Janus faced woman: a search for Newfoundland identity

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the identity "Newfoundland Woman". It is a journey that encompasses a number of texts, which include both fiction and non-fiction, historical and modem narratives. These texts are Random Passage and Waiting for Time, by Bernice Morgan, and the narrative texts of my life and my mother's life. It examines the social underpinnings of self-identity through the lenses of queer and postmodern theories. Most important among those are Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity and Linda McDowell's postmodern take on feminist geography. Through the interplay of these theoretical positions, and interconnections between theory and narrative, ideas of what Newfoundland Woman has meant, does mean, and might mean in the future are evinced and expanded.