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 | | English literature -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Fiji
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|  | "A gender tale" : theorising feminity and masculinity in the novels and plays prescribed for Forms five and six students in Fiji and Samoa
Author: Dutt, Margaret.
Institution: University of the South Pacific.
Award: M.A.
Subject: Feminism in literature, Masculinity in literature, Discourse analysis, Literary , English literature -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Fiji, English literature -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Samoa
Date: 1999.
Call No.: Pac PN 3401 .D87 1999
BRN: 923410
Copyright:10-20% of this thesis may be copied without the authors written permission
Abstract: The representation of female and male subjects within a discourse is often theorised by feminist critics who attempt to identify stereotypical images of femininity and masculinity. When these stereotypes are prevalent in prescribed primary and secondary school literary texts, they have the potential to define, construct and perpetuate gender ideologies. This thesis focuses on an analysis of fifteen novels and plays prescribed for forms five and six students in Fiji and Samoa. It will examine these literary texts for gender stereotyping from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. The qualitative perspective, which forms the bulk of this thesis, focuses on the portrayal/representation of the main protagonists in the context of feminist criticism and theories of masculinity. The analysis reveals that the literature textbooks selected for students in Fiji and Samoa are based largely on patriarchal binary thought and reproduce common ideologies of gender. Although the impact of these stereotypical images cannot be ascertained, it is important to select a quantitative balance of textbooks that acknowledge women and men as authors, subjects and readers. Anti-sexist literature and postcolonial approaches to teaching literature in the Pacific can assist to deconstruct gender stereotypes as we enter a new millennium.
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