“Look at Me! I Can Change Your Tire”

Outside of bodybuilding, queer women in fitness and exercise cultures have received little attention in popular discourse and academic research. In this article, I examine how queer use of gym space can inform and reify a queer identity, specifically the enactment of queer female masculinity. I use Jack Halberstam’s work on female masculinity and literature in the fields of cultural studies and sport studies to discuss how queer identity, space, and power operate on the body in the context of fitness culture.

Age, Gender and Existentialism in the Late-Life Bildungsroman

This dissertation aims to reveal the echo of modernist existentialism in postmodern late-life fiction. In a close reading of works by Alistair MacLeod, Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon, as well as my own creative work, I have explored the continually shifting models of gender and age, as characters progress towards development and navigate questions of the self. Issues of modes of masculinity from the rural to the urban, as well as female masculinity are investigated in this sample of varying works of fiction. Grounded in an analysis of the philosophy and fiction of Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, with reference to traditional Bildungsroman (coming-of age, or education novel), I hope to have demonstrated the similar, but newly interpreted existential trajectory of self-development in contemporary narrative. This is reflected in postmodern and contemporary narratives that challenge existing conventions while prizing modernist philosophical tenets. Combining theoretical and creative acumen, this work aims to contribute to age and gender studies, while offering a fresh approach to scholarly work.

Age, Gender and Existentialism in the Late-Life Bildungsroman

This dissertation aims to reveal the echo of modernist existentialism in postmodern late-life fiction. In a close reading of works by Alistair MacLeod, Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon, as well as my own creative work, I have explored the continually shifting models of gender and age, as characters progress towards development and navigate questions of the self. Issues of modes of masculinity from the rural to the urban, as well as female masculinity are investigated in this sample of varying works of fiction. Grounded in an analysis of the philosophy and fiction of Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, with reference to traditional Bildungsroman (coming-of age, or education novel), I hope to have demonstrated the similar, but newly interpreted existential trajectory of self-development in contemporary narrative. This is reflected in postmodern and contemporary narratives that challenge existing conventions while prizing modernist philosophical tenets. Combining theoretical and creative acumen, this work aims to contribute to age and gender studies, while offering a fresh approach to scholarly work.

Analysis of Female Masculinity During Wartime in The Night Watch From the Perspective of Gender Performativity

The novel The Night Watch（2006）by Sarah Waters, a contemporary British novelist, tells the story of four women whose fortunes were intertwined before and after World War II. By Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, this paper analyzes the wartime female images in the novel. Women’ s wartime drag subverts the binary opposition of people’s presupposed notion about sex and women’ s occupation of men’ job that breaks the fictitious perception of gender opposition; the lesbian love affairs challenge the compulsory heterosexuality. Through the interpretations of the feminist thoughts conveyed by Waters in The Night Watch and Butler’s theory of gender performativity, it can be discovered that the nature of gender identity is actually fictional and can be constructed, reflecting the appeal for gender equality.

Performing Gender: Female Masculinity in D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow

This paper analyses Ursula, the female protagonist of D. H. Lawrence’s the novel The Rainbow, who reflects her masculinity. Many feminist critics have perceived this novel as man-centered. In response to this analysis of the novel, the paper tries to look at the novel from the perspective of Judith Halberstam’s theoretical concept of female masculinity, especially Ursula as a masculine woman who acts like a man. Female masculinity is not an identity but a site for identification where different identities can flourish, but masculine women possess confidence, assertiveness, and independence. Lawrence gives justice to women’s role by presenting Ursula as a new woman who seeks her individual identity in the traditional world. Through the reading of the novel as its theoretical tool, the research concludes that females can be as males and males can be like females. She acts like a man and that means she has masculine qualities. The novelist portrays Ursula as a woman with masculinity because she can flourish different identities of her life. She plays the role of an independent woman, a liberated woman, a Lesbian woman, and a new woman, etc. She behaves like a tomboy who refuses to accept the Victorian conventions of society. So, she is a masculine woman rather than a feminine woman. This paper emphasizes how a woman can perform like a man; this suggests masculinity is not the private property of a male; it is a social position that can be practiced in an individual way.