This study analyses two non-western novels used in the subject of Swedish in upper secondary school: Fatou Diomes The Belly of the Atlantic and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies Half a Yellow Sun. Looking at how the books female main character relate to Stuart Halls theory of cultural identity, I come to the conclusion that they somewhat differently relate to an essential ”authentic” self. Salie talks explicit about a generic African soul that she possesses. Olanna never talks about anything ”authentic”, but her narrative and contrary subject positions can be read as a way of demasking her European ”white” self in favour of a truer Igbo self. I also come to the conclusion that both novels use themes of alienation related to gender structures and positioned westernness and that this kind of reading could contribute to interesting classroom discussions about a dynamic interpretation on culture and identity.

The research on xenophobia in South Africa is underpinned by the relationship described by Frantz Fanon between violence and oppression present within the structures of domination. This research addresses the colonial structures that manifested themselves within the oppressive modes in societies. It employs a Fanon analysis of the xenophobic violence of May 2008 and serves to provide an understanding of the experiences of a particular condition and of how a broader invisible context plays an important role in what society sees and assimilates. The question can be asked: Is it safe to say that the xenophobic attacks were racist, or was it mere bigotry? An analysis based on the writings of Franz Fanon coupled with a psychological account of the participants, affirms that the xenophobic attacks revealed that the previously colonised or oppressed black people in South Africa reacted with regard to the assimilation of the master and its slave narrative and dialect. Theories of oppression and slavery posit that patterns of colonialism reoccur and manifest themselves both internally and externally within society. A serious debate is necessary to question whether the incidents came at a time that South Africa should have reflected on society’s interaction with foreign immigrants. / Political Sciences / M.A. (Politics)

My study is a theoretical intervention of the South African contemporary visual art of Mary Sibande. It focuses on the figure of Sophie representing the maid in three series; namely, Sophie-Elsie, Sophie-Merica, and Sophie-Velucia. The study applies Frantz Fanon’s thought to the understanding of the figure of Sophie while emphasising the themes of naming, the human subject, and presence-absence. The theoretical framework of this thesis is a decolonial epistemic theory, which is used as a lens to understand Fanon’s political thoughts. I argue that the themes of naming, human subject, and presenceabsence are inherent in Fanon’s thought. These thematic areas give a better understanding of the existential questions of the figure of Sophie in the antiblack Manichean world. It is important to unpack the figure of Sophie as a Manichean figure who represents the crossing of two different worlds – the white world and the black world, Africa and Europe. The study highlights the importance and relevance of reviving Fanon’s thought concerning decolonial contemporary African art and establishing other tools of interpretation necessary to understand decolonial aestheSis. The thrust of this thesis is to deploy decolonial epistemic theory as a theoretical framework to the Fanonian understanding of the figure of the three Sophies that embody the modern/colonial predicament of the figure of the maid and blackness. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / Ph. D (Art)

Världen är oupplösligt sammankopplad i sina relationer och förhållanden, ändå finner människan sätt att separera och låta skillnader hindra henne från att leva och samexistera i sin mångfald. Friedrich Nietzsche skriver ”Kanske uttrycker vårt ord ’människa’ (manas) ännu något av denna självkänsla: människan betecknade sig själv som det väsen som mäter värden, som värderar och mäter, som det ’värderande djuret i sig’.” I den här uppsatsen börjar jag i Nietzsches genealogi och filosofi som utgångspunkt för att förstå hur och när den europeiska filosofin började plocka isär sig själv inifrån och titta närmare på människans subjekt och hennes värden. Jag vill genom det se på den moderna filosofins sätt att skildra och förstå människan i världen. Vidare anser jag att filosofin måste öppna sig för en bredare kanon för att i det moderna samhället kunna vara en praktik som inkluderar alla levda erfarenheter. Min uppsats har även syftet att utforska en sådan möjlig brygga för var filosofin kan få en materiell och aktivistisk mening. Vägen jag tar för att föreslå en sådan brygga är som nämnt från Nietzsches genealogi. Sedan fortsätter analysen framåt genom Frantz Fanons avkolonialiserande tänkande som tar utgångspunkt i levd erfarenhet. Av särskild vikt är något jag här kallar för en teori om skillnad som ovärderlig, som utarbetas i närhet till Édouard Glissant framför allt, och som vilar på ett fokus på detaljen och hur den måste förstås på ett icke-hierarkiserande sätt för att ingå i Glissants tanke och term Relation. Skillnaden som ovärderlig öppnar i det dekoloniala tänkandet upp för kunskapen utanför den traditionellt överlägsna diskursen och leder oss in i Glissants filosofi och relationens tänkande. / In this paper I am asking the question about the European human values and their effect on philosophy and thought through three different philosophers. What I want to examine is how we can get past thinking human subjects as constituted by the hierarchical and often oppositional differences that were installed by means of a normalizing universal with colonial roots. The essay begins with Nietzsche’s geneological account of how and when European philosophy began to disassemble itself from within, focusing on his idea of the need for a new man. Then I turn to Frantz Fanon and the decolonization of European thought and power, as one based on violence and hiererachy. Édouard Glissants poetics of Relation is then essential for thinking man today in the entangled, constantly changing world that we live in.

This thesis examines the political thought of Achille Mbembe. It deploys decolonial critical analysis to unmask traces of coloniality with regard to the African existential conditions foregrounded in the conception of the African subject, its subjection, and subjectivity. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is decolonial epistemic perspective—the epistemic intervention that serves as a lens to understand Mbembe’s work and—that is the theoretical foundation outside the Euro-North American “mainstream” canon foregrounded in coloniality. Decolonial epistemic perspective in this thesis is deployed to expose three kinds of coloniality in Mbembe’s work, namely: coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge and coloniality of being. The thrust of this thesis is that Mbembe’s political thought is inadequate for the understanding of the African existential condition in that it does not fully take coloniality into account. In order to acknowledge the existence of coloniality through decolonial critical analysis, the political thought of Mbembe is examined in relation to modes of self-writing, power in the postcolony, the politics of violence in Africa, Frantz Fanon’s political thought, and the idea of South Africa as major themes undertaken in this thesis. Decolonial critical analysis deals with foundational questions that have relevance to the existential condition of the African subject and the manner in which such an existential crisis can be brought to an end. These foundational questions confront issues like—who is speaking or writing, from where, for whom and why? This thesis reveals that Mbembe is writing and thinking Africa from outside the problematic ontology of the African subject and, as such, Mbembe precludes any form of African subjectivity that challenges the Euro-North American canon. This then reveals that Mbembe is not critical of coloniality and this has the implications in that subjection is left on the wayside and not accounted for. Having explored the genealogy, trajectory and horisons of decolonial critical analysis to understand the political thought of Mbembe, this thesis highlights that it is essential to take a detour through the shifting of the geography of reason. Herein lies the originality of this thesis, and it is here that Africa is thought from within a standpoint of decolonial critical analysis and not Africa that is thought from the Euro-North American canon. Therefore, the shifting of the geography of reason is necessary for the authorisation of the subjectivity of the African subject in order to combat subjection. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Politics)

This thesis examines the political thought of Achille Mbembe. It deploys decolonial critical analysis to unmask traces of coloniality with regard to the African existential conditions foregrounded in the conception of the African subject, its subjection, and subjectivity. The theoretical foundation of this thesis is decolonial epistemic perspective—the epistemic intervention that serves as a lens to understand Mbembe’s work and—that is the theoretical foundation outside the Euro-North American “mainstream” canon foregrounded in coloniality. Decolonial epistemic perspective in this thesis is deployed to expose three kinds of coloniality in Mbembe’s work, namely: coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge and coloniality of being. The thrust of this thesis is that Mbembe’s political thought is inadequate for the understanding of the African existential condition in that it does not fully take coloniality into account. In order to acknowledge the existence of coloniality through decolonial critical analysis, the political thought of Mbembe is examined in relation to modes of self-writing, power in the postcolony, the politics of violence in Africa, Frantz Fanon’s political thought, and the idea of South Africa as major themes undertaken in this thesis. Decolonial critical analysis deals with foundational questions that have relevance to the existential condition of the African subject and the manner in which such an existential crisis can be brought to an end. These foundational questions confront issues like—who is speaking or writing, from where, for whom and why? This thesis reveals that Mbembe is writing and thinking Africa from outside the problematic ontology of the African subject and, as such, Mbembe precludes any form of African subjectivity that challenges the Euro-North American canon. This then reveals that Mbembe is not critical of coloniality and this has the implications in that subjection is left on the wayside and not accounted for. Having explored the genealogy, trajectory and horisons of decolonial critical analysis to understand the political thought of Mbembe, this thesis highlights that it is essential to take a detour through the shifting of the geography of reason. Herein lies the originality of this thesis, and it is here that Africa is thought from within a standpoint of decolonial critical analysis and not Africa that is thought from the Euro-North American canon. Therefore, the shifting of the geography of reason is necessary for the authorisation of the subjectivity of the African subject in order to combat subjection. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Politics)

諾貝爾文學獎得主奈波爾(V. S. Naipaul)可以說是當代文學中最具爭議性及最難以捉摸的一位作家，因為他對自己祖國千里達的前殖民國英國懷有一種好惡相參的矛盾態度。奈波爾的自傳性小說《抵達之謎》，故事橫跨三十年，描述一位曾被殖民的離散敘事者其人生旅程。旅程始自敘事者還是一個得到牛津大學獎學金的十八歲學生，終至敘事者成為在英國有立足之處的作家，其間歷經迷惘、錯置、覺醒、安頓等過程。在後殖民批評及文學的「信條」下，奈波爾的作品理應對大英帝國表示出一種明確的對抗態度，但其作品卻幾乎未能達到此一預期，而這也使得他必須承受遭指控為背叛者的衝擊。批評家普遍將奈波爾稱為英國的喉舌，而本論文旨在提供一個有別於此的觀點。本論文想要處理的關鍵問題如下：奈波爾是否真的是大英帝國的擁護者？如果不是的話，他如何與英國性(Englishness)協商以換取發言位置？ 論文首章對奈波爾及《抵達之謎》的批評做簡短的回顧。第二章以法農(Frantz Fanon)的觀點來檢視敘事者與白人女性角色的關係，以說明敘事者從崇拜英國文化到擺脫對英國謬誤幻想的發展。筆者也嘗試描繪出敘事者成為一個作家的軌跡。藉此，筆者認為敘事者經歷一段從目光狹隘的英國經典作家模仿者，到寫自己人生故事的作家的歷程。在第三章，本文認為在倫敦及英國鄉間的停留期間，敘事者看出帝國中心的破敗以及英國文化核心中英國性的矯揉造作。第四章首先就「離散」這個概念做一回顧，並說明奈波爾及《抵達之謎》如何能置於這樣的概念之下來解讀。筆者指出，敘事者同時身為離散者及流亡者的身份，使得他能夠取得一個「對位」的觀點，而此觀點幫助敘事者發展其後殖民牧歌，揭發英國性背後的殘酷。第五章揭示筆者對現存奈波爾批評中潛在缺陷的根本關懷。本論文希望藉由提供非主流但具建設性的觀點來補足現存的奈波爾批評。 / A Nobel laureate in literature, V. S. Naipaul is arguably the most controversial and elusive writer in contemporary literature because his signature is his ambivalence on England, a country which once colonized his mother country Trinidad. Spanning thirty years, The Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul’s autobiographical novel, delineates an ex-colonial and diasporic narrator’s life journey—from an eighteen-year-old schoolboy granted a scholarship to Oxford University to a writer gaining a foothold in England—of disorientation, dislocation, awakening and anchorage. Under the “doctrine” of postcolonial criticism and literature, Naipaul’s works are expected to express an explicit and confrontational attitude towards the British Empire, but his works hardly come to terms with such expectation, which makes him bear the brunt of the accusation of being an apostate. This thesis aims at providing a different viewpoint from criticism in general which labels Naipaul as the mouthpiece of England. The pivotal issues this thesis intends to tackle are as follows: Is Naipaul really an exponent of the British Empire to the core? If not, how does he negotiate with Englishness for a position of enunciation? The opening chapter offers a brief review of criticism about Naipaul and The Enigma of Arrival. In Chapter II, I examine the narrator’s relationship with white female characters in the light of Fanon’s perspective, trying to illustrate the progression in which the narrator at first worships the English culture but at last sheds his false fantasy. I also try to chart the trajectory of the narrator’s becoming a writer. By doing so, I intend to argue that the narrator undergoes a course from a blinkered colonial emulating English canonical writers to a writer writing his own life story. In Chapter III, I argue that during his stay in London and the English countryside, the narrator discerns the dilapidation of the imperial center and the artificiality of Englishness in the heart of English culture. Chapter IV begins with a review of the concept “diaspora” and how Naipaul and The Enigma of Arrival could be situated in this concept. I point out that the narrator’s identity as a diasporan and an exile enables him to obtain a “contrapuntal” perspective that contributes to the narrator’s postcolonial pastoral which exposes the cruelty behind Englishness. The concluding chapter reveals my ultimate concern about the latent flaw in the established Naipaul criticism, unfolding my intention to make this thesis complement the Naipaul criticism by contributing an alternative yet constructive perspective.

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The key challenge to socio-economic transformation in South Africa is closing the gap between the poor and the rich. What is distinctive about South Africa is the uneasy coexistence of poverty and opulence. This study seeks to explore the structural, historical roots of poverty among the blacks in South Africa by deploying Fanonian Critical Decolonial theory. This is the ideal theoretical approach to unmask the structural causes of poverty and inequality in South Africa. Colonial ambitions and the global political engineering of the world by America and Europe spans more than four hundred years, and is still very much alive today in subtle forms. This study asserts that this imperial history is the cause of poverty, lack of agency, and the hellish conditions under which many black people live. The rise of industrial capitalism and attendant urbanisation is at the core of this impoverishment of the black man. It is also shown that, once impoverished, the black man’s poverty gathers its own momentum, leading to more poverty that is then handed down to succeeding generations. Contrary to Eurocentric theorising, the study shows that blacks are not ‘problem’ people but people with problems, who, instead of being condemned, should be regarded with sympathy. This research thesis focuses on Alexandra Township and Sandton as symbols of poverty and privilege, respectively. The former represents Fanon’s zone of non-being where life is lived in conditions of want and poverty, whilst the latter represents the zone of being characterised by good living and prosperity. The thesis will demonstrate the fact that these anomalous socio-economic disparities are not natural but man-made, and therefore require the action of human beings to correct them. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

本篇論文主要呈現非裔劇作家奧古斯特˙威爾森在《鋼琴課》劇中，如何藉由書寫黑人經驗來解構被白人扭曲的黑人歷史，從而建構真實的黑人歷史。威爾森在此劇中透過三個重要的議題：黑人的遷徙、奴隸制度、以及藍調，來探究舊有的和新開發的黑人認同。為了進一步說明劇作家在黑人主體上的看法，史都華˙霍爾（Stuart Hall）的後現代認同觀念便可作為此研究的大前提：主體並不是由個別的、單一的認同所組成，而是同時由數個認同所構成。理論部分，史都華˙霍爾對文化認同與漂泊離散（diaspora）的概念、保羅˙吉爾羅伊（Paul Gilroy）對漂泊離散、奴隸制度、與黑人音樂的闡述、米歇˙傅柯（Michel Foucault）的對抗記憶（counter-memory）與歷史的觀念以及法蘭茲˙法農（Frantz Fanon）的後殖民理論均被運用來閱讀《鋼琴課》這一劇。 本論文共分為五個章節。第一章提供劇作家、劇本、以及理論架構的一般介紹。第二章處理黑人漂泊離散認同（diasporic identity）的議題，而此認同展現於黑人的遷徙經驗上。劇中男主角威利男孩（Boy Willie）最後決定要返回南方的家，他的決心使他有別於待在北方的其他黑人。第三章透過審視鋼琴與鬼的意義與功用，著重在黑人種族認同（racial identity）的討論上。威利男孩與白人鬼的爭鬥突顯威爾森對黑人自主權的重視。第四章探索藍調跟文化認同（cultural identity）的關連性。劇中女主角柏妮斯（Berniece）藉由彈奏鋼琴來召喚祖靈，此不僅幫助她與過去作連結，並使她得到一個正面的自我確認形象。第五章是結論，總結威爾森在此劇中所展現的新的黑人認同。 / This thesis attempts to show how August Wilson deconstructs the white distortion of black history and constructs an authentic black history by writing about the black experience in The Piano Lesson. Wilson explores the old and the new black identities from three significant issues of migration, slavery, and the blues respectively in the play. In order to further explicate the playwright’s arguments on the black subject, Stuart Hall’s idea of postmodern identity serves as a major premise: the subject is composed not of a single, unitary, but of several identities at the same time. Stuart Hall’s idea about cultural identity and diaspora, Paul Gilroy’s elaboration on diaspora, slavery, and black music, Michel Foucault’s theory of counter-memory and the concept of history, and Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial argument are applied to the reading of The Piano Lesson. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One provides a general introduction to the playwright, the play, and the theoretical framework. Chapter Two deals with the issue of black diasporic identity, which is demonstrated in black migration. Boy Willie’s final decision to return home in the South distinguishes him from those who stay in the North. Chapter Three centers on the discussion of black racial identity by scrutinizing the meaning and function of the piano and the ghosts. Boy Willie’s fighting with the white ghost foregrounds Wilson’s concern over black autonomy. Chapter Four explores the relationship between the blues and cultural identity. Berniece’s invocation to her ancestors through playing the piano helps her connect with the past and gain a positive image of self-recognition. Chapter Five is the conclusion which sums up the manifestation of Wilson’s construction of new black identities in the play.