Feminism in Women’s Canadian Literature in the 1960s and the 1970s

• Thesis title in Czech: Feminismus v ženské kanadské literatuře šedesátých a sedmdesátých let 20. století
• Thesis title in English: Feminism in Women’s Canadian Literature in the 1960s and the 1970s
• Key words: feminismus|Kanadská literatura|Marian Engel|Margaret Laurence|Alice Munro|Margaret Atwood|revolta|příroda
• English key words: feminism|Canadian literature|Marian Engel|Margaret Laurence|Alice Munro|Margaret Atwood|rebellion|nature
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2018/2019
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Klára Kolinská, Dr., Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 28.11.2018
• Date of assignment: 28.11.2018
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 03.12.2018
• Date and time of defence: 05.09.2019 08:30
• Date of electronic submission: 12.08.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 05.09.2019
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.

Guidelines

The bachelor thesis will concentrate on the so called “cultural decade” (1963-1974) in Canadian literature and several years beyond this time frame, as those were the years of immense change throughout the world, such as Women’s Liberation Movement or the Civil Rights Movement, and the North-American literature reacted accordingly. Those were also years of great change in Canada, as it was during this time period that Canada celebrated its first centennial of the establishment of Canadian Confederation. Those were also the years during which Canadian nationalism grew, and that gave authors yet another reason to create within the Canadian tradition of writing. This era was particularly fruitful for female writers in Canada
The thesis will trace four novels by Canadian female writers and that Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel, Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women and Marian Engel’s Bear and examine their shared features. Apart from being written by women in Canada at a certain period of time, these texts share the style in which they are narrated, the setting of the plots and the main protagonists, who are women isolated both physically and mentally and who do not need men in their lives. The thesis will analyse characters’ rebellions against the domestic life and how it corresponds with the idea that men are seen as something replaceable, which is not only shown by the characters’ choice of being single, but also by their emancipation in that they all have jobs to provide for themselves and that they are not in any way dependent on men- financially or sexually. The thesis will also point out how these novels remained Canadian in their cores and that mainly by the setting of these texts, which is Canadian nature. This feature has to be explored as it not only connects all four novels together, but also connects them to the Canadian tradition.

References

Bibliografie:
Primary Sources:
Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. London: Virago Press, 2009.
Engel, Marian. Bear. Jaffrey: David R. Godine, 2002.
Laurence, Margaret. The Stone Angel. London: Apollo, 2016.
Munro, Alice. Lives of Girls and Women. London: Vintage, 2015.

Secondary Sources:
Atwood, Margaret. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2013.
Finke, Laurie A. Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Friedan, Betty. Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1983.
New, W.H. A History of Canadian Literature. Montreal: McGuill-Gueen’s University Press, 2003.
Rovná, Lenka. Dějiny Kanady. Praha: NLN s.r.o., 2012.
Tolan, Fiona. Margaret Atwood: Feminism and Fiction. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007.