Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts Honours
School
School of Language and Literature
Faculty
Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences
First Supervisor
Dr Susan Ash
Abstract
This thesis analyses Ursula Le Guin's interpretation of gender and genre in her Earthsea novels, A Wizarf of Earthsea (1968) and Teha1111 (1990). Examining Le Guin's assertion for the need to "re-vision" her former work with the latter, I interrogate the ways in which she attempts to "break free" from the ideologies that impose themselves upon her work. Part one explores the mode of the hero quest used in A Wizard of Earthsea and examines the significance of this in terms of "gendering" the text. Part two examines the revisioned text Tehanu and the ways in which the author challenges the discourse of the hero quest. I suggest that Le Guin's attempts to revise the universalist assumptions of her early novel through her "feminist" text are hampered by its failure to recognise itself as operating within a hegemonic and ultimately restrictive mode of thought.
Recommended Citation
Barton, A. (2004). Visions must be re-visioned : Gender politics in Earthsea. Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1001