with the conflicting demands of her racial and sexual identities and the contradictory nature of a black and feminine aesthetic. It attempts to show that while Larsen's literature appears to project feminist concessions to the dominant ideology of romance, marriage and motherhood, it can equally be interpreted as a radical and original critique of female sexual experience, repressed in both literary terms and in Larsen's own contemporary society.

From the Paper
"The theme of racial identity is central to the exploration of black womanhood in both 'Quicksand' and 'Passing.' The main protagonist of 'Quciksand,' Helga Crane is portrayed by Larsen to suffer from a dual consciousness arising from her mixed parentage. Helga appears indifferent or even accommodating towards white racism as she accepts her uncle's new wife's racist attitudes, believing that she was 'an obscene sore in all their lives, at all costs to be hidden. She understood while she resented.' Helga is also ambivalent regarding Anne's ongoing racism towards whites in the form of sociological critique, and the condemnation of miscegenation."

Tags:mulatto, tragic, naxos

Abstract
This paper discusses and evaluates Woolf's unique literary style with reference to her pioneering novel 'To The Lighthouse'. It discusses Woolf's revolutionary theories which underpinned the Modernist movement in English literature. It also explores Woolf's unique style which contravenes reader expectations and the conventions of traditional story writing.

From the Paper
"Through Woolf's unique devices of style, To the Lighthouse becomes a richly layered montage and, consequently, reading it creates a constant sense of uncertainty and confusion. Her aim is to reflect the feelings of disorientation and chaos experienced by people in real life at that time, as their world was rapidly changing due to technological advances, scientific theories and capitalism. The First World War compounded this disturbance and literally shattered the universal values which held society together. Through her inspired portrayal of simultaneity of thought and events in the novel, Woolf leaves her readers feeling almost lost within it."

Tags:feminist, modernism, Virginia, woolf, lighthouse, women, style, literary

Abstract
This paper discusses how "Thelma and Louise" strayed from the typical "road movie" formula in terms of casting, theme and storyline. It shows how the film not only helped to redefine gender stereotypes but also paved the way for other women, as well as gays, people of color and other traditionally underrepresented groups, to become "road movie heroes" as well.

From the Paper
"The conventional road movie twosome, which is usually comprised of either two young males or a male and female with a romantic connection, has permeated the genre since its inception. Thelma and Louise broke that tradition by not only using two female protagonists, but by portraying men in a consistently negative light; essentially as either "rapists", "bullies" or "boy toys"."

Tags:action, adventure, film, gender, roles, theme, gay, color