graduate essaysHere are some of the essays I've written over the years. I've put them up because I thought they might serve as a helpful (if not entirely edifying) resource for people frustrated by the limited amounts of information available on many of these subjects, needing a place to start with a topic, or just looking for another item with which to pad their bibliographies. All essays are copyrighted by me, so don't be an asshole and plagiarize. There's a voodoo curse on them and if you hand them in as your own, a shambling undead zombie will smite you. And everyone will agree that you deserved it. I know, I know, you're breathless in anticipation of absorbing my profundities, so read on...Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), also known as "sibyl of the Rhine", was a mystic, visionary, philosopher, cosmologist, poet, composer, healer, scientist and teacher of the medieval period. Using theorists of the "feminine voice", I test the ideas of gendered discourse against her writings to examine the utility of such definitions. In addition I develop some themes in her writing that are of some interest not just for Hildegard as a gendered voice but as a religious medieval one. The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist and Her Critic Donna Haraway sees the metaphor of the cyborg as a potent one for new theoretical developments in feminism. Teresa Ebert disagrees. I examine Haraway's model and its critique by Ebert, as well as the general implications of Haraway's position for feminist theory. The NCWC, a conservative group of upper- and middle-class Canadian women, had as part of its mandate the "social uplifting" of the working class. I examine two of their campaigns, the drive to eliminate "pernicious literature" and the care of the "feeble minded", to see how the discourses of social and moral reform (as well as maternal feminism) grounded the initiatives, and to observe the development of the NCWC's political strategizing. Imagined Bodies, Imagined Communities: Feminism, Nationalism, and Body Metaphors Using Benedict Anderson's theory of "imagined communities", I argue that the metaphors we use to conceptualize our communities fundamentally affect how we experience it. The metaphor of the body-as-state is one which dates at least to the Middle Ages. I examine current conceptions of the body-as-state and woman-as-nation and their roots in particular political and scientific discourses, and suggest some alternative visions of the body which correspond to present formations of nation-states. I draw particularly on Haraway's cyborg theory, as well as Homi Bhabha's notion of identity.
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