This thesis focuses on African American hip-hop music. How does this music form produce a connection between black people and how does it create a community? Hip-hop music has a performative...Show moreThis thesis focuses on African American hip-hop music. How does this music form produce a connection between black people and how does it create a community? Hip-hop music has a performative function in producing a collective identity based on race, and now that new generations of African Americans are growing up in a world steeped in hip-hop culture, it is important to try and understand this performativity. How does hip-hop music produce a construct of blackness? And how is this performative function complicated by the many contradictions in hip-hop: commercial hip-hop balances on a fine line between emancipating African Americans and reproducing negative stereotypes of African Americans.Show less
This thesis discusses three contemporary feminist dystopias that have been published between 2016 and 2018. It argues that feminist dystopian fiction can contribute to the understanding of the...Show moreThis thesis discusses three contemporary feminist dystopias that have been published between 2016 and 2018. It argues that feminist dystopian fiction can contribute to the understanding of the female struggle in the United States by reflecting on reproductive rights and body politics in a dystopian setting. Through three thematic studies, language, genre and imposed boundaries on the female body, this thesis shows how the feminist dystopian genre places the female body in the midst of political and social disturbances. Amid the current political environment that seeks to restrict reproductive health care and rights for women, these novels challenge its readers' perception of their realities. This helps instigate change and a critical attitude towards current social issues and anxieties that are affecting the safety and health of women nationwide.Show less
