The purpose of my Thesis is to further develop an artistic practice that involves a thoughtful, drawn out engagement with culture, utilizing immediacy, temporality and improvisation through the formal manipulation of different mediums. My research focuses on these ideas as a continual thread that runs through my work of the past twenty years and gives conceptual unity to the range of stylistic experiments that have come with my growth as an artist. The end result is collage, painting, video and installation that utilizes both the literal and parabolical tearing, cutting and pasting of elements together as analogies within a defined field. The defined field being both the formal area of the work, as well as the conceptual representation of my individual consciousness as expressed through my process. Moving between abstraction and representation allows me to sample my thoughts and present them through a methodology that is consistent with the cognitive interplay of abstract and representative thought.

This thesis opens discussion on American alien invasion films of the 90s as a self-critique, a reaction to being an imperial power at the end of the Cold War. The alien menace in these films is not the "other" but rather the U.S. itself being the colonizer or conqueror looking to expand its sphere of influence. Furthermore, it discusses how Presidential rhetoric in the films play a role in this postcolonial reading. Specific works studied are: Independence Day (1996), Mars Attacks! (1996), Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998), and The Puppet Masters (1994).

After the change of their country’s political and international statuses, post-colonial and respectively post-communist individuals and collectives develop feelings of alienation and estrangement that do not involve physical dislocation. Eventually, they start imagining their national community as a collective of individuals who share this state. Paraphrasing Benedict Anderson’s definition of the nation as an “imagined community,” this study identifies this process as “imagined exile,” an act that temporarily compensates for the absence of a metanarrative of the nation during the post-colonial and post-communist transitions. This dissertation analyzes and compares ten English Canadian and Romanian plays, written between 1976 and 2004, and argues that they function as expressions and agents of post-colonial and respectively post-communist imagined exile, helping their readers and audiences overcome the identity crisis and regain the feeling of belonging to a national community. Chapter 1 explores the development of major theoretical concepts, such as nation, national identity, national identity crisis, post-colonialism, and post-communism. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 analyze dramatic rewritings of historical events, in “1837: The Farmers’ Revolt” by the theatre Passe Muraille with Rick Salutin as dramaturge, and “A Cold” by Marin Sorescu, and of past political leaders, in “Sir John, Eh!” by Jim Garrard and “A Day from the Life of Nicolae Ceausescu” by Denis Dinulescu. Chapter 4 examines the expression of the individual and collective identity crises in “Sled” by Judith Thompson and “The Future Is Rubbish” by Vlad Zografi. Chapter 5 explores the treatment of physical and cultural borders and borderlands in Kelly Rebar’s “Bordertown Café”, Guillermo Verdecchia’s “Fronteras Americanas”, Petre Barbu’s “God Bless America”, and Saviana Stanescu’s “Waxing West”. The concluding chapter briefly discusses the concept of imagined exile in relation to other investigations of post-colonial and post-communist dramas and reviews some of the latest perspectives of national identity, reassessing this study from a diachronic perspective.

This essay seeks to investigate identity formation and the role of the oriental other, the Calormene, in C.S. Lewis popular children’s books, The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as the threat levelled at Narnia and what it constitutes. The oriental other as a threatening corruption is a common image in European colonial discourse, therefore a brief summary on post-colonial theory and critique thereupon and a background on the occidental attitude towards the discursive Orient based mainly on Orientalism by Edward W. Said, as well as a short account of Emile Durkheims theory on social divisions of labour and identity formation in groups is provided in the first theoretical section, Images of the Other. In the second section the Narnian identity and what it is composed of is examined. Here I argue that the Narnian identity is connected to an ideal and primordial English identity. This is shown primarily through the linking of Narnian nature and food with the English countryside and its “plain food”. Consequently, food in the Narnian space possesses a great power. The food of the Other corrupts while the hearty Narnian or English food holds the power to redeem those corrupted. The third section is dedicated to the threat against Narnia. This is composed mainly of Calormenes and Witches, both of which are described to be ancient and whose evil, I argue, nonetheless is an eventual consequence of rational thinking and modernity. In the fourth section the Calormene, the Other in Narnia, is examined. The Calormene society is inextricably linked to slavery, which is portrayed as the utmost consequence of rationality, and characterized by its spiritual poverty. This section also discusses how the Narnian can be corrupted and turned “Other”.

Since the start of the 21st century, and with the 9/11 events, terrorism has been in the focus of media more than ever. The aim of this study is to analyze the behavior of a Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, and its coverage of terrorist acts that happened through the world in 2015. Through a post-colonialist angle, the study will follow the how the “Us-Versus-Them” is constructed in Aftonbladet’s coverage. This will be done by comparing differences in articles related to various events that have happened in 2015, depending on their specificities. Following the descriptive statistics and discourse analysis methods, the study will be concluded with the fact that there was a difference of treatment of terrorist attacks from Aftonbladet, depending if the events regard “Us” or “Them”.

O objetivo desse trabalho é compreender a produção intelectual do autor palestino, Edward W. Said, cuja trajetória heterogênea representou em larga medida uma metáfora teórica dos seus maiores dilemas políticos e conceituais, alguns deles constitutivos do objeto dessa tese. Entendemos que Said define a Cultura como lócus privilegiado para compreender a dominação colonial e, posteriormente, incorpora um discurso político para a formação da chamada identidade nacional Palestina. Procuramos demarcar o paradoxo central da sua obra que diz respeito ao convívio teórico da abordagem pós-colonial com a busca da historicidade do ethos nacional palestino. Entendemos que o paradoxo do Nacionalismo, sua estreita vinculação com o debate pós-colonial e os percursos teóricos decorrentes do engajamento progressivo com a causa nacional Palestina subsidiam outras reflexões que possuem interrelação. São essas; a representação do intelectual na sociedade contemporânea, a relação entre texto e realidade histórica, entendida por meio do conceito de mundanidade, a categoria de exílio como condição ontológica e metáfora epistemológica e o problema da relação entre cultura e imperialismo. Esses percursos de análise orientam-se por um objetivo mais geral que é a análise da centralidade e respectiva atualidade da obra de Edward W. Said na Historiografia Pós-Colonial. / The aim of the present work is to understand the intellectual production of the Palestinian author Edward W. Said. His heterogeneous history represented in a larger extent a theoretical metaphor of his major political and conceptual dilemmas, some of them consisting this thesis subject. We understand Said defines culture as a preferential locus in order to comprehend the colonial domination, later on embodying a political speech for the composition of the national Palestinian identity. We have attempted to delimit the main paradox of his work which refers to the theoretical interaction of the post-colonial approach with the historicity of the national Palestinian ethos. We understand that the paradox of Nationalism its close connection to the post-colonial aproach and theoretical courses arising from progressive engagement with the Palestinian national cause subsidizes other reflections interrelated, such as: the intellectual representation in contemporary society; the relation between text and historical reality understood through the concept of worldliness; the category of exile as an ontological condition and epistemological metaphor; and the problem of the culture-imperialism relation. These courses of analyzes have guidance in a broader objective which is the analysis of centrality and the respective present status of Edward Saids work in Post-Colonial Historiography.

This thesis is a meditation on liberatory futures for colonized pasts. It begins with a history of the imperial relationship between the US and the Philippines and how coloniality took root in the lives of Filipinos. The second chapter explores the critique of imperialism offered in post/colonial cultural productions by Manuel Ocampo and his location within the museum, as a constitutive site of modernity. The third chapter explores the project of de-coloniality and the role of ritual and imagination.

Orientador: Peter James Harris / Banca: Giséle Manganelli Fernandes / Banca: Thomas Bonnici / Resumo: Esta dissertação analisa a peça Translations (1980), de Brian Friel, a partir de uma leitura póscolonial da situação irlandesa do final da década de 1970. Como primeira produção da Companhia de Teatro Field Day, Translations fez parte do projeto de restabelecer a consciência política das artes em relação às tradições da nação, do sujeito irlandês e sua língua. Nossa proposta é a de que a peça de Friel se constrói como uma atualização histórica, a qual se desdobra em dois planos textuais, um denotativo e um figurativo, em que a relação colonial entre Irlanda e Inglaterra se apresenta como metáfora dos problemas contemporâneos que envolvem a República e o Norte. Assim, na busca por um conceito de identidade nacional e cultural irlandesa, pensamos a peça de Friel sob o enfoque da revisão histórica do nacionalismo, representada na releitura ficcional da colonização no período do século XIX. Para tanto, trabalhamos o desenvolvimento discursivo do nacionalismo irlandês para, então, focarmos na questão do discurso e suas formações e no pós-colonialismo como resposta às práticas hegemônicas. Por meio da seleção de trechos da peça - diálogos e rubricas -, analisamos a posição discursiva de cada personagem no embate cultural entre colonizado e colonizador, segundo as estratégias pós-coloniais de que se serve o escritor na representação do sujeito. Vemos que, em Translations, a busca por uma identidade livre de qualquer essencialismo revela uma consciência e intenção política do autor; além disso, subjacente a esse processo, está um exame "auto-crítico" da imagem do escritor pós-colonial e de seu posicionamento estratégico dentro da representação literária. / Abstract: This dissertation is an analysis of Brian Friel's play Translations (1980), based on a postcolonial reading of the Irish situation at the end of the 1970s. As the first production of the Field Day Theatre Company, Translations was part of a project which was aimed at reestablishing a political conscience in the artistic world regarding the nation's tradition, as well as the Irish subject and his/her language. We propose that Friel's play takes the form of a historical updating which operates both denotatively and figuratively, in which aspects of the colonial history of Ireland and England are used as a metaphor for contemporary problems involving the Republic and the North. Thus, in seeking a concept for Irish national and cultural identity, we consider Friel's play as a form of nationalist historical revision, represented as a fictional re-reading of nineteenth-century colonisation. We study the discursive development of Irish nationalism in order to focus on the issue of discourse and its formation, as well as on post-colonialism as a response to hegemonic practices. Based upon a selection of extracts from the play - both dialogue and stage directions -, we analyse the discursive position of the principal characters with regard to the cultural confrontation between colonised and coloniser, according to the postcolonial strategies available to the writer in his representation of the subject. In Translations, we see that the search for an identity free of essentialism reveals the author's conscience and political intention; in addition, we demonstrate that Friel is conducting a self-critical examination of the image and strategic position of the postcolonial writer. / Mestre

O objetivo desse trabalho é compreender a produção intelectual do autor palestino, Edward W. Said, cuja trajetória heterogênea representou em larga medida uma metáfora teórica dos seus maiores dilemas políticos e conceituais, alguns deles constitutivos do objeto dessa tese. Entendemos que Said define a Cultura como lócus privilegiado para compreender a dominação colonial e, posteriormente, incorpora um discurso político para a formação da chamada identidade nacional Palestina. Procuramos demarcar o paradoxo central da sua obra que diz respeito ao convívio teórico da abordagem pós-colonial com a busca da historicidade do ethos nacional palestino. Entendemos que o paradoxo do Nacionalismo, sua estreita vinculação com o debate pós-colonial e os percursos teóricos decorrentes do engajamento progressivo com a causa nacional Palestina subsidiam outras reflexões que possuem interrelação. São essas; a representação do intelectual na sociedade contemporânea, a relação entre texto e realidade histórica, entendida por meio do conceito de mundanidade, a categoria de exílio como condição ontológica e metáfora epistemológica e o problema da relação entre cultura e imperialismo. Esses percursos de análise orientam-se por um objetivo mais geral que é a análise da centralidade e respectiva atualidade da obra de Edward W. Said na Historiografia Pós-Colonial. / The aim of the present work is to understand the intellectual production of the Palestinian author Edward W. Said. His heterogeneous history represented in a larger extent a theoretical metaphor of his major political and conceptual dilemmas, some of them consisting this thesis subject. We understand Said defines culture as a preferential locus in order to comprehend the colonial domination, later on embodying a political speech for the composition of the national Palestinian identity. We have attempted to delimit the main paradox of his work which refers to the theoretical interaction of the post-colonial approach with the historicity of the national Palestinian ethos. We understand that the paradox of Nationalism its close connection to the post-colonial aproach and theoretical courses arising from progressive engagement with the Palestinian national cause subsidizes other reflections interrelated, such as: the intellectual representation in contemporary society; the relation between text and historical reality understood through the concept of worldliness; the category of exile as an ontological condition and epistemological metaphor; and the problem of the culture-imperialism relation. These courses of analyzes have guidance in a broader objective which is the analysis of centrality and the respective present status of Edward Saids work in Post-Colonial Historiography.

Submitted by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-06-28T19:40:54Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Desconstruindo o império - história e imaginário na ficção de Antônio Lobo Antunes.pdf: 1249897 bytes, checksum: 8b1134ddfe36b1e311384cb87cee83f8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2016-06-30T20:22:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Desconstruindo o império - história e imaginário na ficção de Antônio Lobo Antunes.pdf: 1249897 bytes, checksum: 8b1134ddfe36b1e311384cb87cee83f8 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-30T20:23:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Desconstruindo o império - história e imaginário na ficção de Antônio Lobo Antunes.pdf: 1249897 bytes, checksum: 8b1134ddfe36b1e311384cb87cee83f8 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / O presente estudo analisa o processo de desconstrução da memória imperial portuguesa efetivado pelos romances Memória de elefante (1979), Os cus de Judas, (1979) e As naus (1988), de autoria do escritor português António Lobo Antunes. Publicadas em um contexto pós-colonial, as narrativas direcionam-se à exploração do período de transição imperial/pós-imperial ainda em processo de construção após a Guerra Colonial, a Revolução dos Cravos e o processo de descolonização da África. A literatura surge no contexto pós-colonial português como uma alternativa para a elaboração de uma memória coletiva sobre o passado traumático e sobre os últimos capítulos do império português. A produção ficcional apresenta-se como possibilidade de interpretação da dinâmica política e social existente na construção de um novo Portugal após a Guerra Colonial, a Revolução dos Cravos e a descolonização dos territórios ultramarinos. A ficção antuniana, ao abordar acontecimentos traumáticos para a coletividade nacional, busca efetivar uma releitura da História e do imaginário nacional, a fim de desconstruir a memória imperial e efetivar a construção, por meio do discurso ficcional, de uma memória/História que se oponha ao sistemático movimento de apagamento da contemporaneidade iniciado após a Revolução. Os romances analisados durante a pesquisa, publicados em um período pós-Revolução, notabilizam-se pela tentativa de, pelo discurso ficcional, estabelecer uma forma de simbolizar, de transformar em linguagem, os traumas e os lapsos causados pelo processo de desmoronamento da imagem imperial junto à sociedade portuguesa. Em suas narrativas, Lobo Antunes reelabora o passado, evitando que acontecimentos marcantes sejam esquecidos pela sociedade com o decorrer do tempo. / This study analyses the process of deconstruction of portuguese imperial memory by the novels Memória de elefante (1979), Os cus de Judas (1979) and As Naus (1988), from the portuguese author António Lobo Antunes. Published in a post-colonial context, the narratives turn to the exploration of the period of imperial/post-imperial transition still in the building process after the Colonial War, the Carnation Revolution and the process of decolonization of Africa. The literature appears in the portuguese post-colonial context as an alternative to the development of a collective memory about the traumatic past and the last chapters of the portuguese empire. The Antunes’s fiction, to address traumatic events for the national community, seeks to effect a rereading of history and the national imagination in order to deconstruct the imperial memory and carry out the construction, through the fictional discourse, a memory/history opposed the systematic erasure of the contemporary movement started after the Revolution. The novels analyzed during the research, published in a post-revolution period, signalize by the attempt of the fictional discourse, establish a way to symbolize, to turn in to language, trauma and lapses caused by the process of collapse of the imperial image with the the Portuguese society. In his narratives, Lobo Antunes reworks the past, avoiding that important events are forgotten by society over the time.